Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Novelist and broadcaster, best known for his novels and television presenting.
On the island
Eight records
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 (excerpt)
Jascha Heifetz, London Philharmonic Orchestra, John Barbirolli
I start with non-vocal with Tchaikovsky from a violin concerto. Tchaikovsky's a favourite composer of mine of course. But this particular recording I'm fond of because it's conducted by Barbara Rolli. I had the fun of making a film with him years ago. It was enormous fun. And Heifitz plays it.
My second disc is a pop record, because one of the things that happens throughout one's life, it seems to me, is that various holidays and meetings and friendships are marked by pop records.
That'll be Kathleen Ferrier, again prompted by the need to listen to voices on this island, and she has a particularly and stunningly beautiful voice.
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (excerpt)
Philharmonia Hungarica, Antal Doráti
I'd like to have something from Bartok. I know he isn't by any means a contemporary composer, but he's modernistic and I like the part he played in that movement and I like his use of folk song.
Big Bill [Broonzy], who's one of my favourite singers. He sings country blues and I like the beginnings of black music and a lot of black music since.
Piano Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major, Op. 81a 'Les Adieux' (excerpt)
I'd like something from Beethoven, who represents for me such power and freedom and originality. Piano sonata, because I used to play the piano myself and used to even try to struggle through this sonata. It's les adieux, number twenty-six.
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
I'd like to hear more voices, because thinking about this island I think that I would like to keep hearing voices. and a Psalm twenty three sung by the choristers of King's College at Cambridge.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Lisa Otto
My last disc would have to be something from Mozart. Who is the perfect composer really I think. … I would like to hear people singing, so I'd like something from the magic flute, and that marvellous duet between Papageno and Papagena.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30Melvyn, we know you as the solitary novelist and the agreeably extrovert television presenter. Which is the real you? Are you a gregarious man?
Yes, I think one of the things about writing is that you're on your own for such a long time, and although you might have some talent as a writer, it's rarely accompanied by a talent for solitude. I have very little talent for solitude. I have to force myself to be on my own. And so getting out and working with other people, especially in somewhere as a agreeable and interesting in television, is a relief as much as an alternative for source of work and income.
Presenter asks
4:44Now you went to Wigton Grammar School. Were you a bookish lad?
Well, there was always the two sides. I loved reading, and I was addicted to reading anything from sauce bottles to the Old Testament. And I also like to get out and knock around with a gang of friends the whole time as well. So there's always been the two things going on simultaneously and trying to cram in the one while being addicted to the other.
Presenter asks
7:38So you were in television, scripting, producing, directing. What were the highlights?
Well, there were so many. It was a wonderful time to be there, really. I was working with Ken Russell and I wrote The Debussy film for him, for example. And working with Hugh Weldon was a demanding and extremely enjoyable experience. … But making a film about Barbirolli, for example, you would have paid to have done it, really, at the age of twenty three or twenty four.
The keepsakes
The luxury
either to celebrate the fact that I wanted to stay there, or for when I got off.
Presenter asks
14:02Now you've got this reputation of the glamour boy of TV culture. To what extent does it affect your writing? Do you still have time? Can you get away from it all to write?
Well, at the start I could. At the start and it still persists that I would write in the mornings … and work in the afternoons. It was almost as strict as that. I wrote from nine to about one and then came in, and that lasted for a long time. In this last nine months, what was Read All About It and Second House by an accident running simultaneously and the musical going on … that frankly broke down. But I'll resurrect it after this summer.
Presenter asks
15:30You've just published a non-fiction book called Speak for England, a collection of interviews by you with some of the inhabitants of Wigton. A very long book, a very discursive book. I was a little at a loss to find out what you were after. What was your message?
Well, what I wanted to do in that book, and I think it's been done by the people who took part in it, the book is 90% other people, was to show the history of this century through the lives of people who'd been through the great events of this century. … It's a record of life as lived by people in this country this century … an optimistic account, I think.
“I have very little talent for solitude. I have to force myself to be on my own.”
“I loved reading, and I was addicted to reading anything from sauce bottles to the Old Testament.”
“I think very few writers don't [write within their own experience].”
“I wanted to show the history of this century through the lives of people who'd been through the great events of this century.”
“I'd take Anna Karenina, Tolstoy.”