Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Creator of Paddington Bear, a beloved children's character.
On the island
Eight records
Louis Armstrong had this wonderful smile and wonderful personality and great feeling of exuberance and I think to start each day hearing his voice w would really cheer me up no matter what the weather was.
La Vie en roseFavourite
It's really to remind me of my second favorite country in the world and and … Perhaps my first favourite city, Paris.
Yiannis Kalatzis & Litsa Diamanti
It's really to remind me of holidays spent … in Greece, and in particular in Cyprus, where I had three very, very happy holidays.
O soave fanciulla (from La Bohème)
One of the pleasantest things which I became involved in in television was working in opera, because I think opera people themselves are are fabulous people. They're different to anyone else. And and I think I love the combination of the music and the the fact that it is a play. So I I would love something from La Boem and I think I would love the the love duet.
I don't think I could exist very long on a desert island without hearing the sound of human laughter. And I think that the one record which I can play over and over again, and in fact the more I play it, the more brilliant I think it is in sense of timing and and the use of words. Is is The Driving Instructor by Bob Newhart.
Record number six was really uh an essay on nostalgia. One day last year I was in Paris with my daughter and we happened to go past a record shop and we heard this record being played. And also it's it's uh I think it's a it's a desert island record and I I think if this island happens to be somewhere fairly exotic I might be able to ingratiate myself in any visiting natives who who came my way.
I've been enormous admirers of them all all through my life. This is a slightly unusual record. Ella didn't often sing with Count Basie. Uh also it's not the big band. of Count Basis. There's it's a lovely record, I think, to dance to by oneself on the island. It's probably not a pretty sight, so I would do it by moonlight.
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 (Choral)
Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra and Chorus
I think my last record would be have to be the Beethoven Ninth Symphony, because this is a work which never fails to make me feel great and humble at the same time, and I think it might restore any lost faith that I would have, and I would like to choose something for the last movement.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:30Have you the temperament which could endure loneliness, do you think?
I don't know. I I've … I've been by myself and quite enjoy being by myself many times in my life. I've never been totally alone. I've always been a phone nearby, so I I I would have to go and find out, I think.
Presenter asks
3:00What sort of things interested you most as a boy? Did you read a lot?
I read a lot. I was I was lucky enough to have parents who who also read a lot. They weren't uh great literary people, but there were always books around in the house as part of the everyday furniture and so I was I was brought up in that kind of atmosphere. I I was very mechanically minded. I was always building radio sets and crystal sets and amplifiers and … One of my great childhood works was to build an enormous marionette theatre with a revolving stage and spotlights and … Uh I never had many marionettes. It was the mechanics of the theatre which interested me most.
Presenter asks
5:14When did you start to write?
I started to write when I was in the Middle East. I I wrote a short story. … which I sent into London Opinion and and to my amazement about six weeks later I had a a letter and a cheque. I think it was a cheque for seven guineas as I remember it and the awful thing was I wanted to celebrate but I couldn't get it cashed because nobody actually believed it.
The keepsakes
The luxury
I would love to make my own wine and bottle Chateaubon for if I can plant some, that's what I would like.
Presenter asks
7:33Now how and where was Paddington Bear born?
Well, it's quite by accident. I think many things in life are happen by by chance. I happened to be miss a bus and I went into … uh at a London shop and and came across this bear who we left on the shelf so I bought it.
Presenter asks
15:34Do you sometimes feel that Paddington has taken over and is running you?
In some ways. I went through a period um a year or so ago when when I got rather depressed about it all, but … If if I was going to be taken over by anyone, I think Pennington would be … A very nice person to take over because I think in many ways he's … He he's what I would like to be in life. I mean, he has a strong sense of right and wrong, which which I may have, but I mean, whereas he does the the right thing, I don't always do that. Uh he's got his feet always paused very firmly on the ground. Uh yes, I think he's what I like to be.
“I can't picture life without music, certainly. I'm I'm not at all musical myself. I can't p play any instrument, but uh certainly … If ever I feel blue or downcast, music probably lifts me up.”
“I think basically he's a small man up against life's problems and and he he's he's a little like um someone once described him as the the Harry Wirth of the the the animal world. I I mean th the audience can see it's going to happen and half the audience wanted to shout out to stop and the other half want him to carry on to see how he gets out of his problem.”
“I find writing a dreadful chore and therefore you you have to have disciplines and and there's so many”