Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A surgeon whose medical practice covers about a million square miles—ten times the area of Great Britain.
On the island
Eight records
Rhapsody in B minor, Op. 79 No. 1
This was a work that I remember as a boy before I went to school, because my father used to play it, and I remember hearing it as I went to sleep, and this is one of the memories I have of my childhood.
I Waited for the Lord (from Hymn of Praise)
No, in actual fact, what I've chosen here isn't something that I sang, but it's something I particularly like, sung by the Winchester Cathedral Choir, and it's has a nostalgic value for me.
Toccata and Fugue in D minorFavourite
what I have chosen is the Bach to Kartranfugen D minor. which uh was played at our wedding and always has a great um sentimental value for you.
St Matthew Passion, BWV 244: "Befiehl du deine Wege" (Commend Your Way)
Philharmonia Orchestra and Philharmonia Choir, conducted by Otto Klemperer
I choose it one um because uh I love the music of course, but I I very much remember playing it on a Good Friday. playing the whole thing through in Africa, sitting on a veranda This was uh also a piece of music that was played by Albert Schweitzer when we went and visited him in uh Lamborani.
Années de pèlerinage, Second Year: Italy - No. 3, Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa
In this organization, the African Medical and Research Foundation, Mr. Brandel very kindly put on a concert here in Guildford for funds for this organization. And one of the pieces he played during this concert which was put on in Guildford is the record I've chosen.
Symphony No. 2 in C minor (The Resurrection): Second Movement
Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Otto Klemperer
Well, I was introduced to Mahler by a friend uh some years ago and it was a particularly happy time of my life and uh I really hadn't listened much to Mahler before and I took to this particular piece of music very much and uh it reminds me of those times.
I listened to this of course when the film came out recently and I I find myself playing it rather often. I think it has a sort of um heroic challenge about it and uh although it's unlike any of the other bits of music I've chosen, it was a great film and uh it reminds me of that.
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55 (Eroica): Second Movement (Marcia funebre)
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
Well, um I felt as I might be on the island for a very long time. I'd like to play the funeral march of Beethoven's Eroca Symphony.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:19What were you best at at school?
Oh, goodness, uh, nothing very much. Um I think I was best at reading because I had this asthma problem. ... I learnt to read and read fairly fast, which I managed to do today, and I and I think The one thing I learnt at school was how to learn.
Presenter asks
6:15Why did you study architecture first [before medicine]?
Well, I think my father was advised that I wasn't going to be strong enough to stand the uh medical course. ... Because of your asthma. Yes, at that time.
Presenter asks
7:33Were you around here [in London] during the Blitz?
Yes, I was. ... Yes, I remember um being on the uh roof of the Middlesex Hospital fire watching and having um one of the V ones coming straight up Berner Street, which we thought was gonna hit us sort of straight between the eyes. And in fact it was tipped over and went into, I think, into Greek Street and did in fact do a lot of lot of damage and we had the casualties in within a few minutes.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
A. P. Wavell
Perhaps uh the thing that would would last longest would be a book of poetry, and I would like to take with me the book by Wavell called Other Men's Flowers, which is a selection of the poetry that he liked, and in fact he could quote it all.
The luxury
I think I would like to have with me a pair of field glasses, so that I could watch the birds and the trees and perhaps the ships coming to rescue me over the uh Horizon.
What did you decide to do when the war was over?
Well, I had this possibility of staying on in London. And um I think having been cooped up here most of the war I also wanted to see a bit of the world. and it so happened that a man came to see me. who said that a friend of his was a surgeon in Nairobi who was looking for an assistant. And to cut a long story short, I did in fact take up this opportunity
Presenter asks
14:35How long was it before you learned to fly yourself?
I learnt really um to fly in'fifty five. This was simply because previous to that I was being flown around as a surgeon to outlandish places, and it seemed to me a sensible idea to learn to fly myself.
Presenter asks
26:24Will you tell us about that organization [the African Medical and Research Foundation], how it works, and how big it is now?
We did work with them for a while. ... Of trying to start a voluntary agency which incorporated this business of flying. To find a way of adding to the medical services, fitting in with the existing government and and mission services. ... It started with nothing except the idea. ... And so we had to raise the funds, get ourselves registered as a charity. And uh we've now completed twenty-five years and during that period it's grown all the time, starting with this concept of improving the communications using radio and aircraft. But that now is fifteen percent of the of the total and we're involved in many other aspects of medicine, in training particularly, in uh printing medical publications, in medical research, in consultancy, so that we have a staff of two hundred people working in five different countries. on a budget of approximately five million pounds.
“I think that it was something well worth doing.”
“The what they are now called traditional healers are very widespread across Africa, and they do a lot of good. They're good psychiatrists. I think they understand probably a lot more about the African mentality with its superstitions and so on, than we do. And uh we claim really to be just the second opinion.”
“I think if I I knew that the distance was more than about a hundred yards, I doubt whether I'd start swimming.”