Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Journalist and editor best known for controlling the Guinness Book of Records.
On the island
Eight records
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
Well, I think to remind me of my um Scots ancestry, I would like to have uh some bagpipes
Land of Hope and GloryFavourite
Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines
We're talking about the Navy and one of my most vivid memories was the last day we came in from patrol from the Atlantic in the second escort group ... and the senior officer's ship ... put on her loud haler, and played full blast with all the flags flying, Land of Hope and Glory.
Kde domov můj (Czechoslovak National Anthem)
I think that I'd like to recall the nineteen fifty two Olympic Games at Helsinki. They had a wonderful spirit about them, and they were so dominated by Zatopek and his wife that one continuously seen to be standing up for the Czech national anthem.
Well, I'd like to be reminded of the times when we were working all hours that God gave, uh, ninety hour weeks, and the pop song of that time, the hit, was Singing the Blues by Tommy Steele.
Well, I'd like to think about uh when I was originally compiling the book, it was before Ross and I were married, and we used to live at home, and we had tremendous parental support. and I always think of my father's favourite. a song, because he always used to think of my mother in the terms that Harry Lauder used to think of the Bonny Lassie.
The Russian Cathedral Choir of Paris
Well, I would like to recall a very moving occasion, and that was Ross's memorial service. ... and the service which was taken by the Bishop of London ended with a piece from the awesomely beautiful and slow orthodox Russian Requiem.
The Choir of Marlborough College
Yes, both of them have sung in the choir, and they have the most moving services, none more moving than the Christmas service of Carols, in which Roy Wilkinson, the musical director, and the organist Christopher Rathbone, really give it their all, and my favourite is Hark the Herald Angel Sing.
Well, this I'd like to have Richard Tauba singing You Are My Heart's Delight.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:10How important is music in your life?
Well, I can't say that I'm a musical person in so far as I was told, I think unwisely at an early age, that I was perhaps a bit tone deaf, and that has a rather depressing effect. But um I enjoy music, um and particularly I find that I enjoy things which are popular rather than things which are obscure.
Presenter asks
4:08Where did you spend your childhood?
Uh in North London uh my father used to have to be in commuting distance of Fleet Street, where he was the first person to be editor of three different national newspapers. So really it was the edge of suburbia.
Presenter asks
6:17What happened when you left the navy?
After being in the Navy, we went back to Oxford because we were there six months during the war. And we went back, Ross studied law, and I studied economics under Tony Crossland, who was later the Foreign Secretary.
Presenter asks
14:13The keepsakes
The book
Dictionary of National Biography
Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee
I'd spend my time indexing it, because it isn't indexed. I'd do it both by place and by people, and I think it'd be a very useful contribution to the reference books of the world.
The luxury
some desert islands get very, very chilly late at night, and it would be a great comfort to have at least some good warmth.
What were your terms of reference to start with [for the Guinness Book of Records]?
The terms of reference were really quite generous. No interference at all. Just go away, get on with it, and let us know when you've finished. We did it very rapidly because we got the commission in september nineteen fifty four and we had it finished by the end of august nineteen fifty five, mainly because of ninety hour weeks.
Presenter asks
16:59What do you insist on in the way of corroboration [for record breakers]?
Well our corroboration is very much the same as that that would be required by a court of law. It must be independent. And we find that by the mechanism of the press as a lead, the radio, television, log books, notarised statements or affidavits, that one can establish the truth.
Presenter asks
23:56Would you try to escape [from the desert island]?
Um I think I would, yes, because I think that when one's been used to several decades of activity in so-called civilized world, one would be suffering quite a lot of deprivation, as it were, and lack of stimulation.
“I ran in the 100 yards, which I think must be the greatest economy of effort in getting a blue, because it only lasts just over 10 seconds.”
“I think that identical twins are as close as people can get because after all genetically they're the same person. They can even give each other skin grafts. And we found that we were so much on the same wavelength that by being twins one could perhaps get the work of three people done because you were always had a deputy, you always had a stand-in”
“I would have the National Dictionary of Biography, and I'd spend my time indexing it, because it isn't indexed. I'd do it both by place and by people, and I think it'd be a very useful contribution to the reference books of the world.”