Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
World-class planetary scientist who led the Beagle 2 mission to search for life on Mars and worked on NASA's Apollo 11 mission.
On the island
Eight records
I don't believe in uh standing around talking about it. I just uh have a go for it, so it's a little less conversation, a little bit more action.
This is the first music I can recall hearing. It was played at a pantomime that I went to with the bouncing ball going along the words.
This is a football song of course. It's my association with Alex James of Blur. He's part of Fat Les with Keith Allen and by working with them on the football anthem Jerusalem this gave me the chance to do what every little boy who plays football's dream is, is to walk up the tunnel at Wembley out onto the pitch.
You've told me already you won't let me take my dog. ... I have to have something to remind me of my dogs. When you come home the welcome you get is so amazing.
I'm gonna have heavy metal and I'm gonna have If Today Was Your Last Day by Nickelback. You know, you have to do everything, otherwise you've missed the chance.
As Time Goes ByFavourite
Well, th this is the one which is special for us. It's the the night we made a momentous decision, is that uh Casablanca was showing on the television, so I want to hear As Time Goes By...
And, you know, I try to educate people who don't believe that they can do science. So I want a Rolling Stones record because I'm a child of the sixties. And I'm going to have this called The Salt of the Earth. It's The Working Man.
I actually made a a D V D that I show at the beginning of the talks. Then I say it's a bit sad at the end, so Hank is it the ready and uh I assure you it is sad sad at the end and but nevertheless I still want to uh to remember it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:04How did you feel on Christmas morning 2003 when Beagle Two failed to send a signal?
Um it was an all night vigil. We uh sat in a a room waiting for the signal from NATA. So I was on a live telephone to uh a control center in California, and a voice came on and uh said, I'm sorry, there's no data for you. ... I had to encourage all the people in the room who were just as uh wound up as me because so many people had put so much effort into this. I had to be the one that sort of said, Don't worry, guys, it's not the end of the world.
Presenter asks
2:48Does it annoy you that the public perception of you is that you are known for a failure?
I'm the Eddie the Eagle of science. It wasn't a failure. This is what uh science is about, is that you actually build something and if you're lucky you get to the you're the person who gets to the top of the Everest, but somebody else might be the one that does it. ... We know how we could have done it better and it we weren't allowed to have another go.
Presenter asks
6:08If somebody tells you you can't do something, does that only make you more determined?
One thing my father gave me my father wasn't a very educated man he was a a manual worker. If I ever said as a child I can't do this he would say there's no such word as can't.
The keepsakes
The book
Charles Chilton
Well, I will take Journey into Space because it's such a an iconic space book. But uh I'd rather have Jesus Christ Superstar than the Bible.
The luxury
Picture of the Clifton Suspension Bridge
I want something to remind me of Bristol, so I'll take the picture of the Clifton Suspension Bridge, because Brunel was one of my heroes. And he wasn't from Bristol either. He was an outsider.
Presenter asks
13:15Do you remember where you were when Apollo 11 made its first lunar landing?
I remember watching it. It was uh three o'clock in the morning when they stepped out onto the lunar surface. But though I remember the pictures, I remember much better the time when I received the samples, because that was my involvement, that was my personal involvement in Apollo.
Presenter asks
29:38How much has your day-to-day life changed since you were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis?
There are things I can't do. ... Actually I can't do physical work. I can't even dig the garden. I used to get some of my best ideas, not uh milking the cows, but actually mucking them out. ... I don't like having to ask people to do things for me.
“I'm the Eddie the Eagle of science. It wasn't a failure. This is what uh science is about, is that you actually build something and if you're lucky you get to the you're the person who gets to the top of the Everest, but somebody else might be the one that does it.”
“I can't look at the moon even now and not think to myself, I actually touched that. I'm one of these very privileged people who worked on those samples from Apollo.”
“I cannot believe that life on Earth is unique. ... I think it would be incredibly arrogant of us to believe that we're the pinnacle of evolution.”