Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
An eminent Scottish judge who prosecuted notorious criminals over five decades and became the first female working rector of the University of Glasgow.
On the island
Eight records
Piano Concerto No. 2 (third movement)
Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn
I've always wanted to learn the piano. I've got a beautiful piano and I haven't had the persistence in learning... I just love the piano. I love piano music and I really need to get down to trying to learn it.
I was eight and my mother, who used to go to the opera with my father, she bought an L P of Traviata and I remember playing this and listening to it and reading the story about it and at that age in tears.
MammaFavourite
It's called Mamma... it's a beautiful song. It's basically written at a time, I think it was 1940, the war was on, about a soldier singing about his mother.
The Neapolitans are so full of life... this was one of the ones that I really like.
I need something to make me laugh on a desert island... The one cheap flights is just hilarious.
This is the flower song, sung by Jose Carreras... his wonderful music means a lot to me... in memory of Hamish Sterling.
It will remind me of my church and my faith, because I think I'm going to need a bit of reminding about that on a desert island.
It just reminds me of just so many struggles and it just makes me feel keep going. Just keep going.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:48I wonder what it was about the law itself that ignited that when you were young?
It was always about the justice of everything, and I must have been very annoying when I was very young, because I would argue back if I thought that something wasn't fair and got a reputation from my parents of being the last word.
Presenter asks
5:03Tell us about your maternal grandfather. How did he set that example for you?
Well, I never met him and it was really only listening to stories about him through my grandmother and my mother. He was a well-known, outspoken anti-fascist. He was from Naples. He was a highly respected lawyer. And he wouldn't keep quiet... He would not compromise his principles. But then he died just before war broke out. Correct. 1937. And I remember finding his, or my mother showed it to me, his law degree. And my great ambition was to have his law degree sitting next to mine.
Presenter asks
12:19What was it like growing up in Plains?
Awful ... it was a mining village and we were never really accepted. We were we were foreigners there, so to speak, and and the conditions that we lived in were not great... but I was very shy, I was very overweight, so it was quite a lonely upbringing.
The keepsakes
The book
David Gilmour
And the reason I've chosen this is because I've got the book at home, but I've never had time to read it. So I might at least be forced to actually sit down for once and read a book.
Presenter asks
14:26What actually happened in your mother's car accident?
Well, mum in the evening, I think it was a Saturday evening, would go and collect my dad late at night after he'd finished work. And often she would take my brother and he would have been in the passenger seat. But this night, I don't know what he'd done, he probably said something that he shouldn't have done. And Mum told him he wasn't coming. So she went into Glasgow. And just in a place called Burgetti, a car overtook another car on the other side of oncoming traffic, collided with a motorcyclist, killing his pillion passenger. And then Mum's car stopped his, so it was a head-on collision striking mum's car. And the engine... I understand ended up in the passenger seat. So if Charlie had been there, he wouldn't have lived. She wasn't meant to survive at all. What were her injuries? There were so many. I mean, she had heart failure, 14 broken ribs, punctured lungs, two broken legs, fractured skull. She was in intensive care for six weeks or something of that sort. And that's when I mean, she told us after she heard someone saying, a nurse saying, There's no point with this one, she's not going to survive.
Presenter asks
18:59How did your clients react to being represented by a woman?
Once they knew you knew what you were talking about, they were fine. It was the fellow solicitors who were worse. When I became an advocate, I knew that there were solicitors that would not instruct me because I was female, unless it was a rape case.
Presenter asks
28:18Why did you personally feel longer prison terms were appropriate?
I wouldn't say I gave out harsh sentences. I would just say that I gave out sentences which I thought were appropriate. And the other thing is, because I'm passionate about other disposals, especially with young people trying to keep them out of the criminal justice system. So I'm absolutely passionate about that. And it's not about giving them long sentences. It's about sometimes when people re-offend again and again and again, then there's not a lot you can do except that. I think sometimes when people commit very serious crimes, such as murder and other serious sexual crimes, then inevitably I think a lengthy prison sentence is not only just but necessary. I mean prison sentences shouldn't be used just because, you know, well, what else can we do? They should be used, especially if it's to protect the public and if they've committed serious offences.
“It was always about the justice of everything, and I must have been very annoying when I was very young, because I would argue back if I thought that something wasn't fair.”
“I would never use that term when talking about the accused. I would use that term when talking about the crime, but I've always tried to attach the adjective to the crime and not to the individual.”
“I knew that there were solicitors that would not instruct me because I was female, unless it was a rape case.”
“I said, No, it's my job to present your defence if you have one. ... If that's what you think, there's the door.”
“I think the day that I get pleasure from sentencing someone is the day that I should never sit on the bench.”
“I can't think of anything worse than having my own company. I'm not good in my own company.”