Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Conservative Home Secretary and author of a string of popular thrillers.
On the island
Eight records
Johann Strauss Orchestra of Vienna
we were brought up in a white farmhouse under the Wiltshire Downs, and there was a very dark brown gramophone.
it was the day when we really worked ourselves absolutely into a furore of splendid noise.
everywhere you went ... you tended to find this tune coming out at you through the megaphone.
he stabs himself, but doesn't actually die before he's produced what I think is a very splendid tune.
Ethel Merman was the best of the various rather large ladies who stood in the middle of the stage and belted it out.
Easter Hymn (Inneggiamo, il Signor non è morto)
we played it in the church when Julie and I were married.
Another Suitcase in Another Hall
my elder sons said, for God's sake, don't let's have Don't Cry for Me Argentina again.
In ParadisumFavourite
Netherlands Radio Chorus, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Jean Fournet (conductor)
after a lot of the noise up to now, I would like something gentle and comforting.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:45Was it an idyllic childhood?
Yes, well, looking back, it was. We were very happy and … My father tenanted a farm, about five hundred acres, and it's a small village, and we knew everybody, and uh it was just great fun. … Kites to Boggins … Kite stabgins, um jubilee bonfire on one down, coronation bonfire on the opposite down, because wife getting her knickers caught in the wire. I mean, those are the things one remembers.
Presenter asks
7:32What kind of effect did the war have on Eton?
Well, it was very different from what it is now. I think mainly because uh nobody had any money they could spend. We were all out at elbows. And um scholars like me and whose parents didn't have any much in the way of financial back up, it simply didn't matter. It didn't show you had your you didn't have pocket money. You could there wasn't much it was ration and you couldn't spend it on much. And I think that relieved some of the tensions which you sometimes get otherwise.
Presenter asks
15:31Why didn't you stay in the diplomatic service?
Well, lots of people said I should, and it's certainly true. My friends are now ambassadors and enjoying themselves like mad. And from the financial point of view, because in those days there was no way of transferring a pension or anything, it was crackers to leave. I think the thing about the Foreign Office is that it starts being fun, and I certainly enjoyed my fourteen years very much. And I think it ends being fun, but there's a bit of a dry patch in the middle into which I was just getting. And politics had always been sort of buzzing away in my head anyway.
The keepsakes
The book
The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century Verse
Philip Larkin
I would spend a lot of time learning things by heart. And the best anthology I know is the Oxford Book of Twentieth Century verse selected by Philip Larkin.
The luxury
as long as I could be sure of that, because I I would be there a bit of time. Birthdays, anniversaries, you know, you'd want to celebrate in a in a proper way.
Presenter asks
18:47Do you still believe that Britain cannot be governed dogmatically, only by the consent of people with widely differing opinions?
Yes, I do uh believe that, and I think that what has happened … I mean one of the successes of this government is that it has actually mobilized a lot of people in different professions. I mean not necessarily to vote conservative, but at least to talk in the same sort of terms as the government and the prime minister have been talking. I mean that's one of the very noticeable things that's happened in this country. So we've shifted what Keith Joseph called the common ground. We've shifted it, but I mean it's still there and we still have to cap on it.
Presenter asks
21:11Is parenthood easier the second time around?
I think what's tolerance of noise is less, actually. I do try and get away from the noise, but fortunately five and rising three, I think we're past the worst now.
Presenter asks
26:08What do you say to those who say you lack popular appeal and will never become Prime Minister because you haven't got a power base?
Well, it's very hard to answer that, isn't it? Um it doesn't feel like that. It feels rather like going round a racecourse and there are hurdles. There's a party conference debate, there's a capital punishment debate, there's the women's conference, there's the police federation, and there are plenty of things in the House of Commons, and you just clear the fence as best you can. And sometimes you do hear the crackle of the brushwood as you only just get over it. … Um but that's what it feels like. And you don't spend a great deal of time worrying about, you know, whether one's got one's power base or even what one's going to do next.
“Indeed, I am not starved of advice.”
“I think a little bit of solitude for a time would do no harm at all.”
“That relieved some of the tensions which you sometimes get otherwise.”
“I don't lose sleep at night, and I think that's actually very important.”
“It feels rather like going round a racecourse and there are hurdles.”