Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A politician, journalist and writer who became leader of his party and was said by some to be the nicest Prime Minister we never had.
On the island
Eight records
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:17When are you at your happiest?
Well, I think when walking across the heath in the morning with my dog Dizzy, that's when the day looks better, but there are lots of other happy times as well.
Presenter asks
24:17Why did you leave it so long [to hold public office]?
Nobody'd ask me before, but being a backbench member of the House of Commons is a very good job in my opinion, and I would have been quite happy to have stayed always on the backbenches, and I think being a backbench member of Parliament is one of the ways in which parliamentary democracy is kept going. So I think it's an excellent job.
Presenter asks
24:48You don't relish power, do you?
Well, I don't know about a duty. I think that's putting it too high. I did it I I relished it and I enjoyed it very much and uh certainly it was a novel experience and to have all these high-powered civil servants, I must say I learnt a very great respect for many of them. … I must say I learnt a different picture or insight or view, shall we say, of the way this country is run by actually seeing how it operated in a government.
The keepsakes
The book
Lord Byron
I come down finally in favour of Byron's Don Dewan, the very best poem in the language on these matters, and I think all new discoveries could be made upon the island itself, and as I want to get everybody else in the country to read Don Jewan, right from beginning to end, I think that's the best way to finish it.
The luxury
a little alarm clock covered with tin plate made in Ebbw Vale
It's an ordinary alarm clock, but it's covered with uh tin plate made in Ebervale. It's the best tin plate in the world.
Presenter asks
Were you set an impossible task [as leader]?
Well, I think it was a difficult one. I certainly set out to do it, and that was what why I was elected, I think, because people on different sections of the party thought I had a better chance of doing it than anybody else, and I think perhaps I did have a better chance than most of the others. If some of the others had been elected, I think there might have been a deeper split in the Labour Party then, which would have caused much later problems.
Presenter asks
27:26How great a personal disappointment for you was it not to become Prime Minister?
Well, I didn't really expect that it was going to happen. I had a after an election in I was first elected for a short period up to the time of the Falklands' War almost. You know, it looked as if we had a good chance in the for subsequent election, and I would have very much liked it to happen. I think it would have been much better for the country, I say immodestly, but there you are. But, you know, I had to though these things have to be borne.
Presenter asks
31:15Which of your achievements are you most proud of?
Well, I think the my books on [Aneurin] Bevan, the two books, two volumes on [Aneurin] Bevan, I think they're the best thing I ever wrote, and I hope that that's what people are going to go on reading. … They do present the figure of the man who was the greatest democratic socialist in this country of this century. I think he should have been Prime Minister of this country, and I believe the kind of political view that he presents is what the country needs.
“When she saw the general intellectual and other squalor in which I was living, the first thing she pushed into the flat was a great big radiogram, and from that moment onwards Mozart poured out throughout our little flat in Park Street and has continued to pour out ever since.”
“So I gave the most authoritative scoop that's ever been supplied to the examiners in Wadham.”
“I became very friendly with Beaverbrook because I learnt a lot from him. … the freest and most uninhibited discussion I'd ever heard in my life, and I think it's a good deal freer than happens at the tables of most newspaper proprietors today, was at Beaverbrook round Beaverbrook's place, and nobody had to pull any punches.”
“When I got back into the foreign office where they give you a drink after the affair, it was a cold day, a bitterly cold day, and when I got in, I was greeted by the Queen Mother, who was always very kind and people, and she said to me, 'What a nice coat you've got on, and how good a coat that is for such a day as this.'”
“I didn't really expect that it was going to happen. … I would have very much liked it to happen. I think it would have been much better for the country, I say immodestly, but there you are. But, you know, I had to though these things have to be borne.”
“I think the my books on [Aneurin] Bevan … the best thing I ever wrote. … They do present the figure of the man who was the greatest democratic socialist in this country of this century.”