Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
British politician, best known for leading the Conservative Party after a long career in government.
On the island
Eight records
I could have filled the programme with eight Beatles records because I I adored their music. I was a very early fan. ... And I've chosen All You Need Is Love because it's perhaps the sort of quintessential record of the sixties.
It is an absolutely wonderful hymn and I love shouting it out. And of course it reminds me of my boyhood in Wales.
Robert Blackwell, Enotris Johnson, Richard Penniman
Record number three takes me back to those years in Wales and the early years of rock and roll ... the one that absolutely epitomises the spirit of it all is Long Tall Sally by Little Richard.
Record number four is very much from the the time I spent in the States. I used to listen to a lot of jazz when I lived in New York, and I used to go to the Five Spot Cafe in Saint Mark's Square and listen to Felonious Monk. And Blue Monk is a great piece of music.
ever since I've been a small boy I have been a passionate supporter of Liverpool Football Club. ... And I'd go and stand on the cop on Saturday afternoon and watch the great Liverpool team of uh the mid sixties play. So my fifth record is You'll Never Walk Alone.
Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467
Alfred Brendel, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner
Mozart's piano concerto number 21 is a sublimely beautiful piece of music and I love it. I first came across it, I'm ashamed to say ... when I went to see a film called El Vira Madigan and it was the theme of that film.
Gary Brooker, Keith Reid, Matthew Fisher
Record number seven really takes us back to the sixties, I'm afraid. ... I suppose I listened to more music in that decade than since. Prokulharam and a whiter shade of pale. It's a great track.
(Everything I Do) I Do It for YouFavourite
Bryan Adams, Michael Kamen, Robert John "Mutt" Lange
Whatever little I've achieved. I couldn't have done it without Sandra, so this is dedicated to her.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:44How surprised were you [to be anointed unopposed as leader of the Conservative Party]?
I was uh astonished. It was not something I ever thought would happen, and if we'd been sitting here a year ago and you'd told me that I'd be sitting here today as leader of the Conservative Party, I'd have said that uh you were uh prone to fantasies.
Presenter asks
6:04Why has there been such a gap [between your real self and the public perception of you]?
I'm not sure. I think probably a a lot of it has to do with my time as Home Secretary. Looking back on it, I'm very proud of what I achieved as Home Secretary, because we managed to cut crime very significantly, but it was a real hard slog. It involved taking on some of the most determined, entrenched lobbies in the business.
Presenter asks
10:07What happened to the family [your father] left behind [in Romania]?
His mother, my grandmother, was killed in Auschwitz. His sister also went to Auschwitz, but actually survived and came and lived with us in Wales and indeed carried on living with us until she died. Um my uncle, his brother, was also in concentration camps, also survived, and happily is still alive.
The keepsakes
The luxury
Presenter asks
10:41What did [your aunt] tell you about Auschwitz?
She had an astonishing story to tell. She had actually been in a gas chamber three times. and had, for various reasons, once'cause they'd run out of gas, and on other occasions for different reasons, had had come out and lived to tell the tale.
Presenter asks
19:24How did it feel to get there [to Parliament as MP for Folkestone and Hythe] at last?
That was an election in which we had a very big majority. I think we had a hundred new Conservative members of parliament. And I remember getting there and looking round at these new colleagues of mine, most of whom were younger than I was, and I thought to myself How on earth can I possibly make any kind of a mark here? and even for a fleeting moment wondered whether I'd done the right thing.
Presenter asks
23:16Do you regard the next election as your one and only chance?
I don't know, and I don't think about that, because I am really completely focused on doing everything I can do to win the next election. And I'm not prepared to start thinking about what the consequences of failure are, because it will be failure. I am not in this job to reduce the government's majority or improve the standing of the Conservative Party. I'm in this job to win the next election, and I don't really think about what might happen if there was some other outcome.
“I went into politics to do things, and you have to accept there will be times when you will be unpopular, but that is an a necessary thing to accept if you are actually going to make a difference.”
“He thought and frequently said That this is the best country in the world. And we were all privileged to be here and We should always remember that. Which I certainly do.”
“I'm in this job to win the next election, and I don't really think about what might happen if there was some other outcome.”
“No, I'd be absolutely useless. Shortly after my father married my mother, he tried to fix something in the bathroom, punctured the plumbing of the entire house, caused an enormous flood, used that as an excuse for the rest of his life not to do anything in the house, and I regard that excuse as hereditary.”