Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Politician and former Foreign Secretary, known for his oratory, intellect, and forensic skills in Parliament.
On the island
Eight records
I'm a child of the sixties and uh nobody better encapsulated than Bob Dylan. I'd like to have mister Tambourine Man, partly because it's got the most rich, wonderful lyrics of any song of that time, but also because it ends with him dancing on the beach beneath a diamond sky on the circling sands, and possibly with nobody there to watch me, because I'm a very poor dancer, I might actually risk it myself.
In my generation the folk song, Protest song, was very big. It was a way of getting across a political message, and the father of all of them, of course, was Ewan McCall. And I liked to have Ewan McCall and Peggy Seeger, his partner, singing Dirty Old Town, which combines two very marked features of sort of left politics, is great affection for the old, decayed uh society, and at the same time A really radical commitment to make a change and chop it down and start again.
Siegfried IdyllFavourite
NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini
I found that to get to sleep at night the one trick that would always work would be play the Ziggy Diddle which I think is one of the most magnificent pieces of music and what I'd like to hear is that wonderful crescendo towards the end because I discovered that if I put this on the cassette player, this would be four C D's I could drop off at this moment.
Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Algis Žiūraitis
Wagner is slightly politically suspect, so I think it's time we had something deeply politically correct. So I thought we'd have Cacheturian and Spartacus. I first went to Ballet actually in the seventies. I was in Paris on a parliamentary delegation at a free evening and I went along to Paris Opera and they were doing Giselle and I have been hooked in Ballet ever since. Spartacus is tremendously dynamic and dramatic because as well as the beauty there's also the brutality.
I have to have something about horses because they have been such a large part of my leisure life. I've also been always very fond of instrumental folk music. Ali Bain is the great master of the Scottish fiddle music and there is a piece at Tamer When the Snow Come which is about the taming of the Shetland ponies and how they're first broken in.
I came to jazz late in life, but it's a joint uh passion of Guinea and myself, and I like to hear Keith Jarrett uh playing I Love You, Porgy. It's a most melodic, wonderful, soothing piece and I I wouldn't have any of the stress on desire. There'll be no press lobby asking me difficult questions, but if I ever feel stressed, this is what I would put on and relax to.
I've never actually been very good with instruments, but in my fancy if I ever did actually play an instrument it would want it would be the saxophone. And I like Harl Bostig, one of the great early masters of the saxophone, playing Wrap It Up, which is a good enthusiastic one to get me dancing.
Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle
Music means a lot to Guiner. She can come out of a concert with a sense of excitement and vibration that I I can only envy. We went the other week to hear Marla's fifth played by Simon Ratt on the Berlin Philharmonic and it was an extraordinary experience and she came away reanimated with bright lights in her eyes and skipped along the south bank. And I would like to have the end of Marlow's Fifth, that wonderful exuberant crescendo which is so life-affirming and to remind me of Guin and the tough and the good times we've had together.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:02Do you think there is truth in the idea that you limited yourself by not paying enough attention to other people's feelings?
If I'm being frank and uh indulging a bit of sixties self-criticism here, I think that I have I've limited myself by not paying enough attention to other people's feelings, and I recognise that, and I've come to learn that a lot through my second marriage to Guena, who has taught me a lot about emotional intelligence, and I would like to think now that I respect other people's feelings and understand the need to show understanding of the way they feel rather more than I did in the past.
Presenter asks
10:45When was the moment when you decided to chuck in academia [and go into politics]?
I vividly remember the moment when I decided to pack it all in. I was a colleague beside me who was doing a thesis on sanitation in the Victorian novel. Now there is no sanitation in the Victorian novel, unless you current Bleak House, but he had got six happy chapters on why is there not more sanitation in the Victorian novel? And he was walking three foot off the air, so pleased with it, and I thought, Well, look, if that's what it's all about, there's more important things to do with life than this.
Presenter asks
11:29Did you literally belt [your pupils]?
The keepsakes
The book
Raceform
I'd like to have the annual form book, which is the Bible of all racing enthusiasts and gives you the results of all the races in the past twelve months. Preferably the Raceform version, because my son works for Raceform and he could put some coded messages for me in it.
The luxury
then I could perhaps every now and again celebrate, possibly, the theoretical possibility of beating a computer, which I rarely do. And if I ever get rescued, then I won't be able to look forward to being able to beat my sons for a change.
Oh, it was a belt... you kept it in your in your wallet pocket of your jacket and it went over your back of your shoulder. There you're a strip of leather... On the hand. I I don't remember it with any pride, but of course if the teacher in the class from the left of you and the teacher in the class from the right of you is doing it, you have no alternative but to be part of that culture. I'm glad we banned it.
Presenter asks
24:35Why did you lose the job [of Foreign Secretary]?
That is a question I think that you'll have to take Tony out to the Desert Island to ask... Any Prime Minister needs to freshen his team. I understand that, and there's no point arguing about it. And as I said, I'm happy as a pig and straw in the job I'm doing. I enjoy it thoroughly.
Presenter asks
25:49Was [the public crisis over your affair] the lowest point of your political [or private life]?
It was a tough private time, yes. If I have a regret, I I think I should have uh faced up sooner than I did the fact that my first marriage had failed and I should have made the break sooner. I I shrank from it because for most human of reasons and I didn't want to deepen the wounds, but looking back I know that was wrong.
“I think that if I've had confidence, it's because very early on in my life I was given confidence by my father. He himself was uh a very strong man, um a man who gave me a lot of encouragement, but without at the same time in any way overindulging me.”
“I have a press image which I acquired quite early on in my life in the house, and Once you've acquired a press image, it sticks with you. They never change it, they never turn over the record, and I quite often I find it difficult sometimes to recognise myself there.”
“I think it is terribly important that we do have politics of principle as well as certainly politics that are also practical. You need to get that blend and that balance right.”