Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Home Secretary, farmer, soldier, and first-rate golfer.
On the island
Eight records
Well, my army life meant a great deal to me. Uh my time in the Scots Guards meant a great deal to me. My time in Scotland when I was brought up one never quite forgets the parts of the country one was brought up, and my time with my mother, because she I was an only child and I never saw my father. That time in the north of Scotland meant a lot to me too.
March of the Toreadors (from Carmen)
Comes back to my time at Winchester. We all had to sing in the chorus. All of us. We were doing Carmen, the March of the Torridors from Carmen. And I was told two days before that I sang so badly that I was the one person who was to be excluded from the chorus. I was deeply upset, perfectly miserable, and I've always remembered Carmen and the March of the Torridors with great feeling ever since.
That comes again from my time at Cambridge, when I used uh to go to the cinema a great deal. It was always said by my friends, and indeed by my friends to this day, that I go to sleep very often, and I always used to go to sleep in the cinema. And I once was said to have gone to the great waltz of those days and listened to the music, and I went six nights running because I enjoyed it so much, and I listened to that music, and I always claimed that I was not asleep, even though my eyes were shut. And of course, that leads me straight to the Blue Daniel, which I seem to love.
White ChristmasFavourite
We come back into the middle of the war and the time when my wife and I first was actually got engaged and then we got married. We were married in the early part of nineteen forty three and we became engaged just before Christmas, nineteen forty-two, and at that time the song of the moment was Dreaming of a White Christmas by Bing Crosby. We've both loved it ever since.
And that comes back to my constituency, comes back to Cumbria and to John Peel. It reminds me of the countryside and everything else. And when I was left on my own, that's what something I would really like to remember.
The Twenty-Third Psalm (Crimond)
One needs, I think, when one would be alone, something serious which would remind one of many occasions, both joyful and very sad. And I go, as I find, frequently to weddings, and I go frequently last to memorial services, and almost always I have the twenty-third Psalm by Crimond at both.
That comes back to the early days of the war again. I was an enormous admirer of the Crazy Gang. I've always had such an admiration for Flanningham and Allen, and I remember going one evening in nineteen forty to one of their performances and we went to a party afterwards and they sang both the performance and afterwards at the party. Run, Rabbit, run. I've loved it ever since and I hope I may have it done.
Jimmy Shand Junior and his Band
the last record reminds me again of my youth and times when I used to first go to dances in Scotland, and that is the country dance, The Duke of Perth, by I think Jimmy Shannon junior. But I love the Duke of Perth, it's something I love dancing.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:40Can you think of one thing you would be particularly happy to have got away from in your isolation?
No, I actually can't. For the curious reason that I do enjoy being with people, I simply hate being alone. Nothing I hate more.
Presenter asks
1:45Was there any kind of guiding principle that you adopted in choosing your eight records for solitude?
Yes, I said at the start that I hated being left alone, and I made up my mind that the only thing I could then do was to have records which would remind me of people and of many periods of my life, and then I could think of these and enjoy them, or even be sad about them, but at least I would be able to think of them.
Presenter asks
5:18At school, had you formulated any ambition what you wanted to do?
None. Absolutely none at all. I had really no idea at all.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
Bernard Darwin
Bernard Darwin was the great golf writer of the time, used to write on golf in the Times, had a very wide literary skill, well outside the game. And his autobiography reminds me of my golf days at Cambridge and of golf generally, of golf courses. And this would be a great memory for me, and a man I had enormous admiration for.
Any political activity in Cambridge?
Almost none at all. Only once. I was once used when, after Oxford Union had voted that they would not fight for king and country, Churchill came to Cambridge in order to make sure that Cambridge would do so. And I was recruited as one of those who stood at the door, and when anybody said they were not for fighting for king and country, we pushed them away and kept them out. Perhaps that was why I became a whip later on.
Presenter asks
18:22What does being a whip involve?
You need to know about the procedures of Parliament, how Parliament works. You need to know about people. You need to be interested in people. And you need to know how you can persuade people to do things perhaps sometimes they don't particularly want to do. And indeed, how to report to other people what the feeling of your party is. In fact, learning about how Parliament works and how a party and how a successful party combines as a team in Parliament.
Presenter asks
27:34Would you like to have a go [at being Prime Minister] yourself?
I suppose everybody in politics in a way would like to be Prime Minister, of course. But at the same time, I have served, as you rightly say, very closely in different capacities, three, and I do understand some of the terrible difficulties of the job. And, quite frankly, I realise the agonies that can be for being at the very top. I actually thoroughly enjoy the job I've got at the moment. I um enormous admirer of Margaret Thatcher, the present Prime Minister, and I've no desire to see her do anything other than remain Prime Minister for a very long time.
“I actually can't [think of one thing I would be happy to get away from]. For the curious reason that I do enjoy being with people, I simply hate being alone. Nothing I hate more.”
“In those days I was a soldier doing and carrying through the policies which the politicians devised. And when I was at that end of the scale I couldn't understand what on earth the politicians thought they were doing. Once I became a politician I was always very conscious that probably the soldiers didn't know what on earth they thought I was doing.”
“I make no secret of the fact. Of course, I am emotional. I feel emotionally about issues, and particularly about people. I've always felt about people. People mean a great deal to my life, and the people who work for me and people around me mean a great deal to me, always have.”