Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Noted British television presenter and chat show host.
On the island
Eight records
I was so bowled over by this performance on a Saturday afternoon that I came out of the fifth cinema, went back to the market store and said to my mother, please can I have another two shillings to go and see the next house...
when we first got posh at home and my father bought our first motor car, we used to go out on a Sunday afternoon... and drive over and looked at a pile of Accrington brick... on the front at Lytham...
Villanelle (from Les Nuits d'été)
all the people who are slightly cleverer than I was at Oxford used to play this. It was a very voguish kind of record in 1955, six and seven. And it brings back warm May Oxford nights...
In the Bleak MidwinterFavourite
Choir of King's College, Cambridge
I want to be reminded of winter, which is my favourite season. And if I'm on a desert island in the usual place, I suspect it really will be torrid. And I would like one of the coldest pieces of music that I know...
Dance of the Mandolins (from Romeo and Juliet)
I've chosen a piece of Prokofiev, which is currently my favourite listening... it will remind me of those spacious August nights when we're listening to music and sipping a little dry sherry...
Paul Phoenix and the Choristers of St Paul's Cathedral
the one thing which is the bizarrest thing I ever supervised was a little lad from St Paul's Cathedral Choir called Paul Felix who sang My Way and I would like to hear that to remind me of that odd, odd, bizarre night.
If You Were the Only Girl in the World
Violet Lorraine and George Robey
I owe a great deal to the funniness and the warmth of my my mum and my dad... I will need a good cry so when I listen to If You Were the Only Girl in the World, I'll be thinking about my mum and my dad and having a bit of a weep...
I want something to to remind me of Britain and something which is very grand and something which is will call me to attention when my my mind and my thoughts are wandering...
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:28Could you take isolation on a desert island?
At this precise moment in my life, yes, surrounded by a lot of people, I'd welcome a brief respite on a desert island. But if you're asking me seriously, could I survive for long? The answer is for about a day if it were a Hebridean island and two days if it were the Caribbean.
Presenter asks
3:48Who were your favourites [at the music hall]?
Well, my favourites were Nat Mills and Bobby. And I played Bobby to Nat Mills two weeks ago, which is a great joy for me. And I once saw Charlie Chaplin... And I once saw Hetty King.
Presenter asks
6:39Was it your idea to go on to university?
It was a kind of drift, don't you know? I mean, all my friends were clever, and a lot were cleverer than I, and they were all going off to Oxford and Cambridge. And it never entered my head that I should not do that.
Presenter asks
9:19What did you do when you graduated?
The keepsakes
The book
Thomas Dunham Whitaker
I'd like to take with me a large book called Whitaker's History of Craven, which has beautiful pictures and a magical 19th century text all about the country in Yorkshire where I live. I've never got to the end of it, and that will keep me occupied and fill me with a happy memory.
The luxury
I want to take a mirror for lighting fires, Roy, and for sending flashing messages to passing ships.
Well, I thought it would be a jolly good idea... I applied for a job at a new television firm called Granada. And they offered me a job... for £420 a year for three months only. Now all my life I'd been taught that I should get a sound and a sensible job... So I turned down this this worrying job in Granada Television and went to become a schoolteacher than which there was nothing safer.
Presenter asks
26:17Do you enjoy [being a national celebrity]?
I do when I'm with other people... I quite enjoy that moment of recognition. I'm very happy about it when people come up to me and say, hello, how are you? and shake me by the hand... What I can't bear about recognition is when people stand in a corner and put their hand up to their mouth and whisper and talk about me in such a way that I feel rather prickly about that.
“At this precise moment in my life, yes, surrounded by a lot of people, I'd welcome a brief respite on a desert island. But if you're asking me seriously, could I survive for long? The answer is for about a day if it were a Hebridean island and two days if it were the Caribbean.”
“It was a kind of drift, don't you know? I mean, all my friends were clever, and a lot were cleverer than I, and they were all going off to Oxford and Cambridge. And it never entered my head that I should not do that.”
“I can make I can put sentences together and paragraphs together, but I can't build huts or install central heating or hang pictures or anything of that nature, so I would not be a good castaway.”