Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A designer and writer.
On the island
Eight records
In fact, to remind me of what I'm missing, I'd like to choose my first record, if I could. I am a Woman by Peggy Lee.
Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five
Well, I think for number three I'd like Muskrat Ramble because it's very hectic but very organized and it reminds me of the Daily Mail.
Well, I think this time I'd like to choose when I'm sixty-four because uh I think on a desert island one would want to have things that obviously you wouldn't get sick of. And all of the records I've chosen today are things that I've enjoyed for many, many years and I think I'd go on enjoying them. And The Beatles, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club's band, is really very, very good music for almost any mood.
I think I would like career opportunities by the clash because, again, it's going to remind me of civilization and what I'm missing. And it reminds me of my sons as well.
Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550
English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim
Oh well, I think for the next record I would like Mozart's Fortieth Symphony because it's got such clarity and balance, and I think I would never get tired of it. And I used to play it a lot in my first London bed sitter in Brixton, so I'd like to have it because it reminds me of Dave and the Lads at Trinity Gardens.
Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92Favourite
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
Well, I think for that I would like Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, because it's very good music for keeping the chin up.
Uh yes, for for that I'd like to choose a Billie Holiday record. And uh I've chosen my old flame, which is a wistful tear jerker. It's it's very feminine, very kittenish, and I never get tired of hearing it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:36How good would you be at coping with loneliness?
Well, I think anybody who's had to put up with a long term of loneliness would think hard before saying yes fast. … I had a a a very difficult period after my first son was born when I was in London and didn't know anybody and uh … had uh postnatal depression. I felt very lonely.
Presenter asks
2:55Why did you choose to study stone carving [at Southern College, Portsmouth]?
Well, there was only one place in the school when I wanted to go there, and that was in the dress design department, and I'm possibly the only woman you'll ever meet who doesn't think she'll make a good dress designer. And so as soon as there was another vacant place, I nipped out of that into the stone carving department, because uh my aim in life is get your foot in where you can and then heave against the door.
Presenter asks
5:33Why did you form your own textile company?
Because nobody would buy my designs, or I was told that nobody would. You see, I produced my first portfolio, then I went out to fabric firms trying to sell them. And um one very famous firm in Tottenham Court Road, I had the most humiliating experience. The chief buyer looked through all my designs and he thought they were so appalling that he called in other people from other departments and went over them all again, saying, weren't they appalling and dreadful? And really I left there and walked down Tottenham Court Road with my morale shattered for ever. And I thought, you know, well, if they're as bad as they say, well, obviously nobody'd buy them, so I'd better produce them myself.
The keepsakes
The book
B. K. S. Iyengar
said he couldn't have survived, he thought, without a book on yoga. And I must say it's amazing value.
The luxury
Presenter asks
15:44Did your campaign against sexual discrimination do good?
Well, yes, it bill did. The bill had been thrown out five times before we started, and we were determined that if it was thrown out a sixth time, everybody wouldn't it wouldn't go down without being heard. And we wrote to nine hundred head girls who got nine hundred schools to send in petitions on exercise books. They came rolling in, and we wrote to one thousand women's organizations throughout the country, and we wrote to six hundred and forty-two MPs, and we had a torchlight rally from the House of Parliament to Downing Street. And we won the day. And I must say, it was amazingly easy, and we did it with amazingly few people.
Presenter asks
18:32Do you think you'd be able to cope fairly efficiently in looking after yourself on a desert island?
Well, I'd have to, wouldn't I? And I mean, m my definition of a superwoman is somebody who doesn't try and do too much, who knows her own limitations and doesn't try and exceed them, so I'm perfectly certain she'd be quite able to cope on a desert island, although I don't think she'd need the book.
“my aim in life is get your foot in where you can and then heave against the door.”
“I do think that any woman who has to cope with a home these days and children is a superwoman because she had to be. I mean Superwoman is a is an ironic title. As a matter of fact, it's for whoever has to do the system support work in the house, man, woman or child.”
“my definition of a superwoman is somebody who doesn't try and do too much, who knows her own limitations and doesn't try and exceed them”