Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
TV presenter and cook, one half of The Hairy Bikers, known for over thirty TV series and many hit cookbooks.
On the island
Eight records
It's really about just taking a breath and just having a little bit of empathy. The track is about empathy, in my view anyway.
To hear this... and songs like it... in your front room and you see your sister dancing in a green dress and stuff. I was like, what is going on here? It was amazing.
Introit from the Liturgy of Saint Anthony
I love it. Well, listen to it. It's a remarkable, remarkable piece of music, and so skilled and so elemental and old.
Snow Patrol featuring Martha Wainwright
Jane sent me it in a tape... and this track particularly was the point where I realized that actually doing what I did had a cost and I was away from the people that I loved.
This was the first time that I learnt Brian Downey is a huge hero of mine... he shuffles through this track and it's it's exquisite in my view.
This would be a reminder for me of that life that I left... the track is really about well, to me, it's about the many faces of deceit.
Ask the LonelyFavourite
When the boys were little... they'd all ask, Oh, Daddy, Daddy, put Astalule on... and actually what it was was uh Ask the Lonely... it would be my boys, I'd have my boys in my mind.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:07When you're cooking for someone that you love, what does that look like?
Oh look, it's the epitome of care. There's a an old Islamic saying that I won't try and pronounce it, but it is about the you can taste the love in the food. That was instilled in me from being very, very, very young. You know, if you're going to cook something, you cook it with your heart and you cook it with your soul, and don't cook in a bad mood. Yeah. Because you'll know because you'll taste it. You'll taste it. You'll taste that anger. Because you're not. And it's actually true. I think I've made kicks like that before. Make cakes like that before. It is true. You kind of go, oh, that doesn't taste the same as I did it the last time. Oh, well, that's because I was in a bad mood.
Presenter asks
2:58How did you mark the anniversary of Dave's death?
I was actually with my sister in Italy. I just took myself off a little quiet moment because he doesn't stop being your best mate just because he's not here. And I had a moment of just remembering with kindness and fondness, you know. Because grief comes in all sorts of different shapes and sizes and it's as as varied emotionally as it is as the character and personality of the individual that's feeling it. So it's always a mix of emotion. Grief is never linear, which is why it's so difficult to cope with on occasion. And it never leaves you. There is always that sense of loss.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
The Complete Works of William Dalrymple
William Dalrymple
I think he is a remarkable mind. And he touches bits of culture that are historically resonant, but also are highly relevant to the current day. I just love the way that he weaves history and narrative. One of our national treasures of a historian.
The luxury
I think I could manage to kind of get a fire lit. And keep thou corn? But the problem is it's a desert island. Normally you think hot. So I was thinking, well, what happens if I get a load of fish that I'm catching? And where am I going to put it? I could dry them, I could smoke them. But you'd get bored with that, wouldn't you?
Did your father's illness impact your relationship with him?
Oh, definitely. I mean, it you know, dad was he was one of the first kidney transplant patients in the country. And I remember a big hoo ha and and you know, an ambulance coming with police outriders and a in a squad car and dad being rushed into hospital. And then he had the operations that he had, wasn't it? The first double transplant in the country. One of them. I think they'd done it twice before. And because the anti-rejection drugs weren't as sophisticated, obviously, as we have now and the techniques weren't as sophisticated, I can't remember exactly, but I think it was about a 72-hour window whereby the kidneys were going to work or not. But unfortunately we got to about sixty hours and then his body just rejected them and and unfortunately we were all rushed into the hospital to see our goodbyes, and as an eight-year-old, that was I had absolutely no idea what was going on.
Presenter asks
24:03What were your first impressions of Dave when you met him?
Well, I thought, what's it? There's a bloke, there's a makeup artist, what's going on here? He came out of the interview and came at the pub, and as he came down at the pub, they said, Look, you've got the job. So Dave was in the pub in the afternoon celebrating that he'd got the job. I don't know, it was just we got each other. You know, we're very, very, very different people. We got each other at that point. That's where it was a lifelong friendship.
Presenter asks
29:51How did you change as a person due to the success and time away from home?
I'd seen so much I didn't know what to say any more. And that's the worst possible thing you can. Well, I didn't know what to say to anybody, you know, because everybody, you know, all my mates, and they're still my mates, you know. There are nurses, there are social workers there. So you could chat about your experience, but the longer that you were involved in that world, the less I wanna what do you say when you're at a party, you know, oh, what have you done? Oh, well, I've just come back from Namibia, or Kenny, how was that? It was great. Because I'm not there, so I don't know the day-to-day of everybody's lives and what the crack is and putting a distance.
Presenter asks
33:18How did you know something was seriously wrong when you had the brain aneurysm?
I remember lying down on the settee in my little cottage and watching the rugby and it was a Calcutta Cup game. And as I was watching it I was thinking Never felt this exhausted ever. I mean, we haven't really you know, it's been really busy, but you know, normally we just eat that sort of stuff up. And then I looked at the T V again and then the players were kind of falling off the screen. So I rang the R V I and said I'm coming in. I got myself into the thing and I was a bit like I was a bit all over the place. And they lay me down, they did a lump puncture and they said, b you've you've you've had a brain aneurysm that's that's leaking starting to leak. And I had the operation and again it was just a tumultuous time, it was awful emotionally all over the shop. It was just awful. And I had the operation And yeah, it was a diff a difficult, very difficult part of my li part of my life and for not just for me, but for the people that love me and particularly for my sons and and my and my and for Jane, you know, it was it was difficult it was difficult.
“If you're going to cook something, you cook it with your heart and you cook it with your soul, and don't cook in a bad mood.”
“Grief is never linear, which is why it's so difficult to cope with on occasion. And it never leaves you. There is always that sense of loss.”
“I'd seen so much I didn't know what to say any more.”
“It was all about the fight.”
“I'm a committed socialist and I run my businesses in that way.”