Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A diplomat who served as UK ambassador to the US and Germany, press secretary to John Major, and later chaired the Press Complaints Commission.
On the island
Eight records
Cross Road BluesFavourite
Well, this is one of the greatest blues recordings ever made by, I think, the greatest country blues artist who ever lived, which is Robert Johnson. And I think the greatest of all the numbers he recorded was Crossroad Blues, Highway 61, where he allegedly met the devil, entered a Faustian bargain to serve the devil if the devil would give him the skill to play the guitar.
Well, when I was about twelve, I discovered Radio Luxembourg, and I heard this amazing piece of music, which was Little Richard... singing Good Golly, Miss Molly... I just knocked my socks off.
The Rite of Spring: Dance of the Earth
Kirov Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev
Well, when I was at school when I was at Lansing at public school, I used to go to... a music appreciation class. And I thought the writer's spring so exciting that on my desert island I would at least that night have part of it to wake me up in the morning.
Stuart Burrows, with the Royal Opera House Orchestra, conducted by Sir Georg Solti
I first went to Moscow to the Embassy in 1968 and I didn't know much about ballet or opera then and in those days, depths of Cold War, there weren't many things to do in Moscow, but one of the great things to do was to go to the Balshoi Theatre and see ballet and listen to opera. And I went to see Yevgeny and Yegin and I can remember sitting there and tears were coursing down my cheeks.
Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers
When I was at school, at at my public school Lansing, and I was being taught about Stravinsky and syncopation, I couldn't understand... what syncopation was... and finally the the music teacher said, Look. I'm going to bring you a jazz record next time, and then you will understand syncopation. And he came in with a long-playing record... of Jelly Roll Morton and the Red Hot Peppers.
I talked about little Richard knocking my socks off. Well, when I put on a new pair of socks, a few years later, my socks are knocked off again. and it is the Scottish Australian. A C D C And I'd like to hear. Highway to Hell
When I was in our embassy in Madrid in the early 70s, I got to know a lot of exiles from Latin America. And there was a Cuban nightclub in Madrid called Los Hitanios, a little gypsies, and Cuban music is so evocative of that period. And this piece, Chan Chan, would be an eloquent reminder.
I Believe in a Thing Called Love
The last record is a a kind of symbol of hope. I mean it is very, very depressing when you see popular music dominated by boy bands who are totally indistinguishable the one from the other, and so are the girl bands as well. And suddenly there comes a renaissance, a kind of revisiting from the past. And my two sons, James and William, said to me one day, Dad, you've got to hear this band The Darkness. It's just your music.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:18Have you been in the wrong job all these years? You're not supposed to shoot from the hip as an ambassador and diplomat, are you?
Well, I found as ambassador I was required to do all kinds of things. I was required to be actually a behind the scenes man and I did it. But more and more as foreign policy was dragged screaming out of the shadows, you found that you had to be a front man as well. And when I was ambassador, particularly in Washington, I was always talking to the media, making speeches, going out on the road, selling Britain. So I think progressively, as I went up the ladder, I found that what I was doing more and more suited my temperament.
Presenter asks
5:35Tell me about the difference between life now and then [after leaving Washington]. Gone is the Lutyens' residence, the Ambassadorial Bentley, and the servants.
Well, it was a wonderful time. It was very nice driving around town in the Bentley... But I can tell you after Five and a half years, and each year having come through the house between twelve and fourteen thousand guests, um having very little privacy, doing almost eighteen hours a day, seven days a week, you're having fun... but there comes a time when you need to get back home, get back to your family and lead something close to um a normal life.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay
John Buchan
The Four Adventures of RICHARD HANNEY BY JOHN BUCKHAM that is to say, The Thirty Nine Steps, Green Mantle, The Three Hostages, and Mr Standfast. I have read them God knows how many times throughout my life, from the age of about ten onwards, and when I felt like comforting myself when I was in hospital, I read them. I read all four again in hospital this year.
The luxury
The luxury has got to be a jukebox because I strongly object to the BBC's luxury. This is another cheat.
What is George Bush really like?
I really do believe... though that is a travesty and a caricature of the man, he is by no stretch of the imagination stupid. Bush is not only amiable, personable, and I thought a very a nice man as a human being, he is smart. And too many Europeans have made too many mistakes in underestimating him.
Presenter asks
16:06Do you think it's possible for the press officer in Downing Street to be a civil servant?
It's a really good question, that. And I think when I left Downing Street in 1996, I remember saying to John Major and to others afterwards, as Secretary of the Cabinet, that I didn't think a civil servant any longer could be the government spokesman and the Prime Minister's press secretary... it's damn difficult to do that job well unless you have some kind of political angle.
Presenter asks
19:09What went wrong [with international goodwill towards America after 9/11]?
Well, the historian this is one of the things that the historians are really will really think about, but one of the great strategic failures was America's Loss of almost all the sympathy... that it had received from around the world... for 9-11 in the ensuing months.
“An awful lot of tosh has been written about and spoken about spin as if it's some new black art that has been developed in the last few years and that before spin masters there were there were how can I put it sort of platonic objective unspinning press secretaries who gave you the the essence of government policy in all its purity and truth.”
“Anybody who's got good interpersonal skills can speak one or two languages, who is adaptable, intellectually nimble, ... extrovert and can write clearly and concisely, as well as speak like that, can be a diplomat.”
“Self-regulation of the press is something similar [to democracy]. It's got all kinds of jagged edges, but it's better than any alternative. And the reason I love it is because it's kind of the crossroads of public policy, politics, ordinary human beings, all the great issues.”