Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Broadcaster famed for 'That Was the Week That Was' and later interviews with world leaders and BBC's Sunday Breakfast Show.
On the island
Eight records
Well, we used to listen to Noel Coward in those days. This is probably his classic and uh what great lyrics.
A dear friend, Elton John, and this is the first time I met Elton doing the show in New York in nineteen seventy. And he'd just broken through in America, and he'd got his number one First number one hit, and it was this one.
Guy Berryman / Jonny Buckland / Will Champion / Chris Martin
Our son's childhood, we asked Myles and Wilfrid and George what they would What they would pick for this programme. I want to take one of their choices with me and they came up unanimously with Cold Play.
I wanted to have America the Beautiful because a lot of my life has been in America and I owe it a great debt too and I've had a great time over there. So I'd want to reflect on that as well.
I've taken here the music of the night, because I just think that is a fantastic again, the boys and Karina would agree with me on this song. And of course, I mean, this it's amazing, this is the most successful show, including film. In all history.
Well, the next one here is for Corina, and it's Boblind, an elusive butterfly of love.
We were together last just two years ago in We did a show, Paul McCartney, in Red Square. I did some interviews for it. And it was an amazing experience because there we were in Red Square, where the Beatles had been banned from for twenty, thirty years.
The Dam Busters MarchFavourite
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Groves
I always thought that Dan Busters was a great film. And on and on the occasion of the millennium, Corina's brother Ed had a fireworks display and a fantastic soundtrack... when they heard the Dambusters Mark They almost saluted.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:10Why would you want to go [to Al Jazeera International]?
Well, the thing is it's really people's reaction was was really rather exciting. They were sort of intrigued, this is cutting edge and so on. Obviously you need to explain that there's Al Jazeera Arabic, you know, which... You're not going to speak in... And there's Al Jazeera International, which is really their attempt to create a new CNN. So that made it, as per what you said, a frontier that I wanted to explore.
Presenter asks
2:18Did you have any concerns [about Al Jazeera's reputation]?
Yeah, the showing beheadings turns out definitely not to be true. But I checked out the whole thing with senior people in London and Washington and senior Jewish friends and so on and so forth. And I got the absolute clearance from them all that Al Jazeera is clean in terms of links with terror.
Presenter asks
3:26Why does he want to go on, what more has he got to preach?
I still get the same buzz when I wake up with a show to do... Goes back to my parents, I suppose, about not wasting time. That was one of the things, the Methodist things, you know. Not to waste time and your talents, you must use them to the full and all of that. So it's a bit of the old Puritan.
The keepsakes
The luxury
a weekly airdrop of the Sunday papers
Either a weekly airdrop of the Sunday papers, or possibly a weekly airdrop of Havana cigars. ... I suppose the Sunday papers would win out. It's just habit.
Presenter asks
5:22Did you feel kind of exasperated with the establishment and so on, or were you just poking fun and having fun?
From 1956 to 62, we were all, including us as audience, wanting a show in fact, like that was the week that was, though we didn't know it. But from the moment of Look Back in Anger and Suez, we were all fed up with the fag end of the Conservative rule and them saying that they were our elders and our betters and people were wanting at the end of the 50s, the boring old 50s, they were wanting very much something fresh and so on. So we were... without knowing it really, I suppose, reflecting in our feelings and our anger and so on, what the audience was.
Presenter asks
20:13How did you get the deal [for the Nixon interviews]?
Because when it came down to the final, as it were, the finalists was NBC News and myself. And in the last stage, I said that I would because I thought it was obvious that it was the most fascinating figure... that I would guarantee him six hours... And NBC only said they'd guarantee him two. That was the key to it... I paid six hundred thousand dollars for six hours... and I... got a the contract stipulated Twenty-five percent would be Watergate. And that was vital.
Presenter asks
29:45How would you like to be remembered after your death?
I think really that when I think back we talked about my parents and our boys and so on. I would say if I if people thought I was half as good a father to our three boys as my father was to me, I'd be more than happy with that as a epitaph.
“I still get the same buzz when I wake up with a show to do. Do you? Yes, same buzz as ever. Perhaps more so. Goes back to my parents, I suppose, about not wasting time. That was one of the things, the Methodist things, you know. Not to waste time and your talents, you must use them to the full and all of that.”
“And the first time I walked in television studio I really thought, I'm home. You know, I really did. I mean, I remember that day.”
“I think like is almost too personal a word for Nixon, the man with no small talk, with a barrier between him and the rest of the world. Do you know what I mean? It's almost too personal a word.”