Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Wartime flyer and Group Captain who overcame the loss of both legs to become a celebrated fighter ace.
On the island
Eight records
Vienna's City of My Dreams, sung in German by Richard Tauber.
It's one that has always made me laugh and I can sing it word for word myself, but I won't do it.
Of course one can't. Have any collection of records without that wonderful pair of Sanager and Alan, and my third record's underneath the arches, which of course everybody knows.
Being a sentimental sort of chap, I like waltzes. And this one is one of my favorites of all time, and that's Charmaine.
Well now we've gone back to probably the most famous song of the war.
And the great thing about Neil Card was he was a tremendous patriot, but he was always doing the English thing of taking the mickey out of the English, and particularly the British Empire.
I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)
In other words, it hasn't gone back to the dim distant past, and it's a record which I simply love. I love the melody and the words.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:40How did you become fascinated by flying?
It came about because my uncle, a very favourite uncle of mine and aunt, my mother's sister, were in the Royal Air Force. He was in the Flying Corps and then the Royal Air Force, and at the age of eleven I went to stay with them at Cranwell and that's why I was determined to go into the Royal Air Force.
Presenter asks
9:50What was your answer when you were told you would be all right with sticks and crutches?
Well, I mean, the answer was, obviously, that one would be all right without'em.
Presenter asks
14:13What was the drill for a parachute landing when you have only [one leg]?
Well I only had one… One came off, and I landed on one only. And uh it wasn't a problem.
Presenter asks
21:19Were you never tempted to write a story yourself?
The keepsakes
The luxury
I take my favorite golf club, which is a [sand wedge]. And a golf ball.
Uh no. I did actually write a book myself which was not about me. It was about the Spitfire and the Hurricane and it's called A Fight for the Sky.
Presenter asks
22:59Why did you stay away so long [from seeing the film Reach for the Sky]?
I don't know, really. It wasn't deliberate, it w it was e eased by the fact that one moved about a lot, you know.
“I lost my legs when uh when I was twenty one years old. My games career was cut very short. But over the years one's seen one's contemporaries.”
“I was just messing about too near the ground, and I hit the ground. That's what you always do if you get too near the ground.”
“You see, no no escape is of any interest except the one that gets home.”