Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Veteran broadcaster best known for his Radio 2 breakfast show, chat show 'Wogan', Eurovision, Blankety Blank, and Children in Need.
On the island
Eight records
That'll DoFavourite
It's from Babe the Pig in the City, which is an unremarkable follow-up to Babe the Pig. But the little theme tune is absolutely fantastic because it's got everything. It's got Patty Maloney on the Ilion Pipes, it's got the Black Dyke Mills band and it's got Peter Gabriel, and it's got a sentiment that I'd like to be associated with.
This is a classic song by possibly the greatest interpreter of the popular song.
In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
This is from Sleepless in Seattle, and this is Carly Simon, who's one of my favorite singers. She could be a mezzo, she could be a contralto, but she's got long legs. And she sings this lovely song.
The Choir of Moscow's Church of the Ascension of the Lord
We walked into this wonderful church, and this magnificent Russian bass voice rang out, and it was one of the priests. And I love the bass voice. So I just thought a little piece of the choir of Moscow's Church of the Ascension. This would remind me of happy days in St. Petersburg.
Music is a wonderful thing for memory, isn't it? The minute I hear this, I get a mental picture of sitting in the Staats Opera in Vienna.
This is from the soundtrack of a movie that I challenge anybody to watch without bursting into uncontrollable tears, Sleepless in Seattle. And this is my favorite version of this song.
Of course I'm going to be accused of excessive sentimentality and heart string tugging, but this this is such an affecting song.
This strikes a responsive chord because I remember it being sung in that wonderful old Roman Coliseum in Verona, the great tenoraria from Tosca
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:32Is it a space that's been hard to fill [since leaving the Radio 2 breakfast show]?
No, as as I've often said, I'm I'm a very shallow person. So I can move from one thing to another without thinking too much about it. I miss the interplay with my listeners because every morning I would come in, I'd have about three, four hundred, five hundred emails, and really they were my material.
Presenter asks
2:45How have you dealt with the fame, knowing that every time you walk out the front door, people see you?
It shouldn't feel like a carapace. You should you it should be within your heart to be nice to people... But one of the reasons that I I hope I was able to cope with my new found fame in Britain, was that I had been famous before. in Ireland.
Presenter asks
5:21Has there been any part of you that just as the green light flashes has felt a sort of shiver of nerves, or did you get well past that?
Yeah, you have to get past it. Television isn't easy, for instance. Radio I've always found easy, although my very first broadcast was the Cattle Market Report... I felt as if the roof was coming down on top of me. That was the most nerve wracking thing I've ever done in my life.
The keepsakes
The book
Leo Tolstoy
I thought I'd pick a book, which many people think is the greatest book ever written, but um [War and Peace]. I've made several attempts. And I've never got past page 220. So if I'm on the old desert island. I'll give it a real go.
The luxury
full bottles of vodka, wine, and whisky, with paper and pens for writing messages
Not only could I attempt to write the great novel, but I could also write messages which I would stick in the empty bottles, like Get me out of here before I die of starvation, privation, or exposure.
Presenter asks
20:09Was there a specific point at which you sort of lost your religion and decided that really it didn't have much to offer?
Um well, I'm brought up by Jesuits who were very clever men. So my mother always said it was the Jesuits' fault that I didn't believe, because they made me think. And you see, that's the point. The gift of faith is that at some point you stop thinking... I've always questioned it really. I personally believe in people.
Presenter asks
23:37Was that a tough decision to leave Ireland [at the end of the 1960s]?
No. It's the kind of decision you take when you're young. And fearless.
Presenter asks
28:03How do you know when the right time is [to leave a show]?
I've always been the kind of person who left parties early... I do believe in i in our business that um you shouldn't outstay your welcome
“It's important to remember that the more people like you, the more others will despise you.”
“I think the most important thing in life is kindness.”
“I'd rather think. that we're born. good rather than evil. I I I've never accepted the the concept of original sin.”