Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Anglican Church ambassador who helped free hostages in Iran and Libya, then was held hostage in Lebanon for nearly five years.
On the island
Eight records
French Suite No. 5 in G major (part)
I like Glengould because he was a marvellous individualist. He had the courage to make his own interpretations. He wasn't afraid, and he was a bit eccentric.
I first heard this piece of music as a signature tune, to a B B C Children's Hour play. And the reason it stuck in my mind, and those signature tunes stuck in my mind, was because somehow they had the marvellous link between the feeling of the music and the mood of the play.
Beim Schlafengehen (from Four Last Songs)
Jessye Norman, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Kurt Masur
This is chosen simply and purely. Because it's a beautiful piece of music and no other reason.
String Quintet in C major, D. 956 (slow movement)
Lindsay String Quartet, Douglas Cummings
I can take you along with me. And one of the things that I've learned over over the years is never ever. To despise friendship.
Choir of King's College, Cambridge, English Chamber Orchestra, Philip Ledger
The reason I choose this is. In captivity. I heard in the last Christmas of captivity. The Choir of King's College, Cambridge. But they annual service of lessons and carols… And then, after my release. I found myself elected a fellow commoner. Of Trinity Hall… I'll get up and uh Just walk gently there and sit quietly in the chapel.
A lovely pure singer called Carol Kidd. I say pure, she has a lovely pure voice. And she's singing a song that's rather romantic, and I think there's a pretty strong romantic streak in me somewhere.
Song of Simeon (Nunc Dimittis) from the Orthodox Divine Liturgy
Choirs of Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra and Moscow Theological Academy
I couldn't go to my desert island without taking a memory of a church and a people I love.
SleepFavourite
Benjamin Luxon, David Willison
Ivor Gurney (words by John Fletcher)
This again is a a piece of music that's particularly moving to me. And it has many, many associations.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:17How hard is the process of rehabilitation, Terry? Is it a very difficult path to tread back to normal life?
Well, it has its difficulties. One of the things that surprise me is uh how long it's taken to get physically well again. I came out and I felt a bit groggy. And uh I went to the R A F station at Lynham for a good medical check out. And um I thought that would be over in a few weeks, but in fact it's taken several months to get physically strong again.
Presenter asks
2:03Was that a speech, can I ask, that you had worked on, in a sense, over the years? Had you sat in your cell and thought, 'This is what I'll say when I get out'?
Well Unconsciously maybe, but not consciously. I hadn't consciously prepared a speech at all, in captivity. But I suppose running through my mind during the years of captivity there were thoughts as to what I might have to say when I came out, but it really wasn't a conscious process. When I knew that I was captured, I said there are three vows that I will take, which will help me survive. No self pity. At no regrets. And no over-sentimentality. And I s did my best to try and stick by those. I didn't always stick by them by any means. You know, they're like New Year's resolutions, you do your best.
Presenter asks
The keepsakes
The book
Various (Cambridge University Press)
I want something that would stretch me and that would really take some reading.
Did you have any idea, Terry, as a teenager, what you might like to do with your life? Did you feel you were cut out for anything in particular?
Well, first of all I I was always very restless and wanted to travel. I remember You know, the sweat that went into saving up to buy a bicycle just to get me outside the confines of the village, and then those journeys one took. But that wasn't enough. And um I tried to uh leave home at fifteen and join the navy. And my father taught me out of that at the very last moment. I can tell you I'd have otherwise I'd have been signed up for something like eighteen years, I don't know how long. But mercifully he didn't let me do that. Later on I began to wonder if I had a a vocation in the church. And I didn't really know what it was, and uh I went to see whether or not it was a vocation to the monastic life. But then I realized that I was in no way cut out to be a celibate.
Presenter asks
16:00Do you feel perhaps in many ways you were singularly qualified for [the Archbishop of Canterbury's international envoy] role?
Well, I think in Africa, of course, I'd work quite a lot on the in the field and the area of uh intercultural understanding and problem solving and uh all in the that whole area. And so when hostages were taken, it did provide me with a unique opportunity. to put these particular understandings into practice. And um That's what I tried to do. I also tried to understand The motives of the people who were taking hostages, for example, In Iran. I made friends, first of all, with one of the um Revolutionary Guards, and he took me to his house, and he showed me a scrap book of members of his family. Several brothers, all of whom had either been murdered by the previous regime or had to discontinue their education. for one reason or another, and he said, Can you understand now why we fight? And You know, injustice breeds terrorism. Where there is injustice, you get Acts of terrorism, which in themselves are unjust, of course, it's no excuse, but you can begin to understand.
Presenter asks
18:21There are some people who said that in the end you were captured because of your own foolhardiness, that you didn't heed the warnings from the Foreign Office, from Hezbollah, that you thought yourself invulnerable. What do you say to that?
No, I never thought myself invulnerable. But Because, um, before I was captured I made a tape. Uh which said, if I am captured I knew there was a very high chance. No ransom is to be paid. No exchange made for me. But what really drove me back It was partly personal pride. and partly a sense of honour, and partly compassion. Partly stupidity, I suppose. I mean a mixture of all these things. but a determination that when the rug was pulled from under my feet, I would not give in. I would not be beaten and I would not see these innocent hostages left alone and their families left bereift. I just wouldn't do it.
Presenter asks
21:35It was on the twentieth of January, 1987, that you were driven to a house in West Beirut to meet members of the Islamic Jihad. You dismissed your bodyguards, and you waited. What happened next?
While I waited In this room And uh Eventually I was alone. And uh I waited and waited, and then I heard the sound of a lift. coming up to the apartment. And A man appeared. whom I knew because I'd had previous contact with him a year earlier. He asked me if I was armed, and I told him I wasn't. He checked to see if I was. And then when he was satisfied, He took me. downstairs, and we got in a car and drove across Beirut. Then I was blindfolded as I expected. and then I was kept in various buildings for two or three days. And eventually Put in myself in an underground prison, of which Beirut is There are very many.
“No self pity. At no regrets. And no over-sentimentality.”
“injustice breeds terrorism. Where there is injustice, you get Acts of terrorism, which in themselves are unjust, of course, it's no excuse, but you can begin to understand.”
“I would not give in. I would not be beaten and I would not see these innocent hostages left alone and their families left bereift. I just wouldn't do it.”
“The firm belief that light is stronger than darkness, and if you hold on to the light somehow it will be able to see you through.”
“I dreamt in captivity once that I was Walking along a beach. And I was alone. And then I was lost, and I felt tremendous fear in the dream. And then Across the Sand I saw two figures coming toward me, and they took me by the hand. and they led me off the beach, and I recognized these two figures as being my children.”
“So in the going down of this sun I grieve. and in this evening remember, and with remembering resolve, against all the odds, to love.”