Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Conservationist known for creating the Eden Project and restoring the Lost Gardens of Heligan.
On the island
Eight records
It's the sort of record which if you didn't own an open top car, you can actually get a sense of what it'd be like to own one without having to pay for it.
Strawberry Fields for me felt when it came out to be just so different, so mysterious, so wow, these chaps are going somewhere where where music hasn't gone before.
They're a fabulous band. They come from Tynmouth and Devon, but they were recorded at Sawmill Studio, which is just up the road from Foybe, and I think they're probably going to be one of the biggest bands in the world next year.
They do these very plangent, sort of Celtic type things which sort of put the hair up on the back of your neck.
Dancing in the StreetFavourite
I mean, who wasn't moved by Live Aid? I thought it was just fantastic. It was the first time I was ever aware of the power of communication, where you had people all over the world focusing on something.
If you were to ask me the most charismatic person I have seen in my life, it would be Marvin Gaye.
It's not a famous track by the Stones, but there's something about it. It's a very simple slide guitar track, which is like a jam, but in it it's got that kind of sinister Creole feel within the blues, and you feel it it's just you could feel as if it could actually go on for hours, just building bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:31Does it surprise you, having studied archaeology at university and then gone through a rock and roll career, [to end up as a botanic impresario]?
It's a total shock, yes. But it's been it's been great. I think uh that there's a there's a very famous Hungarian inventor called Nagi who always said that you should actually try to do your best in a field in which you know absolutely nothing, because that way you don't come at it with a lot of baggage.
Presenter asks
2:14Is [the Eden Project] commercial or is it altruistic? Is it more a laboratory or more a visitor attraction?
It's commercial in order to be altruistic. I believe that if you set things up to become white elephants, you'll never ever buy the freedom and independence you need to actually make a difference. But it must be entertaining because as far as I'm concerned, I'm not very interested in seeing the 3 million people who are already committed to the environment worship what we do. They already know their own minds. What really excites me is why are people not connecting with 54 million people in this country who have no interest in it at all?
Presenter asks
5:24Tell me about that first moment when you went into [the Lost Gardens of Heligan].
The keepsakes
I went in with a guy who's now a really good friend, John Willis, who had inherited the estate and... we cut our way through, we're talking about laurels that were monsters, you know, thick as a man's thigh. We had to cut through with machetes and get in, and the brambles were about fifteen feet high across the entire site. And during the course of about three hours, we came across a grotto and a wish a wishing well, and eventually we came to this big brick brick wall in the middle of which, just like in the secret garden, there was this door just slightly ajar of rotting. We pushed and pushed and pushed and then broke through... And the moment I walked into it, I knew I wanted to restore the place. It was just instant. Bang, I'm going to do it.
Presenter asks
20:32Is there anything in the history of the family, any obsession with conservation or green fingers?
No, no, there there isn't. I mean... I'm not very good at anything in particular. I can't put up shelves, I can't or DIY I'm a nonsense at. The one thing if I had to say one thing, you know, if if under torture that I'm good at, is I can make other people believe in themselves.
Presenter asks
21:23Do you wake in the night in cold sweats that [the Eden Project] won't work, that it will go the way of the dome?
No, I don't wake up in the sweats, because a whole lot of people have decided to to work on a project which I think is really important, which is to A illustrate human dependence on plants, but much more important is to make people reflect on the fact that you don't have to be depressed about the future. Because actually the big battle that we all face is that we we here in the West, we want our material things and and we don't want to give them up and a lot of the environmental movement has been coming across as very, very worthy and hair shirt, and which isn't going to communicate very well to especially urban kids, is it?
“I believe that if you set things up to become white elephants, you'll never ever buy the freedom and independence you need to actually make a difference.”
“I actually like people to beguile me, sort of seduce me with information, to actually get the old greyer cells going.”
“The one thing if I had to say one thing, you know, if if under torture that I'm good at, is I can make other people believe in themselves.”