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Desert Island Discs

Dame Glenys Stacey, former Chief Inspector of Probation

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.413.7K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2019

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dame Glenys Stacey has spent 40 years in public service, including high profile work as a regulator in key areas of national life. She has just stepped down after her five year term as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Probation during which she criticised the decision to privatise the Probation service calling it “irredeemably flawed”. Glenys was born in Walsall Wood in the West Midlands, where her father was a painter and decorator for the council and her mother worked full time in Union Locks. She left school at 16 and her first job was in an explosives factory. She became a legal executive before deciding to take A levels and then study law at the University of Kent. She was the founding CEO of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, set up by the government in January 1997, after the miscarriages of justice in the cases of the Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four. As Chief Executive of Animal Health, she oversaw the management of the outbreak of foot and mouth in 2007 and then led Ofqual for five years, during the reform of GCSEs and A levels. She was awarded a Damehood in 2016 for her services to education and earlier this year she became a founding Board Member of the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation, an advisory body established by the government. DISC ONE: Loch Lomond – Sir Harry Lauder DISC TWO: Harry Belafonte - Scarlett Ribbons (For Her Hair) DISC THREE: T.REX –Ride a White Swan DISC FOUR: Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill DISC FIVE: Wagner - The Ride of the Valkyries DISC SIX: Second movement of Saint Saen’s Piano concerto number 2 in G minor DISC SEVEN: Bob Marley and the Wailers - I Shot the Sherriff DISC EIGHT: Soave sia Il vento from Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte BOOK CHOICE: Oxford Book of English Short Stories LUXURY ITEM: A selection of seeds CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Cathy Drysdale Photo: BBC / Amanda Benson

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:04.7

Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast.

0:08.4

Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take

0:13.1

with them if they were cast away to a desert island.

0:16.4

For right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.

0:20.6

I hope you enjoy listening.

0:30.0

Music Music

0:41.8

My cast away this week is Dame Glenner Stacey.

0:44.7

She spent almost 40 years in public service, much of it as a regulator.

0:49.3

It's often her job to tell the government of the day truths they don't want to hear.

0:53.6

She specialises in the invisible work that underpins many of the assumptions we make

0:57.7

every day that our food will be safe to eat, our justice system fit for purpose, or that

1:02.8

exam results can be trusted.

1:05.0

Her job is to create a system of checks and balances that can withstand crises and the

1:10.1

political vicissitudes of any given moment.

1:13.1

In a world where kwangos, watchdogs and select committees don't always get the best press,

1:18.0

she's a powerful advocate for their ability to hold institutions to account.

1:22.3

She says fairness is at the root of it all.

1:24.9

She walks into chaotic situations and creates order out of them.

1:29.0

Dame Glenner Stacey welcome to desert island discs.

1:31.4

Thank you very much.

1:32.4

So tell me more about the appeal of walking into those chaotic situations and creating

...

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