Gerald Priestland
Desert Island Discs
BBC
4.4 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 1984
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Gerald Priestland began his career in the news department of the BBC, becoming in 1954 the foreign correspondent in India. Many years later, he was appointed Religious Affairs Correspondent and he was responsible for the very popular radio series Priestland's Progress.
In conversation with Roy Plomley, he talks about his career, including his move into television, and he chooses the eight records he would take to the mythical island.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Vergnugte Ruh by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Poetry by Gerard Manley Hopkins Luxury: Air conditioner
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello I'm Kirstie Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. |
| 0:05.0 | For Wright's reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:08.0 | The program was originally broadcast in 1984 and the presenter was Roy Plumlee. This week our cast away as the author, broadcaster and journalist Gerald Priestland. |
| 0:36.0 | Gerald, how important is music in your life? |
| 0:38.0 | Well, extremely important. I think like a lot of wordy people, I find it a great relief to be listening to sounds which |
| 0:44.4 | don't have to mean anything. You're reputed to play the Chinese trombone what is |
| 0:48.7 | that please? Well it is in fact a very ordinary trombone but made in China. I originally started playing the oboe |
| 0:57.1 | when I was at school and it was a very bad creaky sort of instrument, so I switched to the French horn I sold that |
| 1:04.5 | instrument to get married on the proceeds tried to go back to it found that the |
| 1:09.1 | price of French horns had escalated out of sight and ended up with the cheap Chinese trombone. |
| 1:14.3 | Works well? |
| 1:15.3 | It works very well. |
| 1:16.3 | It's a very simple instrument. |
| 1:17.3 | There's nothing much to go wrong with it. |
| 1:19.4 | The players another matter. |
| 1:20.6 | Are you been to some pretty obscure places, if not Desert Island? |
| 1:26.8 | Do you take discs or tapes with you? |
| 1:28.9 | Yes, I always travel with some music. |
| 1:31.1 | Did you find it difficult to choose just eight for your desert island? |
| 1:34.0 | Well, absolutely impossible. I got down to a short list of about 50 and then I suddenly |
| 1:39.3 | realized that the great classics that are close to my heart, I do know by heart and I could walk up |
| 1:45.8 | and down the beach singing and humming them. |
... |
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