Gerry Cottle
Desert Island Discs
BBC
4.3 • 14.3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 1984
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Gerry Cottle's latest circus is a fast-moving show with no ring-master and no animals, but it is very popular. In conversation with Roy Plomley, he recalls how he ran away from school to join a circus, how he made the jump from being a juggler to being a circus owner who toured many countries, and 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: American Pie by Don McLean Book: I Love You, Honey, but the Season's Over by Connie Clausen Luxury: Juggling clubs
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 program was archived |
| 0:16.4 | without the music so we've rebuilt the original show by using music from the |
| 0:21.2 | BBC Gramophone library. The extracts are all from the BBC Gramophone library. |
| 0:23.2 | The extracts are all from the music, |
| 0:25.2 | if not the performance originally chosen by the Castaway. |
| 0:29.0 | Details of the music can be found on the Castaway's page |
| 0:32.2 | on the Desert Island Discs website. On a desert island this week is the circus proprietor Jerry Cottle. |
| 0:55.0 | Jerry is music an interest of yours? |
| 0:58.0 | Music is important but I don't think I'm one of those that has to have the radio on to be able to work. |
| 1:02.0 | I like music but I'm a |
| 1:04.7 | busy person in my mind I don't need it all the time. Do you like to have a say in arranging |
| 1:08.8 | the music for the show or do you believe it to your bandmaster? I do have a say in |
| 1:12.2 | the music and I'm not very good. I mean there's |
| 1:14.6 | some tunes I think we had that last year and what is it and how do I hum it and I had to say my |
| 1:18.7 | my wife or one of the old musicians a drummer who's been with us a long time. What was that tune we had for the so-and-so last year? |
| 1:25.0 | I haven't got a very good name for tunes or the actual names of them. |
| 1:29.3 | Do you play an instrument? |
| 1:30.6 | No, there's two things I'd like to do. |
| 1:32.4 | I'd like to play the drums properly. I've played |
| 1:35.2 | about with an arm diabolical. I'd like to be able to speak foreign languages. No, I think it's a gift to be good at |
... |
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