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Desert Island Discs

Heather Hallett, former judge and crossbench peer

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.413.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 June 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Heather Hallett, Baroness Hallett of Rye, is a former judge and a cross-bench peer. Called to the Bar in 1972, Heather practised family, civil and criminal law, eventually specialising in criminal law. In 1989 she became a QC and was the first woman to chair the Bar Council in 1998. She was only the fifth woman to be appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2005 and was appointed vice president of the Court of Appeal Criminal Division in 2013. Heather was born in Eastleigh in Hampshire. Her father Hugh was a policeman who worked his way up to the rank of assistant chief constable. With each promotion the family moved house and Heather’s education was disrupted, leading her teachers to conclude that she was unlikely to secure a place at university. Heather proved them wrong and studied law at the University of Oxford. In 2009 she acted as coroner at the inquest into the deaths of the 52 victims of the July 7th London bombings in 2005 and she has taken over the inquest of Dawn Sturgess who died in the Salisbury Novichok poisonings. Heather retired as a judge in 2019 and currently sits as a life peer. DISC ONE: Caroline (Live) by Status Quo DISC TWO: Climb Ev’ry Mountain by Peggy Wood (Mother Abbess) DISC THREE: Wing Commander Hancock by Tony Hancock and Kenneth Williams DISC FOUR: Invisible Touch by Genesis DISC FIVE: The Best by Tina Turner DISC SIX: I Heard it Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye DISC SEVEN: Dear Lord and Father of Mankind by Temple Church Choir DISC EIGHT: Vissi d’Arte by Maria Callas (soprano) and Orchestra Del Teatro Alla Scala, conducted by Victor De Sabata BOOK CHOICE: Inspector Morse Mysteries Series Collection by Colin Dexter LUXURY ITEM: A solar-powered iPad CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Caroline (Live) by Status Quo Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Paula McGinley

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts

0:04.8

Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Deser 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

0:13.2

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

0:16.4

And for right reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.

0:21.1

I hope you enjoy listening.

0:45.0

My cast away this week is Heather Hallett, Baroness Hallett of Rye.

0:49.2

She's one of the most eminent judges in the country and her legal career spans some 50 years.

0:54.7

On the way, she's shattered several glass ceilings and earned a top 10 place on the first woman's

1:00.0

power list back in 2013. As a barrister, she was the first woman to chair the bar council

1:05.6

and she was only the fifth woman to be appointed to the court of appeal.

1:09.4

She's spent much of her life defying expectations, proving her teachers wrong when they said she'd

1:14.8

never make it to university and daring to speak out about the sexism she endured as a young lawyer.

1:20.8

When presiding over some of the most sensitive and notorious cases of recent times,

1:25.1

she's earned a reputation for her authority and humanity.

1:29.2

One newspaper described her handling of the 7-7 inquest as

1:32.8

a model of what an inquest can achieve, a kind of national catharsis.

1:37.7

She hung up her wig in 2019. The retirement is proving eventful with a crossbench,

1:42.5

perage and her forthcoming role as coroner at the inquest into the Salisbury Noverjok poisoning.

1:48.4

She says one of my strengths and possibly one of my failings is that if you give me a problem,

1:53.8

I want to solve it. Heather Hallett, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

1:57.4

Thank you very much. So Heather, much of your career has been marked by people in authority

...

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