Lord Goodman
Desert Island Discs
BBC
4.3 • 14.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 1991
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a man who has, on occasion, been described as the Mr Fixit of British public life. Arnold Goodman started off his professional life as a bright young North London solicitor, and, through a capacity for skilful negotiation and judicious advice, became the confidante of some of the most eminent political figures of post-war Britain. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his experience of Prime Ministers and politics, as well as his passion for opera, which, as a director of the Royal Opera House, he has been able to indulge to the full.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: O Namenlose Freude by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Who's Who Luxury: An enormous box of chocolate ginger
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Kirstie Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive for |
| 0:05.5 | rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:08.8 | The program was originally broadcast in 1991 and the presenter was Sue Lawley. |
| 0:30.0 | My castaway this week is a lawyer, generous with his advice, influential in his contacts |
| 0:35.5 | and skillful in negotiation, he became the Mr Fixit of British Public Life. |
| 0:41.0 | He served on bodies as diverse as the Arts Council and the Housing Corporation. |
| 0:45.8 | He's been enabled by a Labour government and honored further by its conservative successor. |
| 0:51.3 | He's been called upon to help solve international disputes such as the Rhodesian crisis and |
| 0:56.2 | more mundane domestic arguments such as the pay of television technicians. |
| 1:01.1 | Rich but modest and always nothing but discreet, he is a man who has enjoyed making himself |
| 1:06.8 | available for others to use. |
| 1:09.2 | He's been rewarded by an influence that few would have prophesied for the man who started |
| 1:13.9 | his professional life as a bright young solicitor from North London. |
| 1:18.2 | He is Lord Goodman. |
| 1:20.0 | Lord Goodman, you've spent your professional life really rubbing shoulders with the powerful |
| 1:24.4 | and the wealthy and the influential. |
| 1:26.8 | Is it a world that naturally attracted you? |
| 1:29.3 | It's a world that I found interesting when I first came into it, but by now I'm afraid |
| 1:35.7 | I'm a little blower there. |
| 1:36.9 | But did you seek it? |
| 1:37.9 | Is that what you wanted? |
| 1:38.9 | No, I never thought it. |
... |
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