Lord Healey
Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010
BBC
4.4 • 804 Ratings
🗓️ 14 June 2009
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kirsty Young's castaway is the Labour peer and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Denis Healey. As a politician, he was known for his sharp intellect and biting oratory and now, as he approaches his 92nd birthday, those skills are still very much in evidence. He talks of his regret that his lack of ambition meant that he did not push himself further in politics but, he says, it is better for people to wonder why he wasn't Prime Minister than to wonder why he was.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: The Cavatina from String Quartet No.13 in B flat Major by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Faber book of English verse by John Hayward Luxury: Very big box of chocolates including nougat.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.4 | My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:10.7 | The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that. |
| 0:17.4 | With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to helping |
| 0:22.7 | you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put together |
| 0:28.7 | by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life, |
| 0:34.9 | check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. |
| 0:41.9 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:45.1 | The program was originally broadcast in 2009. |
| 1:12.6 | Music My castaway this week is Dennis Healy. He has lived a momentous life. At the very centre of British politics since the mid-1960s, his intellect and oratory have guaranteed him a place in history. A brilliant |
| 1:18.5 | student after Oxford, he joined the army, and his experiences during the Second World War concentrated |
| 1:24.0 | his ambitions towards politics. Yet, there is so much more to his existence than |
| 1:29.3 | affairs of state. Travel, music, art and poetry have provided sanctuary, along with a marriage, |
| 1:36.2 | lasting 64 years and counting. Politics has never been my whole life, he says. Without a refuge in |
| 1:43.9 | nature and the arts, |
| 1:45.4 | my persona would have taken over from my personality. |
| 1:49.3 | Your persona, Dennis Healy, that's a very interesting choice of words, |
| 1:53.5 | sort of identifying that you did assume a role in politics. |
| 1:58.0 | Do you think it would have engulfed you then |
| 2:00.0 | if you hadn't managed to step back |
| 2:01.9 | into other areas? Oh, very much so, yes. Politics is about power. And if you're only interested |
| 2:10.4 | in politics, it weakens you as a personality enormously, in my opinion. Politics must only be a small part of your life. |
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