Sir Christopher Meyer

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 November 2003

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission Sir Christopher Meyer. Sir Christopher joined the PCC earlier this year after a glittering career in the diplomatic service. His last posting as Ambassador to Washington covered the September 11th attacks and the Monica Lewinsky scandal. In all he spent 36 years with the Foreign Office during which time he held postings to key missions in Washington, Moscow, Madrid and Brussels. He worked as Foreign Office spokesman for Geoffrey Howe in the 1980s and as Press Secretary to the former Prime Minister John Major in the mid 1990s. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Cross Road Blues by Robert Johnson Book: The Four Adventures of Richard Hannay: The 39 Steps, Greenmantle, Mr Standfast, the Three Hostages by John Buchan Luxury: A jukebox

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 rights reasons
0:06.0	We've had to shorten the music
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 2003 and the presenter was Sue Lawley
0:31.0	My cast away this week is a diplomat, he's a foreign office man to his fingertips
0:36.0	but not apparently his ankles which are normally dressed in his trademark red socks
0:40.0	He joined the diplomatic service straight from a public school and Cambridge education
0:44.0	He mixes ambassadorial polish with political toughness
0:48.0	Having served as a press officer to John Major as well as being our man in Bond and in Washington
0:53.0	Having skillfully crossed the domestic divide from Tory to Labour
0:57.0	In America he found no difficulty in befriending first Bill Clinton and then George Bush
1:02.0	He emerged as a central figure in the Bush Blair relationship
1:06.0	and an important player in our alliance with the US in the war on terrorism
1:10.0	He retired from diplomatic service earlier this year and returned home to handle another hot potato
1:15.0	as chairman of the press complaints commission
1:18.0	By temperament I'm not a behind the scenes fixer he says
1:22.0	I'm more inclined to shoot from the hip than not
1:25.0	He is Sir Christopher Mayer
1:27.0	Have you therefore Christopher been in the wrong job all these years?
1:30.0	I mean you're not supposed to shoot from the hip as an ambassador in the diplomat, are you?
1:33.0	Well I found as ambassador I was required to do all kinds of things
1:36.0	I was required to be actually a behind the scenes man and I did it
1:39.0	But more and more as foreign policy was dragged screaming out of the shadows
	...

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