Staying with my Radio 4 theme for another week, I’d like to focus on my favourite programme, Desert Island Discs. It is broadcast on a Sunday morning and is hosted by Kirsty Young, who has a wonderful radio voice.
The programme began back in January 1942 and is still going strong. Guests are invited to imagine themselves cast away on a desert island. They can choose eight pieces of music to take with them, with one chosen as their favourite. They are automatically given the Complete Works of Shakespeare and The Bible (or other appropriate religious tome), and added to that they can choose a book to take with them, and one luxury item, which must be inanimate and of no use in escaping the island or allowing communication from outside.
Guests come from all walks of life – politicians, actors, musicians, authors, and a whole variety of people of different occupations.
And in between the music, they discuss their lives with Kirsty Young. It is a fascinating programme, and it’s well worth listening to while tucking into your Sunday fry-up.
Here, for what it’s worth, is my Desert Island Discs choice. I’m only telling you now, safe in the knowledge that I am never actually going to be asked on to the programme, so I’m not spoiling the surprise for any of you.
Try thinking about it as well – choosing the eight pieces of music is tough, while picking just one book is well-nigh impossible.
Ticket To Ride (Carpenters version)
Every list should have a Beatles song, and Ticket to Ride is my favourite … well, it is just now, though it’s always liable to change. But I’ve actually chosen The Carpenters’ version because it reminds me of a family holiday touring round Scotland for four weeks in 1974. A cassette tape of The Carpenters’ Greatest Hits was played constantly in the car, and for years I shamefully thought Ticket to Ride was a Carpenters’ song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsgj4xcxXyA
The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede (Matt McGinn)
Cuddihy family parties in the 1970s and ’80s involved all the grandchildren taking a turn singing a song, which was fine when you were five but not when you were fifteen! The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede was the party-piece of one of my cousins, and it is one of the best songs ever. It reminds me of those parties, and it still goes down a storm at parties when I sing it now… although that might have something to do with the amount of alcohol everyone’s consumed when they hear it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjcdj6tbKyA
Save A Prayer (Duran Duran)
My favourite Duran Duran song and it reminds me of being a teenager in the early 1980s, when life seemed full of endless possibilities. The Rio album is a wonderful record – in my humble opinion, of course – and my version of the Rio song on acoustic guitar really is worth hearing, but Save A Prayer is still the best track on the album, and even now, when I hear it, I want to hold up a lighter and sway to the music! Oh for simpler times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uxc9eFcZyM
Fields of Athenry (Paddy Reilly version)
I first heard this in the early 1980s when I friend of mine at the time used to sing it at the Claddagh Club in the South Side of Glasgow, and I shamelessly followed him in adopting it at my party piece. I even sang it at my wedding in 1991, which is my way of claiming that I was singing it even before it became a regular song at Celtic Park from the mid-1990s. It’s always a favourite at parties, and everything about the song is wonderful – the tune and the lyrics. This is a version sung by Paddy Reilly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cc1zViuQ7Q
Wonderwall (Oasis)
The song that made me want to play the guitar, so for those of you who’ve heard me play, that’s either something to be thankful for or something to curse. Ironically, Don’t Look Back In Anger was actually the first Oasis song I learned, while Half The World Away is the one I always play now, but Wonderwall remains my favourite, even if I, like every other Oasis fan, still don’t know what a ‘wonderwall’ is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hzrDeceEKc
Galway Shawl (Me singing it at a party)
This was my mother-in-law’s favourite song, so it always makes me think of her when I hear it, which brings smiles and tears in equal measure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHF5fkBA2Nw
Give Up Yer Aul Sins
This is a selection I ‘stole’ from one of the guests who actually appeared on Desert Island Discs back in March 2010. Writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce chose this and I defy anyone to listen to this and not smile. These are recordings made of Dublin schoolchildren in the 1960s telling Bible stories. There is an endearing innocence to their stories that is just wonderful. The stories were later turned into an animated film which was nominated for an Oscar. I urge you all to go and order it right now. You won’t be disappointed. This clip is the Story of Lazarus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7P3bvoZ6BU&feature=relmfu
The Ballad of Dan Foley
I don’t think there’s anything in the rules of Desert Island Discs that prevents you from choosing your own song, and since I’m only doing this for fun – mine rather than yours, I suspect – I can choose anything I want. So The Ballad of Dan Foley is my eighth choice. Enjoy!!
http://paulcuddihy.com/mybooks/about-the-author/saints-and-sinners/
Book:
A difficult choice, and I have resisted choosing my own book! Instead, I’m taking the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. It is just an incredible story about a group of workers from Oklahoma and their journey towards the ‘promised land’ of California, and it has the most moving ending I’ve ever read.
Luxury item:
It’s got to be an acoustic guitar – because an electric one wouldn’t work!
Favourite song: Fields of Athenry
A tough choice, but the Fields of Athenry gets it because it reminds me of different parts of my life, and when I’m sitting against a palm tree on my desert island, I can listen to it, close my eyes, and I’ll be back at Celtic Park…
Now that you’ve read this blog, I’m sure you’ll be desperate to tune in to Desert Island Discs. Unfortunately, it seems to be on its summer holidays just now, but check out this link to the Desert Island Discs archive, with over 500 previous shows.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs
I think I’m getting old. Well, actually I know I’m getting old, having celebrated my 45th birthday last month, and I hate to tell you that you’re all getting old too, but I’m also starting to act old. I realised this after a few days of listening to Radio 4 in the car. Normally, I’ll just put on the iPod and enjoy whatever musical treats the ‘shuffle’ conjures up for me, but recently, I’ve switched off the music and put on the talking… and I’m really enjoying it
Radio 4 offers a wide selection of programmes on a whole range of topics, from the Today news programme every weekday morning through to adaptations of novels, and, of course, the wonderful Desert Island Discs. Not all of Radio 4′s output is interesting, and the temptation is to tune in to a different radio station or switch on the iPod again whenever something comes on that stretches the boundaries of ‘interesting’, but I decided that I would stick with Radio 4 regardless of the subject matter.
So among the subjects I have listened to recently include:
Yvonne, the missing German cow
My family and friends already know that I’m a big fan of the BBC. This goes back when I famously (or stupidly!) decided that I would only watch or listen to BBC stations for a whole calendar year to see whether the licence fee did, in fact represent good value for money. My aim at the time was to do this and then write a book about it – even if most people were telling me that it wouldn’t be a very interesting book.
I managed to last about seven months on a BBC-only diet, the book remains unwritten, and my family are still convinced it was a stupid idea – I still think it’s a great one, incidentally – but what it did make me realise is that the licence fee I pay every year – it’s now £145.50 – is tremendous value for money.
The amount of content, and quality content, the BBC produces for radio and television is phenomenal and I’ve often feared that most people will only realise it if the BBC disappeared forever. There has been a concerted anti-BBC campaign by other media organisations, mainly News International, over many years, and it’s obvious why they’re doing so. The problem is, too many people start to believe it and are deluded into thinking that the BBC wastes money and is a waste of money.
You might never read me telling you in a book but I’ll tell you now – it is anything but a waste of money. The BBC is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but as a public service broadcaster, it’s second to none, and I would recommend that you try it more often, enjoy it and appreciate it, whether it’s the TV channels or radio stations that you, as a licence fee payer, are helping to fund.
Start by tuning in to Radio 4 when you’re out in the car. Trust me, you won’t regret it… I’m away now to plant some potatoes!
