Guy Gibson: Desert Island Discs

[Genghis the Engineer]

I just spotted that "This episode will be available soon" - I think it's part of a BBC search of old archives and updating of the online archive for DID...

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC DSO DFC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009xzj9)


(I'm sure that every regular here has read it already, but just in case not, Winkle Brown's is up there and well worth a listen. Also Douglas Bader seems to have appeared since I last looked: BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Sir Douglas Bader (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009mthn) )

G

[Union Jack]

Thank you Genghis - I would like to think that he would have enjoyed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0Icvu_vORM


Jack

[Genghis the Engineer]

We'll find out when we get to hear his music choices !

G

[barit1]

Genghis has uncorked the genie's bottle.

Mine would certainly include 3 B's, Dvorak, and Elgar.

And also the recently departed, endlessly clever Stan Freberg and his henchman Billy May.

[Genghis the Engineer]

"I want it all" by Queen

"Rocket Man" by Elton John

"Leaving on a Jet Plane" by John Denver

"All around my hat" by Steeleye Span.

Book's a lot tougher. Does anybody do a bound complete works of Nevil Shute?

G

[treadigraph]

For the book I would very likely ask for "Throw Out Two Hands" by Anthony Smith (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Smith_%28explorer%29). Not sure how many times I've read it, but still enjoy it very much...

Thanks for the heads up!

[joy ride]

I once played Eric Coates' The Dambusters Suite with a semi-pro orchestra, I was on timpani. Towards the end there is a solo Forte > piano > Fortissimo roll on a timp for a whole bar, before the famous theme comes in slower and louder.

I hit hard, let the sound die, then started building up the crescendo. The conductor looked at me and with his hands indicated "more, more, more" and kept me building for a whole extra bar with a wicked smile. The rest of the orchestra were turning around and laughing as I just had to clobber away with all my might. Happy days!

You only realise how stirring that music is when you hear (or perform) it live.
The biggest timpani is 32" diameter I made one 40" and a long roll on it sounds like approaching Lancasters!

[Jhieminga]

Does anybody do a bound complete works of Nevil Shute?
That would be nice, but not that I'm aware of. You can get some of the older titles from The Paper Tiger (http://www.papertig.com/shute.htm) though...;)

[Genghis the Engineer]

I have a complete set, including quite a few first editions - it's just what I can get away with as my "one book" on the island :E It would be a fair swap for the complete works of William Shakespeare at the very least.

Incidentally, I discovered the other day that somebody recently (well, 2002, but I'd not been paying attention at the time) published a "lost" Shute which he never published in his lifetime - called "The Seafarers", another on the theme of how WW2 affected the young people who served then returned to a new civilian life after the war, not unlike "Requeim for a Wren".

It's on my coffee table to be started shortly, after finishing the new biography of him last week: "Parallel Motion" by John Anderson which was, incidentally, very good.

G

[Wander00]

JR - have you seen the film "Whiplash"?


PS - Thought this was a spoof - I just had not realised the programme had been running for so long

[joy ride]

Not yet Wander00, I very rarely find time to watch films these days, but it is on the list!

[PAXboy]

For others, like myself, who are fans of Nevil Sute Norway, this group are a not for profit 'fan' organisation that cover the globe:
Nevil Shute Norway Foundation Home Page (http://www.nevilshute.org/)

They will know of there has been a complete works. If there is not, then I'll have Requiem For A Wren.

[Wander00]

A few years back there was a dramatic performance of Requiem for a Wren at Exbury Gardens (NSN was serving there (in HMS Mastadon?) when he wrote the book). Historic military vehicles provided seating for the audience (although Elf and Safety required disembarkation and being transported by coach between scenes). Spookiest bit was being in a 12x12 on Lepe Beach on a drizzly evening of 5 June watching a dramatization of the D-Day outload. The whole evening was brilliantly done and hugely atmospheric.

[joy ride]

I presume you mean Exbury Gardens near Southampton, with a steam railway. I know the area well but have not yet been to Exbury.

[Jhieminga]

Genghis, the Seafarers is a very enjoyable read if you ask me. It was one of the studies for Requim for a Wren of which there were several versions. This one definitively deserved to be published and fits well in between his other stories. I have yet to get a copy of Parallel Motion, it's been on my wish list for quite some time now... you may have just tipped the scales.

I don't have any first editions but I do have all his titles apart from Vinland the Good. I might one day order it from the website I linked to above. Having read it years ago I remember it as a continuation of the theme of An Old Captivity but different again in some ways.

[Wander00]

JR- the same

[PAXboy]

I also saw one of the performances of Requiem at Exbury. My electronic diary tells me it was Saturday 4th June 2005.

[Wander00]

Crikey, that is 10 years ago! No wonder I sometimes feel old, and at times even older. Now, where is the Ovaltine!

[rolling20]

Getting back to the original thread, does this episode actually exist? There was a debate on this some 10+ years ago and the conclusion was that it was either lost, or was never recorded. IIRC the BBC admitted as such. Be great if it does resurface, here is hoping!