Tony Iveson

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2011

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway is the veteran RAF pilot Tony Iveson.

Aged 21, he survived being shot down in his Spitfire over the North Sea during his first taste of combat in the Battle of Britain. Unusually for a fighter pilot, he then went on to join Bomber Command and the famous Dambusters squadron, sinking the German battleship The Tirpitz and winning a Distinguished Flying Cross.

Aged 89 he returned to the skies, becoming the oldest man to fly a Lancaster bomber: "Well, I got out of that aeroplane and looked at it and it and thought how did we do it?" he says. "I know it was a long time ago and I was young and fit and a professional flier. But I thought about some of my friends who had been lost and it was an emotional experience."

Record: Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor Book: A volume of Somerset Maugham's short stories Luxury: Two established vines and a tin bath to make wine

Producer: Rachel Simpson.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, I'm Kirstie Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Disks from BBC Radio 4.
0:06.0	For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.
0:10.0	For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co.uk.
0:17.0	Radio 4. My cast away this week is the veteran pilot Tony Iverson, one of only a handful of men to fly in the Battle of Britain and bomber command.
0:42.0	His life has been packed full of Britain and bomber command.
0:43.0	His life has been packed full of adventure and daring.
0:46.1	As a boy, the cartoon exploits of biggles fired his dream to take to the skies.
0:50.5	Indeed, the week of his 21st birthday was marked not so much by cards and cake
0:54.4	than by being shot down in his spitfire over the North Sea. Initially reported
0:59.2	missing in action he went on to fly in the three raids that finally sunk the German battleship, the
1:04.7	Turpitz. He hasn't really put his feet up since, with a successful career in
1:09.0	broadcasting, campaigning for a permanent memorial to the thousands of airmen killed in RAF bomber command,
1:15.5	and even returning to the skies in a Lancaster bomber aged 89.
1:20.0	He says we were in a total war for our survival.
1:23.5	Total war is a brutal, nasty, uncivilised business.
1:27.5	We just got on with the job.
1:29.5	So Tony Iveson, this year, I understand, you travelled to California and you met quite an interesting fellow.
1:37.4	A man calls it Kurt Schultz in California.
1:40.4	Yes.
1:41.4	Tell me about Kurt Schultz.
1:42.4	Why did you meet him?
1:44.0	Well, I met him at Berkeley University a few years ago when a
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -5198 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.