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Professor John Wallwork and the history of the NHS

Ahead of the NHS turning 70, Professor John Wallwork on performing a world first in 1986 and historian James Holland talks us through the beginning of free health care.

Ahead of the NHS turning 70, Professor John Wallwork chats to Chris about performing the world's first heart, lungs and liver transplant! John recalls the experience of the world first in 1986 and shares his top tips to keeping your heart healthy. Chris also finds out where it all begin for the NHS, as Historian James Holland talks us through the beginning of free health care in 1948.
For today's top tenuous we ask you for your desperate claims to the fame of massive NHS moments. Vassos is joined in the Sports Locker by former England football player and captain Terry Butcher and Father Brian D'Arcy provides our Pause For Thought.

2 hours, 59 minutes

Music Played

  • Bruce Springsteen

    Dancing In The Dark

    • Bruce Springsteen - Greatest Hits.
    • Columbia.
  • George Ezra

    Shotgun

    • Staying At Tamara's.
    • Columbia.
  • The Four Seasons

    Walk Like A Man

    • Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons - Ve.
    • Polygram Tv.
    • 6.
  • Cher

    Love & Understanding

    • (CD Single).
    • Geffen.
  • T. Rex

    Children of the Revolution

    • Tanx + Zinc Alloy.
    • Edsel.
    • 006.
  • ABC

    The Look Of Love

    • And Then She Kissed Me Vol.1 (Various.
    • Debutante.
  • Florence + The Machine

    Hunger

    • High As Hope.
    • Virgin EMI.
  • Muse

    Starlight

    • (CD Single).
    • Warner Bros.
  • Mike Batt & The New Edition

    Summertime City

    • (CD Single).
    • Epic.
  • Years & Years

    If You're Over Me

    • Palo Santo.
    • Polydor.
  • The Police

    De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da

    • The Very Best Of Sting & The Police.
    • A&M.
  • Eliza Doolittle

    Skinny Genes

    • (CD Single).
    • Parlophone.
    • 1.
  • Perry Como

    Papa Loves Mambo

    • The Best Of Cult Fiction (Various).
    • Virgin.
  • Calum Scott

    What I Miss Most

    • Only Human.
    • Virgin EMI Records.
  • David Bowie

    Heroes

    • David Bowie - Best Of Bowie.
    • EMI.
  • The Stylistics

    Can't Give You Anything (But My Love)

    • 70's Number Ones Vol 3.
    • Old Gold.
  • Earth, Wind & Fire

    Fantasy

    • The Best Of Earth Wind & Fire.
    • CBS.
    • 5.
  • One Direction

    History

    • (CD Single).
    • Syco Music.
    • 13.
  • The Beach Boys & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

    Fun Fun Fun

    • The Beach Boys With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
    • UMC.
  • The Housemartins

    Me And The Farmer

    • The People Who Grinned Themselves....
    • Go! Discs.
  • ABBA

    Dancing Queen

    • Abba Gold (40th Anniversary Edition).
    • Polar.
    • 001.
  • Guns N’ Roses

    Sweet Child O' Mine

    • The Hits Album 10 (Various Artists).
    • Hits Album.
  • Carrie Underwood

    Cry Pretty

    • Cry Pretty.
    • Capitol Nashville.
    • 1.
  • The Supremes

    Baby Love

    • Diana Ross & The Supremes - 40 Motown.
    • Polygram Tv.
  • Steve Miller Band

    Rock 'n Me

    • Ultimate Hits (Deluxe Edition).
    • Virgin EMI Records.

Pause For Thought

Pause For Thought

From Father Brian D’Arcy, a Catholic Passionist priest:

When I was a teenager, I hated poetry with a passion. All those lines to be learned off, so much language that meant nothing to me and, worse still, all that ridiculous romance.

I don’t know whether it was poets or me who changed, but reading poetry is the now one of the most uplifting pleasures in life. Poetry and music unlock emotions I never knew I had.

My appreciation of powerful words grew when the songs of Kristofferson, Dylan and Leonard Cohen became my bible.

Some time ago, after he was honoured with the Nobel Prize for literature, Dylan delivered an address, to an invited audience, on the development of song-writing from the 60s on. A friend of mine who was there was amazed when Dylan began his talk by slowly and reverently reciting:

“Well I woke up Sunday morning/ with no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt/ And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad/ So I had one more for dessert/Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes/And found my cleanest dirty shirt/ And I washed my face and combed my hair/And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.â€

Dylan believes that the palpable loneliness described in Kris Kristofferson’s Sunday Morning coming Down changed the boundaries of song-writing forever. It gave us permission to talk about common despair in language so raw it hurts.

The New England poet Donald Hall once had the difficult task of clearing out his grandfather’s attic. There were dozens of boxes of precious ‘stuff’. One box, however, was marked; STRING TOO SHORT TO BE USED. Hall got it immediately – it was a parable of how his grandfather treasured what others deemed useless.

I love Seamus Heaney’s poetry. He wrote ‘When All The Others Were Away At Mass’ about his mother’s last moments. He recalled his childhood days in their country kitchen, both silently peeling potatoes in companionable silence, the potatoes ‘gleaming in a bucket of cold water.’

The family and priest ‘went hammer and tongs’ at prayers. But memories comforted Heaney more.

“I remembered her head bent towards my head/Her breath in mine…/ never closer the whole rest our lives.â€

A powerful summary of a beautiful relationship.


Broadcast

  • Mon 25 Jun 2018 06:30

Farewell Chris Evans: The best bits from his last shows at Radio 2

After eight years of hosting the Breakfast Show, Chris Evans leaves Radio 2.

500 Words

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 2's story-writing competition for kids.