John Sentamu tells Chris about his special speech at the House of Lords for the Queen's Birthday, and four fab callers reveal how they are celebrating the Her Majesty's big day.
Archbishop John Sentamu joins Chris live in the studio to tell us about his rather regal responsibility of delivering a speech at the House of Lords for the Queen's 90th Birthday. Plus four fab callers; an accordion player from Scotland, a Brownie leader from England, and two cadets from Wales and Northern Ireland, tell us how they're celebrating Her Majesty's big day. Judy Murray joins Vassos on the phone to tell him about becoming a grandmother and her son's performance since becoming a dad. And we find out the listeners tenuous claims to the fame of Caravanner of the Year in today's Top Tenuous.
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Clips
Music Played
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Roachford
Cuddly Toy
- Walk On - Hits From The Last 2 Decade.
- Columbia.
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Billy Ocean
A Simple Game
- Here You Are.
- Sony.
- 001.
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Paul McCartney & Wings
Live And Let Die
- The 7" Singles Box.
- MPL.
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The Corrs
Old Town
- (CD Single).
- Atlantic.
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Dr. Feelgood
Milk And Alcohol
- Greatest Hits Of The 70's (Various).
- Disky.
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Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott
D.I.Y.
- What Have We Become.
- Virgin EMI.
- 001.
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Fine Young Cannibals
Good Thing
- The Raw & The Cooked.
- London.
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Travis
Magnificent Time
- (CD Single).
- Red Telephone Box.
- 001.
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John Lennon
Whatever Gets You Thru The Night
- GIMME SOME TRUTH. (Deluxe).
- Calderstone.
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WALK THE MOON
Work This Body
- (CD Single).
- Sony Music.
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Jack Jones
Wives And Lovers
- Wives And Lovers.
- Universal.
- 1.
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Elton John
In The Name Of You
- (CD Single).
- Mercury.
- 001.
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Enya
Orinoco Flow
- The Singer & The Song (Various Artis.
- Stylus.
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The Supremes
Floy Joy
- Diana Ross & The Supremes - 40 Motown.
- Polygram Tv.
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Bellowhead
Betsy Baker
- (CD Single).
- Navigator Records.
- 1.
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Queen
Bohemian Rhapsody
- Greatest Hits I II & III (The Platinum Collection).
- Parlophone.
- 11.
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Electric Light Orchestra
Ain't It A Drag
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ABBA
Dancing Queen
- Abba Gold (40th Anniversary Edition).
- Polar.
- 001.
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All Saints
One Strike
- (CD Single).
- London Records.
- 1.
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The Source
You Got The Love (feat. Candi Staton)
- Monster Hits Of Dance - 36 Monster Hits From The 80's & 90's (Various Artists).
- Castle Communications.
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Seal
Crazy
- The Hit Pack (Various Artists).
- CBS.
- 4.
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Dire Straits
Walk Of Life
- Brothers In Arms 20th Anniv Edition.
- Vertigo.
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Scouting for Girls
Home
- (CD Single).
- East West Records.
- 001.
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Stereophonics
C'est La Vie
- (CD Single).
- Stylus Records.
- 001.
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Buzzcocks
Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)
- Greatest Hits Of The 70's (Various).
- Disky.
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Florrie
Real Love
- (CD Single).
- Epic.
- 001.
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The Traveling Wilburys
End Of The Line
- Traveling Wilburys Vol.1.
- Wilbury.
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Florence + The Machine
Queen Of Peace
- How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful.
- Island.
- 004.
Chris' Pause For Thought: Sarah Joseph
I am a Muslim and I wear a scarf, so sometimes people don't realise I'm English. In fact, occasionally I get some quite unpleasant comments suggesting I should "go back home". I am a Londoner - so that's home, but I think they mean where my ancestors were from. So should I go back to Southampton where my great-grandfather, Thomas Molyneaux, was an officer in the Royal Navy. Or shall I go back to Ryton-on-Dunsmore in Warwickshire where my great-great-great- great-grandfather James Askew, died on April 23rd,1852. Indeed, April 23rd is this Saturday - it's also Shakespeare's birthday, and St George's Day.
Shakespeare was English, although he spent a lot of his time writing about people from other places - Macbeth was Scottish, Hamlet was Danish, and Othello was North African - probably modelled on the Moroccan Ambassador to England Abdul-Wahid Annuri. Maybe we should all go back to where the patron saint of England was born. He was, after all, half-Palestinian, and half Turkish. Indeed St George is such a global patron saint that even Muslims have mosques named after him.
Maybe we should go back to Germany, because even the Queen, whose 90th birthday it is today, was from German ancestry, her family name changing from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor in 1917.
Or maybe we can all realise that we are a diverse bunch that share a small island. We talk about the weather far too much. We generally have a self-deprecating sense of human, and historically, were stoic, hard working, with a sense of duty.
Which brings me nicely back to the Queen. I am rather fond of Her Majesty, and she seems to me to embody the qualities of stoicism and hard work which I so admire. I remember meeting her during her Golden Jubilee celebrations. She shook the hands of about 300 people that evening, and then toured the room to speak to people in groups of about 10. I was half her age and exhausted from standing for three hours. It was the Queen's third event of the day and she was certainly outpacing me!
So, I think, if I may, I would like to pause to say Happy 90th Birthday to the Queen, to thank her for her hard work and duty, and to get on with being English in my scarf. I note Her Majesty often wears one too!
Broadcast
- Thu 21 Apr 2016 06:30BBC Radio 2
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