John Pardoe on Desert Island Discs in 1976

As Verdi and Aslan proved popular, here is their owner's appearance on Desert Island Discs.

John Pardoe was the Liberal Party's economic spokesman when this was broadcast in April 1976. He had been MP for North Cornwall since 1966, but was to lose the seat at the 1979 general election. At the time his defeated was widely attributed to the Thorpe affair.

In those days Pardoe and David Penhaligon were my political heroes, and I remember listening to this programme when it went out.

There is a point of dermatological interest. Pardoe refers to walking the Cornish coast the previous summer on "the hottest days of the century" or something like that.

Because of the drought of 1976, it has been forgotten that the summer of 1975 was unusually hot too. It may have been even hotter when I walked that coast in 1990.