UNITED KINGDOM: British DJ Dave Lee Travis 'shocked' to discover Aung San Suu Kyi was a fan

Record ID: 559601

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: British DJ Dave Lee Travis 'shocked' to discover Aung San Suu Kyi was a fan
  • Date: 21st June 2012
  • Summary: SOUNDBITE (English) DAVE LEE TRAVIS, SAYING: "It is quite a shock really; you know we had 40 million people listening to that programme, so factually it was a big programme round the world. But still you don't expect to have world leaders, people of that stature, not only just listening to the programme but actually finding solace in it which that to me that is the touching part about it, it wasn't just that she heard the programme and remembered my name, she actually felt, and that is such a great feeling for me that while she was you know a captive audience, literally and she couldn't move out of the house she was under house arrest she could look over the wall see what was going on out there but never be there as it were, and to think that somehow it helped her, I am sure it's not just me but loads of people, BBC World Service generally, it's just astonishing." TRAVIS IN STUDIO TROPHY HE WAS GIVEN FOR "A JOLLY GOOD SHOW" PLAQUE ON A JOLLY GOOD SHOW TROPHY THANKING TRAVIS FOR 21 YEARS OF SERVICE PICTURE ON TRAVIS' WALL OF HIM WITH SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY SOUNDBITE (English) DAVE LEE TRAVIS, SAYING: "We played music that people didn't expect around the world, because we would be asked for a request and sometimes the requests were hysterical, it took you a long tome to work out which record they meant, somebody would say there was a record on a programme I heard and in the middle of the record he said "I love you very much", could you play that record for me, so you can imagine trying to suss out which record it was."
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: International Relations,Entertainment,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA81SQGF1P9RAL5EB58HZ91BPYB
  • Story Text: Veteran British DJ Dave Lee Travis said he was "astonished" that his radio show aired on the BBC's World Service provided comfort to Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during her many years in captivity.
    Suu Kyi had previously singled out Travis' request programme "Jolly Good Show" for making her "world much more complete" while she was held under house arrest for a total of 15 years between 1989 and 2010.
    Even during the brief periods of freedom, the leader of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement never left the country, afraid the military would not let her back in.
    But now she is free to travel and, during a visit to the BBC's London headquarters this week, she finally came face to face with the voice that helped her through the dark times.
    "I just shook her by the hand," Travis said of their brief meeting on Tuesday during which he kissed her hand.
    "I realise now that I didn't let go of her hand, in case she was trying to get away from me there was no chance really, not until we had finished what we were doing.
    "She is just an excellent icon for the age and that is why it becomes more and more surprising to me that a DJ, whose job is to play music, have fun, jolly things along a bit, should have been a part, almost a cure for her loneliness there."
    Suu Kyi, who celebrated her 67th birthday on Tuesday, told Travis that she had been particularly thrilled when he a featured a young Burmese boy on his programme.
    Asked how he felt when he heard that Suu Kyi, an international symbol of peaceful protest and sacrifice, had been a fan for so long, he replied: "It is quite a shock really; you know we had 40 million people listening to that programme, so factually it was a big programme round the world.
    "But still you don't expect to have world leaders, people of that stature, not only just listening to the programme but actually finding solace in it," he told Reuters in an interview.
    "That to me ... is the touching part about it. To think that somehow it helped her, I am sure it's not just me but loads of people, BBC World Service generally, it's just astonishing."
    With the radio as one of her few links with the outside world, Suu Kyi, who was educated in Oxford and married British academic Michael Aris, listened avidly to the World Service.
    "Everywhere I have been, the BBC has been with me," she said at Broadcasting House on Tuesday.
    "It kept me in touch with the rest of the world, and it allowed me to keep up with developments in the outside world although I was not able to contact anybody."
    But she also expressed regret that some of the programmes she used to listen to had been cut and that the service appeared to be dominated today by news and comment.
    "I know that times have changed and I'm a little sad about that. I feel that the BBC World Service is not as versatile as it used to be. I miss the old programmes. It's not what it used to be."
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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