Aung San Suu Kyi: ‘Dave Lee Travis kept me going’
Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s life under house arrest would have been lacking without the presence of an unlikely hero – “Hairy Cornflake” Dave Lee Travis.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has spent 15 years under house arrest since 1989, said the DJ’s request show helped make her “world much more complete”.
Asked what kind of music she used to tune into, she said: “I used to listen to all sorts of different programmes, not just classical music. I can’t remember what the name of that programme… Dave Travis? Was it?”
After broadcaster Eddie Mair, who conducted the Radio Times interview, asked if she meant Dave Lee Travis, Ms Suu Kyi responded: “Yes! Didn’t he have a programme with all different sorts of music?
“I would listen to that quite happily because the listeners would write in and I had a chance to hear other people’s words. It made my world much more complete.”
She added: “We listen to the radio much more than the average person who’s not under house arrest and we listen much more carefully because that’s really our only line to the outside world.
“The first six years (under house arrest)… I could be in touch with everything… with culture, with art, with books, with music.”
Mr Lee Travis presented request programme A Jolly Good Show for 20 years until 2001.
He said: “I’m not surprised that Aung San Suu Kyi listened to my show, but I’m touched she remembers it.”