Desert Island Discs Revisited

Christopher Lee is British cinema's king of horror - with his roles in the Hammer House films and The Wicker Man.

He talks with Sue Lawley about his disappointment at not being able to follow what he considers his true vocation, that of an opera singer, and about his 50-year career which has encompassed 230 films, 27 plays and numerous radio and television appearances.

DISC ONE: La Belle Hélène by Jacques Offenbach sung by Jussi Björling

Disc TWO: Si, pel ciel (Oath duet) (from Otello) by Giuseppe Verdi sung by Enrico Caruso

DISC FOUR: The Flying Dutchman by Richard Wagner sung by Herman Uhde

DISC FIVE: Rinaldo by George Frederic Handel sung by Samuel Ramey

DISC SIX: Brünnhilde, heilige Braut! (from Götterdämmerung) by Richard Wagner sung by Lauritz Melchior

DISC SEVEN: Scintille, diamant (from Tales Of Hoffmann) by Jacques Offenbach sung by Sherrill Milnes

DISC EIGHT: Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sung by Ezio Pinza

BOOK CHOICE: The Sword In The Stone - T H White

LUXURY ITEM: A set of golf clubs

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Rinaldo by George Frederic Handel

Presenter: Sue Lawley

Producer: Olivia Seligman

Actor Christopher Lee shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

From Handel to Wagner. Hammer Horror actor Christopher Lee shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 1995.

He talks with Sue Lawley about his disappointment at not being able to follow what he considers his true vocation, that of an opera singer, and about his 50-year career which has encompassed 230 films, 27 plays and numerous radio and TV appearances.

Actor Christopher Lee is castaway by Sue Lawley.

He has seen extraordinary success - as one half of the comedy duo behind Little Britain, as a cross-channel swimmer and more recently on the West End stage and as a novelist. In this frank interview, he describes his life away from the spotlight; how he used to practise comedy routines in his bathroom, the excitement of an early trip out wearing a Jean-Paul Gaultier skirt, the inner drive that propels him and the unhappiness he feels when he has no company except his own.

Favourite track: Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths

Book: Collected Poems by Philip Larkin

Alternative to Bible: None - Bible not taken

Luxury: A gun.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2009.

Comedian and writer David Walliams makes his castaway choices. From 2009.

Legendary stand-up comedian Ken Dodd shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Then aged 62, the funny man looks back to his early years in Knotty Ash, and his continued attachment to the Liverpudlian suburb where people are 'supreme optimists'.

He also recalls his interest in ventriloquism, itching powder and reveals the inspiration behind his famous tickling stick.

Producer: Olivia Seligman

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1990.

Actor Kenneth Williams is castaway by Michael Parkinson.

For 40 years he has occupied a unique place on stage, screen and radio.

In conversation with Michael Parkinson, Kenneth Williams recalls his long career which has ranged from working on radio classics like Hancock's Half Hour and Round the Horne to being a regular member of the cast in the Carry On films.

DISC ONE: Gabriel Fauré's Barcarolle No.1 in A minor, Op.26 - Paul Crossley

DISC TWO: Alfred Tennyson/Roger Quilter's Now Sleeps The Crimson Petal - Kathleen Ferrier

DISC THREE: Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24 'Spring' - 1st movement - Itzhak Perlman, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy

DISC FOUR: Jaime Ovalle's The Bluebird - Gérard Souzay

DISC FIVE: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings in C major - Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Neville Marriner

DISC SIX: Francisco Tárrega's Adelita (from Three Mazurkas) - Julian Bream

DISC SEVEN: Franz Schubert's Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat major – 2nd movement - Oistrakh Trio

DISC EIGHT: Johannes Brahms's Wenn ich mit Menschen (from Four Serious Songs, Op.121) - Hermann Prey

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 5 in F major, Op. 24 'Spring' - 1st movement - Itzhak Perlman, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy

BOOK CHOICE: The Golden Treasury - Francis Palgrave

LUXURY CHOICE: Crate of Cologne

Producer: Ray Abbott

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1987.

From Beethoven to Tchaikovsky. Actor Kenneth Williams shares his castaway music choices with Michael Parkinson. From 1987.

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Palin's theatrical career began at Oxford University where he wrote and performed with friends. David Frost saw Palin and Terry Jones perform at the Edinburgh Festival and brought all future members of Monty Python together, first as writers for satirical TV show The Frost Report.

After finishing at Oxford, Palin compered a TV comedy show in Bristol, much to his parents' disappointment, but eventually convinced the BBC to commission Monty Python's Flying Circus.

This surreal TV sketch show series starred Palin, along with John Cleese, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam.

After a bumpy start, Python became a huge influence on British comedy.

DISC ONE: Things Ain't What They Used To Be - Duke Ellington and His Orchestra

DISC TWO: Tales of Men's Shirts - The Goons

DISC THREE: Londonderry Air (Danny Boy) - Black Dyke Band

DISC FOUR: You're A Heartbreaker - Elvis Presley

DISC FIVE: And When They Ask Us - The Rita Williams Singers

DISC SIX: Lullaby of Broadway - Dick Powell & Wini Shaw

DISC SEVEN: Things We Said Today - The Beatles

DISC EIGHT: Edward Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36: Variation IX 'Nimrod' - London Symphony Orchestra

BOOK CHOICE: Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

LUXURY CHOICE: Bed

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Edward Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36: Variation IX 'Nimrod' - London Symphony Orchestra

Producer: Derek Drescher

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1979.

From Elgar to Duke Ellington. Actor and writer Michael Palin shares his castaway choices.

PD James was born in Oxford, later moving to Ludlow on the Welsh Borders where she experienced a childhood which she says had more in common with a Victorian childhood than anything today. She was a well-behaved, quiet child who entertained herself and her siblings by telling and writing stories. Phyllis attended an old-fashioned grammar school where she enjoyed English lessons. She says 'I knew I was going to write books'.

Because of financial pressures at home, she had to leave school at 16, first following her father into the tax office, then in a theatre where she met her husband, who was training to be a doctor. World War Two intervened and, because her husband returned from work in the Medical Corps with a severe mental illness, Phyllis had to be the main breadwinner, working as principal hospital administrator at the North West Regional Hospital Board, London in charge of five psychiatric hospitals.

It wasn't until she was 39, whilst working in the hospital, that Phyllis began her first novel, Cover Her Face. 'I knew it was something I was going to do, and it was just that life was so busy I didn't get round to it'. She chose the name PD James because it looked good on a book jacket, and crime genre because she didn't want to draw on autobiographical details.

The book was immediately accepted by a publisher, and in 1979 she gave up her other jobs to become a full-time writer, focusing on Detective Adam Dalgleish of Scotland Yard as her main character. P D James was awarded the OBE in 1982 and made a Life Peer in 1992.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1992.

Acclaimed film director Alan Parker shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

When Alan's Bugsy Malone came out in 1975, it marked the beginning of a very successful and sometimes controversial career.

Films like Midnight Express, Fame and The Commitments underlined his versatility - winning him countless awards all over the world.

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2000.

From Otis Redding to Edward Elgar, film director Alan Parker shares his castaway choices.

One of the most familiar and best-loved figures of British comedy over six decades - from Eth in The Glums, June in Terry and June to Mother in Absolutely Fabulous - a consummate professional bringing laughter and fun to millions of people.

Favourite track: The Trolley Song by Judy Garland

Book: A do-it-yourself manual

Luxury: Supply of cocoa butter and hat

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1990.

Actress Dame June Whitfield shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Wartime forces' sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Recalling her own Second World War experiences – from performing in front of servicemen as far away as Burma, and as close to home as London's Regent's Park.

Ever since then, Dame Vera was constantly in demand all over the world for her singing and her songs, reviving as they do wartime memories both happy and sad.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 1989

Actor Geoffrey Palmer OBE shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Best known for his TV roles in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Butterflies and As Time Goes By, Geoffrey had to wait a long time to become a household name and national treasure.

Unsure what career to pursue after a spell in the army, he fell into acting because a girlfriend was involved in amateur dramatics. He worked in repertory theatre throughout the 60s and 70s and ended up working with John Osborne during the Royal Court's heyday in West of Suez, and later with Laurence Olivier.

With a face 'reminiscent of a bloodhound mourning a lost scent', Palmer has, by his own admission 'cornered the market in playing dull, plodding men'. Many of his characters live out lives characterised by petty worries, suburban frustration and missed opportunities, but he plays them brilliantly, and with a sympathy that elevates them to the status of unlikely heroes.

Geoffrey's grumpy on-screen persona has also led to him narrating BBC TV's cult hit Grumpy Old Men, which brought him a whole new generation of viewers.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2005.

From Benny Goodman to Richard Strauss, actor Geoffrey Palmer makes his castaway choices.

Campaigning journalist and editor Harold Evans shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

One of the great campaigning journalists of all time, as editor of The Northern Echo in the 1960s - Harold Evans argued the the case for cervical smear tests for women.

At The Sunday Times, he highlighted the problems of the Thalidomide children.

When Rupert Murdoch bought The Times he was given the job of editor and then sacked.

After writing a book which decribed how a newspaper changes when the owner becomes editorially involved, he left for America where he lives a life of apparent glamour, with his wife, magazine editor Tina Brown.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2000.

From Bach to Vivaldi, campaigning journalist Harold Evans makes his castaway choices.

He talks about his life and writing, and chooses eight records to take to the mythical desert island.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2000.

From Fred Astaire to William Walton, playwright Peter Nichols makes his castaway choices.

Stephen remembers growing up in St Albans, a 'ridiculously easy' physics course at Oxford University, where he didn't fully apply himself, and his dark and apocalyptic mood when motor neurone disease was diagnosed in 1963.

The prospect of an early death made Stephen realise that life was worth living and he threw himself into his work, which includes the discovery of Hawking radiation and the best-selling A Brief History Of Time.

His music selections range from Mozart's Requiem in D Minor (his favourite) to Edith Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien, a song which sums up his life.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Day 1992.

From The Doobie Brothers to Tom Waits. Comedy star Victoria Wood CBE shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young

For decades Victoria has been one of our best-loved writers and performers. Her TV highlights - Acorn Antiques, Dinnerladies and Housewife 49 - have won her a devoted following as well as stacks of awards.

But, in a moving and open interview, she describes how, as a teenager, she felt she was a misfit - she had few friends, she struggled with her weight and at school she used to steal other people's homework. She joined a youth theatre and it was, she says, the saving of her. She found like-minded people and a sense that she had something to offer.

Victoria is very careful about how much of her own life she puts into her work. She doesn't mind saying she cuts her pubic hair with nail-scissors, but rarely discusses her children on the stage.

Victoria reveals her favourite tracks, book and luxury.

From The Doobie Brothers to Tom Waits, Victoria Wood makes her castaway choices.

The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Charlie joined the fledgling rock band of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones in January 1963.

Watts helped them become one of the bands who took rock 'n' roll to the masses in the 60s with classics like (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Get Off My Cloud and Sympathy for the Devil.

Charlie shares stories about his life out on tour, his fastidious nature as well as his love of all things stylish.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2001.

The Rolling Stones drummer shares his music choice with Sue Lawley. From 2001.

Comedian Jackie Mason shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Jackie's one-man shows pulled in audiences for over 50 years.

Like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him, he trained initially as a rabbi - and quickly acquired a reputation for being very funny.

'The people who heard my sermons kept saying to me; 'Rabbi, why aren't you a comedian?' I said to myself, maybe I should take the hint.'

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2012.

Jackie Mason, American comedian, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs

Legendary US composer and songwriter Stephen Sondheim shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Born in New York, he wrote the scores of some of Broadway's best-known shows including Company, Follies and A Little Night Music. He also wrote the lyrics for West Side Story.

Winner of eight Grammy awards, nine Tony awards - including the special Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre - and one Academy Award. He also received a Pulitzer Prize.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2000.

From Gershwin to Stravinsky, composer Stephen Sondheim shares his castaway choices.

Politics is Glenda's third job. At 16, she left school to work in Boots. But it was as an actress that she reached the pinnacle of her profession, becoming an international star and winning Oscars for her roles in Women in Love and A Touch of Class.

On TV, she was the formidable Elizabeth R, but won our hearts as Cleopatra in Morecambe & Wise.

Despite her vast acting experience, she admits that when she came to make her maiden speech in the House of Commons she had the worst attack of stage fright in her long career.

DISC ONE: Nutbush City Limits - Ike & Tina Turner

DISC TWO: Igor Stravinsky's Symphony Of Psalms - CBC Symphony Orchestra Choir with Festival Singers Of Toronto, conducted by Igor Stravinsky

DISC THREE: Hound Dog - Elvis Presley

DISC FOUR: John Adams's The Chairman Dances - San Francisco Symphony Orchestra

DISC FIVE: Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C major: 'Leningrad' - London Symphony Orchestra

DISC SIX: Benjamin Britten's Libera me (from War Requiem) - City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Simon Rattle

DISC SEVEN: Superstition - Stevie Wonder

DISC EIGHT: Michael Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra - Scottish Chamber Orchestra

BOOK CHOICE: The History and Creation of a Japanese Sand Garden

LUXURY CHOICE: A bath

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Benjamin Britten's Libera me (from War Requiem) - City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Simon Rattle

Producer: Angie Nehring

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1997.

Actress turned politician Glenda Jackson is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Benjamin Britten to Tina Turner. Actress turned MP, Glenda Jackson shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 1997.

Motty began commentating on football in 1971. He covered more than 2000 games on TV and radio, including all the major football championships, 29 FA Cup finals (with an additional five replays), 10 World Cups, 10 European Championships and 200 England games. At the age of 72, he retired in 2018.

Known not only for his footballing knowledge and his voice, he is often recognised by his knee-length sheepskin coat. His passion for football was ignited by his father, a Methodist minister for 40 years, who on his one day off each week would take his only son to watch football. The first game John attended was at Charlton Athletic when he was seven, and the excitement of it inspired him to create scrapbooks of footballing facts and collect match programmes.

After five years at boarding school, where he wasn't allowed to play football, he left at 16 after one term doing A levels. He joined the Barnet Press as a trainee reporter and then moved onto the Sheffield Telegraph. When BBC Radio Sheffield, one of the first six local radio stations, came on air, he was one of the reporters pulled in to give match summaries. He then moved to the BBC as a sports assistant in radio, before joining the Match of the Day team on BBC TV.

He has been supported in his career by his solicitor wife, Annie, who meticulously kept details of every match in thick A4 books which John used for his preparation. He was awarded an OBE for services to football and in 2018 he was honoured by BAFTA with a Special Award for his lifetime's work.

DISC ONE: Three Lions - David Baddiel, Frank Skinner & The Lightning Seeds

DISC TWO: The Red Red Robin - Billy Cotton & The Johnston Singers

DISC THREE: Diana - Paul Anka

DISC FOUR: Daniel - Elton John

DISC FIVE: Annie's Song - John Denver

DISC SIX: Don't Cry for Me Argentina - Elaine Paige

DISC SEVEN: Abide With Me - Choir of Westminster Abbey, conducted by Martin Neary

DISC EIGHT: The Boy in the Bubble - Paul Simon

BOOK CHOICE: The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

LUXURY CHOICE: Running shoes

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Three Lions - David Baddiel, Frank Skinner & The Lightning Seeds

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2018.

Football commentator John Motson is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Henry Francis Lyte to Paul Simon. Football broadcaster John Motson shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2018.

Football broadcaster John Walker Motson, OBE, shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Motty has been commentating on football since 1971. He covered more than 2000 games on TV and radio, including all the major football championships, 29 FA Cup finals (with an additional five replays), 10 World Cups, 10 European Championships and 200 England games. At the age of 72 he retired in 2018.

After five years at boarding school, where he wasn't allowed to play football, he left at 16 after one term doing A levels. He joined the Barnet Press as a trainee reporter and then moved onto the Sheffield Telegraph. When BBC Radio Sheffield, one of the first six local radio stations, came on air, he was one of the reporters pulled in to give match summaries. He then moved to the BBC as a sports assistant in radio, before joining the Match of the Day team on television.

Len became a star of BBC TV's 'Strictly Come Dancing' and the US show 'Dancing with the Stars', after a 40-year career as a ballroom dancer and judge.

Born in London's East End, as a kid he was a barrow-boy, selling fruit and veg on his grandfather's stall. He went on to work on the docks as a welder. But come Saturday night he would don his best threads and head for the Embassy ballroom in Welling.

It was later in life, when Len found international fame and it was, he says, perfect timing.

'If it had happened when I was 30, I'd have been one of these people that would be seen rolling out of nightclubs drunk, with a couple of dolly-birds on my arm. The pilot was on my 60th birthday and I think it was the perfect age because I was sensible by then, my feet were planted firmly on the ground.'

DISC ONE: Good Morning - Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor & Debbie Reynolds

DISC TWO: Pencil Full of Lead - Paolo Nutini

DISC THREE: Tiger Rag - The Mills Brothers

DISC FOUR: The Moulin Rouge theme - Edmundo Ros and His Orchestra

DISC FIVE: Fat Sam's Grand Slam - Bugsy Malone

DISC SIX: Take Five - Dave Brubeck

DISC SEVEN: In My Life - The Beatles

DISC EIGHT: Island in the Sun - Harry Belafonte

BOOK CHOICE: An Anthology of British poetry

LUXURY CHOICE: Set of golf clubs and balls

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Pencil Full of Lead - Paolo Nutini

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2011.

Strictly Come Dancing judge Len Goodman is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Harry Belafonte to Gene Kelly. Strictly Come Dancing's Len Goodman shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2011.

From Harry Belafonte to Gene Kelly. Strictly Come Dancing judge Len Goodman makes his choices.

He became a star of Strictly Come Dancing and the US show Dancing with the Stars, after a forty year career as a ballroom dancer and judge. Born in London's east end, as a kid he was a barrow-boy, selling fruit and veg on his grandfather's stall. He went on to work on the docks as a welder. But come Saturday night he would don his best threads and head for the Embassy ballroom in Welling.

He was in his sixties when he found international fame and it was, he says, perfect timing. 'If it had happened when I was thirty, I'd have been one these people that would be seen rolling out of nightclubs drunk, with a couple of dolly-birds on my arm. The pilot was on my sixtieth birthday and I think it was the perfect age because I was sensible by then, my feet were planted firmly on the ground.

He describes a rowdy, loving family life in Merseyside, his love for Manila and working as a care officer with Camden Council. Paul's showbiz career was launched by his drag act featuring Lily Savage. Lily made her debut in London in 1985, when Paul decided to try her out as a compere at the Vauxhall Tavern. He didn't want Lily to be glamorous 'I wanted a hard bitten hooker from Birkenhead with ripped tights and her roots showing'.

Paul also talks candidly about his personal relationships and sex life and how he decided women were more demanding than men and finally, that he really preferred his own company. He tells the story about his first heart attack at the age of 47 and how he gradually left Lily behind as more mainstream opportunities came his way such as Blankety Blank, The Generation Game and travel shows. He later loved to spend time on his farm - with cows, pigs and his beloved dogs and enjoyed the challenge of learning new skills beyond the footlights.

DISC ONE: I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen - Josef Locke

DISC TWO: You Gotta Get A Gimmick - Linda Hart & Anna McNeely, Christine Ebersole

DISC THREE: The Blue Pacific Blues - Rita Hayworth

DISC FOUR: Jules Massenet's Méditation (from Thaïs) - Philippe Graffin

DISC FIVE: I Put A Spell On You - Nina Simone

DISC SIX: Trouble - Elvis Presley

DISC SEVEN: Hurry, It's Lovely Up Here - Barbra Streisand

DISC EIGHT: La Cumparsita - Carlos Gardel

BOOK CHOICE: The Borrowers - Mary Norton

LUXURY CHOICE: Skin so Soft - Avon

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Jules Massenet's Méditation (from Thaïs) - Philippe Graffin

Producer Lisa Jenkinson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2003.

From Massenet to Nina Simone. Presenter and entertainer Paul O'Grady shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2003.

Paul describes a rowdy, loving family life in Merseyside, his love for Manila and working as a care officer with Camden Council.

His showbiz career was launched by his drag act featuring Lily Savage. She made her debut in London in 1985, when Paul decided to try her out as a compere at the Vauxhall Tavern. He didn't want Lily to be glamorous 'I wanted a hard bitten hooker from Birkenhead with ripped tights and her roots showing'.

Annie Nightingale is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Annie was BBC Radio 1's first female presenter and its longest-serving DJ, celebrating her 50th anniversary at the station in 2020.

Born and brought up in south west London, she fell in love with the romance and mystery of radio through her father's meticulous tuning of their home set to broadcasts from exotic places like Prague and Hilversum. On leaving school at 17, she spent a year on a journalism course in central London.

After relocating to Brighton, she worked her way up through local newspapers to the national press and magazines and eventually, by the mid-1960s, to TV. She interviewed the Beatles as a young journalist, and gave early support to artists including David Bowie, Ian Dury, Eminem and Primal Scream.

In 1970, she was the first woman DJ to join Radio 1 with a Sunday evening show. From 1978 to 1982, Annie was the sole female presenter on the BBC TV music show The Old Grey Whistle Test, the only woman to have held the job. Her excitement for new music and musical genres from acid house to grime, never wavered.

Her weekly overnight Radio 1 show received countless awards from Caner of the Year to Commander of the Order of the British Empire, which she received for services to radio.

Annie had a son and a daughter from her first marriage. She was twice divorced and lived in London.

She died aged 85 in January 2024.

DISC ONE: Bury a Friend by Billie Eilish

DISC TWO: Some People by Ethel Merman

DISC THREE: Instant Karma! by John Lennon

DISC FOUR: Too Many Fish in the Sea by Marvelettes

DISC FIVE: Space Oddity by David Bowie

DISC SIX: Freedom by Beyoncé Featuring Kendrick Lamar

DISC SEVEN: Gymnopédies No. 1, composed by Erik Satie, conducted by Peter Breiner, performed by Gerald Garcia (guitar) and Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Košice

DISC EIGHT: My Way by Sid Vicious

BOOK CHOICE: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

LUXURY ITEM: A saxophone

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Space Oddity by David Bowie

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2020.

DJ Annie Nightingale is castaway by Lauren Laverne

From Billie Eilish to David Bowie. DJ Annie Nightingale shares her castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2020.

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Actor Donald Sutherland is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Donald acted in over 100 films, including such classics as M*A*S*H, Don't Look Now and JFK.

Born in Canada, he was tall and lanky as a child. Due to the size of his big ears, he was called 'Goofus' or 'Dumbo'.

However, it was those ears that caught the attention of the director of The Dirty Dozen and thus his film career was launched.

The actor went on to be given the Academy Honorary Award during the 90th Academy Awards in 2017.

Donald Sutherland died aged 88 in June 2024,

DISC ONE: Peggy Lee - The Best Is Yet To Come

DISC TWO: Dennis Brain with The Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 1 in D major

DISC THREE: Patsy Cline - Sweet Dreams

DISC FOUR: Glenn Gould - Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations

DISC FIVE: The Beatles - The Ballad of John and Yoko

DISC SIX: Dave Brubeck - Take Five

DISC SEVEN: Janis Joplin - Me And Bobby McGee

DISC EIGHT: Diane Dufresne - J'ai recontre l'homme de ma vie

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Dennis Brain with The Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 1 in D major

BOOK CHOICE: A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman

LUXURY CHOICE: 100 cases of vintage Bordeaux

Producer: Angie Nehring

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2000.

From The Beatles to Mozart. Canadian actor Donald Sutherland shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2008.

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Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer Edna O'Brien.

She was born and raised in a small village in County Clare, where the only books in the house were prayer books which sat alongside her father's bloodstock magazines. Her mother thought writing was in essence sinful and tried fiercely to stop her becoming an author.

She was living in England when she published her first novel, The Country Girls, in 1960. It was a huge hit and was critically well received - but in Ireland she was decried and her book was burnt in the streets. Edna lived in London for most of her adult life, but continued to draw on her Irish background for inspiration - she said: 'it's in my roots, and when I dream at night it's the place I go'.

Edna O'Brien died 27 July 2024 aged 93.

DISC ONE: The monks of the Benedictine Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos - Mandatum Novum do Vobis

DISC TWO: Maria Callas - Giacomo Puccini's Donde lieta usci (Mimi's farewell) (from La Bohème)

DISC THREE: Glenn Gould - Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations - Variations Nos. 1 & 2

DISC FOUR: The Chieftains & Sinéad O'Connor - The Foggy, Foggy Dew

DISC FIVE: The Pogues (feat. Kirsty MacColl) - Fairytale Of New York

DISC SIX: Michael Olatunji - Drums of Passion

DISC SEVEN: Munich Philharmonic Orchestra with the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Christian Thielemann - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem in D minor (Lacrymosa)

DISC EIGHT: Édith Piaf - Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Chieftains & Sinéad O'Connor - The Foggy, Foggy Dew

BOOK CHOICE: Ulysses - James Joyce

LUXURY CHOICE: Vault of a very good white wine

Producer Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2007.

Writer Edna O'Brien is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Maria Callas to The Pogues. Writer Edna O'Brien shares her second castaway selection with Kirsty Young. From 2007.

[LISTEN NOW]

Featuring the castaway choices of June Spencer - 'Peggy' in The Archers.

The Archers actress June Spencer CBE is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Best known for her long-running BBC role as Peggy Woolley, June was one of the best-loved matriarchs in broadcasting.

June was the only original member of the cast still in the show.

Back in 2010, it was 60 years since the pilot episodes were first broadcast and, although she was then aged 90, June had no plans to retire.

She said: 'It's a great bonus for me that The Archers has run as long as it has, and I've gone along with it.

June Spencer died aged 105 in November 2024,

DISC ONE: Fred Astaire - Let's Face The Music And Dance

DISC TWO: Nelson Eddy - I Passed by Your Window

DISC THREE: Andrei Gavrilov - Frédéric Chopin's Revolutionary Study

DISC FOUR: Northern Sinfonia Orchestra, conducted by Jean-Bernard Pommier - Claude Debussy's En bateau (from Petite suite)

DISC FIVE: John Williams - Concierto De Aranjuez

DISC SIX: Harry Secombe - Giacomo Puccini's E Lucevan Le Stelle (from Tosca)

DISC SEVEN: The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Overture to The Sleeping Beauty

DISC EIGHT: Winchester Cathedral Choir - George Frideric Handel's Hallelujah Chorus (from Messiah)

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: John Williams - Concierto De Aranjuez

BOOK CHOICE: Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jerome

LUXURY CHOICE: A Scrabble board

Producer: Isabel Sargent

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2010.

Archers actress June Spencer is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Fred Astaire to Tchaikovsky. Archers actress June Spencer shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2010.

Kirsty Young's castaway is actress June Spencer.

She is one of the best-loved matriarchs in broadcasting. As Peggy Woolley in The Archers, she's the only original member of the cast still in the show.

It's 60 years this spring since the pilot episodes were first broadcast and, although she is now aged 90, June has no plans to retire.

She says, 'It's a great bonus for me that The Archers has run as long as it has, and I've gone along with it.

[LISTEN NOW]

[LISTEN NOW]

Actress Dame Patricia Routledge is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Once voted the nation's favourite actress for her BBC TV roles as Hyacinth Bucket and Hetty Wainthrop, Patricia has also been successful in the theatre, in musicals, and of course as Victoria's Wood's Kitty and in Alan Bennett's monologues Talking Heads.

She grew up in Birkenhead and went to the Argyll Theatre before it was destroyed in the war.

With a deep love of English literature, Patricia wanted to be a glamorous headmistress.

She tells Sue about her life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

Patricia was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2017 and died on 3rd October 2025 aged 96.

DISC ONE: New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, 3rd movement

DISC TWO: Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa - Gustav Holst's Jupiter (from The Planets)

DISC THREE: Robb Wilton - Back Answers

DISC FOUR: St Paul's Cathedral Choristers and The London Sinfonia, conducted by John Scott - John Rutter and F S Pierpoint's For the Beauty of the Earth

DISC FIVE: Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Kirill Kondrashin - Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in D minor

DISC SIX: Dame Janet Baker, Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus & the Halle Choir & Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli - Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius: Softly and gently (Angel's farewell)

DISC SEVEN: Amadeus Quartet, conducted by Robert Cohen - Franz Schubert's String Quintet in C major, 2nd movement

DISC EIGHT: Alfred Brendel and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine - Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major: “Emperor ? 2nd movement.

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Amadeus Quartet, conducted by Robert Cohen - Franz Schubert's String Quintet in C major, 2nd movement

BOOK CHOICE: The collected works - John Donne

LUXURY CHOICE: Tea service with tea

Producer Angie Nehring

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 1999.

Actress Patricia Routledge is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Robb Wilton to Janet Baker. Actress Dame Patricia Routledge shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 1999.

[LISTEN NOW]

BBC Radio 4 Extra remembers some of the desert island castaways who we lost in 2025.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent - cousin to the Queen Elizabeth the Second - is castaway by Sue Lawley.

After a lifelong devotion to music, she will be whittling down her choice of eight tracks with great difficulty.

Now Patron of the Leeds Piano Competition and the Yehudi Menuhin School, as well as President of the Royal Northern College of Music, the Duchess of Kent studied music herself until she was 25.

Her Royal Highness talks about her love of music, her Yorkshire childhood and her prolific work for charity.

Katherine, Duchess of Kent, died on 4th September 2025 aged 92.

DISC ONE: Mitsuko Uchida - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Keyboard Sonata No. 6 in D major, K284

DISC TWO: Philharmonia Orchestra - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor “Pathétique ?, 2nd movement

DISC THREE: Francis Jackson - The Tuba Tune

DISC FOUR: Yehudi Menuhin and George Enseco with the Paris Symphony Orchestra - Johann Sebastian Bach's Concerto for Two Violins in D minor

DISC FIVE: Placido Domingo and the London Symphony Orchestra - Giacomo Puccini's Che gelida manina (Your tiny hand is frozen) from La Bohème

DISC SIX: Jacqueline du Pre and the London Symphony Orchestra - Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, 3rd movement

DISC SEVEN: The Beatles - Maxwell's Silver Hammer

DISC EIGHT: The Swedish Radio Chorus, the Stockholm Chamber Choir and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Ave verum corpus

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Swedish Radio Chorus, the Stockholm Chamber Choir and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Ave verum corpus

BOOK CHOICE: A do-it-yourself manual

LUXURY CHOICE: Lamp with solar batteries

Producer Olivia Seligman

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Eve 1989.

HRH The Duchess Of Kent is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Yehudi Menuhin to the Beatles. HRH The Duchess Of Kent shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 1989.

[LISTEN NOW]

From Beethoven to Puccini. Primatologist Dr Jane Goodall shares her castaway choices.

Dr Jane Goodall is castaway by Sue Lawley.

She had no formal scientific qualifications when she first went to Africa to study the Gombe chimpanzees. But it was this lack of preconceptions which made her so successful as a naturalist.

Watching chimps use sticks to extract termites from their mounds she realised that she was about to smash the assumption that only humans used tools.

Now, 40 years after she first stepped into the bush, Dr Jane describes how she has halted her patient study of the chimpanzees to fight for their survival.

DISC ONE: Jacqueline De Pre and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim - Antonín Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor

DISC TWO: Daniel Barenboim - Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op.27/2 “Moonlight ?

DISC THREE: Yehudi Menuhin and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler - Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor

DISC FOUR: Richard Burton - Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood

DISC FIVE: Helmut Walcha and the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski - Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV 565

DISC SIX: Elaine Paige - Memory (from Cats)

DISC SEVEN: Howard Blake - Walking in the Air

DISC EIGHT: Luciano Pavarotti and the Orchestra del Maggio, conducted by Zubin Mehta - Giacomo Puccini's Recondita armonia (from Tosca)

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Richard Burton - Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood

BOOK CHOICE: The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

LUXURY CHOICE: Pencil and paper

Producer: Angie Nehring

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2000.

From Beethoven to Puccini. Primatologist Dr Jane Goodall shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2000.

[LISTEN NOW]

BBC Radio 4 Extra remembers some of the desert island castaways who we lost in 2025.

Writer Jilly Cooper is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Her long writing career spans newspaper columns for the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday, non-fiction books on class, marriage and animals in war and novels that sell in their millions. Her romances set in the late seventies - including 'Bella', 'Harriett', 'Imogen' and 'Prudence' – were followed by 'Riders' in 1985, the first of her Rutshire Chronicles. Set mainly in the Cotswolds, they are racy and raunchy page-turners exposing the scandalous – and often hilarious - goings on among the British upper classes.

Born in 1937 in Essex, she was brought up in Yorkshire and enjoyed a happy childhood surrounded by dogs and ponies. At boarding school she earned the nickname, ‘the unholy terror' and having failed to get into Oxford and being sacked from a number of jobs for her inability to type, she turned to journalism before publishing her first book, 'How to Stay Married' in 1969.

She married Leo Cooper in 1961 and, unable to have children of their own, the couple adopted Felix and Emily in the late 1960s. The couple were married for 52 years before his death in 2013.

Jilly Cooper died on 5th October 2025 aged 88.

DISC ONE: Dietrich Fischer ?Dieskau and Gerald Moore - Franz Schubert's Das Wandern

DISC TWO: Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer - Something Good

DISC THREE: John Lill and the Hallé Orchestra, conducted by James Loughran - Johannes Brahms's Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15

DISC FOUR: Elvis Presley – Can't Help Falling in Love

DISC FIVE: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim - Richard Strauss's Des Helden Weltflucht und Vollendung

DISC SIX: Bob Marley - Buffalo Soldier

DISC SEVEN: Roderick Elms and the London Symphony Chorus with the London Symphony Orchestra - Felix Mendelssohn's He, Watching Over Israel, Slumbers Not

DISC EIGHT: Band of HM Coldstream Guards – Here's to the Heroes

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Roderick Elms and the London Symphony Chorus with the London Symphony Orchestra - Felix Mendelssohn's He, Watching Over Israel, Slumbers Not

BOOK CHOICE: The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

LUXURY CHOICE: A sack of nuts

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.

From Bob Marley to Franz Schubert. Writer Jilly Cooper shares her castaway choices. With Kirsty Young. From 2016.

[LISTEN NOW]

Actress Dame Patricia Routledge is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Once voted the nation's favourite actress for her BBC TV roles as Hyacinth Bucket and Hetty Wainthrop, Patricia has also been successful in the theatre, in musicals, and of course as Victoria's Wood's Kitty and in Alan Bennett's monologues Talking Heads.

She grew up in Birkenhead and went to the Argyll Theatre before it was destroyed in the war. With a deep love of English literature, Patricia wanted to be a glamorous headmistress.

In conversation with Sue Lawley, she talks about her life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

Patricia was made a DBE in 2017 and died on 3rd October 2025 aged 96.

DISC ONE: New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, 3rd movement

DISC TWO: Boston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa - Gustav Holst's Jupiter (from The Planets)

DISC THREE: Robb Wilton - Back Answers

DISC FOUR: St Paul's Cathedral Choristers and The London Sinfonia, conducted by John Scott - John Rutter and F S Pierpoint's For the Beauty of the Earth

DISC FIVE: Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Kirill Kondrashin - Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in D minor

DISC SIX: Dame Janet Baker, Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus & the Halle Choir & Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli - Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius: Softly and gently (Angel's farewell)

DISC SEVEN: Amadeus Quartet, conducted by Robert Cohen - Franz Schubert's String Quintet in C major, 2nd movement

DISC EIGHT: Alfred Brendel and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine - Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major: “Emperor ? 2nd movement.

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Amadeus Quartet, conducted by Robert Cohen - Franz Schubert's String Quintet in C major, 2nd movement

BOOK CHOICE: The collected works - John Donne

LUXURY CHOICE: Tea service with tea

Producer Angie Nehring

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 1999.

Actress Patricia Routledge is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Robb Wilton to Janet Baker. Actress Dame Patricia Routledge shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 1999.

[LISTEN NOW]

BBC Radio 4 Extra remembers some of the desert island castaways who we lost in 2025.

Actor Terence Stamp is castaway for the second-time by Sue Lawley.

He originally joined Michael Parkinson in 1987.

Terence Stamp was one of the new group of confident, beautiful, working class young people who came to define the 1960s. He shared a flat with Michael Caine, dated the actress Julie Christie and the first supermodel Jean Shrimpton. He became an overnight success - and won an Oscar nomination - for his first film role as Billy Budd. He acted alongside Christie in Far from the Madding Crowd and found further fame with roles in The Collector and Modesty Blaise. He was driven to act after first seeing Beau Geste when he was just a small boy - the cinema offered an escape route from the monochrome world of London's East End.

But when the 1960s ended he found he was offered fewer interesting roles, his relationship with Shrimpton ended and he headed eastwards on a journey of self-discovery. Now 66, he's suave, still acting and recently married.

Terence Stamp died on 17th August 2025 aged 87.

DISC ONE: Walter Gieseking - Claude Debussy's Clair de lune (from Suite bergamasque)

DISC TWO: Sarah Vaughan - Cole Porter's It's De-Lovely

DISC THREE: The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Perdido

DISC FOUR: Dean Martin - Memories Are Made of This

DISC FIVE: Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

DISC SIX: Tim Hardin - If I Were a Carpenter

DISC SEVEN: The Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower

DISC EIGHT: Claudio Arrau - Frédéric Chopin's Impromptu No.4 in C sharp Minor

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Claudio Arrau - Frédéric Chopin's Impromptu No.4 in C sharp Minor

BOOK CHOICE: The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

LUXURY CHOICE: One of his wheat-free loaves

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2006.

From Chopin to Jimi Hendrix. Actor Terence Stamp makes his castaway music choices with Sue Lawley. From 2006.

[LISTEN NOW]

Like most things in Tinseltown the image is somewhat at odds with the reality.

Goldie is an Academy Award winner and producer who's been on the A list for 40-odd years, starring alongside Peter Sellers, Walter Matthau and Woody Allen.

She's now transmuted from fantasy pin-up to best selling author - she writes parenting manuals and spearheads a childhood learning initiative.

She tells Kirsty about her journey from dancing in sleazy go-go bars to bagging an Oscar, how she coped with the difficulties her early success brought her and how she met her husband of 29 years, Kurt Russell.

DISC ONE: The Rolling Stones - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

DISC TWO: Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Overture to Romeo and Juliet

DISC THREE: Frank Sinatra - Fly Me to the Moon

DISC FOUR: Amy Winehouse - Back to Black

DISC FIVE: The Beatles - Let It Be

DISC SIX: John Barry - I had a farm in Africa

DISC SEVEN: Gipsy Kings - Volare

DISC EIGHT: John Lennon - Imagine

BOOK CHOICE: The Art of Loving - Erich Fromm

LUXURY CHOICE: Lip gloss

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Frank Sinatra - Fly Me to the Moon

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2012.

Hollywood actress Goldie Hawn is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Frank Sinatra to Tchaikovsky. Hollywood actress Goldie Hawn shares her castaway music choices with Kirsty Young. From 2012.

Kirsty Young's castaway is Hollywood's prototype dizzy blond, Goldie Hawn.

Like most things in Tinseltown the image is somewhat at odds with the reality. Goldie is an Academy Award winner and producer who's been on the A list for 40-odd years, starring alongside Peter Sellers, Walter Mattau and Woody Allen. She's now transmuted from fantasy pin-up to best selling author - she writes parenting manuals and spearheads a childhood learning initiative.

Hollywood actress Goldie Hawn is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs.

From Frank Sinatra to Tchaikovsky. Hollywood actress Goldie Hawn makes her castaway music choices. With Kirsty Young. From 2012.

If life were straightforward he'd be marooned on the island because of his achievements as an Olympic rower. But his early promise on the water was scuppered by a bout of glandular fever - so he's had to make do instead with life as a worldwide entertainment superstar.

Very British comedy, very big budget movies, very successful syndicated TV drama - his 30 year career has taken him from A Little Bit of Fry & Laurie to a big bit of broadcasting history: his role in the U.S. show House ran for 8 series and had a global audience of 81 million.

So why now does he feel the need to risk his stellar reputation by making music too?

He says, 'as soon as I acknowledge to myself that something is frightening and carries the risk of public humiliation I feel like I have to do it.

DISC ONE: Joe Cocker - The Letter

DISC TWO: Sister Rosetta Tharpe - My Journey to the Sky

DISC THREE: Randy Newman - Louisiana 1927

DISC FOUR: Son House - Grinnin' in your face

DISC FIVE: Professor Longhair - Go to the Mardi Gras

DISC SIX: Nina Simone - I wish I knew how it would be to be free

DISC SEVEN: Lester Young-Buddy Rich Trio - I Cover the Waterfront

DISC EIGHT: Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl

BOOK CHOICE: An encyclopedia

LUXURY CHOICE: A double set of throwing knives

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2013.

From Nina Simone to Van Morrison. Actor and musician Hugh Laurie shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2013.

Very British comedy, very big budget movies, very successful syndicated TV drama - his 30 year career has taken him from A Little Bit of Fry & Laurie to a big bit of broadcasting history: his role in the U.S. show House ran for 8 series and had a global audience of 81 million. So why now does he feel the need to risk his stellar reputation by making music too?

June Brown is best known today for her role as the long-suffering chain-smoking Dot Cotton (now Dot Branning) in the BBC TV soap EastEnders. She arrived on a three month contract in 1985 and is still in the show. She was nominated for a BAFTA in 2008.

She celebrates her 90th birthday in February 2017 and has no intention of retiring as acting 'keeps her alive'.

June was born in Suffolk and brought up in a music-loving family. Towards the end of the Second World War, she joined up, choosing the WRNS where she worked as a cinema operator showing training films and newsreels to the sailors.

She did some acting during that time and after a brief and unsuccessful job in an office, she was one of very few chosen to receive a classical training at the Old Vic Theatre School. From there she joined the Old Vic Theatre Company where she worked with such greats as Edith Evans, Laurence Oliver and Albert Finney. Her roles included Lady Macbeth and Ibsen's Hedda Gabler.

She had five children in relatively quick succession and continued acting on TV and the London stage, often putting her youngest in a pram and going in the guard's van on the train to the theatre.

Throughout her time on EastEnders she has occasionally ventured away to direct or take part in other television series.

In 2009 she stripped down to nothing as Jessie in the stage production Calendar Girls. She was 82.

She was awarded an MBE for services to drama and charity in 2008.

DISC ONE: Cliff Richard - Living Doll

DISC TWO: Deanna Durbin - Kashmiri Song (Pale Hands I Loved)

DISC THREE: Ipswich High School For Girls Choir & John Chillingworth, conducted by Angela Chillingworth - O Brother Man

DISC FOUR: Christine Brewer & Roger Vignoles - The Song of Songs: 'Chanson du cœur brisé

DISC FIVE: Bing Crosby with The Andrews Sisters - Ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive

DISC SIX: Georges Guétary - Ma Belle Marguerite

DISC SEVEN: Barbara Dickson - The Skye Boat Song

DISC EIGHT: Lesley Garrett and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Peter Robinson - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's None But The Lonely Heart

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Deanna Durbin - Kashmiri Song (Pale Hands I Loved)

BOOK CHOICE: The Story of San Michele by Axel Munthe

LUXURY CHOICE: Tobacco seeds

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2017.

From Barbara Dickson to Bing Crosby. Actress June Brown shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2017.

June was born in Suffolk and brought up in a music-loving family. Towards the end of World War Two, she joined up, choosing the WRNS where she worked as a cinema operator showing training films and newsreels to the sailors.

Throughout her time on EastEnders she has occasionally ventured away to direct or take part in other television series. In 2009 she stripped down to nothing as Jessie in the stage production Calendar Girls. She was 82.

EastEnders actress June Brown makes her castaway music choices. With Kirsty Young.

Samantha Morton is an actor and director. She has appeared in films directed by Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg, and is also known for her work on independent productions, often with serious themes such as prostitution and bereavement. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards and won many accolades including a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.

Born in Nottingham in 1977, she had a difficult childhood. She was first taken into care as a baby, then spent the next decade between foster parents and her father's home before being taken into care permanently at the age of 11.

Samantha's acting roles have ranged from Mary, Queen of Scots, in Elizabeth: The Golden Age to a war widow in The Messenger and the wife of a serial killer in Rillington Place. She made her directorial debut with The Unloved in 2009, a film based on her own experience of the care system. It won the BAFTA Award for Best Single Drama.

DISC ONE: Burden of Shame by UB40

DISC TWO: Flower by The Charlatans

DISC THREE: The Town I Loved So Well (Live) by Luke Kelly And The Dubliners

DISC FOUR: Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody) by Talking Heads

DISC FIVE: Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space by Spiritualized

DISC SIX: Blume (French version) by Einstürzende Neubauten

DISC SEVEN: Dream Baby Dream by Suicide

DISC EIGHT: I Remember by Molly Drake

BOOK CHOICE: Light on Yoga: The Bible of Modern Yoga by B. K. S. Iyengar

LUXURY ITEM: A photograph of Samantha's children

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space by Spiritualized

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2020.

Actor and director Samantha Morton, shares her castaway choices with Lauren Laverne.

From UB40 to Spiritualised, the actor Samantha Morton, shares her castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From October 2020.

He impressed the theatre world when he played Mozart in Amadeus, and won our hearts as the genial Scot, Gareth, in Four Weddings and a Funeral.

Like many actors, he learned his trade in rep.

It's a good place to make mistakes, he says, recalling how he fell twenty foot through a trap door during 'A Christmas Carol'.

DISC ONE: Tchaikovsky - Suite No. 3 in G major

DISC TWO: Wagner - Tannhäuser Overture

DISC THREE: : Rodrigo - Concierto De Aranjuez - Narciso Yepes

DISC FOUR: Mozart - Vorrei spiegarvi, o Dio! (aria)

DISC FIVE: Alan Rawsthorne - Piano Concerto No.2 – Allegro

DISC SIX: Jeff Buckley - Lilac Wine

DISC SEVEN: Schubert - String Quintet in C major - 2nd movement

DISC EIGHT: Mojca Zlobko - Adagio Amoroso

BOOK CHOICE: String Quintet in C Major - Adagio by Franz Schubert

LUXURY CHOICE: Dictionary

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Nose hair trimmer

Producer: Angie Nehring

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2000.

From Jeff Buckley to Tchaikovsky. Actor Simon Callow shares his castaway music choices with Sue Lawley. From 2000.

Before she was 30, Ann hadn't so much as walked with a rucksack and had no experience of navigating with a compass. Then her husband saw a newspaper advert seeking ordinary women to join an all-women relay to the North Pole. Ann was successful and since then she has walked to both Poles, become a Polar guide and set her sights set on being the first British woman to walk solo to the North Pole.

While she is on her expeditions, the life she leaves behind is also far from routine - she is a mother to four children including triplets. She has met some criticism for leaving her children for long periods, but she responds by saying that they are her inspiration - she wants to demonstrate to them how to live life to the full.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2007.

Born in Kuala Lumpur in 1960, Joe showed an early adventurous spirit and love of sport at school. But it was only after reading the classic account of attempted ascents on the Eiger - 'The White Spider' - by Heinrich Harrer that he developed an interest in his future passion.

Joe famously tackled a previously unconquered route up Siula Grande - a peak in the Peruvian Andes. This climb was to make his name – with his partner Simon Yates making the first successful ascent of the mountain's west face. But they hit difficulties after Joe shattered his leg on their descent. The actions that Simon subsequently took caused controversy.

Yet told he'd never climb again, Joe wasn't to be thwarted...

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2004.

From Joy Division to Etta James, mountaineer Joe Simpson shares his castaway choices.

Pen Hadow made polar history in 2003 by becoming the first man to walk solo and unsupported the 478 miles from the northern coast of Canada to the North Pole.

It was the culmination of a death-bed pledge. He had made a commitment immediately after his father's death that he would prove the family name by succeeding in the challenge - described by Sir Ranulph Fiennes as the 'greatest endurance feat left on earth'. He'd made two unsuccessful attempts at the ordeal before succeeding.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2004.

Adventurer and businessman Simon Murray shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

What many of us would struggle to do over three life-times he has managed in one - as a teenager, nursing a broken heart and determined to prove himself, he joined the French Foreign Legion. Fighting in the Algerian war, he risked his life many times over; combat was at close quarters and was very bloody.

Next, he set his sights on business - he ran some of the most well-known companies in South East Asia and was one of Chris Patten's key allies during the handover of Hong Kong. Then, in his 60s and looking for a new challenge, he chanced upon the idea of polar adventure, and went on to become the oldest person to walk unsupported to the South Pole.

But after all this, his greatest achievement, he says, is his marriage. Perhaps it's no surprise that his wife of 43 years, Jennifer, is the first woman to have flown a helicopter solo around the world. These days their three children try to curb their enthusiasm for dangerous pursuits. But, Simon snorts, the couple simply say: 'we're not listening.

This programme contains descriptions that some listeners may find disturbing.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2009.

From Annie Lennox to Giacomo Puccini, the adventurer shares his castaway choices.

In a climbing career spanning 48 years, Chris has stood astride British mountaineering 'like a hairy colossus', climbing and leading expeditions as well as photographing and writing about them.

Along the way he's seen many friends perish on the mountains and more than once narrowly escaped death himself.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1999.

From Salad Days to Joan Baez, mountaineer Chris Bonington shares his castaway choices.

As a teenager he says it was British music that he tuned in to - listening to The Beatles, The Yardbirds and The Who.

He realised that while rock music had many heroes, there were few villains - that was the territory he marked out for himself. He developed his trademark look - blackened eyes, straggly hair and glamorous clothes - and set about designing live shows that were gleefully gory and macabre.

While critics have described him as 'the world's most beloved heavy metal entertainer', it took him a while to untangle himself from his creation.

'For a long time I honestly didn't know where I began and Alice ended. My friends at the time were Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and I was trying to keep up with them. And I realised when they all died that you didn't have to be your character off stage.'

DISC ONE: The Yardbirds - Happenings Ten Years Time Ago

DISC TWO: The Beach Boys - I Get Around

DISC THREE: The Who - I'm a Boy

DISC FOUR: Laura Nyro - Timer

DISC FIVE: King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man (incl. Mirrors)

DISC SIX: Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing

DISC SEVEN: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Work Song

DISC EIGHT: Bob Dylan - Ballad of a Thin Man

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Work Song

BOOK CHOICE: Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut

LUXURY CHOICE: An indoor golf driving range

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2010.

American rock singer Alice Cooper is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Bob Dylan to The Who. US rock singer Alice Cooper shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From November 2010.

Singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen. is castaway by Kirsty Young.

His career has brought him 20 Grammys, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award and his albums sell in their millions around the world. He grew up in New Jersey where the Catholic church played a central role in his early life. The family teetered on the brink of poverty, and his first guitar was rented, rather than bought. He spent his apprentice years as a musician and singer with local bands before landing a record deal in 1972. When 'Born to Run' was released in 1975 it turned him into a household name. His first Top Ten single was 'Hungry Heart', ahead of his most successful album 'Born in the USA' which was released in 1984.

In spite of having long transcended the environment he grew up in, Springsteen has remained a chronicler of blue-collar lives. His records are frequently a political commentary on the struggles of ordinary Americans. In the Nineties he settled into family life with his wife Patti Scialfa who sings with his E Street Band.

DISC ONE: Elvis Presley - Hound Dog

DISC TWO: The Beatles - I Want to Hold Your Hand

DISC THREE: The Rolling Stones - It's All Over Now

DISC FOUR: Van Morrison - Madame George

DISC FIVE: Marvin Gaye - What's Going On

DISC SIX: James Brown - Out of Sight

DISC SEVEN: Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone

DISC EIGHT:

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone

BOOK CHOICE: Woody Guthrie: A Life by Joe Klein

LUXURY CHOICE: A guitar

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2016.

Singer Bruce Springsteen is castaway by Kirsty Young

From Bob Dylan to Van Morrison. Singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2016.

Bruce grew up in New Jersey where the Catholic church played a central role in his early life. The family teetered on the brink of poverty, and his first guitar was rented, rather than bought. He spent his apprentice years as a musician and singer with local bands before landing a record deal in 1972.

In the 1990s he settled into family life with his wife Patti Scialfa who sings with his E Street Band.

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Country rock singer Emmylou Harris is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Born in Alabama in 1947, her musical influences were folk rather than country. Initially, she wanted to be an actress, but, influenced by Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, she turned to singing folk instead and began performing in the bars of Greenwich Village.

But, by the age of 24, it seemed as if her singing career was over - she was a single mother and had returned home to live with her mother, only singing in local bars.

It was a chance encounter that led to her being heard by Gram Parsons - formerly of The Byrds and later The Flying Burrito Brothers. They worked together on two albums and invented what has become country rock - a fusion of folk, country and rock music.

To date she has won 11 Grammys and in 1992 was inducted into the Grand Old Opry. She now writes her own music.

She is three-times divorced and now travels everywhere with her mother.

DISC ONE: Waylon Jennings - Dreaming My Dreams With You

DISC TWO: The Staple Singers - Uncloudy Day

DISC THREE: The Band - Up On Cripple Creek

DISC FOUR: Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Talk to Me of Mendocino

DISC FIVE: Neil Young - The Emperor of Wyoming

DISC SIX: Bruce Springsteen - Mansion on the Hill

DISC SEVEN: Daniel Lanois - The Maker

DISC EIGHT: Ensemble of the Bulgarian Republic - Polegnala E Todora (Theodora is Dozing)

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Kate & Anna McGarrigle - Talk to Me of Mendocino

BOOK CHOICE: Blank book

LUXURY CHOICE: A library

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2003.

Country music star Emmylou Harris is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From The Band to The Staple Singers. Country music star Emmylou Harris shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2003.

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American composer, singer and songwriter Randy Newman is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Colleagues say he stands shoulder-to-shoulder with musical legends Cole Porter and George Gershwin.

He first made his name by writing mordant and often satirical pop songs - including A Few Words in Defence of Our Country, Political Science and Short People. For the past 25 years he has been better known for his Hollywood film music - including writing the scores for the first four Disney/Pixar films.

Randy held the unique distinction for being Oscar-nominated 15 times without winning until 2002, when he picked up the award for Best Original Song for If I Didn't Have You from Monsters Inc.

His songs are often written from the point of view of unlikeable characters - from slave masters to stalkers - it was a style, he acknowledges, that wasn't universally liked, but he adds: 'I wouldn't have it any differently'.

DISC ONE: Beethoven's String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 - The Hollywood String Quartet

DISC TWO: Alfred Newman - Goodbyes

DISC THREE: George Jones - The Door

DISC FOUR: Fletcher Henderson - The Stampede

DISC FIVE: Igor Stravinsky's Sacrificial Dance (from The Rite of Spring) - Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Benjamin Zander

DISC SIX: Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 in A major, 1st movement - London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Haitink -

DISC SEVEN: Mahler - Symphony No. 9 in D major, 4th movement - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Herbert von Karajan

DISC EIGHT: Ray Charles - Come Rain or Come Shine

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Hollywood String Quartet - Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135

BOOK CHOICE: The Divine Comedy (with translation) - Dante Alighieri

LUXURY CHOICE: A piano

Producer: Jane Thurlow

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2008.

Singer-songwriter Randy Newman is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Beethoven to Ray Charles. Singer-songwriter Randy Newman shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2008.

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Award-winning author, poet, feminist and activist, Alice Walker shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young

Her novel The Color Purple brought Alice worldwide attention and acclaim. The story of a poor black girl surviving in the deep American south, between the wars, it's a landmark work, disturbing and exhilarating in equal measure.

If one subscribes to the idea that 'art is a wound turned to light', then Alice Walker's early life proved crucial to her future creations. Shot and blinded in one eye by her brother's BB gun it was through the isolation of her injury that she began to write. She once described poetry as 'medicine'.

She has also said, 'I know the world's a mess, but there's so much that's gorgeous in it. I wish everybody could have what I have.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2013.

From Beethoven to Stevie Wonder, author Alice Walker shares her castaway choices.

American actress Gillian Anderson shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley

Best known as Dana Scully in The X-Files , her TV role won her two Screen Actors Guild awards, an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2003.

From Radiohead to Schubert. X-Files' Gillian Anderson shares her castaway choices

From 'Big' to 'Sleepless in Seattle', 'Captain Phillips' to 'Apollo 13', Tom's long and distinguished film-making career has brought him multiple awards and many plaudits. He's the recipient of eight Emmys, one Bafta and four Golden Globes and was the youngest ever actor to be given a lifetime achievement award by the American Film institute. The voice of Woody in the 'Toy Story' films, he won the first of his two Oscars in 1993 for Philadelphia and again the following year for Forrest Gump.

His parents split up when he was 5 and he went to live with his father. By the age of 10 he'd lived in ten different houses in five different cities. Tom loved school and developed a passion for history which is reflected in the film he made with Steven Spielberg, 'Saving Private Ryan' and the TV mini-series 'Band of Brothers' and 'The Pacific' which he also produced.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2016.

From the Beatles to Richard Strauss, actor Tom Hanks makes his castaway choices.

Life, death, desire, fear, beauty, horror - Damian's creative preoccupations are standard fair; his art - using sharks, maggots, butterflies, glass, formaldehyde and even sometimes paint - is not. His best known works have become iconic symbols of contemporary culture and his exhibitions and auctions attract attention the way a carcass attracts flies.

Growing up in Leeds, Damian's mother was something of an early artistic influence - she had dots painted on the front door and whenever Damien said he'd finished a drawing, she'd lay another sheet of paper down and tell her son 'carry on.

He once said, 'People don't like contemporary art but all art starts life as contemporary. I'm sure there were people in caves going 'I like your cave but I hate that crap you've got on the wall'.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2013

Kirsty Young's castaway is artist Damien Hirst.

Painter Paula Rego shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Born in Portugal, she was an only child, and spent her days sitting with the maids as they told tales around the kitchen table.

Now she makes up stories about the people she knows and weaves them into her pictures. Like those early fairytales, her portraits always have a touch of danger about them. If you look the devil in the face, she says, face your fears and paint them - then they lose the power to scare you.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1997.

Sue Lawley's castaway is painter Paula Rego.

Yoko was already an avant-garde artist in her own right when, in 1968, she started dating one of the most famous men in the world, John Lennon. Then, depending on who you listen to, she either stole him from the nation or helped him to focus on what was important to them both.

Now, she discusses how it felt to be so reviled in the press, looks back on their life together and recalls the shocking night of his murder. In a remarkably frank interview, Yoko reveals how she still speaks to him - and he still communicates with her.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2007.

Chef, TV presenter and cookery writer, Angela Hartnett MBE shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Angela was born in 1968 to an Italian mother and Irish father, and her culinary career has been influenced by her Italian background and her grandmother's cooking.

After studying for a history degree, Angela began work in the catering industry before joining Gordon Ramsay at his restaurant Aubergine. In 2002 she took over at the Connaught, London, as the first woman chef to run its restaurant. When it closed five years later, she moved on to open her own restaurant, Murano, in 2008. She achieved a Michelin star in both establishments and has expanded her restaurant business.

She has been a regular contributor on some of TV and radio's most popular cookery shows. In 2007, she was awarded an MBE for Services to the Hospitality Industry.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2018.

Angela Hartnett, chef, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs.

Prize-winning chef, restaurateur, TV presenter and cookery book writer, Marcus Wareing shares his castaway choices with Lauren Laverne.

Marcus gained his first Michelin star aged just 26.

He grew up in Southport, and by the age of 11 was helping out in his family's fruit and vegetable business, which dominated his father's life. Marcus assumed he would join the business, but his father told him to take a catering course instead, as the family firm had no future.

When Marcus was 18, he moved to London to work at the Savoy. He loved the experience of life in a high-pressure professional kitchen and was quickly promoted. In 1993 he joined Gordon Ramsay at Aubergine, creating one of the most celebrated London restaurants of the time.

He went on to launch a number of Michelin star-winning restaurants, often working with Gordon Ramsay and his company, before a much-publicized falling-out.

Marcus now runs a group of restaurants in London, founded with his wife Jane, and since 2014 he has appeared as a judge and mentor on the TV series MasterChef: The Professionals.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2019.

Marcus Wareing, chef, shares the soundtrack of his life with Lauren Laverne

Chef and restaurateur, Ruth Rogers shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Born in America, she has become one of the UK's most celebrated cooks. Despite not being a trained chef, she set up The River Café with her business partner, the late Rose Gray, in 1987. The focus was on high quality, seasonal produce cooked the Italian way.

Many of today's top chefs including Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Theo Randall, Sam Clark and Allegra McEvedy began their careers in their kitchen. The café was awarded a Michelin star in 1997.

The youngest of three children, Ruth Rogers' parents were both immigrants and very political. In the late 1960s, she moved to London where she joined other Americans protesting against the Vietnam War. In 1969 she met the architect, Richard, now Lord, Rogers and they married in 1973.

The couple moved to Paris when Richard Rogers and his partners won the contract to design the Pompidou Centre. There she learned the importance of seasonality: subsequent visits to Italy shifted her passion to Italian cooking.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2015.

Ruth Rogers, chef and restaurateur, shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Chef, restaurateur and TV presenter, Tom Kerridge shares his castaway choices with Lauren Laverne.

Tom made his name with his Buckinghamshire pub The Hand and Flowers, which he opened with his wife in 2005. It is the only British pub with two Michelin stars.

Tom grew up near Gloucester. After his parents divorced when he was 11, his mother took two jobs to support the family, and Tom was often left to cook for himself and his younger brother. As a teenager, he worked as a TV actor, playing small roles in dramas such as Miss Marple.

He entered his first professional kitchen at 18, and immediately fell in love with the world he found, with its constant pressures and rushes of adrenalin. He studied at catering college at the same time.

As well as now running his own pubs and a London restaurant, Tom has presented numerous TV series and is the author of five best-selling cookbooks.

More recently, he made headlines with his weight loss. He shed 12 stone after deciding he needed to change his life as he reached the age of 40.

He is married to the sculptor Beth Cullen-Kerridge.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2018.

Tom Kerridge, chef, is interviewed by Lauren Laverne

Kirsty Young introduces an archive episode revisiting the castaway choices of a BAFTA winning and Academy Award nominated actor.

Bill Nighy is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Originally from Caterham in Surrey, he left school at 15 without any qualifications and ended up working at his local employment office. He hoped to become an author and began work on The Field magazine as a messenger boy, but then ran away to Paris at seventeen to write a novel. This venture failed and he ended up begging on the streets before returning to Britain and the Guildford School of Drama and Dance.

His first film role was as a delivery boy in Joan Collins' steamy film The Bitch. He's featured in numerous stage, TV, and radio dramas including the acclaimed Men's Room in 1991 and, more recently, in State of Play, where he played a newspaper editor. His career has been described by some critics as a slow burn rather than a beacon, although he's now widely recognised as achieving the acclaim he deserves. In 2004 he won Best Supporting Actor at the BAFTAS for his role as Billy Mack, a washed up singer in the film Love Actually.

DISC ONE: The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter

DISC TWO: James Brown - I Got You (I Feel Good)

DISC THREE: Bob Dylan - Just Like Tom Thumb Blues

DISC FOUR: The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again

DISC FIVE: Marvin Gaye - My Love Is Waiting

DISC SIX: John Lee Hooker and Van Morrison - Healing Game

DISC SEVEN: Freaky Realistic - Koochie Ryder

DISC EIGHT: The Rolling Stones - Winter

BOOK CHOICE: 1st edition of 49 Stories - Ernest Hemingway

LUXURY CHOICE: Boxed set of blues harps (harmonicas) and instruction book

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Rolling Stones - Winter

Producer: Isabel Sargent

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2004.

Actor Bill Nighy is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From James Brown to The Who. Actor Bill Nighy shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2004.

Cate Blanchett is arguably the most celebrated Australian actor ever, winning two Academy Awards, three BAFTAs, three Golden Globes and dozens of other honours around the world.

She grew up in Melbourne, and although she enjoyed music and drama at school, she initially had no plans to pursue a career as an actor. She started a degree course in economics and fine art, but dropped out after a year, and later won a place at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney.

She found international fame before she was 30, playing Elizabeth I in the highly-acclaimed film Elizabeth, winning an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA. Since then, she has appeared in more than 70 films and 20 stage productions. She won an Oscar and a BAFTA for playing Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, directed by Martin Scorsese, and other notable roles include the elf leader Galadriel in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings series and a version of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There. She won her second Oscar in 2014 for her performance in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine. Her TV work includes the acclaimed series Mrs America, where she played the conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, and she has recently taken on the role of an internationally famous composer and conductor in the film Tár, written and directed by Todd Field.

Cate has received the Australian Centenary medal and is a Companion of the Order of Australia. She is married to the director and playwright Andrew Upton.

DISC ONE: Mahler: Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor – II composed by Gustav Mahler, performed by Berlin Philharmonic and conducted by Claudio Abbado

DISC TWO: Bésame Mucho by Trio Los Panchos

DISC THREE: Tannhäuser: Pilgrims' Chorus composed by Richard Wagner and performed by Norman Luboff Choir, New Symphony Orchestra of London, conducted by Leopold Stokowski

DISC FOUR: Go Tell the Women by Grinderman

DISC FIVE: Proof by I am Kloot

DISC SIX: Blow the Wind Southerly by Kathleen Ferrier

DISC SEVEN: The Little Weaver Bird by Molly Drake

DISC EIGHT: Lil' Darlin' by Count Basie And His Orchestra

BOOK CHOICE: Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit

LUXURY ITEM: Time

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Tannhäuser: Pilgrims' Chorus composed by Richard Wagner and performed by Norman Luboff Choir, New Symphony Orchestra of London, conducted by Leopold Stokowski

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2022.

Cate Blanchett, actor, shares the soundtrack of her life with Lauren Laverne.

From Count Basie to Gustav Mahler. Actor Cate Blanchett shares her castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2022.

Cate Blanchett is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Cate is arguably the most celebrated Australian actor ever, winning two Academy Awards, three BAFTAs, three Golden Globes and dozens of other honours around the world.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2022.

Actor Cate Blanchett is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Kirsty Young introduces an archive episode revisiting the castaway choices of a BAFTA and Academy Award winning actor.

Colin Firth is castaway by Sue Lawley.

He created an iconic moment in British TV history when, as Jane Austen's hero Mr Darcy, he emerged wet-shirted from his stately lake.

To his surprise, he became a sex symbol, was dubbed the 'male Ursula Andress' and was voted Britain's Most Popular Actor in a BBC poll. He went on to send up the role on the big screen - as the ironically-named Mark Darcy, the brooding boyfriend of Bridget Jones.

He always knew he wanted to act - from the moment when, as a five year old boy, he took on the role of Jack Frost at a school panto. He studied at the Drama Centre in London's Chalk Farm - where one of his teachers, Christopher Fettes, said he was by nature a poet and compared his acting to that of Paul Schofield.

Married to an Italian woman and with two young sons, he now divides his time between life in London and in Italy.

DISC ONE: We People Who Are Darker Than Blue - Curtis Mayfield

DISC TWO: Odoo - Fela Kuti

DISC THREE: Heart Attack and Vine - Tom Waits

DISC FOUR: Opening of the Kyrie from Mozart's Mass in C Minor – The Monteverdi Choir with English Baroque Soloists, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner

DISC FIVE: Lost Cause - Beck

DISC SIX: The Stealer - Free

DISC SEVEN: Willin' - Little Feat

DISC EIGHT: Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 3 in D minor, 4th movement - Maureen Forrester (soloist) with The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zubin Mehta

BOOK CHOICE: Stories of Woody Allen

LUXURY CHOICE: My guitar

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Opening of the Kyrie from Mozart's Mass in C Minor – The Monteverdi Choir with English Baroque Soloists, conducted by John Eliot Gardiner

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

Producer: Isabel Sargent

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2005.

From Curtis Mayfield to Mahler. Actor Colin Firth is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Curtis Mayfield to Gustav Mahler. Actor Colin Firth shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2012.

One of the UK's most versatile and popular actresses, Imelda Staunton is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Throughout her career she has consistently refused to be typecast, moving effortlessly from playing brassy Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, to the oppressed Sonya in Uncle Vanya, to a grieving mother in Peter's Friends.

She starred in Mike Leigh's production Vera Drake - playing the eponymous heroine, a 1950s housewife who unbeknownst to her family carried out illegal abortions. She won huge acclaim for her performance, including an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA award for Best Actress.

Imelda Staunton was born in Archway, London, in 1956. Her mother Bridie was a hairdresser, and the family lived over her shop, whilst Imelda's father worked on the roads.

It was an elocution and drama teacher at her school, Jacqueline Stoker, who encouraged her talent, adapting plays for her and putting her in for school drama competitions. She also encouraged Imelda to apply for drama school.

At the time, Imelda had never heard of RADA - but she was offered a place there and studied alongside Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson and Timothy Spall.

DISC ONE: Lonnie Donegan - Frankie & Johnny

DISC TWO: Elvis Presley - All Shook Up

DISC THREE: London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult – Handel's For unto us a Child is born (from Messiah)

DISC FOUR: Édith Piaf - Hymne À L'Amour

DISC FIVE: Julie Covington & Ian Charleson - I'll Know

DISC SIX: Bette Midler - Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy

DISC SEVEN: Bridie Staunton/Maria Sonia - Reels and Jigs

DISC EIGHT: Alison Krauss - Down to the River to Pray

BOOK CHOICE: A book on astronomy

LUXURY CHOICE: Modelling clay and tools

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Julie Covington & Ian Charleson - I'll Know

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2005.

Actress Imelda Staunton is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Handel and Elvis Presley. Actress Imelda Staunton shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From May 2005.

Musician and orchestra founder Chi-chi Nwanoku shares her choices with Kirsty Young.

Chi-chi is a double bass player and founder of Europe's first professional majority black and minority ethnic orchestra, Chineke!.

She's the eldest of five children, born to a Nigerian father and an Irish mother. Early on, Chi-chi discovered two competing passions: playing the piano and 100 metre sprinting. She was aiming to qualify for the 1976 Olympics when she suffered a knee injury which cut short her life as an athlete. Her music teacher then suggested that she could have a career as a musician if she took up 'an unpopular orchestral instrument'. She began learning the double bass a week later.

She was a student at the Royal Academy of Music and for over 30 years has played with renowned orchestras, including the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, English Baroque Soloists, London Classical Players and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, which she co-founded and where she was principal double bass for three decades.

In 2015, she set up Chineke! to support, inspire and encourage black and minority ethnic musicians.

The Chineke! orchestra made its debut at the BBC Proms in 2017, and Chi-chi was awarded an OBE for her services to music.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2018.

From Julie Andrews to Schubert. Musician Chi-chi Nwanoku shares her castaway choices.

Naturalist Chris Packham shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

TV presenter, filmmaker, writer, photographer, every bit of his work revolves around wildlife.

If he's not busy telling us why we should love midges Chris is enthusing about the hearing capacity of a barn owl. His passion for animals is clear, what they think of him remains a little more uncertain; he's been attacked by a baboon, charged by lions and bitten by a puff adder. His obsession with the natural world began early when a predictable boyhood fascination for tadpoles and ladybirds grew to encompass mosquito larvae, lizards, snakes and bats.

As a teenager he collected badger droppings by day and pogoed with electric blue hair at Clash gigs by night. These days he distinguishes himself by his impressive knowledge of his subject and his outspoken views on everything from countryside culls to the problems with cat owners.

He says, 'I'll never rest until I've tried to do my own small bit in terms of changing the environment so it's a better place. I won't do it for my grandchildren because I won't have any and I won't do it for yours. I'll do it because it's the right thing to do.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2013.

From Bowie to The Smiths. Naturalist and presenter Chris Packham's castaway choices.

Conductor Marin Alsop shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young

Music Director of both The Baltimore Symphony and The Sao Paulo State Symphony Orchestra, she is a maestro with a mission: music, she believes, is a powerful vehicle for social change.

She had the good fortune to be brought up in 'a household that exuded possibility' and was filled with music - both her parents played professionally. She took up the piano aged two, swapped to the violin at 6 and then aged 9, saw Leonard Bernstein at work and made the decision that conducting would be her career. Much later she would go on to be mentored by the man who inspired her.

It bores her when interviewers ask why there aren't more women conductors - nonetheless her capacity to maximise the few opportunities she was given as a young woman making her way in an exclusively mans' world gives one a flavour of her indomitability. Her day-to-day job after all is working out how to convince 100 experts to do what she wants.

She says, 'maybe it's being an only child: you want to bring people together and create this big family feeling, I don't know what it is but I always gravitated towards organising.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.

From Aretha Franklin to Gustav Mahler, conductor Marin Alsop shares her castaway choices.

Violinist Nicola Benedetti shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Nicola had her first violin lesson at the age of four, and by the age of eight, she was leading the National Children's Orchestra of Scotland. By the grand old age of 10 she was boarding at the Yehudi Menuhin School and receiving lessons from the great man himself.

Her big break came when she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition - the first Scot to win it. Lucrative recording contracts followed together with a hectic programme of concerts. She is now world-renowned as a soloist and chamber musician.

Of Italian descent, her family wasn't particularly musical though the qualities of discipline, hard work and perseverance meant that fun & freedom came after music practice. Passionate about the importance of classical music in education, she walks the talk, committed to developing young musical talent through charity work and masterclasses. Nicola received an MBE from the Queen for these services in 2013 - and a CBE in 2019.

She says, 'when I teach seven year olds and they can play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, I say 'that's amazing! Well Done!' And then occasionally Mum would remind me 'do you remember what you were playing at that age?

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2014.

From Aretha Franklin to Rachmaninov. Violinist Nicola Benedetti's castaway choices.

Growing up in Liverpool in the 1960s, while other youngsters were listening to The Beatles, he was transfixed by Mahler and was determined to become a conductor. His talent was prodigious. He won an international conducting competition aged just 19 and so, with plenty of enthusiasm but scant experience, began his career. Initially, because of his youth, his approach was collaborative rather than autocratic and it has been a style that brought tremendous results during his 18-year association with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He insists that his approach with the Berlin Philharmonic is about teamwork too - but concedes that it is an orchestra that contains some very strong characters and very big egos.

He tells Kirsty how, choosing his Desert Island Discs, he has been drawn towards music that expressed joy and pain in equal measure.

Favourite track: Scherza Infida from Ariodante by George Frideric Handel

Book: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Luxury: Italian coffee machine and grinder

Producer: Sharon Banoff

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2008.

From Bach to Joni Mitchell, conductor Simon Rattle shares his castaway choices.

George was born in Texas into a large but poor family. His earliest memories are of being hungry. He found school difficult and felt he was written off because of his scruffy clothes. He had a short temper and would often get into fights as a child, sometimes beating people up for no reason. Soon he discovered that mugging was an easy way to get funds and terrorised his neighbourhood, although he never used knives - just his fists.

Heading nowhere fast, George was saved by The Job Corps, a project started by President Lyndon Johnson which aimed to get training and jobs for young people with few opportunities in life. It introduced him to boxing and he began to train seriously.

George won the gold medal for heavyweight boxing at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 and became a professional boxer. He defeated Joe Frazier in 1973 and became heavyweight champion at the age of 24.

After being defeated by Muhammed Ali at the infamous Rumble in the Jungle in 1974, George took up religion and became a preacher, giving up boxing for good, or so he thought.

By the mid-1980s George was short of money: he was building a community centre and wanted it to be well stocked with equipment. So he returned to the only honest way he knew of making money. Ten years out of practice in 1987 when he was 38, George started to train again.

Remarkably, on 5 November 1994, at the age of 45, George won the heavyweight title for the second time - this time against Michael Moorer, aged 26, by a knockout in the 10th round.

DISC ONE: You Send Me - Sam Cooke

DISC TWO: William Tell Overture - Gioachino Rossini

DISC THREE: Don't Be A Dropout - James Brown

DISC FOUR: I Wish It Would Rain - The Temptations

DISC FIVE: George Foreman's Little Girls - Vienna Boys' Choir

DISC SIX: Mamma Say Knock You Out - LL Cool J

DISC SEVEN: All You Need Is Love - The Beatles

DISC EIGHT: Strangers in the Night - Frank Sinatra

BOOK CHOICE: An anthology of poems which include the poem Waiting by John Burroughs

LUXURY CHOICE: A pillow

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: All You Need Is Love - The Beatles

Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2003.

From The Beatles to Sam Cooke. Former heavyweight champion, George Foreman, shares his choices with Sue Lawley. From 2003.

Maya Angelou inherited her love of music from her grandmother, who used to sing to her as a child at the family home in the southern United States.

The first volume of her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was a bestseller, describing her life as singer, actress, stripper, dancer and writer.

Maya looks back on a remarkable career and chooses eight tracks she would take to the mythical island.

DISC ONE: How Great Thou Art - Mahalia Jackson

DISC TWO: A Quiet Place - Max Roach

DISC THREE: Killing Me Softly (With His Song) - Roberta Flack

DISC FOUR: I Just Called To Say I Love You - Stevie Wonder

DISC FIVE: East Of The Sun - Sarah Vaughan

DISC SIX: One For The Road - Frank Sinatra

DISC SEVEN: Summertime - George Gershwin

DISC EIGHT: Georgia On My Mind - Ray Charles

BOOK CHOICE: Negro Caravan - selected and edited by Sterling Brown, Arthur P Davis and Uylsses Lee

LUXURY CHOICE: The Kumasi Market painting by John T. Biggers

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: How Great Thou Art - Mahalia Jackson

Sir Michael Parkinson was the host of Desert Island Discs from 1986 - 1988.

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

Producer: Ray Abbott

With his own band, Chic, Nile has been enticing people on to the dance floor since the mid-1970s with hits like Le Freak and Good Times. With over 200 production credits to his name, he has worked on many highly successful albums from Sister Sledge's We Are Family to David Bowie's Let's Dance and Madonna's Like a Virgin.

Born in New York City in 1952 to a teenage mother, he spent his early life immersed in his parents' bohemian, beatnik, and drug-dominated lifestyle. Drugs played a part in Nile's life too from an early age, and he took his first acid trip with Timothy Leary at the age of 15. After learning to play the guitar, he got his musical break touring with the Sesame Street stage show and playing in the house band of Harlem's Apollo Theatre, where he met bassist Bernard Edwards with whom he developed a productive musical partnership and went on to found Chic.

Following the Disco Sucks movement of the late 1970s, Nile and Bernard turned to production, and sprinkled their magic dust on Sister Sledge and Diana Ross. When Nile and Bernard went their separate ways in the early 1980s, Nile forged ahead on his own, working with, among others, Madonna, Michael Jackson, David Bowie and Duran Duran.

Nile went into rehab in 1994 and has been clean and sober for the past 24 years and has received successful treatment for cancer twice.

He won three Grammys for his 2013 collaboration with the French electronic music duo Daft Punk, and has recently released the first Chic album in 26 years.

DISC ONE: Chic - Le Freak

DISC TWO: The Beatles - A Day In The Life

DISC THREE: The Doors - The End

DISC FOUR: The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced?

DISC FIVE: Sister Sledge - We Are Family

DISC SIX: David Bowie - Let's Dance

DISC SEVEN: Daft Punk - Get Lucky

DISC EIGHT: Chic - Good Times

BOOK CHOICE: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

LUXURY CHOICE: His ‘Hitmaker' guitar and an amp

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Doors - The End

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2018.

Musician and Chic co-founder Nile Rodgers is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Wendell is an American actor best known for his role as Bunk Moreland in the TV series The Wire. Since the series ended in 2008, he has made around 40 film and television appearances, including Treme, Selma and the legal drama Suits, in which he played Robert Zane, the father of Rachel Zane, played by Meghan Markle. His theatre credits range from The Cherry Orchard to Death of a Salesman.

Born in 1963, the youngest of three sons, Wendell grew up in the Pontchartrain Park area of New Orleans, which was the first middle-class African-American suburban-style development in the city. He graduated from the prestigious Juilliard School in New York and his career got off to a flying start with a small part opposite Tom Hanks in a film called The Money Pit. He hasn't been out of work since.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed Wendell's childhood home in New Orleans and he was instrumental in rebuilding his parents' house in Pontchartrain Park.

He also built 40 new homes and staged a production of Waiting for Godot on an empty street corner in one of the most devastated districts of the city.

DISC ONE: Jim Henson - Bein' Green (Featuring Kermit The Frog)

DISC TWO: Wynton Marsalis - Green Chimneys

DISC THREE: Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove (Part 1)

DISC FOUR: Mahalia Jackson - Take My Hand, Precious Lord

DISC FIVE: Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now

DISC SIX: Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up on Me

DISC SEVEN: Aaron Copland - Appalachian Spring (Doppio Movimento), performed by New York Philharmonic

DISC EIGHT: John Coltrane - A Love Supreme Part I: Acknowledgement

BOOK CHOICE: The Omni-americans: Black Experience And American Culture by Albert Murray.

LUXURY ITEM: A multi-burner barbecue grill

CASTAWAY'S CHOICE: Take My Hand, Precious Lord by Mahalia Jackson

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2019.

Actor Wendell Pierce is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

From Aaron Copland to Wynton Marsalis. Actor Wendell Pierce shares his castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2019.

As a child, Whoopi used to practise the acceptance speeches she was sure she would one day make - little surprise then that she's one of a handful of people to have won an Oscar, a Grammy, a Tony and Emmy awards.

DISC ONE: Lovely Day - Bill Withers

DISC TWO: Jackie Wilson Said (I'm In Heaven When You Smile) - Van Morrison

DISC THREE: Shamas-Ud-Doha - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

DISC FOUR: Who knows Where The Time Goes? - Judy Collins

DISC FIVE: Superstition - Stevie Wonder

DISC SIX: Quimbara - Celia Cruz

DISC SEVEN: Me & Mr Jones - Amy Winehouse

DISC EIGHT: The Flower Duet - Joan Sutherland and Jane Berbié

BOOK CHOICE: Letters to a Young Poet - Raine Maria Rilke

LUXURY CHOICE: Wise potato chips

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Lovely Day - Bill Withers

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2009.

Actor, comic and producer Whoopi Goldberg is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Amy Winehouse to Bill Withers. Comic and actress Whoopi Goldberg shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2009.

Writer Anne Enright is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Anne won the Booker Prize for her fourth novel, The Gathering, in 2007. She has published eight novels, many short stories, and a non-fiction work called Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood, about the birth of her two children.

Born in Dublin in 1962, Anne is the youngest of five children. After taking an MA in Creative Writing at University of East Anglia, with teaching from Angela Carter and Malcolm Bradbury, she worked for six years as a TV producer for the Irish broadcaster RTE.

When her TV work left her feeling burned out, she began her writing career in earnest. Her book of short stories, The Portable Virgin, won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 1991, and she published her first novel, The Wig My Father Wore, in 1995. The Wren, her latest novel was published in 2023.

DISC ONE: Brahms Intermezzos: Op. 117, No.1 by Glenn Gould

DISC TWO: Jersey Girl by Tom Waits

DISC THREE: A Case Of You by Joni Mitchell

DISC FOUR: Then You'll Remember Me by Dé Danann

DISC FIVE: The Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash

DISC SIX: Hiawatha by Laurie Anderson

DISC SEVEN: Tower of Song by Leonard Cohen

DISC EIGHT: Soave sia il vento from Cosi fan Tutte, composed by Mozart, conducted by Karl Böhm, performed by Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Walter Berry, Christa Ludwig and Philharmonia Orchestra.

BOOK CHOICE: 'In Search of Lost Time' by Marcel Proust

LUXURY ITEM: High thread-count cotton sheets

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Soave sia il vento from Cosi fan Tutte, composed by Mozart

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2020.

Irish writer Anne Enright is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

From Joni Mitchell to Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte. Writer Anne Enright shares her castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2020.

[LISTEN NOW]

Writer, Arundhati Roy is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Arundhati won the Booker Prize for her first novel, The God Of Small Things, which has been translated into 40 languages and became the best-selling book ever by a non-expatriate Indian. After a gap of 20 years, her second novel was published in 2017.

Brought up in Kerala, her Syrian Christian mother left her marriage when her children were young and set up a small school where Arundhati and her brother were educated. Raised to be independent, aged 16, Arundhati left home to study architecture in Delhi before being introduced to the film world by her second husband.

Since the publication of The God of Small Things in 1997, she has continued to write non-fiction, using her influence her to focus on tackling injustice.

She has campaigned against India's nuclear programme, dam-building, globalisation, religious intolerance and the inequality of Indian society.

DISC ONE: The Beatles - While My Guitar Gently Weeps

DISC TWO: Martin Taylor's Spirit of Django - Hi Lily, Hi Lo

DISC THREE: Paul Robeson - Ol' Man River

DISC FOUR: The Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday

DISC FIVE: Janis Joplin - Summertime

DISC SIX: Bhungar Khan - Jhatke Aaayo Chomasho

DISC SEVEN: Bhimsen Joshi - Raga Chhaya-Chhaya Malhar

DISC EIGHT: Leonard Cohen - Winter Lady

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Bhimsen Joshi - Raga Chhaya-Chhaya Malhar

BOOK CHOICE: Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam

LUXURY CHOICE: A Ratol Mango Tree

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2017.

From The Beatles to Bhimsen Joshi. Booker Prize winning writer Arundhati Roy shares her choices with Kirsty Young. From 2017.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer, Arundhati Roy.

She won the Booker Prize for her first novel, The God Of Small Things, which has been translated into 40 languages and became the best-selling book ever by a non-expatriate Indian. After a gap of 20 years, her second novel will be published in June.

Since the publication of The God of Small Things in 1997, she has continued to write non-fiction, using her influence her to focus on tackling injustice. She has campaigned against India's nuclear programme, dam-building, globalisation, religious intolerance and the inequality of Indian society.

[LISTEN NOW]

Writer Bernardine Evaristo is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Bernardine won the Booker Prize in 2019 for her novel, Girl, Woman, Other. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London.

She was born in May 1959, the fourth of eight children, to an English mother and a Nigerian father. She grew up in Woolwich in south London, and was educated at Eltham Hill Girls' Grammar School.

She spent her teenage years at the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and, after deciding that she wanted to be a professional actor at the age of 14, did a Community Theatre Arts course at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama.

After graduation she founded the Theatre of Black Women with two fellow students in the early 1980s and they began to write roles for themselves.

By the late 1980s, she had decided that it was the writing she enjoyed most.

Her first poetry collection was published in 1994, followed by a semi-autobiographical verse novel called Lara three years later. More books followed, experimenting with form and narrative perspective, often merging the past with the present, prose with poetry, the factual with the speculative, and reality with alternate realities. Girl, Woman, Other is her eighth book.

A longstanding activist and advocate, Bernardine has initiated several successful schemes to ensure increased representation of artists and writers of colour in the creative industries.

She is married to David, who she met in 2006, and lives in London.

DISC ONE: Malaika by Angélique Kidjo

DISC TWO: Zombie by Fela Kuti

DISC THREE: Breaths by Sweet Honey in the Rock

DISC FOUR: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free by Nina Simone

DISC FIVE: Woyaya by Osibisa

DISC SIX: Köln, January 24, 1975, part I by Keith Jarrett

DISC SEVEN: Things Have Changed by Bob Dylan

DISC EIGHT: Fight The Power by Public Enemy

BOOK CHOICE: The Norton Anthology of Poetry by Margaret Ferguson), Tim Kendall and Mary Jo Salter

LUXURY ITEM: A hologram of Bernardine's husband

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Köln, January 24, 1975, part I by Keith Jarrett

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2020.

From Keith Jarrett to Public Enemy. Writer Bernardine Evaristo shares her castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2020.

Bernardine Evaristo won the Booker Prize in 2019 for her novel, Girl, Woman, Other. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London.

Bernardine was born in May 1959, the fourth of eight children, to an English mother and a Nigerian father. She grew up in Woolwich in south London, and was educated at Eltham Hill Girls' Grammar School. She spent her teenage years at the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and, after deciding that she wanted to be a professional actor at the age of 14, did a Community Theatre Arts course at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama.

After graduation she founded the Theatre of Black Women with two fellow students in the early 1980s and they began to write roles for themselves. By the late 1980s, she had decided that it was the writing she enjoyed most.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

From Keith Jarrett to Public Enemy. Writer Bernardine Evaristo shares her castaway music choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2020.

[LISTEN NOW]

Writer Howard Jacobson is castaway by Kirsty Young.

After many years of swiping at literary prizes, in October 2010 Howard walked off with the biggest one going, the Man Booker.

His book, The Finkler Question, was a study of what it meant to be Jewish in England. It's a subject that has been very near to Howard Jacobson's heart.

He says: 'My sense of myself has always meant being on the outside. On the outside as a Jew, looking into gentile England, but also on the outside of Jewishness too. I have always felt myself to be on the outside of everything.

DISC ONE: Dame Janet Baker with the Bath Festival Orchestra, conducted by Yehudi Menuhin - Bach's Cantata No.82, “Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen ?

DISC TWO: Mario Lanza - Salvatore Cardillo & Ricardo Cordiferro's Core 'ngrato

DISC FOUR: Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Stars Fell on Alabama

DISC FIVE: Yossele Rosenblatt - Misratze B'Rachamim

DISC SIX: Graziella Sciutti & Eberhard Wachter with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Là ci darem la mano (from Don Giovanni)

DISC SEVEN: Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud & Pablo Casals - Franz Schubert's Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat major

DISC EIGHT: Al Bowlly with Lew Stone and His Band - You're a Sweetheart

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Al Bowlly with Lew Stone and His Band - You're a Sweetheart

BOOK CHOICE: The Oxford Book of English Verse edited by Christopher Ricks

LUXURY CHOICE: Never ending supply of pressed shirts and trousers

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.

From Al Bowlly to Schubert. Booker Prize winning Howard Jacobson shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2011.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer Howard Jacobson.

After many years of swiping at literary prizes, in October 2010 he walked off with the biggest one going, the Man Booker. His book, The Finkler Question, was a study of what it meant to be Jewish in England. It's a subject that has been very near to Howard Jacobson's heart. He says: 'My sense of myself has always meant being on the outside. On the outside as a Jew, looking into gentile England, but also on the outside of Jewishness too. I have always felt myself to be on the outside of everything.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Writer Howard Jacobson joins Kirsty Young to choose his Desert Island Discs

From Al Bowlly to Schubert. Writer & Booker Prize winner Howard Jacobson makes his music choices. With Kirsty Young. From 2011.

[LISTEN NOW]

Singer and songwriter Adele is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Adele is a singer and songwriter who has achieved record-breaking sales and global recognition for her four albums which document her life from the age of 19 onwards.

Her cache of awards includes 15 Grammys and nine BRITs. She also won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for the James Bond theme Skyfall which she co-wrote.

She was born Adele Laurie Blue Adkins in London in 1988. In 2002 she won a place at the BRIT School for Performing Arts where she studied music and developed her performing and song writing skills. In her final year a friend posted her three-song demo online which attracted the attention of several record companies.

In 2006 Adele signed to XL Recordings and the following year she released her first single, Hometown Glory. In 2008 she released her debut album, 19, and the following year she won Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Her next two albums 21 and 25 consolidated her superstar status. In 2013 she was appointed an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to music. Adele's fourth album, 30, was released in 2021. The songs addressed how she was adjusting to life post-divorce and her feelings about her new role as a co-parent.

Adele lives in Los Angeles with her son.

DISC ONE: Roam by The B-52's

DISC TWO: Dreams by Gabrielle

DISC THREE: Need Somebody by Shola Ama

DISC FOUR: He Needs Me by Nina Simone

DISC FIVE: Bills Bills Bills by Destiny's Child

DISC SIX: I'd Rather Go Blind by Etta James

DISC SEVEN: Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

DISC EIGHT: For All We Know by Donny Hathaway

BOOK CHOICE: The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur

LUXURY ITEM: A self-inflating mattress

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Dreams by Gabrielle

Producer: Paula McGinley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2022.

From The B-52's to Gabrielle. Singer and songwriter Adele shares her music choices with Lauren Laverne. From July 2022.

[LISTEN NOW]

Musician Guy Garvey is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Front man of the group 'Elbow' Guy's voice and lyrics have helped the band win pretty much every music prize going ... headlining Glastonbury too, and playing at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics.

Yet his image is that of an everyday, low key, unassuming bloke ... except that he isn't, he's penning and performing songs filled with intimacy, optimism and lyricism, that strike a chord with millions of fans.

For a long while his devotees were well versed in the art of delayed gratification - Elbow's debut album was released 11 years after the band members first made music together.

He writes his songs in his journal and has been keeping a diary since he was 14. Maybe it was the peace and calm of the blank page that first appealed - one of 7 kids he says he was brought up:

'in a house full of women that were singing, shouting, arguing, fighting over the bathroom. I'm ruined by these women, spoilt rotten'

DISC ONE: Talk Talk - New Grass

DISC TWO: Sly & the Family Stone - Thank You for Talkin' to Me, Africa

DISC THREE: Joni Mitchell - A Case of You

DISC FOUR: Public Enemy - Give It Up (edit)

DISC FIVE: English Chamber Orchestra with Arleen Augér and Yan Pascal Tortelier - Joseph Canteloube's Bailero from Chants d'Auvergne

DISC SIX: Jolie Holland - Wandering Angus

DISC SEVEN: Tom Waits - Picture in a Frame

DISC EIGHT: Joan As Police Woman - Real Life

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Talk Talk - New Grass

BOOK CHOICE: The collected works - J.D. Salinger

LUXURY CHOICE: Bushmills Irish Whiskey and ice

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2014.

Musician and 'Elbow' frontman Guy Garvey is castaway by Kirsty Young

From Joni Mitchell to Talk Talk. 'Elbow' lead singer Guy Garvey shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2014.

Guy Garvey, musician and frontman of Elbow, talks to Kirsty Young for Desert island Discs.

Front man of the group 'Elbow' his voice and lyrics have helped the band win pretty much every music prize going ... headlining Glastonbury too, and playing at the closing ceremony of the London Olympics. Yet his image is that of an everyday, low key, unassuming bloke ... except that he isn't, he's penning and preforming songs filled with intimacy, optimism and lyricism, that strike a chord with millions of fans.

He writes his songs in his journal and has been keeping a diary since he was 14. Maybe it was the peace and calm of the blank page that first appealed - one of 7 kids he says he was brought up 'in a house full of women that were signing, shouting, arguing, fighting over the bathroom. I'm ruined by these women, spoilt rotten

DISC TWO: Sly & the Family Stone - Thank you for Talkin' to me to Africa

[LISTEN NOW]

Singer and songwriter Neil Tennant is castaway by Kirsty Young.

He is best known as one half of The Pet Shop Boys which, over the past 20 years, has been one of Britain's most successful and popular bands, noted for combining dance music with witty lyrics and delivering them in a uniquely English style. As a teenager growing up in Newcastle upon Tyne, he felt himself to be an outsider at school, but found friends in an amateur theatre company. Yet he always felt his life would be different to theirs and used to tell them that he would become a celebrated pop star.

But Neil was 30 when he finally left his day job as a writer for Smash Hits magazine to pursue the musical interests that had dominated his life since he was a teenager. By that time, he was anxious that he had missed the boat.

Now, as well as continuing to release records with The Pet Shop Boys, he has branched out into other forms of composition, writing a live score for the film Battleship Potemkin, a West End musical and being involved in collaborations with Robbie Williams and the Scissor Sisters, among many others.

DISC ONE: Rex Harrison - Why Can't the English?

DISC TWO: The Beatles - She Loves You

DISC THREE: Sinfonia of London Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli - Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

DISC FOUR: David Bowie - Changes

DISC FIVE: Shannon - Give Me Tonight

DISC SIX: Billie Holiday - Good Morning, Heartache

DISC SEVEN: Dusty Springfield - I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore

DISC EIGHT: New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein - Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in D minor (1st movement)

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Dusty Springfield - I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore

BOOK CHOICE: The Human Comedy - Honore de Balzac

LUXURY CHOICE: DVD projector and DVDs

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.

The Pet Shop Boy's Neil Tennant is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Billie Holiday to Dusty Springfield. The Pet Shop Boy's Neil Tennant shares his castaway by Kirsty Young. From 2007.

[LISTEN NOW]

Musician Paul Weller is castaway by Kirsty Young.

As the lead singer of The Jam, the founder of The Style Council and a hugely successful solo artist, Paul is one of the most revered music writers and performers of the past 30 years and is cited as an influence by countless other singers.

In a rare interview, he describes the chronic shyness he had to overcome - and how fear still grips him before each performance.

Paul also reveals how, after he'd been dumped by his record label, he was unable to write songs - and found that even picking up a guitar felt alien to him.

His father has been a constant support to him - as his mentor as well as his manager - and has always believed that his son had something special.

DISC ONE: Small Faces - Tin Soldier

DISC TWO: Dinah Washington - September in the Rain

DISC THREE: Charles Mingus - Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul

DISC FOUR: James Brown - Don't Be A Dropout

DISC FIVE: Branford Marsalis with The English Chamber Orchestra - Claude Debussy's Arabesque No. 1

DISC SIX: Declan O'Rourke - Galileo (Someone Like You)

DISC SEVEN: Nick Drake - River Man

DISC EIGHT: Roscoe Robinson - That's Enough

Favourite track: Tin Soldier by The Small Faces

Book: Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes

Luxury: A settee to sit on

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2007.

From Nick Drake to James Brown. Musician Paul Weller shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2007.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the musician Paul Weller.

As the lead singer of The Jam, the founder of The Style Council and a hugely successful solo artist, he is one of the most revered music writers and performers of the past 30 years and is cited as an influence by countless other singers.

In a rare interview, he describes the chronic shyness he had to overcome; how he is still gripped by fear before each performance and how, after he had been dumped by his record label, he was unable to write songs and found that even picking up a guitar felt alien to him. His father has been a constant support to him - as his mentor as well as his manager - and has always believed that his son had something special.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.

From Nick Drake to James Brown. Musician Paul Weller makes his music castaway choices.

From Nick Drake to James Brown. Musician Paul Weller makes his music castaway choices. With Kirsty Young. From 2007.

[LISTEN NOW]

Jarvis formed the band Pulp in the late 1970s and says that as a gawky, self-conscious teenager he felt pop music did not properly inform him about the disappointments and miseries of growing up - and he was determined to write songs that included 'the messy bits and the awkward, fumbling bits'.

He had to wait more than a decade to find success - but Pulp went on to become one of the most popular bands of the 1990s, with hits including Do You Remember the First Time? Sorted For Es And Wizz and Common People.

The band's crowning glory was its performance of 'Common People' at the Glastonbury festival in 1995.

The following year, Jarvis Cocker made headlines again - this time the tabloid front pages after he invaded the stage while Michael Jackson was performing at the pop industry's annual awards ceremony. Fans were thrilled, but it marked the beginning of a difficult time in the singer's life.

Now he is married with a young son and living in Paris and has recently written songs for Nancy Sinatra and Marianne Faithfull as well as writing the music for the film Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire.

DISC ONE: Theme - Robert Mellin

DISC TWO: Transmission - Joy Division

DISC THREE: Mouldy Old Dough - Lieutenant Pigeon

DISC FOUR: Ten Guitars - Engelbert Humperdinck

DISC FIVE: The War is Over - Scott Walker

DISC SIX: Lady With the Braid - Dory Previn

DISC SEVEN: I See a Darkness - Johnny Cash

DISC EIGHT: Sailing By - Ronald Binge

BOOK CHOICE: Sombrero Fallout - Richard Brautigan

LUXURY CHOICE: A bed with a mosquito net

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Sailing By - Ronald Binge

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2005.

Musician, Jarvis Cocker shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

After first dipping her toe in musical waters by releasing her demos on social media, by 2014 Lily was one of the headline acts at Glastonbury.

But her first appearance at the festival was actually as a new-born baby carried through the crowd in swaddling. Indeed, she was as good as baptised at the font of celebrity culture – her dad, Keith, is an actor and writer, her mum, Alison, is an award-winning film producer - for a time her step-dad was Harry Enfield.

So, it seems almost inevitable that she's ended up at the centre of a media-saturated life.

Except that in all likelihood she would have been propelled there entirely by her own endeavours: her lyrics are witty and wise-ass and capture concisely what it is to be a savvy, young woman today.

She says, 'the only thing I can do really is write lyrics and the only way I know how to do that is by being honest and doing it with integrity because otherwise there's no point'.

DISC ONE: Common People - Pulp

DISC TWO: Where's Me Jumper - Sultans of Ping F.C.

DISC THREE: I Am the Resurrection - The Stone Roses

DISC FOUR: Blinded by the Lights - The Streets

DISC FIVE: Right Down the Line - Gerry Rafferty

DISC SIX: I'd Rather Go Blind - Etta James

DISC SEVEN: Traffic Blocking - General Degree

DISC EIGHT: Before I Grow Too Old - Tommy McLain

BOOK CHOICE: Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade - Patrick Dennis

LUXURY CHOICE: Husband's shirt with daughter's bunny sewn onto it

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Am the Resurrection - The Stone Roses

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2014.

Singer-songwriter Lily Allen is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Noel was the principal songwriter of the band Oasis – his younger brother, Liam was the lead singer.

Born to Irish parents, as a child he spent his summers visiting his mother's family in rural County Mayo, in sharp contrast to the Manchester council estate where they lived. He taught himself to play the guitar and loved music: he was road manager for the Inspiral Carpets before joining Liam in Oasis.

Their debut album in 1994 marked the beginning of the band's rise to fame as part of the Britpop movement. In 1996 they played in front of 250,000 fans over two consecutive nights at Knebworth and following the Labour landslide in 1997, Noel attended what became known as the Cool Britannia party held in Downing Street by Tony Blair.

Oasis won six BRIT Awards and two Ivor Novello Awards before disbanding in August 2009.

He's since formed his own band - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.

DISC ONE: Pretty Vacant - Sex Pistols

DISC TWO: Let's Dance - David Bowie

DISC THREE: Nobody Home - Pink Floyd

DISC FOUR: Hand in Glove - The Smiths

DISC FIVE: Voodoo Ray (original Mix) - A Guy Called Gerald

DISC SIX: With Or Without You - U2

DISC SEVEN: Be My Baby - The Ronettes

DISC EIGHT: Ticket to Ride - The Beatles

BOOK CHOICE: On the Road by Jack Kerouac

LUXURY CHOICE: Guitar and plectrum

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Be My Baby - The Ronettes

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2015.

Thom has been the lead singer of Radiohead, one of Britain's most successful British bands, for over numerosu decades. They've sold over 30 million albums worldwide, and have won three Grammys and four Ivor Novello awards. Their debut studio album, Pablo Honey, was released in 1993, with their debut single, Creep, becoming a big international success.

Thom decided on his career at the age of seven, when he lay on the floor between large speakers at a friend's house and listened to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. He made his own electric guitar when he was 10, and wrote his first song at 11. At his secondary school he joined up with fellow pupils and they formed a band called On a Friday, as that was the only day they were allowed to rehearse. They all went their separate ways as university students, but then signed to Parlophone in 1991 and renamed themselves Radiohead.

Thom has collaborated with artists including P J Harvey and Björk and has composed for film and theatre. His first feature film soundtrack, Suspiria, was released in 2018. His first classical piece, Don't Fear the Light, was premiered in Paris in 2019, and he toured with his solo album Anima.

He is an activist on behalf of human rights, animal rights, environmental and anti-war causes.

DISC ONE: Maurice Ravel's Ma mère l'oye, M.60: 5. Le jardin féerique - Marielle Labèque and Katia Labèque

DISC TWO: It's Raining Today - Scott Walker

DISC THREE: Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) - Talking Heads

DISC FOUR: Freeman Hard And Willis Acid - Squarepusher & AFX

DISC FIVE: After The Gold Rush - Neil Young

DISC SIX: Talk About the Passion - R.E.M.

DISC SEVEN: Blue Horizon - Sidney Bechet and His New Orleans Feetwarmers

DISC EIGHT: Lilac Wine - Nina Simone

BOOK CHOICE: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

LUXURY CHOICE: Solar-powered recording studio

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) - Talking Heads

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2019.

Radiohead's Thom Yorke is cast away by Lauren Laverne.

He's chief executive of the Prudential, but he's about as far from the archetypal 'man from the Pru' as you can get.

The seeds of his success were sown amid the complex political terrain of the Ivory Coast with an extended family heavily involved in politics and a father imprisoned for his beliefs. His life quickly took on an international flavour from West Africa to Morocco, Paris to Washington, but in his early 30s a coup in his homeland left him high and dry. He says 'I had no job, no career, nothing at all. It taught me a lot about myself. If you've been in a situation where you have nothing there's nothing much you're afraid of.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

Kirsty Young talks to castaway and business executive Tidjane Thiam.

Born into a family with dramatic leanings, she followed one of her older brothers, Jeffery, to drama school. Having abandoned ideas of becoming a set designer, she made her professional debut as Ophelia at the Old Vic in 1957. An illustrious stage career followed in Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet in 1960, in Cabaret in 1968 and as Lady Macbeth for Trevor Nunn in 1976.

On TV she found huge success in sitcoms - appearing with her husband, the late Michael Williams, in A Fine Romance and with Geoffrey Palmer in As Time Goes By.

She received an Oscar nomination for her first big-screen part as Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown; Shakespeare in Love won her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; Mrs Henderson Presents, Notes on a Scandal, Iris, and Philomena followed.

She played the part of 'M' in the James Bond films seven times and appeared as Paulina in Sir Kenneth Branagh's production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.

Dame Judi was married to Michael Williams for 30 years. Their daughter, Finty, is also an actress.

Judi was made a Dame in the 1988 New Year Honours.

DISC ONE: Farewell to Stromness - Peter Maxwell Davies

DISC TWO: All Right, Okay, You Win - Count Basie

DISC THREE: Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, Shall I Compare Thee - Jeffrey Dench

DISC FOUR: Strange Fruit - Billie Holiday

DISC FIVE: Losing My Mind - Dorothy Collins

DISC SIX: I've got you Under My Skin - Frank Sinatra

DISC SEVEN: Shipping Forecast: issued by the Met Office at 05:05 on Sat 01 Dec 2001 - Cory Corfield

DISC EIGHT: Blue In Green - Miles Davis

BOOK CHOICE: Other Men's Flowers by A P Wavell (audio book read by her daughter Finty Williams)

LUXURY CHOICE: Cut-outs of all her friends and family

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I've got you Under My Skin - Frank Sinatra

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 September 2015.

Theatre is Penelope's first love and she's been highly acclaimed for her stage work in plays by Ibsen, Shaw, Shakespeare, Beckett - she relishes and shines in the difficult roles. Yet as one of our leading classical actresses she has no qualms about turning her talents to TV and film including Calendar Girls, Shaun of the Dead and Doctor Who.

In-spite of being one of our best regarded actresses she is intensely private, intent upon disappearing into the lives of her characters.

Penelope grew up the middle of three girls and says that her mother was frail and often ill - she says this taught her to be self-contained:

'I was always worried that I would hurt her by taking a different view so one was sort of being terribly amenable - well of course that's not in one's nature, I'm quite sharp and rather argumentative.'

DISC ONE: Edward Elgar's Serenade for Strings in E minor Op.20 - London Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor: Leonard Slatkin

DISC TWO: Jean Sibelius's Symphony No. 2 in D major (4th movement) - Berliner Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor: Herbert von Karajan

DISC THREE: Que reste-t-il do nos amours? What remains of our love? - Charles Trenet

DISC FOUR: I'll Remember April - Erroll Garner

DISC FIVE: Franz Schubert's String Quintet in C major (2nd movement) - Hollywood String Quartet, conductor: Felix Slatkin

DISC SIX: Isn't She Lovely - Stevie Wonder

DISC SEVEN: Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in D minor- Scottish National Orchestra, conductor: Nima Jarvi

DISC EIGHT: Sunny - Bobby Hebb

BOOK CHOICE: An anthology of 20th Century European poetry

LUXURY CHOICE: An open-air cinema with a selection of films

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Franz Schubert's String Quintet in C major (2nd movement) - Hollywood String Quartet, conductor: Felix Slatkin

Producer: Jane Thurlow

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2008.

From Stevie Wonder to Schubert. Actress Dame Penelope Wilton shares her castaway choices.

The actor grew up in Lancashire attending Wigan Grammar school and then Bolton School where he was Head Boy. His first trip to the theatre was as a three year old when he went to see Peter Pan at Manchester Opera House. At seven, a treasured Christmas present was a fold-away Victorian theatre from Pollocks Toy Theatres. Ian's older sister Jean introduced him to Shakespeare - taking him to see Twelfth Night at Wigan's Little Theatre. His first Shakespeare performance was playing Malvolio from the same play at the amateur Hopefield Miniature theatre when he was 13 years old.

Ian won a scholarship to read English at St Catharine's College, Cambridge and was soon appearing in regular productions, including appearing alongside now famous alumni such as Derek Jacobi, David Frost, Trevor Nunn and Margaret Drabble.

By the time Ian graduated in 1961 he had decided to become an actor, and got his first job in a production of A Man for All Seasons at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. He has not been out of work since, appearing at the National Theatre and the RSC, and he has also forged a successful film career.

He's played an acclaimed Richard III for which he also wrote the screenplay, and had parts in X-Men, Gods and Monsters, for which his performance was Oscar-nominated, and playing Gandalf in Lord of the Rings.

Ian was made a Knight of the British Empire for services to the performing arts in the Queen's New Year Honours of 1990.

DISC ONE: Vladimir Horowitz - Stars and Stripes Forever

DISC TWO: Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings - Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor: Geoffrey Simon

DISC THREE: Beethoven's String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130 (2nd movement) - Lindsay String Quartet

DISC FOUR: Rose's turn - Ethel Merman

DISC FIVE: Stormy Weather - Lena Horne

DISC SIX: Mississippi Goddam - Nina Simone

DISC SEVEN: Harrison's Clocks - Joanna MacGregor

DISC EIGHT: Dancing Queen - ABBA

BOOK CHOICE: A dictionary of flora and fauna

LUXURY CHOICE: Grand piano

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Stormy Weather - Lena Horne

Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

Actor Sir Ian McKellen reveals his castaway choices to Sue Lawley.

Born in Kent and brought up in America where his father was a teacher, Mark played Hamlet for the first time while he was still at school.

Since then he's become particularly well known for his acclaimed and award-winning Shakespearean stage roles. He won an Olivier and a Tony award for his portrayal of Johnny 'Rooster' Byron in Jez Butterworth's 'Jerusalem' onstage in both Britain and the USA.

He's also appeared in a number of film roles, was the first artistic director of London's Globe Theatre - a post he held for a decade - and his portrayal of Thomas Cromwell in BBC TV's adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall brought him to a wider audience.

Sir David Mark Rylance Waters was created a Knight Bachelor in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to theatre.

DISC ONE: Body and Soul - Coleman Hawkins

DISC TWO: Henry Purcell's “Tis I that have warmed ye ? - Les Arts Florissants

DISC THREE: Charles Ives's “They are There ? – The Kronos Quartet

DISC FOUR: Just like Tom Thumb's Blues - Nina Simone

DISC FIVE: Once a Man Twice a Child - Justin Hinds & the Dominoes

DISC SIX: Music from the soundtrack of Days and Nights - Claire van Kampen

DISC SEVEN: Arthur McBride And The Sergeant - Andy Irvine and Paul Brady

DISC EIGHT: Ludwig van Beethoven's Quartet Number 16 in F sharp (2nd movement) – The Busch Quartet

BOOK CHOICE: Rumi - The Big Red Book

LUXURY CHOICE: A stand up bass

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Ludwig van Beethoven's Quartet Number 16 in F sharp (2nd movement) – The Busch Quartet

Producer: Isabel Sargent

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2015.

From Beethoven to Nina Simone. Actor Mark Rylance sharess his castaway choices.

She looks back over her early life in London's East End, as well as the Carry On films for which she is, of course, best known.

Barbara also talks about the strain of a tumultuous private life often hidden behind the public facade of an irrepressibly good-humoured cockney sparrow.

DISC ONE: The Best Is Yet To Come - Frank Sinatra & Count Basie

DISC TWO: Ludwig van Beethoven‘s Für Elise - Soloist: Alfred Brendel

DISC THREE: Sparrows Can't Sing - Barbara Windsor

DISC FOUR: Suspicious Minds - Elvis Presley

DISC FIVE: Drive - The Cars

DISC SIX: Extract from Galton & Simpson's The Secret Life Of Anthony Hancock - Tony Hancock, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Williams

DISC SEVEN: Every Time You Go Away - Paul Young

DISC EIGHT: Edward Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance March No. 1 in D major “Land of Hope and Glory ? -

BBC Singers & Symphony Chorus with BBC Symphony Orchestra

BOOK CHOICE: A book about Hollywood

LUXURY CHOICE: Writing materials and a Union flag

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Extract from Galton & Simpson's The Secret Life Of Anthony Hancock - Tony Hancock, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Williams

Producer: Olivia Seligman

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September1990.

Carry On actress Barbara Windsor is castaway by Sue Lawley.

He discusses his home and working life, explaining how he came to train as an actor - as well as the variety of performing in repertory theatre, concert parties and BBC radio.

By this point, Kenneth was about to film ‘Carry on Cleo' at Pinewood Studios. He went on to make 17 Carry on films altogether.

Kenneth died aged 75 in 1993.

DISC ONE: I Love You, Samantha – Bing Crosby

DISC TWO: Quandos os Sinos Dobram - Augusto Camacho

DISC THREE: Little Bit This, Little Bit That - Jimmy Durante

DISC FOUR: Down South - The Banjo Kings

DISC FIVE: East of the Sun - Frank Sinatra

DISC SIX: Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27/2 “Moonlight ? -

Soloist: Benno Moiseiwitsch

DISC SEVEN: Frédéric Chopin's Nocturne (from Les Sylphides) - Orchestra: Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, conductor: Roger Désormière

DISC EIGHT: A Life on the Ocean Wave - Royal Yacht Band

BOOK CHOICE: Margin Released - J B Priestley

LUXURY CHOICE: Guitar

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Little Bit This, Little Bit That - Jimmy Durante

Roy Plomley was the creator of the programme's format and its first presenter.

Producer: Monica Chapman

First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in June 1964.

Carry On film star Kenneth Connor shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Favourite track: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth - (from Messiah) by George Frideric Handel

Book: Old Wives Tale by Arnold Bennett

Luxury: Painting by Maurice Cockerill - Ariadne's Thread

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2001.

From Alan Price to Jean Sibelius. Writer Margaret Drabble makes her castaway choices.

His first success came with Carrie - at the time he was scraping a living as a teacher, living with his young family in a trailer and writing short stories to supplement his income. He threw the first draft of Carrie in the bin and it was his wife Tabitha who fished it out and urged him to finish it. But with success came drug and alcohol abuse - and again it was his wife who intervened and encouraged him to stop. He nearly gave up writing after a road accident in 1999 which nearly killed him. But, to the delight of his legions of fans, he took up his pen again and the stories keep on coming.

Favourite track: Desolation Row by Bob Dylan

Book: Collected poetry by W H Auden

Luxury: Water hammock

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2006.

Writer Stephen King makes his castaway choices. With Kirsty Young.

Comedian Alan Carr is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

The award-winning comedian, writer and TV presenter is known for his love of silliness, dressing up and camp daftness.

His stand-up shows have filled arenas, and on TV he co-hosted the Friday Night Project and then his own show - Chatty Man.

Alan was born into a footballing family – his dad, Graham, was a professional player and then a manager. Alan first tried his hand at comedy while reading Theatre Studies at Middlesex University.

After he graduated, he took on a range of jobs before his ability to make friends laugh with his stories of working in a call centre in Manchester led him to try stand-up at a local venue.

Alan and his partner Paul were married in 2018 by Adele - who also organised the wedding, and paid for it.

In 2025, Alan is one of the contestants in BBC TV's Celebrity Traitors.....

DISC ONE: Aretha Franklin - Sister from Texas

DISC TWO: Donna Summer - Last Dance

DISC THREE: Prince - If I Was Your Girlfriend

DISC FOUR: Jon Secada - Just Another Day

DISC FIVE: Shirley Bassey - Excuse Me

DISC SIX: Adele - Melt My Heart to Stone

DISC SEVEN: Roberta Flack - Do What You Gotta Do

DISC EIGHT: Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is

BOOK CHOICE: Argos Catalogue

LUXURY CHOICE: Foam roller

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2018.

From Donna Summer to Peggy Lee. Comedian Alan Carr shares his castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2018.

[LISTEN NOW]

Actress Celia Imrie is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Immediately recognisable as one of Britain's most versatile actresses, she's worked in TV, theatre and films over the past four decades.

While Celia's taken roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company and in big budget films, it's her instinct for TV comedy - working alongside Victoria Wood and Julie Walters - that has made her a household name.

Audiences loved the spoof TV soap opera Acorn Antiques, and she won an Olivier Award for her role in the stage production.

In the early days, though, she remembers the camera crews were unsure what was going on.

'I do remember the cameramen watching what had been a very slick show up until Acorn Antiques and then just thinking, 'Why is this bit so bad? Why is the scenery swaying in the background?'

DISC ONE: Bette Midler - Is that all there is?

DISC TWO: Jonathan & Darlene Edwards - Tiptoe through the Tulips

DISC THREE: Jimmy Shand - Mrs Cholmondeley's Reel

DISC FOUR: Wynonna Judd - I'm So Lonesome I could Cry

DISC FIVE: Fritz Kreisler with the Victor Symphony Orchestra - Schön Rosmarin

DISC SIX: Barbara Windsor - It's Nicer in Nice

DISC SEVEN: Maria Callas & Tito Gobbi with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra conducted by Georges Pretre – Puccini's Tosca Act 2 (finale)

DISC EIGHT: The Royal Artillery Orchestra conducted by Major Frank Renton, RA - March of the Toys

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Jonathan & Darlene Edwards - Tiptoe through the Tulips

BOOK CHOICE: Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

LUXURY CHOICE: A cut glass crystal chandelier with candles

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2011.

From Bette Midler to Barbara Windsor. Actress Celia Imrie shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2011.

[LISTEN NOW]

Sporting broadcaster Clare Balding is castaway by Kirsty Young.

BBC TV's coverage of London's 2012 Olympics was her triumph and much like Team GB she'd been in training for her big moment for quite a while.

Clare has worked on five Olympic Games, four Paralympics, three Winter Olympics and a great deal of horse racing.

It's on the turf that's she's most at home - her father was a champion racehorse trainer and for a number of years she herself was a leading amateur flat jockey.

The first pony she ever rode, as a toddler, was a gift from the Queen; she went to public school and Cambridge but her life hasn't been an entirely easy ride. She has coped with thyroid cancer, being forcibly 'outed' by the tabloid press and in her own words being 'a disappointment from the moment' she was born.

She says, 'This may sound nauseating but I'm a very happy person. I love my work, I love my life and I'm told by those who know and love me that it's a bit like living with Tigger'.

DISC ONE: Barenaked Ladies - If I Had A Million Dollars

DISC TWO: London String Chorale - Galloping Home

DISC THREE: Yazoo - Only You

DISC FOUR: Neil Diamond - Beautiful Noise

DISC FIVE: Underworld - Caliban's Dream

DISC SIX: Belle and Sebastian - I Want the World to Stop

DISC SEVEN: Billy Joel - She's Got a Way

DISC EIGHT: Beck Goldsmith - I Vow to Thee My Country

BOOK CHOICE: Encyclopaedia of Nature

LUXURY CHOICE: Thermos mug with tea, milk and sugar

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Billy Joel - She's Got a Way

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.

From Billy Joel to Yazoo. Broadcaster Clare Balding shares her desert island castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2013.

[LISTEN NOW]

Historian David Olusoga is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

David is an historian, writer and broadcaster who has presented a range of programmes including the BBC's A House Through Time and Civilisations.

He is currently professor of public history at Manchester University.

Born in Lagos, the second child to a Nigerian father and a British mother, David was brought up by his mother in Gateshead after his parents' marriage broke down. As a child he and his siblings experienced sustained racism and he remembers school as a place of violence and cruelty.

He credits his mother's tenacity and her determination to educate her children for his later success in getting to university and establishing a career in TV.

His love of history developed from a young age, thanks to one of his teachers who taught him why an understanding of history matters. Watching TV documentaries also opened up a world of possibility and David fondly recalls programmes from the 1980s presented by the historian Michael Wood, who made history seem cool in the eyes of the young schoolboy glued to the TV in his Gateshead council house.

In 2020, David delivered the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival in which he talked candidly about his loneliness at being the only black person on a production team and the difficulties he had trying to explain the racial implications of how, for example, people in Africa were often portrayed on screen.

DISC ONE: Zombie by Fela Kuti

DISC TWO: Roll on Buddy by Aunt Molly Jackson

DISC THREE: Black Mountain Blues by Bessie Smith

DISC FOUR: Just The Other Day by Dr Alimantado

DISC FIVE: Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground by Blind Willie Johnson

DISC SIX: Last Kind Words by Geeshie Wiley

DISC SEVEN: You Can't Blame The Youth (Live At The Record Plant '73) by Bob Marley & The Wailers

DISC EIGHT: Precious Lord, Take My Hand / You've Got a Friend by Aretha Franklin

BOOK CHOICE: The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell: An Age Like This, 1920-40

LUXURY ITEM: Acoustic guitar

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground by Blind Willie Johnson

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Paula McGinley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2021.

From Aretha Franklin to Fela Kuti. Historian and broadcaster David Olusoga shares his choices. with Lauren Laverne. From 2021.

[LISTEN NOW]

Stephen Fry is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Comedian, actor, writer, director, presenter and award-ceremony host – Stephen's list of accomplishments is long, varied and impressive.

His younger years were troubled and with a propensity for stealing and lying, he was expelled from two schools and imprisoned for credit card fraud.

The turning point came when he knuckled down and won a scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge, where he read English and joined the Cambridge Footlights, becoming lifelong friends with Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie.

His career highlights include the fruits of his collaborative work with Laurie – from A Bit of Fry and Laurie to Jeeves and Wooster, he played Lord Melchett in Blackadder and Oscar Wilde on the big screen.

He is a best-selling author of fiction and three volumes of autobiography, is the voice of the Harry Potter audiobooks and presents BBC Two's QI.

Stephen has also spoken of his experience of mental health issues and in 2006 he made a documentary exploring the effects of living with Bipolar - it won an Emmy Award.

DISC ONE: Bach - Partita No. 1 in B flat major

DISC TWO: Schubert - Variations 2 & 3 Piano Quintet in A

DISC THREE: Beethoven - Presto Quartet Op. 131 in C-Sharp minor

DISC FOUR: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free - Nina Simone

DISC FIVE: Wagner - O sink hernieder , Nacht der Liebe - Tristan und Isolde

DISC SIX: Changes - Hugh Laurie

DISC SEVEN: Do I Love You? - Ella Fitzgerald

DISC EIGHT: Arthur Wood - Barwick Green (The Archers' Theme Tune]

BOOK CHOICE: T. S. Eliot Four Quartets

LUXURY CHOICE: Canvasses, easels, brushes, an instruction manual

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Roses - The Chainsmokers featuring Rozes

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2015.

From Ella Fitzgerald to Richard Wagner. Actor and writer Stephen Fry shares his music choices with Kirsty Young. From 2015.

[LISTEN NOW]

Author Brian Aldiss is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Brian is best known for pioneering, alongside JG Ballard, a new wave of British science-fiction writing in the 1960s.

He says sci-fi is not so much a prediction of the future as a metaphor for the human condition; and for him, at least, writing it offered an escape route and a filter through which to view his own extraordinary upbringing. He grew up in a small Norfolk village in a very devout and austere home. While his father was distant, his mother was still suffering from the grief after her first child, a daughter, was still-born. He was the second child and even when he was very small, remembers feeling a strong sense of his mother's disappointment in him.

The army finally offered a way out for him and it was on his return to England that he started writing seriously while also working in a bookshop.

One of his early works was a short story describing the sadness felt by a boy who was never able to please his parents, which was turned into a film by Stanley Kubrick.

While he remains best known for his science-fiction writing - and has won every major award in the field - he has also written novels, poetry and biographies and short stories. Now, he says, he aims not for high sales but to become a better and better writer.

DISC ONE: Walter Brennan - Old Rivers

DISC TWO: Susan Gritton with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Yuri Simonov -

Opening movement of Henryk Mikołaj Górecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs

DISC THREE: Ella Fitzgerald - Cow-Cow Boogie

DISC FOUR: The Kirov Orchestra - Alexander Borodin's In the Steppes of Central Asia

DISC FIVE: Sadlers Wells Theatre - Jacques Offenbach's Quand j'étais roi de Béotie (from Orpheus in the Underworld)

DISC SIX: The Choir and Tambouritza Ensemble of Radio Osijek - Oj Lolo Moja or Oh My Darling

DISC SEVEN: Tom Lehrer - So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)

DISC EIGHT: The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult - Gustav Holst's Saturn (The Bringer of Old Age) from The Planets

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Walter Brennan - Old Rivers

BOOK CHOICE: John Osborne by John Heilpern

LUXURY CHOICE: A banjo

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2007.

Sci-fi author Brian Aldiss is castaway by Kirsty Young

From Holst to Joe Loss. Pioneering sci-fi author Brian Aldiss shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From January 2007.

[LISTEN NOW]

Actress Dame June Whitfield is castaway by Sue Lawley.

June is one of the most familiar and best-loved figures of British comedy over the last six decades

Whether as Eth, with her boyfriend Ron, in the Glums in the 1950s, or June, with Terry Scott, in Terry and June, her consummate professionalism has brought laughter and fun to millions of people.

Discussing her many career highlights, June's most recent one saw her described as Britain's answer to Jane Fonda, presenting a keep-fit TV programme for the over-60s.

Born on 11th November 1925, June joins 4 Extra's 100 Club and is one of our Centenary Castaways. She died aged 93 in 2018

DISC ONE: Frank Sinatra - Luck Be My Lady Tonight

DISC TWO: Noël Coward - Alice Is At It Again

DISC THREE: Judy Garland - The Trolley Song

DISC FOUR: Nat King Cole - Stardust

DISC FIVE: Joyce Grenfell - Old Tyme Dancing

DISC SIX: Frank Crumit - The Prune Song

DISC SEVEN: Luciano Pavarotti - Giacomo Puccini's Nessun dorma

DISC EIGHT: Ella Fitzgerald - Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Judy Garland - The Trolley Song

BOOK CHOICE: A do-it-yourself manual

LUXURY CHOICE: Supply of cocoa butter and hat

Producer: Olivia Seligman

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 1990.

Actress Dame June Whitfield shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

From Noel Coward to Frank Sinatra. Much-loved actress June Whitfield shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 1990.

[LISTEN NOW]

From Enya to Beethoven. Famed for playing Winston Churchill, actor Robert Hardy shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

He became a household name as the vet Siegfried Farnon in the hit TV series All Creatures Great and Small and, to a younger generation, he is the Minister of Magic in the Harry Potter films. But the role he is best known for is Winston Churchill - he won a Bafta for his performance in Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years.

He believes actors are born rather than made and his own ambitions crystallised when, as a very young boy, he was a page boy at a wedding: 'I walked down the aisle with my head held high and as I went, every eye was turned towards me and something inside me said, 'That's it, get every eye on you'.

DISC ONE: Pearl Bailey - What is a Friend For?

DISC TWO: BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini - Beethoven's 7th symphony in A Major, 2nd movement

DISC THREE: Enya - The Longships

DISC FOUR: The Paris Orchestra conducted by Semyon Bychkov - Hector Berlioz's The Waltz from the Symphonie Fantastique

DISC FIVE: The Paris Orchestra conducted by Semyon Bychkov – Poulenc's Suite Francaise: Pavanne

DISC SIX: City of Birmingham Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle – Sibelius's 6th Symphony in D Minor, 4th movement

DISC SEVEN: The Medici String Quartet – Beethoven's String Quartet in B flat, 2nd movement

DISC EIGHT: The Westminster Abbey Choir, the BBC Singers & London Brass conducted by Martin Baker - John Hardy's De Profundis

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Medici String Quartet – Beethoven's String Quartet in B flat, 2nd movement

BOOK CHOICE: The Great Warbow - Robert Hardy & Matthew Strickland

LUXURY CHOICE: Young lady in profile 1495 - De Predis

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2011.

From Enya to Beethoven. Famed as Winston Churchill, actor Robert Hardy shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2011

[LISTEN NOW]

The cook Nigella Lawson shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2003.

Chef and restaurateur Heston Blumenthal shares his castaway choices

Kirsty Young explores the choices of Italian cookery writer Anna Del Conte.

Chef and restaurateur Jamie Oliver shares his castaway choices.

Cookery writer Delia Smith, is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Delia Smith CH CBE is one of Britain's most popular and successful cookery writers and broadcasters.

Her first book, How to Cheat at Cooking, was published in 1971 and she presented her first television series, Family Fare, two years later. Since then she has presented many more series and her books have sold more than 21 million copies in the UK alone. Her widespread influence has led to the phrase ‘the Delia effect', when large numbers of shoppers sought out her recommendations.

Delia was born in Woking in 1941, and grew up in Bexleyheath. She attended the local secondary modern school, but left without any qualifications. She eventually found work as a pot washer and then a waitress in a French restaurant in London, where the chef encouraged her interest in cooking and food.

In 1969 she landed the job of cookery writer on the Daily Mirror's new colour supplement. There she honed her simple, no-nonsense instructions and met her husband, Michael Wynn-Jones.

She hung up her apron in 2013 to spend more time on her other passion - football. Delia and Michael have been long-standing supporters – and, since 1996, majority shareholders - of Norwich City FC. She lives in Suffolk countryside in the same cottage she and Michael bought as their first home.

DISC ONE: The Sound of Silence - Paul Simon

DISC TWO: Within You Without You - The Beatles

DISC THREE: Gnossienne No 1. Composed by Erik Satie and performed by Alexandre Tharaud

DISC FOUR: Caruso – composed by Lucio Dalla and performed by Luciano Pavarotti

DISC FIVE: Kyrie: Call To Prayer – Muezzin from the Muhammad Ali Mosque, Cairo. Performed by Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Choristers of St. George's Chapel, Windsor and composed by David Fanshawe

DISC SIX: This Woman's Work - Kate Bush

DISC SEVEN: He Moved Through the Fair - Sinéad O'Connor

DISC EIGHT: Happy - Pharrell Williams

BOOK CHOICE: Sister Wendy's 100 Best-loved Paintings by Wendy Beckett

LUXURY ITEM: The Desert Island Discs archive

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Kyrie: Call To Prayer – Muezzin from the Muhammad Ali Mosque, Cairo. Composed by David Fanshawe and performed by Bournemouth Symphony Chorus, Choristers of St. George's Chapel, Windsor

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2023.

From Kate Bush to Paul Simon. Cookery writer and broadcaster Delia Smith shares her choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2023.

[LISTEN NOW]

Chef Gordon Ramsay is castaway by Sue Lawley.

The only British chef in the country to have three Michelin stars, at his eponymous restaurant in London. He has recently become 'chef Patron' (head chef) at the restaurant at Claridges, owns two more restaurants, Pétrus in London and Amaryllis in Glasgow and is the author of four books. In conversation with Sue Lawley, he talks about his life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

DISC ONE: Yellow by Coldplay

DISC TWO: Kids in America by Kim Wilde

DISC THREE: Sunday Girl by Blondie

DISC FOUR: Simply the Best by Tina Turner

DISC FIVE: Careless Whisper by George Michael

DISC SIX: (Everything I do) I Do it For You by Bryan Adams

DISC SEVEN: Sex Bomb by Tom Jones & Mousse T.

DISC EIGHT: Sing by Travis

Favourite track: Yellow by Coldplay

Book: Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Luxury: A fresh vanilla pod

Producer: Miranda Birch

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2002.

From Coldplay to George Michael. Chef Gordon Ramsay shares his castaway music choices with Sue Lawley. From 2002.

[LISTEN NOW]

MasterChef judge Monica Galetti is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Monica is a chef, restaurateur and cookery book writer, as well as a judge on BBC TV's MasterChef: the Professionals.

Born on the island of Upolu in Western Samoa, she grew up on the family plantation where her earliest food memories are of collecting eggs and mangoes and peeling bananas for special suppers. When she was eight she moved to New Zealand where her mother and stepfather had emigrated a couple of years earlier.

After studying hospitality management and enjoying success in numerous cooking competitions, she travelled around Europe before settling in London where she found work as a commis chef at the Roux family's restaurant, Le Gavroche.

Under the watchful eye of Michel Roux Jr, she rose through the ranks to become the first female sous chef at Le Gavroche.

DISC ONE: Three Little Birds by Bob Marley And The Wailers

DISC TWO: Samoa Matalasi (My Beautiful Samoa) by The Five Stars

DISC THREE: You Oughta Be in Love by Dave Dobbyn (ft. Ardijah)

DISC FOUR: Hotel California by The Eagles

DISC FIVE: La Vie en Rose by Louis Armstrong

DISC SIX: My Girl by The Temptations

DISC SEVEN: Purple Rain by Prince

DISC EIGHT: Feeling Good by Nina Simone

BOOK CHOICE: The complete Works of Oscar Wilde

LUXURY ITEM: Scuba diving gear

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Three Little Birds by Bob Marley And The Wailers

Producer: Paula McGinley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2021.

From The Eagles to Nina Simone, MasterChef judge Monica Galetti, shares her castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2021.

[LISTEN NOW]

TV chef Rick Stein is castaway by Sue Lawley

TV chef and restaurateur Rick Stein is castaway by Sue Lawley.

When the police closed his discotheque down because of too many fights on a Saturday night, all he had left was his restaurant licence.

Living by the sea, he took the obvious option and opened a fish restaurant.

Today he is Britain's best sea food chef and a passionate advocate for the pleasures of cooking and eating fish.

Rick talks about his life and work and chooses eight tracks to take to the mythical island.

DISC ONE: Steeleye Span – “Padstow ? May Day Song

DISC TWO: Julie Andrews - Wouldn't It Be Loverly?

DISC THREE: Bob Dylan - Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again

DISC FOUR: Van Morrison - Coney Island

DISC FIVE: London Philharmonic - 'Vivace' one of Malcolm Arnold's 'Cornish Dances

DISC SIX: The Beach Boys - Do It Again

DISC SEVEN: Little Feat - Rock 'n' Roll Doctor

DISC EIGHT: Werner Tripp & Hubert Jellinek - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Concerto for Flute & Harp in C Major

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Werner Tripp & Hubert Jellinek - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Concerto for Flute & Harp in C Major

BOOK CHOICE: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

LUXURY CHOICE: Thai fish sauce

Producer: Angie Nehring

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 1999.

From Mozart to Van Morrison. Chef and broadcaster Rick Stein shares his castaway music choices with Sue Lawley. From 1999.

[LISTEN NOW]

Educated at Yale and Oxford she initially thought she'd pursue an academic life - but within weeks of her son's birth, found that ideas for children's stories started flowing. She's now written twenty books featuring her creation Horrid Henry and they sell in their millions.

She sees Horrid Henry as sitting within the long tradition of anarchic characters in children's literature. She says: 'Everyone responds to Henry because I think everyone feels - however conventional they seem on the outside - that they are rebellious and unconventional, and Henry really taps into that.

DISC ONE: The Beach Boys - Surfin' USA

DISC TWO: Jacques Brel - Amsterdam

DISC THREE: Emma Kirkby - Abbess Hildegard of Bingen's Columba Aspexit from a Feather on the Breath of God

DISC FOUR: Joan Baez - The Trees they Grow So High

DISC FIVE: The Judds - Why Not Me

DISC SIX: Crazy For You cast - Slap That Bass

DISC SEVEN: Darren Abrahams and James Laing with the Young Vic Chorus & Ensemble conducted by David Charles Abell - Tobias and the Angel

DISC EIGHT: Mandy Patinkin - Finishing the Hat

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Mandy Patinkin - Finishing the Hat

BOOK CHOICE: The Eustace Diamonds - Anthony Trollope

LUXURY CHOICE: Cappuccino maker

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2011.

Horrid Henry children's writer Francesca Simon is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Jacques Brel to Joan Baez. Horrid Henry children's writer Francesca Simon shares her choices with Kirsty Young. From 2011.

[LISTEN NOW]

Writer Frank Cottrell Boyce is castaway by Kirsty Young.

His film credits include Hilary and Jackie, Welcome to Sarajevo and 24 Hour Party People. He's also written TV soaps, radio and stage plays and children's novels.

These days children are his main audience and, as a father of seven himself, he should know what they want. He not only tests his ideas on them, but they keep him focused: 'I need them in the house to make sure I'm not watching telly, or having a four hour bath - the fact that they're there makes me work.

DISC ONE: Harry Christophers with the Sixteen - Allegri's Miserere

DISC TWO: Oliver Postgate - Noggin the Nog

DISC THREE: The Undertones - My Perfect Cousin

DISC FOUR: Big Country - In a Big Country

DISC FIVE: Children (recorded in Dublin in the 1960's) - The Story of John the Baptist

DISC SIX: David Bowie - Golden Years

DISC SEVEN: The Bothy Band - Butterfly

DISC EIGHT: The Beach Boys - God Only Knows

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Harry Christophers with the Sixteen - Allegri's Miserere

BOOK CHOICE: The Voyage of the Beagle - Charles Darwin

LUXURY CHOICE: A ferris wheel

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2010.

From David Bowie to The Beach Boys. Writer Frank Cottrell Boyce shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2010.

[LISTEN NOW]

Writer John Boyne is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

The Irish writer is best known for his 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which became a literary phenomenon, selling more than 11 million copies around the world. It was translated into 60 languages and adapted into a film, a play, a ballet and an opera. He has written more than two dozen books, including a number of titles for younger readers.

John was born in Dublin in 1971, and had ambitions to become a writer from an early age. He studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin, followed by a Master's degree in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. From the mid-1990s, he spent seven years working at a bookshop in Dublin, while trying to launch his literary career.

Many of his books have historical settings:

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is the story of two boys – one German, one Jewish – during the Holocaust; other books have taken inspiration from the Mutiny on the Bounty and Tsarist Russia.

More recently, he's addressed sexual and physical abuse within the Catholic church in Ireland, drawing in part on his own experiences at school.

John lives in Dublin, not far from where he grew up.

DISC ONE: Bright Eyes - Art Garfunkel

DISC TWO: The Sound of Music - Julie Andrews

DISC THREE: Elton's Song - Elton John

DISC FOUR: Take on Me - A-ha

DISC FIVE: Lullaby for Cain (Instrumental) - Sinéad O'Connor

DISC SIX: Extract from String Quartet No. 4, composed by Noah Max and performed by The Tippett Quartet

DISC SEVEN: Make Your Own Kind of Music - Mama Cass

DISC EIGHT: Night of the Swallow - Kate Bush

BOOK CHOICE: The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot

LUXURY ITEM: A cinema screen showing The Devil Wears Prada

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Night of the Swallow - Kate Bush

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2024.

From Kate Bush to Sinéad O'Connor. Writer John Boyne shares his castaway music choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2024.

The Irish writer John Boyne is best known for his 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which became a literary phenomenon, selling more than 11 million copies around the world. It was translated into 60 languages and adapted into a film, a play, a ballet and an opera. He has written more than two dozen books, including a number of titles for younger readers.

He was born in Dublin in 1971, and had ambitions to become a writer from an early age. He studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin, followed by a Master's degree in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. From the mid-1990s, he spent seven years working at a bookshop in Dublin, while trying to launch his literary career.

Many of his books have historical settings: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is the story of two boys – one German, one Jewish – during the Holocaust; other books have taken inspiration from the Mutiny on the Bounty and Tsarist Russia. More recently, he's addressed sexual and physical abuse within the Catholic church in Ireland, drawing in part on his own experiences at school.

He lives in Dublin, not far from where he grew up.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

[LISTEN NOW]

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer Malorie Blackman.

A prolific and multi-award winning author she has powered her way to success not just through talent but determination and perseverance. From the careers mistress who told her, 'black people don't become teachers,' to the 82 rejection letters she received before she was published, significant parts of her life seem to have been spent proving people wrong. A technology wizz, her first career was in computing. As a writer her books have tackled challenging themes: bullying, teenage pregnancy, racism and terrorism.

Currently Childrens' Laureate, her own formative years were spent in South London where as a little girl she went from thinking everyone was her friend to feeling, as a teenager, that the world was her enemy.

She says, 'Good stories made me reassess the world and people as I thought I knew them. Great stories made me reassess myself.

DISC ONE: Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Abezizwa (Uniting Nations Together)

DISC TWO: Bob Marley & The Wailers - Redemption Song

DISC THREE: Bernard Cribbins - Right Said Fred

DISC FOUR: Jennifer Larmore and Hong Hei-Kyung - Léo Delibes's The Flower Duet [from Lakmé]

DISC FIVE: Marvin Gaye - Whats Going On

DISC SIX: Gladys Knight - Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me

DISC SEVEN: My Chemical Romance - Sing

DISC EIGHT: Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World

BOOK CHOICE: Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

LUXURY CHOICE: Bicycle

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2013.

Writer Malorie Blackman is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Louis Armstrong to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Writer Malorie Blackman shares her music choices with Kirsty Young. From 2013.

[LISTEN NOW]

Always an outsider, Rumer Godden seems to have gone against all the mores of her time; from opening a dancing school in Calcutta to living alone with her children in Kashmir. The writer describes how her rich life in India (under the Raj) and in Britain has influenced her novels.

She says she can't remember a time when she didn't write. Rumer Godden died in 1998 at the age of 90, having published dozens of novels for adults and children, alongside non fiction and verse.

DISC ONE: Dominic Muldowney - Peacock Spring Music

DISC TWO: Vladimir Horowitz - Robert Schumann's Träumerei (from Scenes from Childhood)

DISC THREE: Duke Ellington and His Orchestra - Stormy Weather

DISC FOUR: : Los Frontierizos Orchestra with The Choir Of The Bassilica - Ariel Ramírez's Misa Criolla

DISC FIVE: Philadelphia Orchestra - Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique

DISC SIX: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf & Chorus with The Philharmonia Orchestra - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Porgi, amor (from The Marriage of Figaro)

DISC SEVEN: The Ballet Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Joseph Levine - Frédéric Chopin's Les Sylphides

DISC EIGHT: Claudio Arrau - Franz Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Vladimir Horowitz - Robert Schumann's Träumerei (from Scenes from Childhood)

BOOK CHOICE: The Atlantic book of British and American Poetry - Edith Sitwell

LUXURY CHOICE: A widow's cruse filled with whisky

Producer Angie Nehring

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1996.

Novelist Rumer Godden is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Duke Ellington to Franz Liszt. Novelist Rumer Godden shares her second castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 1996.

[LISTEN NOW]

Author and screenwriter, Anthony Horowitz OBE shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

The creator of the popular teenage spy, Alex Rider, Anthony's first novel was published when he was 23. He's also penned a slew of TV crime shows including Murder Most Horrid, Midsomer Murders and Foyle's Law.

The writer doesn't consider his work great, or even important - but he does like to think it agreeable and surprising.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2006.

Featuring Anthony Horowitz, creator of the teenage spy Alex Rider.

Sue Lawley's castaway is the Children's Laureate Jacqueline Wilson. She's won just about every award going for children's fiction and, in a career spanning more than 30 years, has written more than 80 books. Even as a child she knew she wanted to write but, after an inauspicious time at school, she reluctantly trained to be a secretary instead. Then she began to pitch ideas for a new teen magazine, Jackie, her stories were bought and she quickly became a staff writer.

But she was 50 before she devised her most famous creation, Tracy Beaker. Tracy is a streetwise, feisty girl growing up in the competitive world of a children's home, who never loses the hope that one day her mum will come back for her. The book was a breakthrough for Jacqueline and its subsequent television adaptation introduced her to a mass audience. In 2002 she was awarded an OBE for services to literacy.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2005.

From Queen to Beethoven, the award-winning author discusses her castaway choices.

From Acker Bilk to Queen.

Former Children's Laureate Jacqueline Wilson OBE shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Jacqueline has won just about every award going for children's fiction and has written over 80 books. Even as a child she knew she wanted to write but, after an inauspicious time at school, she reluctantly trained to be a secretary instead. Then she began to pitch ideas for a new teen magazine, Jackie, her stories were bought and she quickly became a staff writer.

But she was 50 before she devised her most famous creation, Tracy Beaker. Tracy is a streetwise, feisty girl growing up in the competitive world of a children's home, who never loses the hope that one day her mum will come back for her. The book was a breakthrough for Jacqueline and its subsequent TV adaptation introduced her to a mass audience.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2005.

From Acker Bilk to Queen. The children's writer makes her castaway choices.

From the Beatles to Beethoven, the Harry Potter author shares her castaway choices.

The writer and creator of Harry Potter, JK Rowling OBE looks back over her life and career and shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

JK's award-wining fantasy series has sold multi-millions and the books were turned into a popular series of films for the cinema.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2010.

From Schubert to Malcolm Donaldson, the Gruffalo creator shares her castaway choices.

War Horse creator, Sir Michael Morpurgo shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

His other works include Kensuke's Kingdom, Why the Wales Came and Private Peaceful.

The widely respected children's author and the former Children's Laureate styles himself as a 'story-teller/writer' and the themes he explores are the relationships between young and old, children and animals and children's experiences of loneliness and self-reliance.

Together with his wife, Clare, he set up the charity Farms for City Children in Devon to give inner-city children the opportunity to experience life on a farm, working with animals and being close to nature.

Producer Lisa Jenkinson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2004.

War Horse' author Michael Morpurgo shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Humphrey Lyttelton described himself as ‘blessed' for having two careers: as a jazz trumpeter and band leader, and then as a highly popular radio host, including I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue between 1972 and 2007.

Humphrey's favourite among the tracks he selected is ‘That's My Home' by Louis Armstrong. His book choice is the Collected Works of James Thurber and his luxury item is a harmonium, in order to master playing a keyboard instrument.

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2006.

Radio host and jazz legend Humphrey Lyttelton is Kirsty Young's guest. From 2006.

Comedian, actor and writer Jack Dee shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young

Jack's persona is that of the laconic miserabilist - his hit sit-com was called 'Lead Balloon' and his autobiography entitled 'Thanks For Nothing'.

That is only part of the picture: even though show business was in the family – Jack's great grandparents were in music hall – his early working life ranged all over the place. From grafting in the kitchens of The Ritz to working in an artificial leg factory - at one point he even seriously considered the priesthood.

He says his caustic, ironic, sarcastic comedy comes from 'a sort of realism. You can't escape the dark stuff in life ... and my way of dealing with that is to absorb it into my life so that it's no longer worrying for me.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2014.

Jack Dee is castaway on a Desert Island.

Comedian, writer, broadcaster and political activist, Sandi Toksvig shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Sandi's parents were both broadcasters. Her mother worked as a studio manager and announcer before she married. Her Danish father's job as a foreign correspondent took the family around the world.

Sandi and her siblings spent much of their childhood in the United States. When she was “asked to leave ? yet another American school, her parents sent her to boarding school in England. She soon decided to lose her strong American accent and went on to Cambridge, where she performed in the Footlights.

In addition to writing, she's continued to appear regularly on TV and radio shows as both panellist and host

She's also Chancellor of Portsmouth University.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2015.

Cartoonist, actor and writer Willie Rushton shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Willie was a much loved panellist on BBC Radio 4's antidote to panel games 'I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue'.

He explains how he came to be one of the magazine founders of Private Eye and recalls the early days of BBC TV's popular weekly satire series 'That Was the Week That Was'.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 1984.

Cartoonist, actor and writer Willie Rushton makes his music choices. From 1984.

Digital entrepreneur Stephanie Shirley shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

As a child, she escaped Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport - travelling across Europe for two days in a train with 1,000 children and just two adults.

She went on to set up a computer programming company which made her a millionaire many times over. But she has given away most of her fortune and now is an ambassador for philanthropy.

Her determination throughout it all, she says, has been to prove that hers was a life worth saving.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2010.

From Bach to Schubert, digital entrepreneur Stephanie Shirley makes her castaway choices.

Computer scientist Dame Wendy Hall shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young

Fellow of both the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society, Dame Wendy fought long and hard to prove that her type of web science was highly significant and here to stay. If algebraic topology and open hypermedia systems really aren't your thing, Dame Wendy is also in demand as a brilliant communicator on, what can seem to outsiders to be, impenetrable topics.

Her parents were from humble beginnings and it was clear from the get-go that their first born had a budding flair for numbers: aged six she was charged with teaching a group of schoolmates maths. The first in her family to go to University she rejected Cambridge, judging it 'too stuffy'.

She says, 'I get too excited about stuff. I love my life and am passionate about web science, women in science and shopping'.

Dame Wendy Hall is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs

From Adele to Handel, computer scientist Wendy Hall makes her castaway choices.

Dot-com millionaire and businesswoman Martha Lane Fox shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Martha says that as a child she was confident and bossy - tormenting her younger brother and, in games of teachers and pupils, always marking him lower than her line of teddy bears. Her drive and ambition were recognised at school and college - her brother claims her nickname was 'Fast Lane Foxy'.

After studying modern and classical history at Oxford University she became a management consultant at a small company and met Brent Hoberman - who had the idea for lastminute.com. Initially, Lane Fox rubbished the idea, but eventually Brent convinced her and she joined him, appropriately enough, at the last minute. The pair launched lastminute.com in 1998 - it started out as an online bucket shop - selling the holidays that small travel agents couldn't get rid of - and branched out into entertainment and gifts.

On March 14th, 2000, days before the markets peaked, lastminute.com was floated on the stock exchange - and over the following weeks prices collapsed. Martha Lane Fox became the face, the figurehead and eventually the fall-girl for the dot-com bubble. In November 2003, after lastminute.com announced a profit for the first time, Lane Fox announced she was resigning as managing director.

From Judy Garland to Verdi, the entrepreneur shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Comedian and TV presenter Jimmy Carr shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young

Jimmy is the son of Irish immigrant parents and grew up in Berkshire.

Despite being dyslexic, he got good enough A levels to study at Cambridge University. After graduating with a degree in Political Science, and working for a major multinational company in London, Jimmy had what he calls an 'early midlife crisis', during which he lost his Catholic faith and was generally unhappy.

He attended lots of therapy courses in an attempt to find out what would make him happier and eventually set out on the road to becoming a comedian.

He quickly got a reputation for his fierce work ethic, heading up annually to the Edinburgh Fringe, touring with a new show virtually every year, and hosting many a Channel 4 panel show including 8 Out of 10 Cats and the Big Fat Quiz of the Year.

He has also made a name for himself by becoming what he has called 'the king of the inappropriate', drawing criticism for making jokes about sensitive subjects.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2017.

From Beyonce to Paul Simon. Jimmy Carr shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young

Comedian Micky Flanagan shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Micky found mainstream success as a comic in 2007 with his autobiographical 'What Chance Change?' show at the Edinburgh fringe, where he was nominated as best newcomer.

Raised in London's East End, he left school at 15 with no qualifications and followed his dad into work as a fish porter at Billingsgate fish market. When he quit that job, he spent a summer working in a kitchen in New York, and then returned to London to spend much of the 1980s working in the furniture trade. When his business collapsed, he worked as a window cleaner and decorator.

He played truant through much of his secondary school career, but in his mid-20s he studied for a GCSE in English and later gained a place at City University, London, graduating with Social Sciences degree. He trained to become a teacher and then discovered comedy through night classes.

Sell-out UK tours and appearances on 'Mock the Week' and 'Would I Lie to You' followed, and he's made two TV series for Sky - 'Detour De France' and 'Micky Flanagan: Thinking Aloud'.

DISC ONE: Help Me Make It Through The Night - John Holt

DISC TWO: Sail Away - David Gray

DISC THREE: That's Entertainment - The Jam

DISC FOUR: There Is Power in a Union - Billy Bragg

DISC FIVE: Thunder Road - Bruce Springsteen

DISC SIX: Don't Look Back In Anger - Oasis

DISC SEVEN: Margaritaville - Jimmy Buffett

DISC EIGHT: Searching (feat. Luther Vandross) - Change

BOOK CHOICE - A dictionary of philosophy

LUXURY ITEM - A handheld vacuum cleaner

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Help Me Make It Through The Night - John Holt

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2017.

Micky Flanagan, comedian, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs.

Actress and comedian Miranda Hart shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

She wrote and starred in the hit BBC sitcom 'Miranda' and has congaed her way to the top of TV comedy by exploiting the universal truth that awkwardness lies at the heart of the human condition. Slapstick and misunderstanding underpin her work along with the impression that she's just a really, jolly, lovely 'girl'.

Making her mark has been something of a slog. After her first appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe it was another 11 years before she could give up her job as a PA. For a good while she was photocopying scripts rather than performing them.

She says: 'I started writing comedy because it was more fun inside my head than the real world, but that's no longer true.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.

From Mozart to Mama Cass, Miranda Hart shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

From Paul McCartney to Wham!

Comedian Sarah Millican shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Her every woman yet no-holds-barred style of comedy has brought her sell-out tours and several of her own highly successful TV series. Revelling in normality and drawing on the difficult, intimate and ofter extruciating moments of being human, she dares to say what most of us are thinking, only she's much funnier.

A Geordie, born in South Shields, her dad was an engineer down the mines and her mum was a hairdresser. They encouraged their daughter in her storytelling and performing even though her childhood shyness meant she'd recite her poetry from behind the living room curtains.

Later it was pain that first propelled her onto the stage when a broken early marriage provided the catalyst she needed to find the courage to confront the glaring judgement of the audience's gaze. Her rise was then rapid. Within four years she was awarded the Best Newcomer prize at the Edinburgh Fringe.

She says, 'People come along and think, 'oh she's being too rude'. They don't realise I'm just like this at home. People think I'm prim and proper at home but I'm not - I'm just me transplanted onto the stage'.

DISC ONE: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!

DISC TWO: (There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays - Perry Como

DISC THREE: Happy - Pharrell Williams

DISC FOUR: Thunderbird - Hans Zimmer featuring Pete Haycock

DISC FIVE: Chocolate - Snow Patrol

DISC SIX: We All Stand Together - Paul McCartney

DISC SEVEN: The Theme from the film, Superman - London Symphony Orchestra & John Williams

DISC EIGHT: Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkel

BOOK CHOICE - A survival book

LUXURY ITEM - Notebooks and pens

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - The Theme from the film, Superman - London Symphony Orchestra & John Williams

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 December 2014.

Sarah Millican, comedian, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs

From Paul McCartney to Wham! Comedian Sarah Millican shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2014.

[LISTEN NOW]

He read English at Cambridge and became vice-president of the Footlights before starting out on the London comedy circuit. Together with Steve Punt, Hugh Dennis and Rob Newman, he was part of The Mary Whitehouse Experience for Radio 1 and later BBC 2. Rob and David went on to create Newman and Baddiel in Pieces, and were the first comedians to sell out Wembley Arena with a gig in 1993, prompting newspapers to declare comedy 'the new rock 'n' roll'. David then formed a comedy partnership with Frank Skinner and they hosted Fantasy Football League and later Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned. They co-wrote the lyrics to one of the best-known football songs, Three Lions.

In 2005, David took a break from performance and concentrated on writing novels for adults and children's books as well as the script for a film, which became a musical, The Infidel. He returned to stand-up in 2013 with a show about fame. He recently mined his parents' idiosyncrasies and the rare form of dementia from which his father suffers for a stand-up show entitled My Family: Not the Sitcom. His partner is fellow comedian and writer Morwenna Banks. They have two teenage children.

Presenter: Kirsty Young

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2018.

Comedian David Baddiel shares his Desert Island Disc choices with Kirsty Young

As a football-obsessed comic whose stand-up routines were peppered with details of his personal life, he became the poster-boy for the 'Loaded' generation. Beneath the surface, though, he seems to be full of contradictions. He was expelled from school when he was a teenager - but went on to gain a masters degree; he has long been obsessed with Elvis Presley - but now says he feels a tingle when he goes to the opera. Although he had long enjoyed entertaining his friends, he was 30 before he realised where his future lay. 'I was an unemployed drunk going nowhere,' he says, 'And then comedy turned up. Comedy saved my life

Record: The Fall

Book: Teach yourself French

Luxury: A ukulele

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.

Comedian Frank Skinner chooses his Desert Island Discs

Comedian and actor Rob Brydon shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Growing up in Port Talbot, South Wales, Rob discovered performing when he was a teenager and says he came alive when he was on stage: so much so that he left school with only a couple of O Levels.

For years, he made a comfortable but unfulfilling living recording voice-overs and working on a TV shopping channel. He always dreamed of working in comedy, though, and eventually it was 'Marion and Geoff' and then 'Gavin and Stacey' that made him a household name.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2010.

Comedian and actor Rob Brydon chooses his Desert Island Discs

From Kate Bush to Talking Heads.

Stand-up comedian Jo Brand shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

From the word go, Jo always anticipated she'd be heckled about her weight and appearance. While most people would run a mile at the thought of standing in front of a rowdy, aggressive and largely drunk audience, she says that the worst that can happen is humiliation - and Jo adds that as a woman, she was already equipped to deal with this, because people felt free to comment disparagingly on her appearance in everyday life.

Jo's first career was as a psychiatric nurse - and for several years she would spend the day working in a psychiatric unit before appearing at a comedy club in the evening. Both careers demand an ability to be calm in extreme situations and to display a confidence that is often not felt.

Her extreme act meant that for many years, Jo was labelled a man-hating feminist - but she confounded critics by getting married and having two children.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2007.

From Kate Bush to Talking Heads. Comedian Jo Brand makes her castaway choices.

Comedy performer and writer, Matt Lucas shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

As one half of the team that created the hit TV show Little Britain, Matt has been responsible for dreaming up such characters as Vicky Pollard, the Asbo teenager who swapped her baby for a Westlife CD and Dafydd, the Welsh homosexual who is adamant he's 'the only gay in the village'.

When he was six years old Matt's hair fell out and as a result he acquired a certain local notoriety - from then on it simply never occurred to him that he wouldn't go on to become famous. At the start of this century, he was still struggling to have his work commissioned and thought of abandoning his career in comedy.

Today, Matt Lucas is one of the most popular and recognisable entertainers in Britain.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2006.

From Danny Kaye to Queen, comedian Matt Lucas makes his castaway choices.

Comedian, actor and writer Paul Whitehouse shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Born in the Rhonda Valley in Wales, Paul and his family soon moved to Enfield, North London where he grew up. Paul was never particularly ambitious, but he was bright and got a place at University, although he dropped out in his first year. He went on to work as a plasterer and was quite content, enjoying a bit of humorous banter in the pub with his friends who included Harry Enfield and Charlie Higson.

Harry was first to get employed as a comedian - on Saturday Night Live - and he got Paul and Charlie to write for him. Soon, Paul was a regular contributor to Harry's show Harry Enfield and Chums. But Paul and Charlie were awash with ideas and characters and The Fast Show was born, laden with an influx of catchphrases that swamped common vernacular, such as 'Brilliant!' 'Very, very drunk' 'Suit you, sir!' and 'which was nice'.

After various acting roles on TV and completing a live tour of The Fast Show, Paul decided to write a situation comedy, and in 2001 the series Happiness was born.

At the 1998 BAFTA Awards, Paul won the Best Light Entertainment Performance prize and The Fast Show won Best Light Entertainment Programme.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2003.

From Callas to The Stones, Paul Whitehouse shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Comedian Vic Reeves shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Jim Moir, best known by the name of his alter ego Vic Reeves, was born in Leeds but soon moved to Darlington with his family.

He attended the local school and left with one O level in Art. He fulfilled the expectations of his school by getting a job in a factory, completing his apprenticeship and working there for four years.

However, he was bored so he moved to London with three friends. After trying a few different jobs he began running club nights - with music, acts and entertainment. He would hire a venue and the bands and be the compere.

Jim decided to take on the persona of Vic Reeves as it gave him an excuse to act up. A comedy night came up and instead of booking three comedians, he decided to do the whole night himself. Vic Reeves' Big Night Out was born. After teaming up with Bob Mortimer, a solicitor who had been in the audience of one of his shows, the show went from strength to strength. It was a huge success and TV rights were fought over by the BBC and Channel 4.

Since then, he has appeared in a variety of programmes including The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Shooting Stars and Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased). The shows have won BAFTA Awards for Originality and Best Live Performance plus British Comedy Awards.

Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2003.

From Hendrix to Vaughan Williams, Vic Reeves shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Comedian Bob Mortimer shares his castaway choices with Lauren Laverne.

Bob is best known for his work with his comedy partner Vic Reeves.

For over 30 years, he and Vic have appeared in numerous TV series together, including Vic Reeves' Big Night Out, Shooting Stars and The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer.

Bob first saw Vic performing in a south London pub: Vic was wearing a Bryan Ferry mask while trying to tap dance with wooden planks strapped to his feet. Bob found this hugely entertaining, and began to take part in Vic's shows.

Bob was born in 1959 in Middlesbrough, the youngest of four boys. His father died in a car crash when he was seven and Bob says he became his mother's little helper – although he also set fire to their house after playing with fireworks. As a teenager he dreamed of a career as a footballer, but he ended up studying law at university, and worked as a solicitor in south London.

In 2015 Bob underwent triple heart bypass surgery. After this – in a rare diversion from working with Vic – he accepted an invitation from fellow comedian Paul Whitehouse to get out of the house and go fishing, which led to a successful TV series, Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing.

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2019.

Comedian Bob Mortimer chooses the eight tracks he'd take to a desert island.

Comedian Lee Mack shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Lee writes and stars in the BBC One TV hit show 'Not Going Out'. His stand-up tours do great business and his lightening sharp comedy reflexes are also put to good use on a number of prime-time panel shows.

His first ever performance was doing impressions for his school mates, but it took him more than ten years to pluck up the courage to step on stage.

Leaving school with two 'O' levels and a cheeky grin, he had a stint as Red Rum's stable boy and a bash at being a professional darts player.

Lee says of his comedy career 'I'm the kind of person that, if I don't think it's hard work, I worry that it's not worthwhile. I have to feel as if I've struggled a bit.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2013.

Lee Mack, comedian, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs

Comedian Sarah Millican shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Her every woman yet no-holds-barred style of comedy has brought her sell-out tours and several of her own highly successful TV series. Revelling in normality and drawing on the difficult, intimate and ofter extruciating moments of being human, she dares to say what most of us are thinking, only she's much funnier.

A Geordie, born in South Shields, her dad was an engineer down the mines and her mum was a hairdresser. They encouraged their daughter in her storytelling and performing even though her childhood shyness meant she'd recite her poetry from behind the living room curtains.

Later it was pain that first propelled her onto the stage when a broken early marriage provided the catalyst she needed to find the courage to confront the glaring judgement of the audience's gaze. Her rise was then rapid. Within four years she was awarded the Best Newcomer prize at the Edinburgh Fringe.

She says, 'People come along and think, 'oh she's being too rude'. They don't realise I'm just like this at home. People think I'm prim and proper at home but I'm not - I'm just me transplanted onto the stage'.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 December 2014.

Sarah Millican, comedian, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs

Comedian and TV presenter, Sue Perkins shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

She and her friend Mel Giedroyc first appeared as a comedy duo at the Edinburgh Fringe over 20 years ago and together they presented the first seven series of The Great British Bake Off.

Born at the end of the 1960s, Sue grew up in Croydon, the eldest of three siblings. By her own description a 'shy and awkward' child, she nonetheless made it to Cambridge University to study English. She and Mel met at a Footlights open mic gig soon after she'd arrived. Their first joint high-profile success was landing a new live daytime programme on Channel 4 called Light Lunch, which turned them into household names.

Sue also formed a second presenting partnership, making historical food programmes with Giles Coren. When she was 38 she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour which left her unable to have children. Sue was in a relationship with the TV presenter Anna Richardson.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2017.

Comedian Sue Perkins chooses the eight tracks she'd take to a desert island.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the comedian, actor musician and now dancer, Bill Bailey.

Lauded for his hugely inventive stand up, he has carved out a highly successful career with an altogether atypical approach. He's a familiar face on television from his regular appearances on quiz shows Have I Got News for You, QI and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

At school he was a gifted pupil who gave up on his education and a pitch-perfect piano student who flunked his music school entrance. He started drifting as a teenager and gave up on university within days of arrival - he says he was looking for the next challenge, and that turned out to be stand-up comedy. He loved having to think on his feet and found the laughter of strangers intoxicating.

DISC ONE: King Curtis - Memphis Soul Stew

DISC TWO: The Undertones - Teenage Kicks

DISC THREE: Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime

DISC FOUR: English Chamber Orchestra, soloist Murray Perahia - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 26 in D major (“Coronation ?)

DISC FIVE: David Bowie - Rebel Rebel

DISC SIX: Pretenders - Talk of the Town

DISC SEVEN: Enong Jubaedah and Mang Maman - Traditional Javanese Gamelan

DISC EIGHT: New Philharmonia Orchestra with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, conducted by Sir David Willcocks - Gabriel Fauré's In Paradisum (from Requiem), Op 48

BOOK CHOICE: The collected works - W. Somerset Maugham

LUXURY CHOICE: A pack of cards

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime

Producer: Jane Thurlow

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2008.

Multi-talented Bill Bailey is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From The Undertones to Mozart. Musical comedian Bill Bailey shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2008.

As a stand-up comic he made his name as one of the most brilliant and unpredictable acts on the circuit. His stage persona was a belligerent drunk who would heckle his own audience. But the more successful he became, the more the similarities between his own life and his stage character seemed to blur. 'I found popularity through self-destruction' he says, 'and that can be quite addictive'.

In recent years, he has cut down on his drinking, lost weight and now got engaged - all part of a plan to ensure he reached his 40th birthday and could be a proper father to his young son. 'Life's actually turned around and been very good to me,' he says.

DISC ONE: Johnny Cash - Hurt

DISC TWO: Deacon Blue - Dignity

DISC THREE: The Who - Love Reign O'er Me

DISC FOUR: Pulp - Common People

DISC FIVE: Colin Hay - Waiting for My Real Life to Begin

DISC SIX: The Beautiful South - Domino Man

DISC SEVEN: The La's - There She Goes

DISC EIGHT: Don McLean - Vincent

BOOK CHOICE: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressell

LUXURY CHOICE: Kiln

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Johnny Cash - Hurt

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.

Comedian Johnny Vegas is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Don McLean to Johnny Cash. Comedian Johnny Vegas shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From October 2010.

As he discusses with Kirsty Young, comedy was the language he grew up with - the youngest of four children, being able to come up with a gag or a smart rejoinder was the linguistic currency of his home. That, he says, is where the 'show-off performer' was born. Now with seven Baftas, two Golden Globes and an Emmy to his name, Ricky Gervais is gratified that his work is recognised and says his aim has always been to bring art into comedy.

Favourite track: Lilywhite by Cat Stevens

Book: A coffee table book of art

Luxury: Vat of novocaine - a non-addictive pain-killer.

DISC ONE: Bob Dylan - If You See Her, Say Hello

DISC TWO: Yusuf Islam - Lilywhite

DISC THREE: Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK

DISC FOUR: Neil Young - After The Gold Rush

DISC FIVE: Radiohead - Bones

DISC SIX: David Bowie - Letter To Hermione

DISC SEVEN: Jimmy Webb - Galveston

DISC EIGHT: Willie Nelson - Always on My Mind

Produced by Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.

The comedian Ricky Gervais is castaway by Kirsty Young. From 2007.

From Bob Dylan to Willie Nelson, comedian Ricky Gervais shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2007.

Comedian and writer Ricky Gervais is castaway Kirsty Young.

In just twelve episodes, his show The Office changed the face of British TV comedy. At its centre was the comic monster, David Brent, a middle-manager being filmed for a mock-documentary who saw the ever-present cameras as his route to popularity and fame. Ricky Gervais's performance was both excruciating and unmissable - one critic called the programme 'among the most affecting and invigorating works of fiction since the turn of the century'.

Now with seven BAFTAS, two Golden Globes and an Emmy to his name, Ricky is gratified that his work is recognised and says his aim has always been to bring art into comedy.

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2007.

Tracey was born in Slough and as a child she would impersonate people and put on shows for the amusement of her mother after the death of her father. At 12 she won a scholarship to the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London and worked in repertory theatre and the West End in London before her television career took off. She was one of the stars of the BBC's primetime sketch show Three of a Kind alongside David Copperfield and a young Lenny Henry.

In 1985 she moved to Los Angeles with her husband, the producer Allan McKeown, where her uncanny impressions of Americans from all walks of life won her acclaim and awards in equal measure.

After the death of her husband Tracey returned to the UK in 2016 and was soon back on our screens in a new sketch series, Tracey Ullman's Show, which showcased her enduring talent for sending up the powerful and the famous, including Dame Judi Dench, Angela Merkel and Theresa May.

DISC ONE: American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

DISC TWO: You Won't See Me by The Beatles

DISC THREE: Nichols and May At Work by Mike Nichols And Elaine May

DISC FOUR: That's The Way Of The World by Earth, Wind & Fire

DISC FIVE: Everyday I Write the Book by Elvis Costello And The Attractions

DISC SIX: They Don't Know by Kirsty MacColl

DISC SEVEN: You and I by Stevie Wonder

DISC EIGHT: This Is the Sea by The Waterboys

BOOK CHOICE: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend

LUXURY ITEM: Nuts

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: You and I by Stevie Wonder

Presenter Lauren Laverne

Producer Paula McGinley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2021.

Actor and comedian Tracey Ullman, is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

From The Beatles to Stevie Wonder. Actor and comedian Tracey Ullman shares her castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2021.

Tracey was the first woman to be offered her own TV sketch show – both in Britain and America – and has starred in film and TV dramas alongside Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett and Hugh Grant. The Emmy-winning Tracey Ullman Show ran for four seasons in the US and provided the launch pad for The Simpsons.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2021.

Her work is wide ranging, but her talents are most often employed in crafting lyrical, melodic scores for film and TV. Her credits include Land Girls, Judge John Deed, Haunted and Father Brown. Now a visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music, her unlikely introduction to the piano came at the age of 8 when she found a bashed up old instrument sitting in the corner of a hotel dining room.

Producer: Isabel Sargent

From 2014.

Composer Debbie Wiseman makes her castaway choices.

Cricket umpire Dickie Bird OBE shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Dickie Bird umpired 65 Test matches, 92 one-day internationals and three world cup finals.

He tells Sue Lawley about his church-going childhood in Barnsley, and his anxieties about punctuality - arriving as he has done at least four hours before time at Buckingham Palace, Chequers and The Oval.

Cricket umpire Dickie Bird shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Legendary England and Yorkshire fast bowler Fred Trueman shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Born in Stainton, Fred made his Yorkshire debut in 1949 and clocked up over 2,000 first-class wickets when he retired in 1969. He made an instant impact on his Test debut aged 21 in 1952 against India at Headingley. He was the first man to claim 300 wickets in Test cricket and finished with 307 from only 67 matches.

Trueman was famed for his partnership for England with Lancashire's Brian Statham and was Yorkshire's spearhead during their dominance in the 1960s.

A quick-witted and natural raconteur, he also worked as an expert analyst on the BBC's Test Match Special for 26 years until 2000.

Legendary cricketer Fred Trueman shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Former England cricketer Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

One of the best players of his generation, he was part of the England team that won the Ashes in 2005, a year that marked his sporting coming of age. On the strength of that historic victory he was awarded an MBE for services to the game, and the public voted him BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

Barely out of his pram when he picked up a cricket ball he turned out to bat for an under-14 match when he was just six years old. His debut was not in crisp cricket whites, but in a second hand Manchester United tracksuit, setting the tone for someone who's made a habit of doing things his way. Not least at a 10 Downing Street reception when, somewhat the worse for wear, he weaved into the cabinet room, plonked himself down in the PM's chair and knocked back yet another bottle of beer.

Since retiring from the game he's had a go at heavyweight boxing and won the bout. One area where he hasn't come out on top: his sons never listen to his cricket coaching tips.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2015.

Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs.

Billie is an Olivier Award winning actor and former pop star.

She was born in Swindon in September 1982, and her parents nurtured her interests in dance and drama from a young age.

After a winning a scholarship to study at the Sylvia Young Theatre School, she moved to London as a young teenager, leaving the family home. By the age of 15, she was a full time pop star. She became the youngest female artist ever to go straight to number one in the UK charts when her debut single was a hit in 1998.

Just three years later, after releasing more successful singles and two albums and touring furiously to promote them, Billie left the music industry. She married the DJ Chris Evans, and found herself the frequent subject of newspaper stories.

She decided to turn to acting, her first love, and by 2005 she was back in the spotlight playing Rose Tyler in the BBC's revival of Doctor Who.

Since then she has taken on a wide range of acclaimed screen and stage roles, most notably picking up all six available awards for Best Actress – including the Olivier Award – when she starred in a new version of Lorca's play Yerma. Her recent TV series I Hate Suzy, which she co-created, has been BAFTA nominated and she has also written and directed her first film, Rare Beasts.

DISC ONE: Pure Imagination by Gene Wilder

DISC TWO: This Must Be the Place (Nave Melody) by Talking Heads

DISC THREE: Sara by Fleetwood Mac

DISC FOUR: Out of Space by The Prodigy

DISC FIVE: Champagne Supernova by Oasis

DISC SIX: Turn The Page by The Streets

DISC SEVEN: Halo by Beyonc退

DISC EIGHT: Juicy by The Notorious B.I.G

BOOK CHOICE: The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy

LUXURY ITEM: Billie's children's art work

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Champagne Supernova by Oasis

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2021.

Actor Billie Piper is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

He has been voted the best Doctor Who ever and has redefined the Time Lord for a generation of parents and children.

As a child he was a huge fan of the programme; he reckons he only ever missed one episode, wore a long stripy scarf and queued up to meet Tom Baker and get his autograph.

As a role, he says, it appealed not just to his adult self but to the eight-year-old boy who was just below the surface.

DISC ONE: Over and Done With - The Proclaimers

DISC TWO: Oliver's Army - Elvis Costello

DISC THREE: Me and the Farmer - The Housemartins

DISC FOUR: Dignity - Deacon Blue

DISC FIVE: The Starship Enterprise - Eddie Izzard

DISC SIX: Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs

DISC SEVEN: White Wine in the Sun - Tim Minchin

DISC EIGHT: Greetings to the New Brunette - Billy Bragg

BOOK CHOICE: A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu - Marcel Proust

LUXURY CHOICE: A solar DVD player loaded with the seven series of the West Wing

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: White Wine in the Sun - Tim Minchin

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2009.

From Billy Bragg to The Proclaimers. Actor David Tennant makes his music choices

His future looked set to be in football: he played at youth level for Northampton Town, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City until a serious back condition ended his highly promising career prematurely. His drama teacher encouraged him to take up acting and he joined the National Youth Theatre and studied drama at the University of East Anglia. He played Lockwood in the National Theatre's touring production of The History Boys and was nominated for an Evening Standard Best Newcomer Award for his performance in Polly Stenham's That Face. He also appeared as a political researcher in the BBC Two parliamentary drama, Party Animals.

Despite being a surprise choice to play The Doctor in 2009, he became the first actor to be nominated for a BAFTA television award for his performance in this role, and has won two National Television Awards. When he left Doctor Who at the end of 2013, he appeared on stage as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho: The Musical.

In 2016 he took the part of HRH Prince Philip Mountbatten, The Duke of Edinburgh, in the Netflix series The Crown, and received great acclaim, leaving the role at the end of the second series in late 2017.

DISC ONE: Roll With It - Oasis

DISC TWO: The Great Gig In The Sky - Pink Floyd

DISC THREE: Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) - Marvin Gaye

DISC FOUR: For An Angel (E-Werk Club Mix) - Paul van Dyk (featuring Rachel McFarlane)

DISC FIVE: Keep The Car Running - Arcade Fire

DISC SIX: Juicy (Radio Edit) - The Notorious B.I.G.

DISC SEVEN: Giacomo Puccini's Nessun Dorma - Luciano Pavarotti with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Kurt Herbert Adler

DISC EIGHT: All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem

BOOK CHOICE: Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes

LUXURY CHOICE: Endless supply of English Breakfast Tea

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Great Gig In The Sky - Pink Floyd

Presenter: Kirsty Young

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broacast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2018.

Actor Matt Smith is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Russell is one of the UK's most successful TV writers. He spent his teenage years learning his dramatic craft with the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre, and his career in TV began in the children's department at the BBC.

His first solo hit TV series was the ground-breaking, sexually frank drama Queer as Folk, first broadcast on Channel 4 in 1999.

A lifelong Doctor Who fan, he relaunched the series in 2005 for a new generation of viewers. Such was its success, he found himself working around the clock.

More recently, he wrote the highly-acclaimed series A Very English Scandal, starring Hugh Grant as Jeremy Thorpe, and the dystopian drama Years and Years.

DISC ONE: Julie Covington, Charlotte Cornwell, Rula Lenska - Sugar Mountain

DISC TWO: Hora Staccato (1950 version) performed by Jascha Heifetz and Emanuel Bay

DISC THREE: The New Christy Minstrels - Three Wheels on My Wagon -

DISC FOUR: Leonard Bernstein's Gloria in excelsis, performed by The Norman Scribner Choir

DISC FIVE: Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights

DISC SIX: The OT Quartet - Hold That Sucker Down (Builds Like A Skyscraper Mix)

DISC SEVEN: Neil Hannon - Song For Ten

DISC EIGHT: Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky

BOOK CHOICE: Asterix and the Roman Agent by by Ren退 Goscinny with illustrations by Albert Uderzo

LUXURY ITEM: A black Ball Pentol Pen

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Leonard Bernstein's Gloria in excelsis

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2019.

Screenwriter Russell T Davies is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Sense and Sensibility, The Remains of the Day, Much Ado About Nothing and Howards End are just a handful of her notable screen credits in a dazzling career that has seen her pick up Oscars for both acting and writing.

She appears to have pulled off that rare trick of being both a star and one of us - she famously keeps her brace of Oscars in the downstairs loo, still lives across the road from her mum and holidays in a cottage in Scotland where, she says, she and her husband spend a third of the year 'digging in like a pair of old potatoes.

DISC ONE: Corarsik - Orchestra: The Hungarian Studio Orchestra, conductor: Patrick Doyle

DISC TWO: Florence, It's a Lovely Morning from the film version of The Magic Roundabout: Dougal and the Blue Cat - Eric Thompson

DISC THREE: Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols - Choir: The Choir of King's College Cambridge, conductor: Sir David Willcocks

DISC FOUR: Inti ?Illimani's Candidos - John Williams, Paco Pena

DISC FIVE: Hold On - Tom Waits

DISC SIX: Cantaloop - Us3 & Rahsaan

DISC SEVEN: Some of Your Planes - Richard Lumsden

DISC EIGHT: With a Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker

BOOK CHOICE: Odyssey - Homer

LUXURY CHOICE: A saucepan - heavy bottomed with a removable handle

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Corarsik - Orchestra: The Hungarian Studio Orchestra, conductor: Patrick Doyle.

Actress and writer Emma Thompson is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Stephen Fry is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Comedian, actor, writer, director, presenter and award-ceremony host – Stephen's list of accomplishments is long, varied and impressive.

His younger years were troubled and with a propensity for stealing and lying, he was expelled from two schools and imprisoned for credit card fraud. The turning point came when he knuckled down and won a scholarship to Queens' College, Cambridge, where he read English and joined the Cambridge Footlights, becoming lifelong friends with Emma Thompson and Hugh Laurie.

His career highlights include the fruits of his collaborative work with Laurie – from A Bit of Fry and Laurie to Jeeves and Wooster, he played Lord Melchett in Blackadder and Oscar Wilde on the big screen. He is a best-selling author of fiction and three volumes of autobiography, is the voice of the Harry Potter audio books and presents BBC Two's QI.

Stephen has also spoken of his experience of mental health issues and in 2006 he made a documentary exploring the effects of living with Bipolar - it won an Emmy Award.

DISC ONE: Bach - Partita No. 1 in B flat major

DISC TWO: Schubert - Variations 2 & 3 Piano Quintet in A

DISC THREE: Beethoven - Presto Quartet Op. 131 in C-Sharp minor

DISC FOUR: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free - Nina Simone

DISC FIVE: Wagner - O sink hernieder , Nacht der Liebe - Tristan und Isolde

DISC SIX: Changes - Hugh Laurie

DISC SEVEN: Do I Love You? - Ella Fitzgerald

DISC EIGHT: Arthur Wood - Barwick Green (The Archers' Theme Tune]

BOOK CHOICE: T. S. Eliot Four Quartets

LUXURY CHOICE: Canvasses, easels, brushes, an instruction manual

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Roses - The Chainsmokers featuring Rozes

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2015.

From Mozart to Meat Loaf, the actor, comic and writer shares his castaway choices.

From Ella Fitzgerald to Richard Wagner. Actor and writer Stephen Fry shares his music choices with Kirsty Young. From 2015.

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As a child he found he had a knack for impressions, a talent which led him to work on ITV's Spitting Image.

Recently Steve has also found success in films, but is best known for the comic monster he created - Alan Partridge.

The chat show host in Pringle jumper and slacks made us cringe with his crass questions and witless interventions and has remained one of our most enduring comic anti-heroes.

DISC ONE: Hong Kong Garden - Siouxsie and the Banshees

DISC TWO: We Have All the Time in the World - Louis Armstrong

DISC THREE: Wickerman - The Mock Turtles

DISC FOUR: (Nothing But) Flowers - Talking Heads

DISC FIVE: Hallelujah - Happy Mondays

DISC SIX: Edward Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36: Variation IX 'Nimrod' - soloist: Julian Lloyd Webber; orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; conductor: Sir Yehudi Menuhin

DISC SEVEN: California - Joni Mitchell

DISC EIGHT: Panic - The Smiths

BOOK CHOICE: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy - Laurence Sterne

LUXURY CHOICE: Fully-restored Morris Minor Traveller with wooden detail

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: We Have All the Time in the World - Louis Armstrong

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2009.

Comedian and actor Steve Coogan shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

After appearing with Roy Plomley and Sue Lawley, Sir Terry Wogan shares his third set of castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

With a career spanning more than five decades, it includes BBC TV chat show Wogan, the Eurovision Song Contest, the quiz Blankety Blank and for many years, hosting BBC Radio 2's breakfast show.

Terry says: 'You have to create a kind of little club - you are not talking to an audience, you are talking to one person - and they are only half listening anyway. It's a mistake to think that everyone is clinging to your every word.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2012.

Terry Wogan shares his third set of castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2012.

After appearing with Roy Plomley and Sue Lawley, Sir Terry Wogan is back to share his third set of castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Peter Gabriel - That'll Do (feat. Paddy Moloney & Black Dyke Band)

Frank Sinatra - My Funny Valentine

Carly Simon - In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning

O Praise the Lord from Heaven - The Choir of Moscow's Church of the Ascension of the Lord

Una furtiva lagrima (from Gaetano Donizetti's L'Elisir d'amore) - Placido Domingo with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra

As Time goes By - Jimmy Durante

When You are Old - Gretchen Peters

E lucevan le stelle (from Giacomo Puccini's Tosca) - Placido Domingo with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Peter Gabriel - That'll Do (feat. Paddy Moloney & Black Dyke Band)

BOOK CHOICE: War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

LUXURY CHOICE: Bottles, pens and paper

Producer: Corinna Jones

After Roy Plomley and Sue Lawley, Sir Terry returns to share his third set of castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2012.

[LISTEN NOW]

TV presenter and comedian, Graham Norton shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Graham was once voted the most powerful man in comedy with four BAFTAs and an international Emmy under his belt.

He's best known for his TV chat shows for Channel 4 and the BBC, as well as the annoying Father Noel in Father Ted. He's compared the two channels to the difference between a night out with your friends or a family Christmas lunch. Media critics pondered how his camp brand of adult humour would translate to mainstream TV. Graham went on to host a weekly show for BBC Radio 2, before switching to Virgin Radio.

Originally born Graham Walker in Dublin in 1963, he was brought up in the small town of Bandon in West Cork. As a child he loved TV describing it as a 'window to life' and a world he wanted to be part of.

He began an English and French degree at University College Cork but dropped out after his first year and went to America where he lived in a hippy commune in San Francisco. He eventually returned and enrolled at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London with the ambition of becoming an actor.

He changed his name to Norton - as the actor's union Equity infomed him they already had another Graham Walker on their books.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2004.

From Grace Jones to his duet with Dolly Parton, Graham Norton shares his castaway choices.

Singer Lulu shares her castaway choices with Michael Parkinson.

Born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, Lulu recalls her upbringing in a Glasgow tenement and her subsequent career as a singer and actress.

She is still active and performing on stage – including 42nd Street and concert tours.

Lulu was awarded an OBE in 2000.

From David Bowie to Luciano Pavarotti, Lulu shares her choices with Michael Parkinson.

Singer and psychotherapist, Sandie Shaw MBE shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

With her melodic, velvety voice, bare feet and Sassoon bob, Sandie was the epitome of everything that was swinging about the 1960s.

She was just 17 when she first topped the charts with ‘Always Something There to Remind Me' and went on to become Britain's first Eurovision winner with Puppet on a String. Sandie loathed the song at the time, but more recently came to terms with it after recording a new version which is, she says, rather forlorn.

Along with the highs have been terrible lows - years that she calls her dark ages, when, without money or creative freedom, she felt hopeless. It was Buddhism that turned her fortunes around and became central to her life.

Now, Sandie says, she can't believe the journey life has taken her on and she is preparing for a final flourish as a performer.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2010.

Singer Sandie Shaw shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Actor and singer Michael Ball shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

For over 20 years he's been the London West End's leading man - winning stacks of awards, building a hugely successful recording career and attracting a large and loyal army of fans.

He was a teenage drop-out, but when a teacher encouraged him to go to drama school he suddenly realised what he wanted to do. Success seemed to come easily to him and he quickly took on leading roles in Les Miserables, Aspects of Love and Phantom of the Opera.

But at one point he feared he'd have to abandon his career; he was on stage performing in Les Miserables when he suffered his first panic attack. They became so severe that he could barely leave his flat and he hated the thought of anyone looking at him. He shut himself away for nearly a year as he tried to work out what was wrong with him and overcome his anxieties.

Michael describes how he managed to return to the stage - and reveals the role his partner, Cathy McGowan, has played in rebuilding his confidence.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2008.

Singer Michael Ball shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2008.

Retail legend and fashion designer George Davies shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley and talks about his life and work.

In the 1980s George changed the shape of high streets with his chain Next - moving on to successful projects with Asda and Marks and Spencer.

One of the world's most successful fashion photographers, Mario Testino shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Kate Moss, Catherine Zeta Jones and Madonna are among the women who have posed for him and, most famously, he became Princess Diana's favourite photographer. But his route into photography was circuitous.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2005.

From Sid Vicious to Caetano Veloso, Mario Testino makes his castaway choices.

Famous for luxury handbags and novel accessories, designer and businesswoman Anya Hindmarch shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Given her first designer handbag by her mother at 16, Anya knew where her future lay.

At 18 she went to Florence to immerse herself in the Italian style, and ended up in the world of Florentine leather. This inspired her to create her own leather duffel bag.

Over the years, Anya has also been keen to create and market 'eco' bags. Her personal life is as busy as her professional life. She met and subsequently married an older widower when she was 25. He had three children aged under 5 and they've since added a further two to the clan.

DISC ONE: I Was Glad - Hubert Parry

DISC TWO: Overture to Funny Girl - The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra

DISC THREE: Paolo Conte - Via con me

DISC FOUR: Cantique de Jean Racine - Gabriel Fauré

DISC FIVE: My Room - Earl Okin

DISC SIX: Battle Hymn of the Republic - The Fron Male Voice Choir

DISC SEVEN: Zorba's Dance - Mikis Theodorakis

DISC EIGHT: Islands In The Stream - Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton

BOOK CHOICE - Grimm's fairy tales - Brothers Grimm

LUXURY CHOICE - Yellow rotating pencil and a book of unlined paper

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - I Was Glad - Hubert Parry

Producer: Alison Hughes

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2012.

The designer Anya Hindmarch shares her musical choices with Kirsty Young. From 2012.

Designer and creator of Biba, Barbara Hulanicki shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Today her creativity spans fashion, illustration, interior design and architecture but it was the success of the label Biba that first made her name; launching a high street revolution with its opulent-looking but entirely affordable high fashion. According to Twiggy, 'she changed fashion in England singlehandedly'.

A newspaper advert for a £3 pink gingham dress in 1963 kicked things off and by the seventies her London department store was a throbbing temple to all things skinny-fitted in plum, mulberry, green, brown and black. Romantic, mysterious, nostalgic and very profitable. But when it all turned sour with her business partners, she and her husband Fitz walked away, leaving behind the hugely popular creation that had made her name.

The fantasy and perfection of her creations were a far cry from the harsh reality of her childhood; born in Poland just before the Second World War, the air of privilege that surrounded her family was traumatically punctured when her father, a diplomat, was assassinated.

She says 'Now whenever I finish something I take some photographs and say 'goodbye'. When you lose everything, you realise that the only thing you have is what's in your head.

DISC ONE: Baby Love - The Supremes

DISC TWO: Begin the Beguine - Artie Shaw

DISC THREE: Polonaise in A Flat Major - Frédéric Chopin

DISC FOUR: Such A Night - Johnnie Ray

DISC FIVE: La Vie en Rose - Marlene Dietrich

DISC SIX: Girl from Ipanema - Astrud Gilberto

DISC SEVEN: One Love / People Get Ready - Bob Marley & The Wailers

DISC EIGHT: Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed

BOOK CHOICE - Thesaurus - Roget

LUXURY CHOICE - Sketch book

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Girl from Ipanema - Astrud Gilberto

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013.

Barbara Hulanicki, the designer who created the Biba label shares her castaway choices.

Designer Cath Kidston shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Cheerful and practical, Cath's products nod towards the 1950s. She began with ironing board covers but these days you can listen to a radio decorated with one of her designs, pitch one of her tents or decorate the children's bedroom with her cowboy wallpaper.

In her own room as a child, she used to play at keeping shop.

'I really felt, from very, very early on, I was onto something with the notion of what I was doing,' she says. 'I remember feeling I'd really overstepped the mark when I opened my second shop - thinking, that's probably going a stage too far.'

DISC ONE: Little Red Rooster The Rolling Stones

DISC TWO: Cheek to Cheek - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

DISC THREE: Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed

DISC FOUR: In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins

DISC FIVE: Can't Let Go - Lucinda Williams

DISC SIX: Let's Get It On - Marvin Gaye

DISC SEVEN: Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life - Monty Python

DISC EIGHT: I'll Be Your Baby Tonight - Bob Dylan

BOOK CHOICE -Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

LUXURY CHOICE - The Larousse French/English dictionary

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Luxury: A hot water bottle

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2011.

From the Rolling Stones to Monty Python, the designer shares her castaway choices.

Fashion designer Celia Birtwell shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

In the ephemeral world of fashion Celia has endured; Marianne Faithfull wore her creations in the 1960s, Kate Moss is a fan today. Whimsical prints and flattering forms are her signature style and the vintage creations that she designed with her then husband Ossie Clarke now change hands for a small fortune. Her new ranges are highly collectable and fly off the high street rails too.

Never one of the fashion world's flamboyant self promoters she has, none the less, a face known to millions - as a long time friend and muse to David Hockney she is the woman at the centre of his famous painting 'Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy'.

She wants her work to be relevant because and says 'there's nothing worse than being out-dated. If that happens and I feel I'm past it, I'll stop'.

DISC ONE: Under the Boardwalk - The Drifters

DISC TWO: O Mio Babbino Caro - Maria Callas

DISC THREE: La Mer - Charles Trenet

DISC FOUR: How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You) - Marvin Gaye

DISC FIVE: Sacrifice - Elton John

DISC SIX: George Io T'abbraccio (I Embrace You) - Frideric Handel

DISC SEVEN: Dolphins - Tim Buckley

DISC EIGHT: Reverie - Claude Debussy

BOOK CHOICE - Tropical flowering plants - Kirsten Albrecht Llamas

LUXURY CHOICE - A luxurious bed

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Reverie - Claude Debussy

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2012.

Fashion designer Celia Birtwell is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs.

Fashion designer Stella McCartney shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young

Born the middle child of Paul and Linda McCartney, Stella's early years were a paradox: she would either spend her days riding ponies, sharing one of two bedrooms with her sisters in a farmhouse, and generally mucking around in the countryside - or touring the world with her parents' band Wings and spending time in the company of stars such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop.

Amid the tours and travelling, she believes her parents offered her a vital childhood gift: normality. Stella attended the local school and went on to win a place at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design to study fashion design. Two years after a graduation show that made the headlines because the clothes were modelled by Stella's friends Kate Moss, Yasmin Le Bon and Naomi Campbell, she landed the job of Creative Director at the French fashion house Chloé. During her four years there, she transformed its fortunes.

In 2001, she set up her own label in a joint venture with Gucci. Throughout her career, she has never used leather, fur, feathers or animal skins. She now operates 51 freestanding stores in locations including Manhattan, Mayfair, and Milan, and her collections are distributed through shops in over 70 countries.

Her signature style is described as combining sharp tailoring - learned in Savile Row where she would spend her evenings whilst at Saint Martins - with a sexy femininity. She has also designed all the outfits for Team GB for the past two Olympics. She has four children with her husband, Alasdhair Willis.

Stella has won numerous awards including the British Fashion Council's Designer of the Year and Brand of the Year as well as Designer of the Year and Brand of the Year at the British Fashion Awards. She received an OBE in 2013 and a CBE in June 2022.

DISC ONE: Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

DISC TWO: Talking Heads - Road to Nowhere

DISC THREE: The Beatles - Blackbird

DISC FOUR: David Bowie - Starman

DISC FIVE: Phyllis Dillon - Something

DISC SIX: The Beach Boys - God Only Knows

DISC SEVEN: Louis Armstrong - A Kiss to Build a Dream On

DISC EIGHT: George Michael - Faith

BOOK CHOICE - Japanese Jailbird by Paul McCartney

LUXURY ITEM - A charm bracelet

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Beach Boys - God Only Knows

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2017.

From The Beatles to Nirvana. Designer Stella McCartney shares her castaway choices

During her time as Head of Fashion at both Central St Martins and The Royal College of Art she has taught students who've gone on to great success – Stella McCartney, Erdem and Antonio Berardi among them. Her skill lies partly in understanding the significance of a well cut pattern or a nicely turned seam, but also the warp and weft of a notoriously fickle industry.

At just 23, she was the toast of the catwalks with her own label selling round the world and worn by the likes of Bryan Ferry, Boy George and Mick Jagger. Dubbed 'the high priestess of fashion', her creative talent, however, wasn't recession-proof and her business went under in the late 80's. Given that reinvention is the lifeblood of fashion it seems she was tailor made for a new direction; collecting her O.B.E. in 2011 for services to the fashion industry, she wore a Perspex hat designed by a former pupil.

She says, 'we want students to take risks - like we did when we were younger. There were no set rules, there was no one to follow - you just did it yourself.

DISC ONE: Virginia Plain - Roxy Music

DISC TWO: Days Like This - Van Morrison

DISC THREE: Save The Last Dance For Me - The Drifters

DISC FOUR: Do You Really Want To Hurt Me - Culture Club

DISK FIVE: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart - Al Green

DISC SIX: Handle With Care - Traveling Wilburys

DISC SEVEN: No Woman,No Cry - Bob Marley & The Wailers

DISC EIGHT: La Vie En Rose - Grace Jones

BOOK CHOICE - Raj Quartet by Paul Scott

LUXURY ITEM - A case of red lipstick and a fridge to keep it cool

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - No Woman,No Cry - Bob Marley & The Wailers

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.

Fashion designer Prof Wendy Dagworthy talks to Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs

In the mid-1980s, Sue became deputy chief executive (and a year later chief executive) of the National Coaching Foundation, which provided education for coaches at both ends of the spectrum, from parent volunteers to elite coaches.

In 1995, she co-founded the Youth Sport Trust to set up a sports activity programme for every primary school in the country. It was hugely successful: in 2003 only 23% of school children were getting two hours of PE a week. By 2008, this figure had risen to 95%. In 2010, the coalition government cut their funding.

By this time, back at the elite end of the sporting spectrum, Sue was also in charge of UK Sport, where she presided over Team GB's biggest Olympic medal haul in living memory, at the London 2012 games. In 2016, she became as head of Women's Football at the FA. She has also been a cross-bench peer in the House of Lords since 2008.

BOOK CHOICE: The Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

LUXURY ITEM: A photo album

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Music Of My Heart by Gloria Estefan And *N SYNC

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2020.

FA's Women's football director, Dame Sue Campbell, makes her castaway musical choices.

From Ella Fitzgerald to Sidney Bechet.

Footballing star David Beckham shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

This is the programme made to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Desert Island Discs.

As a professional footballer he's the only Englishman to win the league titles in England, Spain, the US and France. He spent the bulk of his career as a midfielder for Manchester United, winning the Treble - Premiership, FA Cup and Champions League - in 1999, before moving to Real Madrid in 2003. He headed to the US to play for LA Galaxy in 2007, and ended his career at Paris Saint-Germain in 2013, retiring in May that year.

Born and raised in East London, the middle child of Ted and Sandra, David Beckham discovered football early and spent hours kicking a ball around at the local park with his father. At the age of seven, he played for his first team, Ridgeway Rovers, before coming to the attention of Manchester United while attending the Bobby Charlton Soccer School. He became a trainee with Manchester United in 1991, and progressed to make 265 first team appearances, winning the Premier League six times, the FA Cup twice and the UEFA Champions League once. He played for England from 1996 to 2009 and captained the side for six years.

He has been married to Victoria Adams - known as Posh from the Spice Girls - since 1999 and they have four children.

Since retiring from professional football in 2013, David has spent more time on his work with UNICEF which he has supported since 2005.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2017.

David Beckham chooses favourite music with Kirsty Young. From 2017.

Footballer David Beckham is castaway by Kirsty Young.

This programme was made to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of Desert Island Discs.

DISC ONE: Ella Fitzgerald - Every Time We Say Goodbye

DISC TWO: Michael McDonald & The Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes

DISC THREE: The Stone Roses - I Am the Resurrection

DISC FOUR: Elton John - Something About The Way You Look Tonight

DISC FIVE: Alejandro Sanz - No Es Lo Mismo

DISC SIX: The Rolling Stones - Wild Horses

DISC SEVEN: Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney - The Girl is Mine

DISC EIGHT: Sidney Bechet - Si tu vois ma mère

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Ella Fitzgerald - Every Time We Say Goodbye

BOOK CHOICE: On Fire by Francis Mallmann

LUXURY CHOICE: His England caps

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

From Ella Fitzgerald to Sidney Bechet. Footballing star David Beckham shares his music choices with Kirsty Young. From 2017.

[LISTEN NOW]

From Mozart to Stormzy.

Former Arsenal and England footballer Ian Wright shares his choices with Lauren Laverne

Ian is a former professional footballer and now a football pundit on TV and radio. He began his career at Crystal Palace before moving to Arsenal where he became their highest goal scorer of all time, a record only surpassed eight years later by Thierry Henry.

Born to a Jamaican couple in south-east London, Ian grew up with his mother and step-father. His biological father had left the family when Ian was under two years old. Things at home were difficult and Ian spent as much time as possible outside playing football.

At his primary school a teacher, Mr Pigden, took him under his wing and Ian would later credit him with changing his life. He left his secondary school at the age of 14 to get a job. Although he took part in trials for many professional football clubs as a teenager, he was never selected. He continued to play for amateur sides. By the age of 21, he had three children to provide for, so when Crystal Palace came calling in 1985, he turned them down three times before accepting a two-week trial, followed by a three-month contract. His football career had finally begun.

After impressing as a forward at Palace, he was bought by Arsenal for a record fee in 1991. He was called up to the England squad the same year and would go on to collect 33 caps. He spent his last couple of years in professional football at a number of clubs around the country and in total, he played 581 league games, scoring 387 goals for seven clubs in England and Scotland. Since his retirement from football in 2000, he has had a career as a pundit on both TV and radio.

He has eight children and has been happily married to his second wife, Nancy, since 2011.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2020.

Ian Wright, former footballer, shares the soundtrack of his life with Lauren Laverne.

Former Arsenal and England footballer Ian Wright is castaway by Lauren Laverne

DISC ONE: Mozart - The Marriage of Figaro / Edith Mathis & Gundula Janowitz, Orchestra of the German Opera, Berlin, conducted by Karl Böhm - Sull'aria

DISC TWO: Kirk Franklin - Looking For You

DISC THREE: Ike & Tina Turner - River Deep - Mountain High

DISC FOUR: Bob Marley & The Wailers - Redemption Song

DISC FIVE: MFSB - Mysteries of the World

DISC SIX: Randy Crawford - Endlessly

DISC SEVEN: Stormzy - Crown

DISC EIGHT: Mary J. Blige - Just Fine

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Randy Crawford - Endlessly

BOOK CHOICE: Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

LUXURY CHOICE: 7-iron and some golf balls

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2020.

Former footballer Ian Wright is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

From Mozart to Stormzy. Former Arsenal and England footballer Ian Wright shares his choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2020.

[LISTEN NOW]

Football broadcaster John Walker Motson, OBE, shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young

Motty has been commentating on football since 1971. He covered more than 2000 games on TV and radio, including all the major football championships, 29 FA Cup finals (with an additional five replays), 10 World Cups, 10 European Championships and 200 England games. At the age of 72 he retired in 2018.

Known not only for his footballing knowledge and his voice, he is often recognised by his knee-length sheepskin coat. His passion for football was ignited by his father, a Methodist minister for 40 years, who on his one day off each week would take his only son to watch football. The first game John attended was at Charlton Athletic when he was seven, and the excitement of it inspired him to create scrapbooks of footballing facts and collect match programmes.

After five years at boarding school, where he wasn't allowed to play football, he left at 16 after one term doing A levels. He joined the Barnet Press as a trainee reporter and then moved onto the Sheffield Telegraph. When BBC Radio Sheffield, one of the first six local radio stations, came on air, he was one of the reporters pulled in to give match summaries. He then moved to the BBC as a sports assistant in radio, before joining the Match of the Day team on television.

He has been supported in his career by his solicitor wife, Annie, who meticulously kept details of every match in thick A4 books which John used for his preparation. He was awarded an OBE for services to football and in 2018 he was honoured by BAFTA with a Special Award for his lifetime's work.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2018.

Football commentator John Motson shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Peter Schmeichel is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers in the modern game.

In 1999, he captained Manchester United in one of the most astonishing comebacks in football, as United won the Champions League with two goals in added time, completing a much-coveted Treble, along with the Premiership and the FA Cup. As well as winning numerous trophies during his years at Manchester United, he has played a record 129 times for Denmark, his national team. He was part of the Danish side who were surprise winners of the European Championships in 1992: Denmark were underdogs and only joined the tournament at the last minute, when Yugoslavia were forced to withdraw. During the 1990s, he was arguably the most recognised Dane in the world.

He began his football career in Denmark before fulfilling his childhood dream and signing for Manchester United in 1991. His father was a professional musician, who insisted on piano and guitar lessons for the young Peter. Goalkeeping was not his choice: as young boy, he was told to play in goal by a teacher who was thought he might be too wild for the other youngsters on the pitch.

Since retiring from the competitive game, Peter lives in Denmark but spends time travelling to see Manchester United play and he also follows his son, Kasper, who plays for Leicester City and Denmark.

DISC ONE: We Are The Champions by Queen

DISC TWO: Hymn To Freedom by Oscar Peterson

DISC THREE: Rosanna by Toto

DISC FOUR: Sultans Of Swing by Dire Straits

DISC FIVE: Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder

DISC SIX: Angels by Robbie Williams

DISC SEVEN: In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins

DISC EIGHT: The Girl Is Mine by Michael Jackson With Paul McCartney

BOOK CHOICE: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling)

LUXURY ITEM: Peter's guitar

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Girl Is Mine by Michael Jackson With Paul McCartney

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2021.

Footballer Peter Schmeichel is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

From Oscar Peterson to Queen. Footballer Peter Schmeichel shares his castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2021.

[LISTEN NOW]

Footballer Tony Adams is castaway by Kirsty Young.

He's one of the few people who know at first hand the pressures and joys of captaining the England team. And, after signing as a schoolboy for Arsenal, he is the only man ever to have led a championship winning team across three decades.

The drama and successes of his life have been as remarkable off the pitch as on it. He found sporting glory despite being an alcoholic and even served time in prison for drink-driving. But his journey of recovery has been a remarkable one. He went back to studying, developed a love of literature and the arts and put his own money into a charity to support other sports men and women recovering from addiction. It's a transformation that his former team-mates have described as 'heroic'.

Now, he is heading to Azerbaijan to become a manager, he is planning, he says, to build the Tony Adams team.

DISC ONE: Earth, Wind & Fire - Let's Groove

DISC TWO: Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed so Good)

DISC THREE: The Jam - Boy About Town

DISC FOUR: Central Line - Walking into Sunshine

DISC FIVE: Arsenal 1971 Squad - Good Old Arsenal

DISC SIX: Squeeze - Black Coffee in Bed

DISC SEVEN: Chet Baker - I've Never Been In Love Before

DISC EIGHT: Monty Python - Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Monty Python - Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

BOOK CHOICE: The book of Alcoholics Anonymous

LUXURY CHOICE: Football

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2010.

From Arsenal 1971 Squad to Monty Python. Footballer Tony Adams shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2010.

[LISTEN NOW]

From Madness to The Smiths. Comedian, writer and actor Greg Davies makes his music choices.

Greg Davies is a familiar face on television as the host of Taskmaster, the BAFTA-winning game show, and he has achieved sell out national arena tours as a stand-up. His on-screen breakthrough came in 2008 when he played the head of the sixth form, Mr Gilbert, in the highly successful teenage comedy series the Inbetweeners. He wrote and starred in the black comedy the Cleaner and co-wrote the sitcom Man Down in which he played a man in the grip of a midlife crisis.

Greg was born in St Asaph in north Wales and grew up in Shropshire. At school he gravitated towards what he calls the silly boys who created characters and devised comedy sketches in the playground. When he was 18 he discovered Eddie Murphy whose stand-up routines about his relatives spurred Greg to look to his own family as comedic source material.

Greg spent 13 years as an English and Drama teacher – a time he looks back on with mixed emotions and which he has mined for his stage act. When he was 33 he left teaching and started performing stand-up gigs and performed his first solo stand-up show at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010.

Greg lives in south London.

DISC ONE: Baggy Trousers - Madness

DISC TWO: Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell

DISC THREE: 100% Endurance - Yard Act

DISC FOUR: Circlesquare - The Wonder Stuff

DISC FIVE: Cemetry Gates - The Smiths

DISC SIX: Consider Yourself - Jack Wild (The Artful Dodger) and The Orchestra, conducted by John Green. From Oliver! [An Original Soundtrack Recording]

DISC SEVEN: She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult

DISC EIGHT: The Next Episode - Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg

BOOK CHOICE: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

LUXURY ITEM: Sausages

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: 100% Endurance - Yard Act

Presenter Lauren Laverne

Producer: Paula McGinley

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in May 2024.

Comedian Greg Davies is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

From Madness to The Smiths. Comedian, writer and actor Greg Davies shares his music choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2024.

[LISTEN NOW]

Playwright James Graham is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

James Graham is an award-winning dramatist whose plays include This House, Ink and Dear England starring Joseph Fiennes as the England football manager Gareth Southgate. His acclaimed television productions include Sherwood and Quiz, based on the story of the so-called coughing Major Charles Ingram who was found guilty of cheating on the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

James was born in Kirkby-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire in 1982. He was a shy boy who was encouraged to perform in school plays by his teachers. He went on to study drama at Hull University where he wrote his first play Coal Not Dole! He took the play to the Edinburgh fringe and the reception it received from audiences encouraged him to carry on writing.

After graduating he worked as a stage doorkeeper at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham where one of his personal highlights was looking after Danny La Rue, the star of the Christmas panto. His first London premiere came in 2005 at the Finborough Theatre in London with Albert's Boy, which explored the arguments for and against nuclear weapons.

In 2020 James was awarded an OBE for services to drama and young people in British theatre.

This is an extended version of a programme first broadcast on Sunday 10 March 2024.

DISC ONE: Disco 2000 - Pulp

DISC TWO: Chatanooga Choo Choo - Glenn Miller

DISC THREE: Up In Arms - Foo Fighters

DISC FOUR: Syncopes - Gabriel Yared

DISC FIVE: Your Disco Needs You - Kylie Minogue

DISC SIX: Where Are We Now? - David Bowie

DISC SEVEN: If You Came To See Me Cry - Katie Brayben (from Tammy Faye: The Musical)

DISC EIGHT: Going To A Town - Rufus Wainwright

BOOK CHOICE: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

LUXURY ITEM: A keg of Single Malt Scotch Whisky

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Where Are We Now? - David Bowie

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Paula McGinley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2024.

From David Bowie to Glenn Miller. Playwright James Graham shares his castaway music choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2024.

[LISTEN NOW]

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the impressionist and satirist Rory Bremner. He was born in Edinburgh in 1961. A self-confessed show-off, he started doing impersonations at primary school, sending up teachers, sports commentators and Moira Anderson! Entertaining his school friends inevitably developed into performing on stage and he worked as a stand up on the comedy circuit, and notably at the Edinburgh Festival.

The BBC offered him his first television series, Now Something Else. It ran on BBC2 for seven years. In 1993 he moved to Channel 4, where his show Rory Bremner - Who Else? developed a more hard-edged, satirical and political bite. Rory was also a regular on Spitting Image and Mock the Week.

An opera lover with an academic side to him, Rory has translated three operatic works into English. In more recent years, Rory has been on Strictly, Who Do You Think You Are? The Imitation Game - not forgetting I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.

DISC ONE: The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards - Highland Cathedral

DISC TWO: Danny Kaye - Masters Of All Masters

DISC THREE: Brian Johnston & Jonathan Agnew - Test Match Special (9/8/1991)

DISC FOUR: Cologne Radio Orchestra, conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig - excerpt from Kurt Weill's The Silver Lake The Finale

DISC FIVE: Julie London - I'm In The Mood For Love

DISC SIX: Frank Sinatra - I've Got You Under My Skin

DISC SEVEN: Van Morrison - Have I Told You Lately

DISC EIGHT: Kiri Te Kanawa - Georges Bizet's Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante (from Carmen)

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Van Morrison - Have I Told You Lately

BOOK CHOICE: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon

LUXURY CHOICE: Radio

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2003.

Satirist and impressionist Rory Bremner is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Aggers & Johnston to Van Morrison. Impressionist Rory Bremner shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2003.

[LISTEN NOW]

From Paul McCartney to Wham!

Comedian Sarah Millican shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Her every woman yet no-holds-barred style of comedy has brought her sell-out tours and several of her own highly successful TV series. Revelling in normality and drawing on the difficult, intimate and ofter extruciating moments of being human, she dares to say what most of us are thinking, only she's much funnier.

A Geordie, born in South Shields, her dad was an engineer down the mines and her mum was a hairdresser. They encouraged their daughter in her storytelling and performing even though her childhood shyness meant she'd recite her poetry from behind the living room curtains.

Later it was pain that first propelled her onto the stage when a broken early marriage provided the catalyst she needed to find the courage to confront the glaring judgement of the audience's gaze. Her rise was then rapid. Within four years she was awarded the Best Newcomer prize at the Edinburgh Fringe.

She says, 'People come along and think, 'oh she's being too rude'. They don't realise I'm just like this at home. People think I'm prim and proper at home but I'm not - I'm just me transplanted onto the stage'.

DISC ONE: Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - Wham!

DISC TWO: (There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays - Perry Como

DISC THREE: Happy - Pharrell Williams

DISC FOUR: Thunderbird - Hans Zimmer featuring Pete Haycock

DISC FIVE: Chocolate - Snow Patrol

DISC SIX: We All Stand Together - Paul McCartney

DISC SEVEN: The Theme from the film, Superman - London Symphony Orchestra & John Williams

DISC EIGHT: Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkel

BOOK CHOICE - A survival book

LUXURY ITEM - Notebooks and pens

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - The Theme from the film, Superman - London Symphony Orchestra & John Williams

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 December 2014.

Sarah Millican, comedian, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs.

From Paul McCartney to Wham! Comedian Sarah Millican shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2014.

[LISTEN NOW]

Broadcaster, author and gardener Alan Titchmarsh castaway by Sue Lawley.

Alan was drawn to gardening from an early age in Ilkley, Yorkshire, making his first polythene greenhouse at the age of 12 and deciding he was going to be a gardener when he grew up.

He left school at 15 and became an apprentice gardener in the Parks Department of Ilkley Urban District Council, going on to horticultural college at the age of 18. His interest in English literature and writing prompted him to apply for a job as assistant editor of gardening books at Hamlyn Publishing and he began to write gardening books of his own, publishing his first in 1976.

Alan experienced his first taste of TV when there was a plague of greenfly on the south coast and he was approached to report on it in Margate for Nationwide. He says, 'I suddenly tasted blood. It was wow!, I like this. I want to do more.

He became a presenter of BBC 1's Daytime Live, a Birmingham-based chat show, interviewing stars like Placido Domingo, Barry Manilow and Julia Roberts.

He also presented Songs of Praise but never forgot his gardening, and took to the screens as a gardener with the amazingly successful garden make-over programme, Ground Force, in 1997.

As well as presenting the more 'serious' gardening programme, Gardener's World, Alan recently took viewers back to basics with the series How to be a Gardener and, having written a grand total of 37 gardening books, he remains the UK's premier gardener.

DISC ONE: Pinchas Zukerman and the English Chamber Orchestra - Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending

DISC TWO: Band of the Royal Marines, conducted by Lt Col P Neville - AC Green's Sunset

DISC THREE: Richard Burton - Finale Ultimo (from Camelot soundtrack)

DISC FOUR: Benjamin Rayson, Teri Ralston, Beth Fowler - Stephen Sondheim's Remember

DISC FIVE: Pat Metheny and the London Orchestra - Always and Forever

DISC SIX: Jane Eaglen - Weep You No More Sad Fountains

DISC SEVEN: London Symphony Orchestra, conduced by R Hickox - Hubert Parry's I Was Glad

DISC EIGHT: Evening song of a blackbird

BOOK CHOICE: One of the Blandings novels by P G Wodehouse

LUXURY CHOICE: A box of watercolours

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Pinchas Zukerman and the English Chamber Orchestra - Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending

Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2002.

Gardener, writer and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Burton to Blackbird. Gardener and broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2002.

His style is governed by a desire to create a sense of place and he is drawn to wild plants and gardens. Aged just five he discovered this passion, while building roof gardens for his collection of trolls and spent the summer watching the plant and animal life in a pond created by his father.

He gave up A' levels in favour of apprenticeships at RHS Wisley and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and then spent several years working abroad, studying plants in their natural environment. His first large-scale project was creating a garden for Frances Mossman, a colleague of his mother's, who asked him to design the garden at her Northamptonshire plot. He won more clients through word of mouth and set up his own garden design company in the late 1980s. His work has since taken him all over the world and he has designed five award-winning gardens for the Chelsea Flower Show. Amongst his current projects he is creating a design for London's proposed Garden Bridge.

DISC ONE: Marvin Gaye - Got to Give it Up

DISC TWO: Fela Kuti - Water No Get Enemy

DISC THREE: Kate Bush - Under The Ivy

DISC FOUR: Jeff Buckley - Benjamin Britten's Corpus Christi Carol

DISC FIVE: David Bowie - Wild Is The Wind

DISC SIX: Nick Drake - River Man

DISC SEVEN: Antica Di Padova, Jordi Savall and Coro Del Centro Musica, conducted by Livio Picotti - Claudio Monteverdi's Vespro Della Beata Vergine: Gloria Patri

DISC EIGHT: Grace Jones - Walking in the Rain

BOOK CHOICE: An encyclopaedia of the local plants

LUXURY CHOICE: The contents of his potting shed

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Claudio Monteverdi's Vespro Della Beata Vergine: Gloria Patri

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2015.

Garden designer Dan Pearson shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

From Fela Kuti to Monteverdi. Garden designer Dan Pearson shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From February 2015.

Sue Lawley's castaway is the gardener and broadcaster, Monty Don. In 2003, he became the nation's most high-profile gardener when he took over from Alan Titchmarsh as the lead presenter of Gardener's World. Entirely self-taught, he has been gardening since he was a child - but it was not until he was in his late thirties that his great passion become his vocation.

His first career ended disastrously; he and his wife Sarah set up a jewellery business together and during the 1980s they prospered; they had shops and offices in Knightsbridge and counted singers and film stars among their clients. But when the slump came they lost everything - the business, their jobs and their home.

Monty suffered years of depression that left him barely able to function. It was by chance that he was offered some stints presenting gardening slots on television. He never looked back - he says there hasn't been a day since when he's not been working and he's become a successful gardening columnist, broadcaster and author.

DISC ONE: Bob Dylan - Nobody 'cept You

DISC TWO: The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

DISC THREE: City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle - Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 22 in E flat major: 'Philosopher', 1st movement

DISC FOUR: Choir of King's College, Cambridge conducted by Stephen Cleobury - Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion

DISC FIVE: Leonard Cohen - Anthem

DISC SIX: The Libertines - The Man Who Would Be King

DISC SEVEN: Nick Drake - Road

DISC EIGHT: Son House - John The Revelator

BOOK CHOICE: Collected Poems of Henry Vaughan

LUXURY CHOICE: Hendrickje Bathing by Rembrandt

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2006.

Gardener Monty Don is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From The Beatles to Haydn. Gardener Monty Don shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From July 2006.

She's been at the helm of the RHS since 2010 and during that time, its membership has grown to more than half a million people. The RHS is also renowned for its spectacular flower shows and garden festivals around the country, including Chelsea, Hampton Court, Chatsworth House and Tatton Park. Sue has had a lifelong love of gardening since her mum gave her a packet of seeds on her seventh birthday.

Before the RHS, she worked in the travel industry for 25 years, identifying new destinations for holidaymakers. She was the first woman to be appointed to the board of Kuoni Travel.

She strongly believes that horticultural work and expertise do not receive the wider respect they deserve. She was made a CBE in 2017 for her services to the environment and ornamental horticulture industries.

DISC ONE: Lisa Gerrard - Hans Zimmer's Now We Are Free

DISC TWO: John Barry - Born Free

DISC THREE: Nicola Benedetti and the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Litton - Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending

DISC FOUR: John Martyn - Solid Air

DISC FIVE: Maria Callas with the Orchestra of La Scala, Milan, conducted by Tullio Serafin - Umberto Giordano's La Mamma Morta (from Andrea Chénier)

DISC SIX: Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli with the London Symphony Orchestra - Lucio Quarantotto and Francesco Sartori's Time to Say Goodbye

DISC SEVEN: Robbie Williams - Love my Life

DISC EIGHT: Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk

BOOK CHOICE: The Book of Joy

LUXURY CHOICE: A bed

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Nicola Benedetti, LSO, Andrew Litton - Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2019.

Sue Biggs, DG of the Royal Horticultural Society is castaway by Lauren Laverne

From John Barry to Robbie Williams. Sue Biggs, Director General of the RHS, shares her choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2019.

Singer and punk icon Debbie Harry shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Her group Blondie started out in seedy New York bars and went on to achieve international success - selling tens of millions of albums along the way. She was ultra cool - a striking beauty with platinum hair and a sneer.

Her trademark look continues to serve her well, Debbie says: 'As far as ageing goes it's rough - I try my best - I'm healthy and I exercise like a fiend. I'm glad that I've had all the radical experiences in my life - it suits me.

DISC ONE: Heavy Cross - Gossip

DISC TWO: Strange Fruit - Nina Simone

DISC THREE: Merrymaking at My Place - Calvin Harris

DISC FOUR: White Light/White Heat - The Velvet Underground

DISC FIVE: When I Grow Up - Fever Ray

DISC SIX: La Passerella - Nino Rota

DISC SEVEN: Talk to Me - Peaches

DISC EIGHT: Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor - 4th movement (Adagietto) - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle

BOOK CHOICE: War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

LUXURY CHOICE: Paints and paper

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor - 4th movement (Adagietto) - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2011.

From Nina Simone to Mahler. Singer Debbie Harry shares her castaway choices.

Born in 1979, she was a small child when her parents, Jean and Michael, were inspired to make the Glastonbury Festival an annual event, although she wasn't keen on the yearly invasion of the family farm. By her late teens, however, she had changed her views. She left Worthy Farm to study to be a teacher at Goldsmiths College in London but when, at the end of her first year, her mother was diagnosed with cancer, Emily left and went home to help look after her and to help her father run that year's festival.

Emily never went back to university. Motivated by a visit to Haiti to look at Oxfam projects, she spent a few years in London putting on charity gigs, before returning home to work with her father running the festival. She married her husband, Nick Dewey, manager of The Chemical Brothers in 2009. The couple have three children and live on Worthy Farm.

Presented by Lauren Laverne.

DISC ONE: Madame George - Van Morrison

DISC TWO: Paranoid Android - Radiohead

DISC THREE: You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go - Bob Dylan

DISC FOUR: High Tide Or Low Tide - Bob Marley

DISC FIVE: Landslide (Live at Warner Brothers Studios) - Fleetwood Mac

DISC SIX: That's Life - Frank Sinatra

DISC SEVEN: Winterlude - Guy Garvey & Peter Jobson

DISC EIGHT: Crazy In Love – Beyoncé

BOOK CHOICE: The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski

LUXURY CHOICE: Carpenter's tool set (so she can build her own veranda)

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go - Bob Dylan

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2019.

Emily Eavis, festival co-organiser, shares the soundtrack of her life with Lauren Laverne

Yusuf first enjoyed success more than 50 years ago.

He was born Steven Demetre Georgiou in July 1948. His Greek Cypriot father and his Swedish mother ran a restaurant in the West End of London, and he helped out there from an early age. He also became interested in music, writing and singing his own songs, partly inspired by the success of The Beatles.

Under the name Cat Stevens, he was just 18 when he had his first hit, and soon found himself on tour with Engelbert Humperdinck and Jimi Hendrix. His career came to a sudden halt in 1969, when he contracted tuberculosis and was forced out of the limelight for a year of recuperation. It was also a time of reflection. He emerged a changed man in 1970 - a sensitive singer-songwriter whose albums, including Tea for the Tillerman, and Teaser and the Firecat, sold millions of copies around the world.

While enjoying fame and success, he also thought more deeply about religious faith, an interest which increased after he nearly drowned while swimming in the Pacific. He became a Muslim in 1977, changed his name to Yusuf Islam and walked away from music. He soon became one of the UK's most high-profile Muslims, and was often asked to comment about aspects of Islam. For two decades, he didn't touch his guitar, but in 2006 he made a comeback with an album entitled An Other Cup. He has released three more albums since then and has recently recorded a new version of perhaps his best-known work, Tea for the Tillerman.

Yusuf lives in Dubai with his wife Fawziah. They have four daughters and one son who has followed in his father's musical footsteps.

DISC ONE: America - Rita Moreno, George Chakiris & The Sharks And Girls

DISC TWO: Tutti Frutti - Little Richard

DISC THREE: Twist and Shout - The Beatles

DISC FOUR: March From A Clockwork Orange - Wendy Carlos

DISC FIVE: The Wind - Cat Stevens

DISC SIX: Allah Uya - Ali Farka Touré

DISC SEVEN: Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Nina Simone

DISC EIGHT: As - Stevie Wonder

BOOK CHOICE: The Masnavi I Ma'navi of Rumi: Complete by Maulana Jalalu-'d-din Muhammad Rumi (Author), E. H. Whinfield (Translator)

LUXURY CHOICE: Bendicks Bittermints

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: As - Stevie Wonder

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2020.

Yusuf Cat Stevens, musician, shares the soundtrack of his life with Lauren Laverne

Eileen Atkins shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

The actress also traces her life as performer and writer.

From dancing in working men's clubs as a child to portraying Virginia Woolf on Broadway and the snobbish Celia for Alan Bennett's Talking Heads monologue.

Eileen was made a Dame in 2001.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1998.

From Schumann to the Rolling Stones. Actress Eileen Atkins makes her castaway choices.

Dame Harriet Walter shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

The actress has been a stalwart of the stage for more than three decades - winning great acclaim for her work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.

Performing ran in the family - her uncle is the actor Christopher Lee and she remembers how, as a child, he would make her shriek by putting on his famous 'Mummy' walk to scare her. She turned down a place at Oxford because she knew she wanted to act - only to find that the drama schools weren't keen on her... she was turned down five times before securing a place.

Dame Janet says she has never thought about making clever career choices, but, in the year in which she was made a dame, turned 60 and married for the first time, she says it has all turned out better than she ever expected.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2011.

From Prokofiev to Nina Simone, actress Dame Harriet Walter shares her castaway choices.

He was born in 1962 in Cape Town, South Africa, where his parents were both anti-apartheid activists. They moved to the UK when Chris was a year old. He grew up first in rural England, and later in south London where his father, a vicar, became chaplain of Brixton Prison.

He started drawing as a young boy when he was given paper and pencils by his mother to keep him quiet during his father's sermons. After school, he studied illustration under Raymond Briggs at Brighton Polytechnic and received his first commission while still at art school. As a writer his work ranges from picture books to chapter book series including Ottoline and Goth Girl, and as an illustrator he has frequently collaborated with authors such as Paul Stewart and Neil Gaiman.

He started as a political cartoonist in the late 1980s and has drawn the Observer's weekly cartoon since 1995, celebrating 25 years at the paper this year. As Children's Laureate, he encouraged children to draw, and championed the importance of school libraries and librarians.

Chris is married to Jo, a fellow illustrator and printmaker, with whom he has three grown-up children, among them Katy, another illustrator.

DISC ONE: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli, performed by Sinfonia of London

DISC TWO: The Funeral: September 25, 1977 (Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika) by Thuli Dumakude

DISC THREE: Smoke Signals by Phoebe Bridgers

DISC FOUR: Final Day by Young Marble Giants

DISC FIVE: Suzanne by Leonard Cohen

DISC SIX: Horace in Brighton by Bird in the Belly

DISC SEVEN: Klarinettenkonzert A-Dur K. 622 - 2. Adagio - I. Allegro. Composed by Mozart, directed by János Rolla, performed by Kálmán Berkes (clarinet) and Liszt Ferenc Chamber Orchestra, Budapest

DISC EIGHT: Tabula rasa: II. Silentium composed by Arvo Pärt, conducted by Paavo Järvi, performed by Viktoria Mullova (violin) and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra

BOOK CHOICE: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, with the Tenniel illustrations.

LUXURY ITEM: Sketchbooks and pens

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli, performed by Sinfonia of London

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2020.

Illustrator and author Chris Riddell is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

From Leonard Cohen to Thomas Tallis. Illustrator Chris Riddell shares his castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2020.

Helen's work has featured in many very popular titles for younger readers including the award-winning We're Going on a Bear Hunt, by Michael Rosen.

Helen has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice and was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Book Trust in 2018. She attended the Ipswich School of Art and later the Central School of Art in London where she met fellow illustrator and her future husband, John Burningham.

After the birth of her children she began illustrating children's books, working at the kitchen table long after they'd gone to bed. Her work for Ivor Cutler's Meal One, published in 1971, was praised by Spare Rib magazine for its portrayal of a single mother and her relationship with her young son.

Helen came up with the idea of her baby board books in the late 1970s after the birth of her third child who suffered with eczema. Discovering that her daughter could be distracted from scratching by looking at baby catalogues, Helen created a series of board books placing babies and toddlers at their heart. Such a concept was unheard of at the time.

From the late 1980s, Helen ensured that the babies and children featured in her books came from different ethnic backgrounds and her work in So Much by Trish Cooke has become a children's classic. In We're Going on a Bear Hunt, published in 1989, Helen's pictures celebrated the joy of adventure and the bond between siblings.

DISC ONE: America by Marilyn Cooper, Chita Rivera and Shark Girls

DISC TWO: Mir Ist So Wunderbar by Ludwig van Beethoven, conducted by Mark Elder, performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra. Tenor: Andrew Kennedy, Soprano: Lisa Milne, Soprano: Anja Kampe, Bass: Brindley Sherratt

DISC THREE: Tubby The Tuba by Danny Kaye

DISC FOUR: Lullaby of Birdland by Erroll Garner

DISC FIVE: Episode 1of Life In A Scotch Sitting Room Vol. II by Ivor Cutler ‎

DISC SIX: Schubert 's Impromptu No. 3 in G flat D899 by Alfred Brendel, (piano)

conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras

DISC SEVEN: Singin' in the Rain by Gene Kelly

DISC EIGHT: Les Pecheurs de Perles, Act 1: Romance: Mi par d'udir ancora (Je crois entendre encore) by Beniamino Gigli, conducted by Eugene Goossens

BOOK CHOICE: The Empire Trilogy by JG Farrell

LUXURY ITEM: A bed with an unlimited supply of white linen sheets

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Les Pecheurs de Perles, Act 1: Romance: Mi par d'udir ancora (Je crois entendre encore) by Beniamino Gigli, conducted by Eugene Goossens

Producer: Paula McGinley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2020.

From Beethoven to Danny Kaye. Illustrator and author Helen Oxenbury shares her castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2020.

Helen Oxenbury is an illustrator of children's books whose work has featured in many very popular titles for younger readers including the award-winning We're Going on a Bear Hunt, by Michael Rosen.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Her most famous creation is a little red-haired character called Katie Morag who - in wellies and a kilt - has skipped her way through fourteen books and a 26-part TV series. Katie lives on the imaginary Isle of Struay with her parents, siblings, cousins, granny and prize-winning sheep Alecina.

Like her creator she relishes the rhythms and freedoms particular to life on a wee Scottish island. But that's where the similarities end – the author was born and brought up an only child on the mainland of the lowlands. She lost her father when she was just twelve and says she was never part of a close-knit family.

As a grown-up, all she wanted was to quit the rat race and be an island crofter, but after a decade she left her dream behind in favour of a more stable income and a secondary school for her children.

She says, “I have a notion that children's writers explore unresolved questions in their own childhoods. I certainly do. ?

DISC ONE: Granma Mainland Theme - Donald Shaw; Anna Massie; Aidan O'Rourke; Nathon Jones; Dobro & Signy Jakobsdottir

DISC TWO: Over the Hills and Far Away: Tom Tom the Piper's Son - Martin Carthy & Isla St Clair

DISC THREE: My Blue Heaven - Frank Sinatra

DISC FOUR: Johann Sebastian Bach's Double Violin Concerto in D minor (3rd movement) - Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Jaime Laredo, John Tunnell

DISC FIVE: Telegraph Road - Dire Straits

DISC SIX: Mambo de la Luna - Kirsty MacColl

DISC SEVEN: Sergey Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 2 in E Minor (3rd movement) - Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with Lorin Maazel

DISC EIGHT: Einojuhani Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra) - Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra with Robin Ticciati

BOOK CHOICE: A book containing all the Ordnance Survey maps of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland

LUXURY CHOICE: A wonderful bath that comes down from the skies

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Einojuhani Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus (Concerto for Birds and Orchestra) - Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra with Robin Ticciati

Producer: Christine Pawlowsky

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2014.

From Bach to Kirsty MacColl. Author and illustrator Mairi Hedderwick shares her music choices with Kirsty Young. From 2014.

For millions of children, Christmas would be incomplete without Briggs's story The Snowman, which has been shown on television every year since its first release, in 1982, and his enduringly popular Father Christmas.

Raymond was born in 1934 in Wimbledon. His mother, Ethel, was a lady's maid and his father, Ernest, a milkman. He wanted to draw cartoon strips from an early age but, at art school, found his tutors looked down on his aspirations. After leaving, he quickly secured work as a commercial artist, doing illustrations for advertisements, journals and books. He said he was so appalled at the standard of the children's books he was asked to illustrate he thought he could do better himself. And he did - his first attempt was immediately accepted for publication and he went on to twice win the Kate Greenaway Medal - the principal award for illustration.

Raymond Briggs made his first music choice for Desert Island Discs in 1983.

DISC ONE: The Intro and The Outro - The Bonzo Dog Band

DISC TWO: Saga - Jan Garbarek

DISC THREE: La Rotta - The Dufay Collective

DISC FOUR: Unsquare Dance - The Dave Brubeck Quartet

DISC FIVE: Big in Japan - Tom Waits

DISC SIX: Spiegel im Spiegel - Tasmin Little

DISC SEVEN: River Pulse Rain Mix - Nitin Sawhney

DISC EIGHT: Cristóbal de Morales's Parce Mihi Domine (from Officium Defunctorum) - Jan Garbarek (soloist) with The Hilliard Ensemble

BOOK CHOICE: Complete Works of Beachcomber - J B Morton

LUXURY CHOICE: A full-size billiard table with Radio 4 built into each of the legs

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Cristóbal de Morales's Parce Mihi Domine (from Officium Defunctorum) - Jan Garbarek (soloist) with The Hilliard Ensemble

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2005.

Illustrator Raymond Briggs is castaway for a second time by Sue Lawley.

From Tom Waits to Dave Brubeck. Illustrator Raymond Briggs returns to share more castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2005.

Filmmaker Louis Theroux is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Louis Theroux is a television documentary maker. He has received two BAFTAs and a Royal Television Society Award for his work which includes the series Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends and When Louis Met -

Born in 1970, and brought up in south London, he is the son of the American writer Paul Theroux and the BBC World Service radio producer Anne Castle. He was privately educated at Westminster School and read History at Oxford, graduating with a first. He moved to the USA where he was introduced to the American documentary maker Michael Moore and started making segments on unusual subcultures for Moore's show TV Nation. He was given his own series – Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends – by the BBC in the late 1990s and, after three series, he went on to present two series of When Louis Met - , which included Neil and Christine Hamilton, Max Clifford, Chris Eubank and Jimmy Savile.

Since then, he has made dozens of documentaries, many of them in the USA. In 2016, he revisited his encounters with Jimmy Savile in the wake of Savile's death and the surfacing of allegations of child sexual abuse. The same year, his only feature-length film, My Scientology Movie, was released. His most recent documentaries dealt with sexual assault on American campuses, mothers with post-natal mental illness, and escorting.

DISC ONE: Marvin Gaye - All the Way Around

DISC TWO: Murray Head - Heaven on Their Minds

DISC THREE: The Smiths - Panic

DISC FOUR: Eric B. & Rakim - Paid in Full (Seven Minutes of Madness - Coldcut Remix)

DISC FIVE: Bob Dylan - Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

DISC SIX: Fat Joe - What's Luv? (feat. Ashanti)

DISC SEVEN: Joni Mitchell - California

DISC EIGHT: Antônio Carlos Jobim & Herbie Mann - One Note Samba

BOOK CHOICE: Remembrance of things Past – Marcel Proust

LUXURY: 40,000 piece Jigsaw puzzle

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: “Heaven on their Minds ? from the album Jesus Christ Superstar

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2019.

From Joni Mitchell to The Smiths. Filmmaker Louis Theroux shares his castaway music choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2019.

[LISTEN NOW]

Journalist Lynn Barber is castaway by Kirsty Young.

A master of the profile interview, her razor-sharp observations have earned her the nickname the Demon Barber and won her a stack of awards.

Although critics say her articles are hatchet jobs, she disagrees: 'I think that people are well served by quite blunt or quite rude questions because it forces them to fight back and come back strongly,' she says.

DISC ONE: Common People - Pulp

DISC TWO: Abdul Abulbul Amir - Frank Crumit

DISC THREE: The Last Time - The Rolling Stones

DISC FOUR: Barcelona - Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé

DISC FIVE: Days - The Kinks

DISC SIX: La Toison d'Or - Jean Cocteau

DISC SEVEN: Walk On The Wild Side - Lou Reed

DISC EIGHT: Macushla - John McCormack

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Macushla - John McCormack

BOOK CHOICE: The complete works - F. Scott Fitzgerald

LUXURY CHOICE: Cyanide pill

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2010.

From John McCormack to Lou Reed. Interviewer and journalist Lynn Barber shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2010.

[LISTEN NOW]

Sue Lawley's guest is the veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost - the only British TV presenter to have interviewed seven American presidents and six British Prime Ministers who has, over the past five decades, become a broadcasting institution.

The presenter once known as a scourge of the Establishment has become something of an establishment figure himself, noted for his formidable contacts book, his star-studded parties, and for his gentle but revealing interviewing style.

Born in 1939, the youngest son of a Methodist minister and his wife, David was football and cricket-mad from an early age but with a burning ambition to go to Cambridge University. He arrived there in 1958, and threw himself into it, joining Footlights and editing Varsity and Granta.

After Cambridge, Ned Sherrin saw him performing a comedy act in a Mayfair bar and hired him up to present the iconic satirical programme That Was The Week That Was. Other successful programmes followed including Frost Over Britain and The Frost Report.

Breakfast with Frost ran for twelve years until early 2005. David is not retiring though and is due to present a new interview programme for Al-Jazeera International which will begin next Spring, and will also conduct occasional interviews for the BBC.

DISC ONE: Noël Coward - Mad Dogs and Englishmen

DISC TWO: Elton John - Your Song

DISC THREE: Coldplay - Fix You

DISC FOUR: Ray Charles - America the Beautiful

DISC FIVE: Michael Crawford - Music of the Night

DISC SIX: Bob Lind - Elusive Butterfly

DISC SEVEN: The Beatles - The Long and Winding Road

DISC EIGHT: Eric Coates's The Dam Busters March - Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Charles Groves

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Eric Coates's The Dam Busters March

BOOK CHOICE: London A-Z

LUXURY CHOICE: Sunday papers

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2005.

Sir David Frost is castaway for a third time by Sue Lawley.

From Noel Coward to Eric Coates. Broadcaster Sir David Frost shares his third castaway selection with Sue Lawley. From 2005.

[LISTEN NOW]

After appearing with Roy Plomley and Sue Lawley, Sir Terry Wogan is back to share his third set of castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

With a career spanning more than five decades, it includes BBC TV chat show Wogan, the Eurovision Song Contest, the quiz Blankety Blank and for many years, hosting BBC Radio 2's breakfast show.

Terry says: 'You have to create a kind of little club - you are not talking to an audience, you are talking to one person - and they are only half listening anyway. It's a mistake to think that everyone is clinging to your every word.

Peter Gabriel - That'll Do (feat. Paddy Moloney & Black Dyke Band)

Frank Sinatra - My Funny Valentine

Carly Simon - In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning

O Praise the Lord from Heaven - The Choir of Moscow's Church of the Ascension of the Lord

Una furtiva lagrima (from Gaetano Donizetti's L'Elisir d'amore) - Placido Domingo with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra

As Time goes By - Jimmy Durante

When You are Old - Gretchen Peters

E lucevan le stelle (from Giacomo Puccini's Tosca) - Placido Domingo with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Peter Gabriel - That'll Do (feat. Paddy Moloney & Black Dyke Band)

BOOK CHOICE: War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

LUXURY CHOICE: Bottles, pens and paper

Producer: Corinna Jones

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2012.

Terry Wogan shares his third set of castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

After Roy Plomley and Sue Lawley, Sir Terry returns to share his third set of castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2012.

[LISTEN NOW]

Playwright and film director Anthony Minghella shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Anthony grew up on the Isle of Wight in a close-knit family of Italian descent, and says that he has never felt truly English.

It is not surprising therefore that his most successful film explores questions of identity and nationality. That film, The English Patient, won nine Oscars. It is, he admits, unashamedly moving, since for him the purpose of fiction is to 'exercise the emotional muscle'.

Music, too, plays an important part in his life. He listens to music as he writes and the structure of many of his plays and film scripts are influenced by it.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1997.

From Bach to Van Morrison. Film director Anthony Minghella shares his castaway choices.

Dawn's career started back when dungarees were considered a legitimate fashion choice and she's built her reputation on borderline surreal skits and glowingly warm characterisations.

Brought up in a forces family, she had to move schools a lot and found making people laugh helped to make them her friends. Since then it's made her a household name and she may be moments away from becoming a 'national treasure'.

Double act partner, sit-com star, sketch show performer, writer, actor, Dawn has made us laugh for years. So does she ever feel overwhelmed by people's expectations?

She says 'I tell myself that I'm the sort of person who can open a one-woman play in the West End, so I do - I am the sort of person who writes a book - so I do'.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2012.

From Alison Moyet to James Taylor. Dawn French shares her castaway choices.

One of the most influential teachers of his age, Frank is credited with bringing the new literary theory of Structuralism to this country. Something, as he admits to Sue Lawley, he now profoundly regrets.

He traces his life, 'lived like tumbleweed in the wind', from a short-sighted, studious boy growing up on the Isle of Man to King Edward Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 1997.

From Handel to Strauss, Frank Kermode shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Stage, film and TV actor Roy Dotrice OBE shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Born in Guernsey in 1923, the versatile performer featured in early episodes of BBC Radio's long-running comedy 'The Men from the Ministry'.

He won a Tony award for the 2000 Broadway revival of A Moon for the Misbegotten.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1977.

From Frank Sinatra to Dylan Thomas. Actor Roy Dotrice shares his castaway choices.

Gyles Brandreth makes talks about his music choices with Kirsty Young.

A former Conservative MP, he is also a some-time actor, broadcaster and prolific writer who has authored biographies, diaries, stage plays and mysteries.

Pursuing a political career has been, he says, the over-riding ambition of his life. However the happiest moment came not from politics, but when he was performing in a West End show that he had written himself. These days, his ambitions are to return to the stage and the role he wants to take on is Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.

'I have no complaints' he says; 'my life has been one long series of tomato and marmite sandwiches. I've always had what I wanted.'

DISC ONE: Noël Coward - There are Bad Times Just Around the Corner

DISC TWO: Charles Trenet - Boum

DISC THREE: Simon Cadell - I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face

DISC FOUR: Choir of St Paul's Cathedral - John Greenleaf Whittier and Hubert Parry's Dear Lord and Father of Mankind

DISC FIVE: The Godolphin and Latymer School - Carl Davis's Warning: Man in Uniform

DISC SIX: Laurence Olivier - The Speech to the Senate from William Shakespeare's Othello

DISC SEVEN: Andrew C. Wadsworth and Shona White - Stephen Sondheim's With so Little To be Sure of

DISC EIGHT: John Reed and the D'Oyly Carte Company - Opera Gilbert and Sullivan's The High Aesthetic Line

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Simon Cadell - I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face

BOOK CHOICE: The Complete plays of Anton Chekhov

LUXURY CHOICE: Michelangelo's Pieta

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

Writer Gyles Brandreth is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Hubert Parry to Noel Coward. Former MP and writer Gyles Brandreth shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2011.

[LISTEN NOW]

From yodelling to T. Rex - comedian Julian Clary's castaway choices.

Comedian Julian Clary is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Julian brought camp out of the closet and into the TV mainstream.

In the late 1980s, he burst onto our screens as The Joan Collins Fan Club, attracting a surprisingly broad audience with his extreme make-up and innuendo.

The son of a policeman and a probation officer, Julian was born and brought up in Teddington and Surbiton, and as a child was deeply religious.

He discovered his comic talent at Goldsmith's University in the late 1970s where, as well as taking part in rather serious drama productions, he and a friend created the duo Glad and May - two over-made-up cleaning ladies with a passion for 'rummaging' through the handbags of their hapless audience.

In recent years, Julian has toned down the make-up and innuendo in order to take on a new role - Julian Clary, family favourite, star of prime time.

Where once he had cult status, he now has serious mainstream appeal, recently presenting the new National Lottery show on BBC1 and reaching the final of Strictly Come Dancing.

DISC ONE: Dana Gillespie - Big Fat Mammas are back in Style Again

DISC TWO: Aretha Franklin - So Damm Happy

DISC THREE: T. Rex - 20th Century Boy

DISC FOUR: Mary Schneider Gioachino Rossini's William Tell Overture

DISC FIVE: Barb Jungr - Peace in the Valley

DISC SIX: Divaria - Giacomo Puccini's Nessun dorma

DISC SEVEN: Gail Mackinnon - Il Adore

DISC EIGHT: Dana Gillespie - Garu Nanaka Ji Ki Jai Kar

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Dana Gillespie - Garu Nanaka Ji Ki Jai Kar

BOOK CHOICE: Stop Thinking, Start Living - Richard Carlson

LUXURY CHOICE: All-purpose prosthetic arm

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2005.

From yodelling to T Rex. Comedian Julian Clary's shares his desert island castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2005.

[LISTEN NOW]

Actor Stephen Mangan is castaway by Lauren Laverne in an extended edition.

Stephen is an award-winning actor who is also a presenter and writer. His prolific career includes comedic roles in TV hits Green Wing; Episodes and Adrian Mole.

He also plays the much loved Nathan in BBC drama The Split and has appeared in many award winning theatre productions in the UK and on Broadway.

Born in London to Irish immigrant parents, Stephen studied Law at Cambridge University.

His passion though was for acting and after taking time out to care for his mother, he spent three years at RADA before pursuing a successful career on stage, screen and film.

Stephen lives in London with his wife and three sons.

DISC ONE: King of the Road - Roger Miller

DISC TWO: I Recall A Gypsy Woman - Don Williams

DISC THREE: Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) - John Lennon

DISC FOUR: Who Knows Where the Time Goes - Fairport Convention

DISC FIVE: Stayin Alive - Bee Gees

DISC SIX: Ravel: Piano Concerto in G Major, M. 83: II. Adagio assai. Composed by Maurice Ravel and performed by Martha Argerich (piano) and Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Claudio Abbado

DISC SEVEN: Rhapsody in Blue. Composed by George Gershwin and performed by New York Philharmonic, conducted by Zubin Mehta

DISC EIGHT: (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher - Jackie Wilson

BOOK CHOICE: Collected Works of Seamus Heaney

LUXURY ITEM: A piano

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Stayin Alive - Bee Gees

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Sarah Taylor

A BBC Studios production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in February 2025.

From the Bee Gees to George Gershwin. Actor Stephen Mangan shares his island choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2025.

[LISTEN NOW]

Comedian and TV presenter Sue Perkins is castaway by Kirsty Young.

She and her friend Mel Giedroyc first appeared as a comedy duo at the Edinburgh Fringe over 20 years ago and together they presented the first seven series of The Great British Bake Off.

Born at the end of the 1960s, Sue grew up in Croydon, the eldest of three siblings. By her own description a 'shy and awkward' child, she nonetheless made it to Cambridge University to study English.

She and Mel met at a Footlights open mic gig soon after she'd arrived. Their first joint high-profile success was landing a new live daytime programme on Channel 4 called Light Lunch, which turned them into household names.

Sue also formed a second presenting partnership, making historical food programmes with Giles Coren.

When she was 38 she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour which left her unable to have children. Sue was in a relationship with the TV presenter Anna Richardson.

DISC ONE: Sylvester - You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)

DISC TWO: Lonnie Donegan - Rock Island Line

DISC THREE: The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?

DISC FOUR: T. Rex - 20th Century Boy

DISC FIVE: Kate Bush - Moments of Pleasure

DISC SIX: Emma Kirkby, James Bowman and the Academy of Ancient Music, conducted by Christopher Hogwood - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater

DISC SEVEN: Nick Drake - Northern Sky

DISC EIGHT: Philip Glass - Opening (from Glassworks)

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Kate Bush - Moments of Pleasure

BOOK CHOICE: “How to Clone A Dog ?

LUXURY CHOICE: Her deceased dog's hair

Produced by Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2017.

Comedian Sue Perkins is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Pergolesi to T.Rex. Comedian Sue Perkins shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2017.

[LISTEN NOW]

Brian Cox CBE is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Brian is a Scottish actor whose career spans almost 60 years, from his early days sweeping the stage at his local theatre in Dundee to his current Golden Globe-winning role as the media patriarch Logan Roy in the HBO series Succession.

He has appeared in more than 100 films, many TV series, and has won two Olivier awards for his work on stage.

Brian was born in 1946, the youngest of five children, and grew up in a working-class household in Dundee. His father died of cancer when he was eight and his mother, who was receiving regular psychiatric treatment, was unable to take care of him. He moved in with his sister Betty and her family.

He left school aged 14 with no qualifications, and started out as a stage hand and stage cleaner at Dundee Rep, before winning a place at drama school.

Years of theatre work followed, alongside actors such as Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Albert Finney. His later stage roles include acclaimed performances as King Lear at the National Theatre, and Titus Andronicus for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

On film, his work includes the first screen portrayal of Hannibal Lecter - renamed Lecktor - in Manhunter, and blockbusters such as The Bourne Identity, X-Men 2, Braveheart and Troy.

He received a CBE in 2002, and lives in New York City with his second wife Nicole Ansari.

DISC ONE: Bridge Over Troubled Water by Johnny Cash

DISC TWO: Saturday Night at the Movies by The Drifters

DISC THREE: The Air That I Breathe by KD Lang

DISC FOUR: Get Back by The Beatles

DISC FIVE: La quête by Jacques Brel

DISC SIX: Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell

DISC SEVEN: God Only Knows by The Beach Boys

DISC EIGHT: Don't Get Me Wrong by The Pretenders

BOOK CHOICE: In Search of the Miraculous by P.D. Ouspensky

LUXURY ITEM: A sewing kit

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: God Only Knows by The Beach Boys

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2020.

Actor Brian Cox is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

From The Beach Boys to Johnny Cash. Actor Brian Cox shares his castaway music choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2020.

From The Beach Boys to Johnny Cash. Actor Brian Cox makes his music choices.

Brian Cox CBE is a Scottish actor whose career spans almost 60 years, from his early days sweeping the stage at his local theatre in Dundee to his current Golden Globe-winning role as the media patriarch Logan Roy in the HBO series Succession. He has appeared in more than 100 films, many television series, and has won two Olivier awards for his work on stage.

Brian Cox was born in 1946, the youngest of five children, and grew up in a working-class household in Dundee. His father died of cancer when he was eight and his mother, who was receiving regular psychiatric treatment, was unable to take care of him. He moved in with his sister Betty and her family.

He left school aged 14 with no qualifications, and started out as a stage hand and stage cleaner at Dundee Rep, before winning a place at drama school. Years of theatre work followed, alongside actors such as Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and Albert Finney. His later stage roles include acclaimed performances as King Lear at the National Theatre, and Titus Andronicus for the Royal Shakespeare Company. On film, his work includes the first screen portrayal of Hannibal Lecter - renamed Lecktor - in Manhunter, and blockbusters such as The Bourne Identity, X-Men 2, Braveheart and Troy.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

[LISTEN NOW]

Politician and Transport Minister Glenda Jackson is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Politics is Glenda's third job. At 16, she left school to work in Boots. But it was as an actress that she reached the pinnacle of her profession, becoming an international star and winning Oscars for her roles in Women in Love and A Touch of Class.

On TV, she was the formidable Elizabeth R, but won our hearts as Cleopatra in Morecambe & Wise.

Despite her vast acting experience, she admits that when she came to make her maiden speech in the House of Commons she had the worst attack of stage fright in her long career.

DISC ONE: Nutbush City Limits - Ike & Tina Turner

DISC TWO: Igor Stravinsky's Symphony Of Psalms - CBC Symphony Orchestra Choir with Festival Singers Of Toronto, conducted by Igor Stravinsky

DISC THREE: Hound Dog - Elvis Presley

DISC FOUR: John Adams's The Chairman Dances - San Francisco Symphony Orchestra

DISC FIVE: Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 in C major: 'Leningrad' - London Symphony Orchestra

DISC SIX: Benjamin Britten's Libera me (from War Requiem) - City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Simon Rattle

DISC SEVEN: Superstition - Stevie Wonder

DISC EIGHT: Michael Tippett's Concerto for Double String Orchestra - Scottish Chamber Orchestra

BOOK CHOICE: The History and Creation of a Japanese Sand Garden

LUXURY CHOICE: A bath

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Benjamin Britten's Libera me (from War Requiem) - City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Simon Rattle

Producer: Angie Nehring

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 1997.

Actress turned politician Glenda Jackson is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Benjamin Britten to Tina Turner. Actress turned MP, Glenda Jackson shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 1997.

[LISTEN NOW]

Actor and director Richard Wilson is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Richard became a household name when he played the part of Victor Meldrew in the BBC TV sitcom One Foot in the Grave.

He was born in Greenock in Scotland in 1936. As a child he performed in amateur drama productions and harboured a secret desire to become an actor. He left school at 17 and trained as a laboratory technician at Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow.

Following National Service in Singapore, he moved to London and at the age of 27 successfully auditioned for a place at RADA. His first role was as a stonemason in Dr Finlay's Casebook and he later reached a wider audience playing snooty Jeremy Parsons QC in the television series Crown Court.

Richard went on to carve out a successful theatre and television career as both an actor and director. He starred in the comedy Only When I Laugh and later in the series Tutti Frutti alongside Emma Thompson and Robbie Coltrane.

In 1990 he delighted audiences with his portrayal of the grumpy pensioner Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave, with his catchphrase ‘I don't believe it!' – a phrase which has haunted Richard ever since. The series regularly attracted an audience of 17 million viewers and Richard won two BAFTAs for his performance.

Richard received an award for his outstanding contribution to film and television at the Scottish BAFTAs in 2013.

DISC ONE: Symphony No. 6 in D Minor (4th movement) composed by Jean Sibelius, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Herbert von Karajan

DISC TWO: Farewell to Stromness by Peter Maxwell Davies

DISC THREE: Im Abendrot from Four Last Songs, composed by Richard Strauss, performed by Renee Fleming and the Houston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach

DISC FOUR: The Rite of Spring, composed by Igor Stravinsky, performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Simon Rattle

DISC FIVE: Cucurrucucu Paloma by Caetano Veloso

DISC SIX: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack

DISC SEVEN: Hammond Song by The Roches

DISC EIGHT: Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor (first movement) by Sheku Kanneh-Mason (cello)

BOOK CHOICE: The poetry of Robert Burns

LUXURY ITEM: A subscription to The Guardian newspaper

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Im Abendrot from Four Last Songs, composed by Richard Strauss, performed by Renee Fleming and the Houston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach

Producer: Paula McGinley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2021.

From Roberta Flack to Richard Strauss. Actor and director Richard Wilson shares his choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2021.

[LISTEN NOW]

Sir Ian McKellen shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

The actor grew up in Lancashire attending Wigan Grammar school and then Bolton School where he was Head Boy. His first trip to the theatre was as a three year old when he went to see Peter Pan at Manchester Opera House. At seven, a treasured Christmas present was a fold-away Victorian theatre from Pollocks Toy Theatres. Ian's older sister Jean introduced him to Shakespeare - taking him to see Twelfth Night at Wigan's Little Theatre. His first Shakespeare performance was playing Malvolio from the same play at the amateur Hopefield Miniature theatre when he was 13 years old.

Ian won a scholarship to read English at St Catharine's College, Cambridge and was soon appearing in regular productions, including appearing alongside now famous alumni such as Derek Jacobi, David Frost, Trevor Nunn and Margaret Drabble.

By the time Ian graduated in 1961 he had decided to become an actor, and got his first job in a production of A Man for All Seasons at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. He has not been out of work since, appearing at the National Theatre and the RSC, and he has also forged a successful film career.

He's played an acclaimed Richard III for which he also wrote the screenplay, and had parts in X-Men, Gods and Monsters, for which his performance was Oscar-nominated, and playing Gandalf in Lord of the Rings.

Ian was made a Knight of the British Empire for services to the performing arts in the Queen's New Year Honours of 1990.

DISC ONE: Vladimir Horowitz - Stars and Stripes Forever

DISC TWO: Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings - Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor: Geoffrey Simon

DISC THREE: Beethoven's String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130 (2nd movement) - Lindsay String Quartet

DISC FOUR: Rose's turn - Ethel Merman

DISC FIVE: Stormy Weather - Lena Horne

DISC SIX: Mississippi Goddam - Nina Simone

DISC SEVEN: Harrison's Clocks - Joanna MacGregor

DISC EIGHT: Dancing Queen - ABBA

BOOK CHOICE: A dictionary of flora and fauna

LUXURY CHOICE: Grand piano

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Stormy Weather - Lena Horne

Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

Actor Sir Ian McKellen reveals his castaway choices to Sue Lawley.

From Ludwig van Beethoven to Nina Simone. Actor Sir Ian McKellen shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2003.

[LISTEN NOW]

Actor Warren Mitchell is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Arthur Miller praised his portrayal of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman at the National Theatre and he played King Lear in Australia in 1978 and at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1995.

However, Warren will always be best remembered for Alf Garnett, the bigoted, bully in Till Death Us Do Part which first aired on BBC TV in 1965.

DISC ONE: Soloists David Healey, Barry Rutter and Kevin Williams - Frank Loesser's Fugue For Tinhorns (from Guys and Dolls)

DISC TWO: Orchestra: Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner

- Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia On A Theme By Thomas Tallis

DISC THREE: Paul Scofield reading Four Quartets

DISC FOUR: Eddie Condon - The Song is Ended

DISC FIVE: Sir John Betjeman - Youth and Age on Beaulieu River

DISC SIX: Judith Durham - Cake Walking Babies from Home

DISC SEVEN: Scottish Orchestra, conducted by Neeme Jarvi - George Enescu's Romanian Rhapsody

DISC EIGHT: Soloists Yvonne Kenny, Diana Montague, and Rosemary Joshua with The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by David Parry - Richard Strauss's 'Marie Theres'! Hab' mir's gelobt' (Act 3 Trio) (from Der Rosenkavalier)

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Soloists Yvonne Kenny, Diana Montague, and Rosemary Joshua with The London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by David Parry - Richard Strauss's Marie Theres'! Hab' mir's gelobt (Act 3 Trio) (from Der Rosenkavalier)

BOOK CHOICE: Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian

LUXURY CHOICE: Organ (from the Royal Albert Hall)

Producer Angie Nehring

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1999.

From Guys and Dolls to Judith Durham. Actor Warren Mitchell shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 1999.

Sue Lawley's castaway is the late Warren Mitchell. Arthur Miller praised his portrayal of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman at the National Theatre and he played King Lear in Australia in 1978 and at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1995. However, Warren will always be best remembered for Alf Garnett, the bigoted, bully in Till Death Us Do Part which first aired on BBC One in 1965.

Presented by Sue Lawley

Actor Warren Mitchell aka Alf Garnett remembers playing classical roles too.

From Guys & Dolls to John Betjeman and Richard Strauss - actor Warren Mitchell shares his choices with Sue Lawley. From 1999.

[LISTEN NOW]

English novelist Barbara Pym shares her castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Barbara's first novels were published in the 1950s, but by the early 1960s, she fell out of favour with publishers – until her revival in 1977.

Novels include: A Glass of Blessings, Excellent Women, Less than Angels, Quartet in Autumn and An Unsuitable Attachment.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1978.

Photo credit: The Barbara Pym Society

From Strauss to Bithikotsis. Novelist Barbara Pym shares her castaway choices

From Ellington to Liszt, novelist Rumer Godden shares her second castaway choices.

Always an outsider, Rumer Godden seems to have gone against all the mores of her time; from opening a dancing school in Calcutta to living alone with her children in Kashmir. The writer describes how her rich life in India (under the Raj) and in Britain has influenced her novels.

She says she can't remember a time when she didn't write. Rumer Godden died in 1998 at the age of 90, having published dozens of novels for adults and children, alongside non fiction and verse.

DISC ONE: Dominic Muldowney - Peacock Spring Music

DISC TWO: Vladimir Horowitz - Robert Schumann's Träumerei (from Scenes from Childhood)

DISC THREE: Duke Ellington and His Orchestra - Stormy Weather

DISC FOUR: : Los Frontierizos Orchestra with The Choir Of The Bassilica - Ariel Ramírez's Misa Criolla

DISC FIVE: Philadelphia Orchestra - Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique

DISC SIX: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf & Chorus with The Philharmonia Orchestra - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Porgi, amor (from The Marriage of Figaro)

DISC SEVEN: The Ballet Theatre Orchestra, conducted by Joseph Levine - Frédéric Chopin's Les Sylphides

DISC EIGHT: Claudio Arrau - Franz Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Vladimir Horowitz - Robert Schumann's Träumerei (from Scenes from Childhood)

BOOK CHOICE: The Atlantic book of British and American Poetry - Edith Sitwell

LUXURY CHOICE: A widow's cruse filled with whisky

Producer Angie Nehring

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1996.

Novelist Rumer Godden is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Duke Ellington to Franz Liszt. Novelist Rumer Godden shares her second castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 1996.

[LISTEN NOW]

Sue Lawley's castaway is judge Albie Sachs.

The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, his account of being placed in solitary confinement by the South African authorities, highlighted the dangers of campaigning against apartheid in the 1960s.

After a long exile in Britain, Albie Sachs returned to his homeland in the 1990s to help shape its new constitution and become one of its most senior judges.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2000.

Sue Lawley's castaway is the QC Helena Kennedy.

In 1992 she published a book which drew attention to the way English law discriminates against women. She called it Eve was Framed. It began a debate into how we view defendants and victims and how our judges are trained.

Born into a working-class family living on the south side of Glasgow, she entered the House of Lords as a life peer, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, in 1997. She says her father, a newspaper packer and an active trade unionist, would have been 'amused but proud'.

Producer: Angie Nehring.

First heard on BBC Radio 4 in January 1998.

He is one of Britain's leading QCs - the Birmingham six, the Marchioness disaster, the Stephen Lawrence trial and the death of Jean Charles de Menezes are only a handful of the high profile cases he's been involved in.

He describes himself as a 'radical lawyer' and says he's been educated by the cases he's taken on. He has become, he says, increasingly angry and radical over the years. 'I do feel that reputation, standing up for principle, is one of the few ways in which a difference can be made.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2010.

From Elgar to Pink Floyd, the barrister shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Widely regarded as a leading advocate of the 20th century, he continues to make his mark in the 21st; he recently appeared for the first time in the European Court of Justice and at the end of last year he spent the actual day of his 90th birthday working in the English Supreme Court.

Born in South Africa, he was first called to the bar there at the end of the 1940s and played a leading role in some of the most significant political trials of the apartheid era. 'Understated, controlled, relentlessly rational' - and with devastating cross-examination skills - the verdict of one of his clients - Nelson Mandela.

He himself says 'I hope there's only one thing about my professional life of which I've boasted and which I think, as a lawyer, is unique on my part - I have acted as an advocate for three winners of The Nobel Peace Prize. I don't think anyone else has done that.

Producer: Isabel Sargent.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2013.

From Flanders and Swann to Mozart, the lawyer shares his castaway choices.

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, Anna shares her life story and explains her musical choices, book and luxury choices.

One of the first high profile women in news, she worked for Granada, ITV and the BBC before retiring after more than 30 years on our screens.

One of Anna's professional pairings was presenting ITV's News at 10 with Reginald Bosanquet. She remembers how he would try to unsettle her during broadcasts:

I adored Reggie. He would land either obscene poems or love poems on my script just before I was to about to read it to camera and I would catch just a sight of this and it was almost impossible not to laugh.

DISC ONE: It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't got that Swing - Duke Ellington and His Orchestra

DISC TWO: Bach's Concerto for Two Violins and Strings in D Minor - Yehudi Menuhin and David Oistrakh with the Great Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Alexander Orlov

DISC THREE: Dawn Chorus: seasonal birdsong (sound effects) recorded in May in Kent

DISC FOUR: Masters of War - Bob Dylan

DISC FIVE: Isaac Albéniz's Mallorca - Julian Bream

DISC SIX: Carolina in My Mind - James Taylor

DISC SEVEN: You can call me Al - Paul Simon

DISC EIGHT: J'Attendrai - Tino Rossi

BOOK CHOICE: Staying Alive: Real Poems for Unreal Times edited by Neil Astley

LUXURY CHOICE: Endless supply of leaf tea, teapot, mug and semi skimmed milk

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: You can call me Al - Paul Simon

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in September 2012.

4 Extra's extended edition. Anna Ford shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young

Specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra.

ITV's Saturday Night Takeaway, I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here and Britain's Got Talent stars look back over their careers and firm friendship spanning 20-odd years, from their days as child actors on TV's Byker Grove.

They say, 'without doubt, the best thing to come out of the last 20 years, the greatest thing we've ever achieved, our biggest success, has been our friendship. And nothing will ever change that.

Back in 2013, Ant and Dec were the first double-act to appear on Desert Island Discs since 1987 – following in the footsteps of legendary duos Morecambe and Wise, Bob Monkhouse and Denis Goodwin, and Peter Brough and Archie Andrews.

DISC ONE: That's Living All Right (Theme from Auf Wiedersehen Pet) - Joe Fagin

DISC TWO: Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell

DISC THREE: This Is How it Feels To Be Lonely - Inspiral Carpets

DISC FOUR: Golden Brown - The Stranglers

DISC FIVE: Baggy Trousers - Madness

DISC SIX: I am glad I'm finally going home (Trololo) - Eduard Khil

DISC SEVEN: In My Place - Coldplay

DISC EIGHT: Bring Me Sunshine - Morecambe & Wise

BOOK CHOICE - Ant: Collected Works - William Boyd/Dec: High Fidelity - Nick Hornby

LUXURY CHOICE - Ant: A blow up chair/Dec: tweezers

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Ant: Bring Me Sunshine - Morecambe & Wise/Dec: Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell

Extended edition first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in May 2014.

4 Extra's extended edition. Kirsty Young chats to Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly.

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, Betty shares her life story and explains hers musical, book and luxury choices.

For more than 40 years she pulled pints and dished up her hot-pot in the Rovers Return. But her career in showbusiness started decades before she took up residence on Britain's most famous street.

Betty was a child when her mother put her on the stage and she toured the country with an act that showcased her stunning singing voice - it brought success but not happiness. 'I did it for over twenty years,' she says, 'and hated every day of it.' Although she has been working now for an incredible 80 years, she says: 'I just love work and I will never retire. They'll have to shoot me to get rid of me!

DISC ONE: I'll Take Romance - Betty Driver

DISC TWO: Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor - Stephen Hough with the Minnesota Orchestra

DISC THREE: Night and Day - Ella Fitzgerald

DISC FOUR: Johann Strauss II's Thunder and Lightning Polka -Sir Harry Mortimer with the G.U.S. (Footwear) Band

DISC FIVE: Black and White Rag - Winifred Atwell

DISC SIX: Tchaikovsky's Overture to Swan Lake - Leonard Slatkin conducting the St Louis Symphony Orchestra

DISC SEVEN: Skylark - Hoagy Carmichael

DISC EIGHT: Johannes Brahms's The Adagio from the Cello Sonata No.2 in F Major - Steven Isserlis

BOOK CHOICE: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

LUXURY CHOICE: Eau de Soir perfume by Sisley

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor - Stephen Hough with the Minnesota Orchestra

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in January 2011.

4 Extra's extended edition. Betty Driver shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, he shares his life story and explains his musical, book and luxury choices.

Bill sat at his first computer while still at school in Seattle, wrote his first computer programme aged just 13 and went on to co-found the company Microsoft, becoming one of the key figures of the technological revolution. In 2000, he and his wife, Melinda, launched the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has given to date over $34 billion to projects aimed at reducing health inequality around the world.

Born into a professional family - his father was a lawyer, his mother a former teacher who later became involved with volunteer work - he was introduced to the idea of ‘giving back' at an early age. An avid reader as a child, he attended Harvard where in his sophomore year he and Paul Allen developed software for the first micro-computers. The company would go on to achieve huge success with its Windows operating system.

By 1987, Gates had become the world's youngest self-made billionaire, then worth $1.25 billion. Consistently listed as the Richest Man in the World, he stepped down as CEO of the company in 2000 although he remained as Chairman until 2014.

These days his primary focus is his philanthropy. In 2010, Gates and his friend Warren Buffett announced the Giving Pledge which aims to inspire the wealthy people of the world to give away the majority of their net worth to worthy causes.

DISC ONE: Under Pressure - Queen & David Bowie

DISC TWO: Blue Skies - Willie Nelson

DISC THREE: Sing - Ed Sheeran

DISC FOUR: Are You Experienced? - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

DISC FIVE: One - Mary J. Blige & U2

DISC SIX: Two of Us - The Beatles

DISC SEVEN: How Can Love Survive? - Rodgers & Hammerstein

DISC EIGHT: My Shot - Lin-Manuel Miranda, Anthony Ramos, Daveed Diggs, Okieriete Onaodowan, Leslie Odom Jr.

BOOK CHOICE: The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker

LUXURY CHOICE: DVD Collection of Lectures from The Teaching Company

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Blue Skies - Willie Nelson

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in May 2016.

4 Extra's extended edition. Kirsty Young chats to Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates.

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, he shares his record, book and luxury choices.

As a child he longed to act - he found early success in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys and became a household name for the TV show he devised and co-wrote, Gavin and Stacey.

At the time of this recording in 2012, James was starring in One Man, Two Guvnors. It had transferred from London's West End to New York's Broadway and he says: I'm well aware that this could well be the best part that I ever play on stage - it's a gift for any actor who has any interest in comedy. It feels like all my dreams come true.

DISC ONE: First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes

DISC TWO: Days Like This - Van Morrison

DISC THREE: Gumboots - Paul Simon

DISC FOUR: The Art Teacher - Rufus Wainwright

DISC FIVE: A Little Respect - Erasure

DISC SIX: She's a Woman - Brent Carver

DISC SEVEN: I Can't Make You Love Me - Bonnie Raitt

DISC EIGHT: Vide Cor Meum - Danielle de Niese

BOOK CHOICE - A guide to learning the piano

LUXURY CHOICE - A piano

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Days Like This - Van Morrison

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

Producer: Corinna Jones.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in September 2012.

4 Extra's extended edition. Kirsty Young chats to the multi-talented James Corden.

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, Jamie shares his life story with Kirsty Young and explains his musical, book and luxury choices.

Despite failing his grade four piano exam and, by his own admission, barely being able to read music, Jamie Cullum has become hugely popular. He is particularly celebrated for his live shows and in this very special recording, he performed three of his musical choices.

The interview was recorded in front of an audience at St George's in Bristol.

DISC ONE: Do You Know what it Means to Miss New Orleans? – Eddie DeLange and Louis Alter [peformed live by Jamie Cullum]

DISC TWO: The Lamb – John Tavener

DISC THREE: Brown Paper Bag - Roni Size / Reprazent

DISC FOUR: Tiny Dancer - Elton John and Bernie Taupin [peformed live by Jamie Cullum]

DISC FIVE: All Things To All Men (feat. Roots Manuva) (feat. Roots Manuva) - The Cinematic Orchestra

DISC SIX: My Girls – Animal Collective

DISC SEVEN: Concerning the UFO Sighting near Highland Illinos - Sufjan Stevens

DISC EIGHT: I Think it's Going to Rain Today – Randy Newman [peformed live by Jamie Cullum]

BOOK CHOICE - On the Road - Jack Kerouac

LUXURY CHOICE - A huge stack of white paper and pencils

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - I Think it's Going to Rain Today – Randy Newman

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in August 2012.

4 Extra's extended edition. Jamie Cullum shares his castaway choices.

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew shares his life story and explains his musical choices, book and luxury choices.

Known simply as 'Aggers' to the army of fans devoted to BBC Radio's Test Match Special, his charm, knowledge and ready wit have gained him a place in the heart of anyone who loves the game.

His own infatuation began as a young boy at boarding school and along with his talent and determination it took him all the way to the top of the sport. He played for Leicestershire and England. His transition from the crease to the commentary box was cemented by one of the most memorable moments in broadcasting history - the notorious 'legover' comment that prompted the legendary Brian Johnson to dissolve into helpless, prolonged giggles live on air.

He says 'The great thing about our job is that you have no pre-conceived idea about what is going to happen - you have no script - the cricket is the script'.

DISC ONE: Hubert Parry's Jerusalem - Sean Ruane

DISC TWO: Dancing Queen - ABBA

DISC THREE: My Kind of Lady - Supertramp

DISC FOUR: Oliver's Army - Elvis Costello

DISC FIVE: “Leg over ? commentary (Test Match Special, 9/8/1991) - Brian Johnston & Jonathan Agnew

DISC SIX: Have I Told You Lately - Rod Stewart

DISC SEVEN: Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 “Pathétique ? - Daniel Barenboim

DISC EIGHT: Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me - George Michael & Elton John

BOOK CHOICE: City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre

LUXURY CHOICE: Lawn and mower with an endless supply of fuel

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Have I Told You Lately - Rod Stewart

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in February 2013.

4 Extra's extended edition. Cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew shares his choices.

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, Kathy shares her life story and explains her musical, book and luxury choices.

She became a household name for her comedy performances, working with Harry Enfield to create the characters Kevin and Perry. Kathy won critical acclaim for serious roles and picked up the Best Actress award at Cannes for her portrayal of an abused wife in the film 'Nil By Mouth'.

Her early life had been tumultuous - her mother died before she was two and her father was often drunk, leaving her older brother to run the family home.

Kathy was a teenager when she discovered acting and, she says, it was the saving of her.

DISC ONE: Bad Romance - Lady Gaga

DISC TWO: Gangsters - The Specials

DISC THREE: Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division

DISC FOUR: Pretty Vacant - Sex Pistols

DISC FIVE: Ride a White Swan - T. Rex

DISC SIX: Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) - Frank Sinatra

DISC SEVEN: Clint Eastwood - Gorillaz

DISC EIGHT: Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliott

BOOK CHOICE - The complete works of Graham Linehan

LUXURY CHOICE - Life-size laminated photo of James Caan from Dragons' Den

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Bad Romance - Lady Gaga

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in August 2011.

4 Extra's extended edition. Kathy Burke shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, Lang Lang shares his life story with Kirsty Young and explains her musical, book and luxury choices.

He was five years old when he gave his first public recital in front of an audience of 800 people. It was a pivotal moment and from that point on it was clear where his future lay. His parents were both musical too but, during the cultural revolution, had not been able to pursue their own ambitions.

Lang Lang was born under the one-child rule and so he was, he says, their only chance. Their aim was that he should become the No.1 pianist in China and in the years that followed, family life was sacrificed to that end.

He is now one of the most famous classical musicians in the world.

DISC ONE: Thriller - Michael Jackson

DISC TWO: Frédéric Chopin's Waltz in D flat major, Op. 64/1 'Minute Waltz' - Arthur Rubinstein

DISC THREE: O sole mio - Singer: Luciano Pavarotti

DISC FOUR: Frédéric Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, 2nd movement - Murray Perahia and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

DISC FIVE: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor - Van Cliburn and the RCA Symphony Orchestra

DISC SIX: Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 – Vladimir Horowitz

DISC SEVEN: The Yellow River in Wrath from the Yellow River Piano Concerto - Lang Lang and the China Philharmonic Orchestra

DISC EIGHT: Rhapsody in Blue - Leonard Bernstein

BOOK CHOICE: The Analects of Confucius

LUXURY CHOICE: Two feathered pillows

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 – Vladimir Horowitz

Producer: Christine Pawlowsky

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in September 2011 .

4 Extra's extended edition. Lang Lang shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young

Lord Coe, former athlete and now Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the 2012 Olympics, reveals his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, he shares his life story and explains his musical, book and luxury choices.

Back in 1980, Sebastian Coe's rivalry with fellow middle-distance runner Steve Ovett enraptured the nation at the Moscow Olympic Games.

After retiring from the racetrack, he enjoyed a career in politics.

For the past eight years though, his focus has been on the Olympics once again - not on individual medals this time, but ensuring the 2012 games in London are a success.

DISC ONE: Proud - Heather Small

DISC TWO: The History of a Boy Scout - The Dave Brubeck Quartet

DISC THREE: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Der Hölle Rache (from The Magic Flute) - Soloist: Edda Moser

DISC FOUR: There'll Be Some Changes Made - George Melly & Mick Mulligan

DISC FIVE: Deep in a Dream - Frank Sinatra

DISC SIX: Oh, Lady be good - Lester Young

DISC SEVEN: West End Blues - Louis Armstrong

DISC EIGHT: The Closest Thing to Crazy - Katie Melua

BOOK CHOICE: Such Sweet Thunder - Benny Green on Jazz

LUXURY CHOICE: A piano and guide to playing it

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Closest Thing to Crazy - Katie Melua

Producer: Christine Pawlowsky

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in August 2012.

4 Extra's extended edition. Lord Coe shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, Mark shares his life story and explains his musical, book and luxury choices.

Mark tells Kirsty how his childhood passions have fuelled his adult creative life. As a boy he says he was drawn towards the macabre and gothic - while his teachers remarked that his school essays resembled scripts for Hammer horror films.

He has written for - and has acted in - Doctor Who; he was one of the creators of The League of Gentlemen and his BBC TV re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes has been a huge success.

DISC ONE: There is a Light that Never Goes Out - The Smiths

DISC TWO: Theme to On Her Majesty's Secret Service - John Barry

DISC THREE: If I Loved You (from the soundtrack to Carousel) - Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae

DISC FOUR: Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis - The Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Herbert Von Karajan

DISC FIVE: Beautiful Child - Rufus Wainwright

DISC SIX: Come to Me (I Am Woman) - Su Pollard

DISC SEVEN: Yes - McAlmont & Butler

DISC EIGHT: So In Love (from the Broadway cast recording of Kiss Me, Kate) - Marin Mazzie

BOOK CHOICE: Complete Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

LUXURY CHOICE: A Victorian bath and hot water

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: So In Love (from the Broadway cast recording of Kiss Me, Kate) - Marin Mazzie

Producer: Leanne Buckle

4 Extra's extended edition. Actor Mark Gatiss chats to Kirsty Young.

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, Martin shares his life story and explains his musical, book and luxury choices.

He has won great acclaim and a Golden Globe for playing the leader of the free world in the hugely successful political drama The West Wing.

Martin's made more than 100 movies, including Apocalypse Now, Badlands and The Departed. For him, work is often a family affair, in Wall Street he acted alongside his son Charlie Sheen and in his latest movie, The Way he was directed by another of his children - Emilio Estevez.

But away from the film set, he's an activist and campaigner - he's been arrested around 70 times and is motivated, he says, by faith and conscience above politics.

DISC ONE: Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bob Dylan

DISC TWO: How Can I Keep From Singing? - Enya

DISC THREE: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, 2nd movement - Daniel Barenboim with the English Chamber Orchestra

DISC FOUR: Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons: Spring - Pinchas Zukerman

DISC FIVE: Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor “Choral ?: Ode to Joy - The Netherlands Radio Chorus with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink

DISC SIX: How Great Thou Art - The London Emmanuel Choir

DISC SEVEN: Knockin' on Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan

DISC EIGHT: Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major - The Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan

BOOK CHOICE - The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

LUXURY CHOICE - Golf clubs

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Knockin' on Heaven's Door - Bob Dylan

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

Producer: Leanne Buckle

Extended edition first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in August 2011.

4 Extra's extended edition. Kirsty Young chats to Martin Sheen.

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, Mary shares her life story with Kirsty Young and explains her musical, book and luxury choices.

More than six million copies of Mary's books have now been sold - not bad for a girl who failed her school certificate in English.

On TV, it was her role as a judge on The Great British Bake-off that brought her to the attention of a new generation.

It was in domestic science lessons that Mary discovered her love of cooking and she is in no doubt of the importance of teaching cookery in school

When everybody leaves school, whether they are a boy or a girl, what do they have to do in the home? They have to produce a meal. They haven't been taught to do it. I think it should be essential.

DISC ONE: Wish Me Luck (As You Wave Me Goodbye) - Gracie Fields

DISC TWO: Antonio Vivaldi's Spring (Allegro) - Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta

DISC THREE: Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & The Shadows

DISC FOUR: How Great Thou Art - Susan Boyle

DISC FIVE: Onward Christian Soldiers - Salvation Army New York Staff Band

DISC SIX: Sailing - Rod Stewart

DISC SEVEN: Lord of the Dance - Bach Choir

DISC EIGHT: Mamma Mia - ABBA

BOOK CHOICE: RHS A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants

LUXURY CHOICE: Cashmere rug

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Sailing - Rod Stewart

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in August 2012.

A chance to hear an extended edition of Mary Berry's Desert Island Discs.

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, Michael shares his life story and explains his musical, book and luxury choices.

Michael McIntyre has gone from being an unknown stand-up with debts of more than £30,000 to become one of the most successful comedians in the business - with awards, chart topping DVDs and sell-out arena shows under his belt.

He says: 'I was on the circuit for years, I did get more and more in debt - it really did drag on and I just couldn't get a break. But when my chance came, I'd envisaged it so many times, I wasn't even nervous. I knew I could do it.

DISC ONE: Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack

DISC TWO: The Logical Song - Supertramp

DISC THREE: Don't Play that Song - Aretha Franklin

DISC FOUR: Abracadabra - Steve Miller Band

DISC FIVE: Smile - King Cole

DISC SIX: Miss You - The Rolling Stones

DISC SEVEN: Oh Yoko! - John Lennon

DISC EIGHT: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - Ella Fitzgerald

BOOK CHOICE - The Complete Prose by Woody Allen - Woody Allen

LUXURY CHOICE - Writing Materials

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - Ella Fitzgerald

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in January 2012.

4 Extra's extended edition. Michael McIntyre shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, Molly shares her life story with Kirsty Young and explains her musical, book and luxury choices.

Molly Parkin left the Welsh valleys to train as a fine artist in London and was a successful painter then teacher before becoming a fashion writer and novelist. She is as well known, though, for her lifestyle as her work. She adopted a hedonistic approach to life - smoking and drinking through the night and picking up numerous lovers along the way.

Now aged 79, Molly prefers to live alone and says she has found a calmer way of living:

'I have been blessed, and made it my business, to surround myself with larger than life characters,' she says, 'love, on a very profound level comes unexpectedly and brilliantly.'

DISC ONE: Accentuate the Positive - Bette Midler

DISC TWO: Three Sheets to the Wind - Liane Carroll

DISC THREE: A Kiss to Build a Dream On - Louis Armstrong

DISC FOUR: Somewhere towards love - Ian Shaw

DISC FIVE: Rockin' Chair - George Melly

DISC SIX: Billie Jean - Michael Jackson

DISC SEVEN: Never Forget How to Dance - Sarah Jane Morris

DISC EIGHT: Good Golly Miss Molly - Little Richard

BOOK CHOICE: The History of the Colony - Sophie Parkin

LUXURY CHOICE: Her entire outfit including her Andrew Logan Brooch

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Good Golly Miss Molly - Little Richard

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2011.

4 Extra's extended edition. Molly Parkin shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young

In a specially extended edition for BBC Radio 4 Extra, Sir David talks about his life and explains his musical, book and luxury choices.

He has seen more of the world than anyone else who has ever lived - he's visited the north and south poles and witnessed most of the life in-between - from the birds in the canopies of tropical rainforests to giant earthworms in Australia.

But despite his extraordinary travels, there is one part of the globe that's eluded Sir David. As a young man and a keen rock-climber, he yearned to conquer the highest peak in the world.

I won't make it now - I won't make it to base camp now - but as a teenager, I thought that the only thing a red-blooded Englishman really should do was to climb Everest.

DISC ONE: Pajaro Compana (The Bell Bird) - Francisco Yglesia

DISC TWO: Franz Schubert's Impromptu No.1 in F minor - Imogen Cooper

DISC THREE: George Frideric Handel's And the Glory of the Lord - The Academy & Chorus of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner

DISC FOUR: Lyre bird (from The Life Of Birds)

DISC FIVE: Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, No. 3 (Canone all'Unisono) - Murray Perahia

DISC SIX: Legong - The Gamelan Orchestra

DISC SEVEN: Carl Michael Ziehrer's Wiener Burger Waltz - The Vienna Philharmonic conducted by John Eliot Gardiner

DISC EIGHT: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Soave Soave Sia Il Vento (Cosi Fan Tutte) - Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted by Sir Colin Davis

BOOK CHOICE: Shifts and Expedients of Camp Life - W B Lord

LUXURY CHOICE: A piano

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, No. 3 (Canone all'Unisono) - Murray Perahia

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in February 2012.

An extended edition of the 70th anniversary programme with Sir David Attenborough.

In a film career that has, so far, spanned more than four decades, Sir Michael Caine has won two Oscars and his credits include Alfie, The Italian Job, Hannah and her Sisters and Educating Rita.

As well as discussing his remarkable life in films, he describes how the Queen used to cut through his back garden on her way to the horse races, discusses the secrets of a happy marriage, and reveals the tricks for cooking perfect roast potatoes this Christmas.

DISC ONE: Viva La Vida - Coldplay

DISC TWO: One Day Like This - Elbow

DISC THREE: Edward Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36: Variation IX 'Nimrod' -

London Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor: Sir Charles Mackerras

DISC FOUR: No Ordinary Morning - Chicane

DISC FIVE: Swollen - Bent

DISC SIX: Move Closer - Phyllis Nelson

DISC SEVEN: My Way - Frank Sinatra

DISC EIGHT: Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band

BOOK CHOICE: The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

LUXURY CHOICE: A large bed with fifty per cent goose down and fifty per cent feather pillows.

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: My Way - Frank Sinatra

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra in December 2011.

4 Extra's extended edition. Sir Michael Caine shares his castaway choices.

She talks to Sue Lawley about the effects of success on her family life and comes to terms with her island exile.

DISC ONE: Aria from Heitor Villa ?Lobos's Bachianas Brasileiras, No. 5 – Salli Terri and Laurindo Almeida

DISC TWO: La Bamba - Los Lobos

DISC THREE: Concierto De Aranjuez - Siegfried Behrend and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

DISC FOUR: If I Could - Pat Metheny Group

DISC FIVE: Dancing In The Dark - Bruce Springsteen

DISC SIX: Holding Back The Years - Simply Red

DISC SEVEN: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2

DISC EIGHT: Seduced - Mary Coughlan

BOOK CHOICE - Prince of Tides - Pat Conroy

LUXURY CHOICE - Comfortable bed with pillows and sheets

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - If I Could - Pat Metheny Group

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

Founder of The Body Shop Anita Roddick is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Singer and actor Bing Crosby shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Oscar-winning singer and actor, Bing Crosby discusses his early family life, leaving behind the study of law for a life in music and his abiding love of outdoor pursuits, including golf.

DISC ONE: Bob Crosby's Bobcats - South Rampart Street Parade

DISC TWO: Claude Debussy - Clair de lune (from Suite bergamasque)

DISC THREE: Benny Goodman - And The Angels Sing

DISC FOUR: Glenn Miller Orchestra - Moonlight Serenade

DISC FIVE: Franz Liszt - Liebesträum No. 3 in A flat major

DISC SIX: Artie Shaw and His Orchestra - Begin The Beguine

DISC SEVEN: Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra - Song Of India

DISC EIGHT: Pietro Mascagni - Cavalleria Rusticana

BOOK CHOICE - Roget's Thesaurus

LUXURY CHOICE - Guitar

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Bob Crosby's Bobcats - South Rampart Street Parade

Producer: Monica Chapman

Singer and actor Bing Crosby makes his music choices. With Roy Plomley. From 1975.

Prima ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn shares her castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Born in Surrey, she studied at dancing schools in London – eventually joining the school attached to the Vic-Wells Ballet – later known as the Royal Ballet.

Her teenage debut was as a snowflake in ‘The Nutcracker' in 1934, with her solo debut in 1935. Sir Frederick Ashton made her the star of numerous ballets.

Widely admired by both fans and critics, many of Britain's leading male dancers were her partners. Latterly Rudolf Nureyev reinvigorated her career, as she continued to perform around the world.

She married Panamanian diplomat, Dr Roberto Arias in 1955, and cared for him after he was nearly paralyzed in an assassination attempt in 1964.

Awarded a CBE in 1950, she became a Dame in 1956.

Dame Margot Fonteyn died aged 71 in 1991.

Redefining the style of 20th century British ballet, the impact she made lives on.

This was the 750th episode of Desert Island Discs broadcast on the 12th April 1965.

DISC ONE: Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe: Daybreak - Suisse Romande Orchestra with the Motet Choir of Geneva

DISC TWO: Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major - Bath Festival Orchestra (Soloists: Yehudi Menuhin and Rudolf Barshai)

DISC THREE: Bach's Passacaglia in C Minor - Helmut Walcha

DISC FOUR: Mananita de San Juan - Teresa Berganza and Felix Lavilla

DISC FIVE: Verdi's Requiem: Dies Irae - New England Conservatory Chorus with the Boston Symphony Orchestra

DISC SIX: Chopin's Etude in E Major, Op. 10/3 - Sviatoslav Richter

DISC SEVEN: Honeysuckle Rose - Lena Horne

DISC EIGHT: Puccini's Chorus: Invocation To The Moon (from Turandot) - Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Bach's Passacaglia in C Minor - Helmut Walcha

BOOK CHOICE - Hadrian's Memoirs by Marguerite Yourcenar

LUXURY CHOICE - Skin-diver's mask

Producer: Monica Chapman

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in April 1965.

Comedian, composer, pianist and actor Dudley Moore shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Born in Dagenham, Essex, Dudley recalls how his gift for music won him an organ scholarship to Oxford's Magdalen College. He left in 1958 as an accomplished jazz pianist, performing with Johnny Dankworth and touring the US for a year with the Vic Lewis band.

On his return, he met the late Peter Cook and was asked to join the Edinburgh Festival comedy revue, Beyond The Fringe in 1960. Also starring Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller, the extended show went on to run for four years in London's West End and on Broadway in New York.

Dudley explains how his partnership with Peter led to the creation of their classic characters Dud and Pete for BBC TV. Writing film scores also kept him busy.

Dudley Moore went on to pursue a successful career in Hollywood, starring in a number of hit screen comedies. Most memorably he played alongside Bo Derek in the movie 10 in 1979. His role as a hard-drinking millionaire in 1981's Arthur won him an Oscar nomination.

By the late 1990s, Moore endured a number of illnesses – developing the rare condition Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. He revealed how the affliction sadly robbed him of his greatest pleasure - his ability to play music.

Married and divorced four times, Dudley Moore was awarded a CBE in 2001.

Born in 1935, he died aged 66 in 2002.

DISC ONE: Bach's Mass in B Minor - Maria Stader and Hertha Topper with the Munich Bach Orchestra

DISC TWO: Blood, Sweat & Tears - Spinning Wheel

DISC THREE: Mahler's Nun seh' ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen (from Kindertotenlieder) - Kathleen Ferrier with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (Conductor: Bruno Walter)

DISC FOUR: Little Miss Britten - Dudley Moore

DISC FIVE: Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue - Duke Ellington and His Orchestra

DISC SIX: Webern's Bagatelles for String Quartet - Pro Arte Quartet

DISC SEVEN: Lilian Lust (from Bedazzled) - Dudley Moore

DISC EIGHT: Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica ? Philharmonia Orchestra (Conductor: Otto Klemperer)

BOOK CHOICE - Study of psychology

LUXURY CHOICE - Piano

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55 “Eroica ? Philharmonia Orchestra (Conductor: Otto Klemperer)

Producer: Ronald Cook

Comedian, actor and pianist Dudley Moore shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Legendary Hollywood actor, James Stewart shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley

In the first of what were to become two castaway appearances (the second was in 1983) Jimmy's disc choices reflect his lifelong love of music, and mark key stages in his life, from early childhood to Second World War service and beyond:

'I can connect almost everything that's happened to me with a piece of music...when I was a kid, when I was at school, when I was in the war....when I was getting into the movies....'

Highlights of his highly successful film career include: Rear Window, Vertigo, Harvey and It's a Wonderful Life.

DISC ONE: On The Road To Mandalay - Kenneth McKellar

DISC TWO: Bye Bye Blues - Bert Lown & His Orchestra

DISC THREE: I've Got A Crush On You - Betty Grable & Jack Lemmon

DISC FOUR: I Hadn't Anyone Till You - Ray Noble & His Orchestra

DISC FIVE: There I've Said It Again - Vaughan Monroe & His Orchestra

DISC SIX: Don't Cry Joe - Gordon Jenkins Orchestra

DISC SEVEN: Moonlight Serenade - Glenn Miller Orchestra

DISC EIGHT: Dream - The Pied Pipers

BOOK CHOICE - 'A book of Brubeck's music

LUXURY CHOICE - Upright piano

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Dream - The Pied Pipers

Producer: Ronald Cook

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley

One of the most popular British film stars of the 1940s, Margaret Lockwood starred in big screen classics The Lady Vanishes, The Man In Grey and The Wicked Lady.

Born in British India in 1916, she moved to England aged 4, making her stage debut at 12, and later studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

British Lion launched her film career - and she later worked with the Gainsborough film company and Rank.

She worked with directors like Carol Reed and Michael Powell, and opposite actors like Douglas Fairbanks Jnr., Michael Redgrave and James Mason.

A screen beauty, she also was popular with the public for her natural poise and unaffectedly straightforward style.

Margaret was awarded the CBE in 1981, She died aged 73 in 1990.

DISC ONE: Ludwig van Beethoven's Für Elise - Alfred Brendel

DISC TWO: Unforgettable - Nat King Cole

DISC THREE: Felix Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture - LSO

DISC FOUR: Volare - Marino Marini ed il suo Quartetto

DISC FIVE: Chopin's Prelude in A major, Op. 287 - John Ogdon

DISC SIX: Eton Boating Song - Eton College Musical Society

DISC SEVEN: Tales From The Vienna Woods - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

DISC EIGHT: Scarborough Fair - Simon & Garfunkel

BOOK CHOICE - Encyclopaedia Britannica

LUXURY CHOICE - Piano

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Ludwig van Beethoven's Für Elise - Alfred Brendel

Producer: Ronald Cook

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

Actress Margaret Lockwood's shares her castaway choices.

Patricia made her first stage appearance aged 12 and went on to train the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, before repertory theatre.

She became a regular for many years on both radio and TV, including Ray's a Laugh, Hancock's Half Hour, The Benny Hill Show and Till Death Us Do Part.

She won a BAFTA for her title role in BBC TV's 1971 drama Edna, the Inebriate Woman.

Films included The Bargee and A Fish Called Wanda.

Patricia had one son with Valentine Brooke, who she later divorced. She was awarded an OBE in 1988.

DISC ONE: My Blue Heaven - Gracie Fields

DISC TWO: It Doesn't Matter Anymore - Buddy Holly

DISC THREE: Boy Meets Girl (from Take It Here) - Dick Bentley, June Whitfield, Jimmy Edwards

DISC FOUR: Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles

DISC FIVE: Nocturne in D flat major, Op. 27/2 - Dinu Lipatti

DISC SIX: La Bohème - Giacomo Puccini

DISC SEVEN: The Entertainer - Joshua Rifkin

DISC EIGHT: Fidelio - Ludwig van Beethoven

BOOK CHOICE - Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset

LUXURY CHOICE - Four-poster bed

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Nocturne in D flat major, Op. 27/2 - Dinu Lipatti

Producer: Ronald Cook

Comedian and actor Ronnie Corbett shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

In the first of two Desert Island appearances, Ronnie shares highlights from his early years and rise in show business.

Brought up in Edinburgh, Corbett attended a church youth club where he made his first performance. National Service in the RAF also gave him an opportunity to entertain, before being invited by David Frost to participate in his new ITV show alongside Ronnie Barker.

The duo went on to win their own series on BBC TV. The Two Ronnies became one of the most successful and long running comedy sketch shows of all time with an audience of over 18 million.

DISC ONE: By Cool Siloam's Shady Rill – Glasgow Orpheus Choir

DISC TWO: Handel's Messiah: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth – Isobel Baillie and the Halle Orchestra

DISC THREE: Medley: I'll See You Again; Dance Little Lady; Poor Little Rich Girl; A Room With A View - Noël Coward

DISC FOUR: I Found A Million-Dollar Baby - Mel Tormé

DISC FIVE: I Wish I Were In Love Again - Frank Sinatra

DISC SIX: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes - Orchestra conducted by Ainsworth

DISC SEVEN: It's The Talk Of The Town - Anthony Newley

DISC EIGHT: Upa, Neguinho - Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66

BOOK CHOICE - Handbook on tropical vegetation

LUXURY CHOICE - Golf clubs and balls

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Handel's Messiah: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth – Isobel Baillie and the Halle Orchestra

Producer: Ronald Cook

Comedian Ronnie Corbett shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Broadcaster David Frost shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

In 1963, David was heading towards media superstardom as the presenter of BBC TV's ground-breaking satire series, That Was The Week That Was.

Famously covering the Profumo Affair, it was devised by Ned Sherrin, with regulars including Bernard Levin, Willie Rushton, Millicent Martin and Roy Kinnear.

David's career spanned journalism and comedy writing - from The Frost Report to Frost on Sunday and TV-AM. He garnered international attention with his revealing interview with former US President Richard Nixon in 1977.

He was knighted in 1993.

DISC ONE: The Old Rugged Cross - Ballarat City Choir

DISC TWO: Charlie - Georges Delerue

DISC THREE: Aftermyth of War - Alan Bennett

DISC FOUR: That Was the Week That Was - Millicent Martin

DISC FIVE: Just in Time - The Oscar Peterson Trio

DISC SIX: St Louis Blues - Helen Shapiro

DISC SEVEN: - Everything I've Got - Joanie Sommers

DISC EIGHT: Non, je ne regrette rien - Edith Piaf

BOOK CHOICE - The collected works by Geoffrey Chaucer

LUXURY CHOICE - Potato crisps

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Non, je ne regrette rien by Edith Piaf

Producer: Monica Chapman

First broadcast on the BBC Light Programme in April 1963.

Award-winning film actor and writer Sir Dirk Bogarde shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

In the first of what were to become two appearances (the second was in 1989) Bogarde doesn't think he could cope with the solitude and silence of being castaway.

The actor is a big fan of music and complains eight choices aren't enough.

He made his London West End theatre-acting debut in 1939, after which he served in the British Army during the Second World War.

His film contract with the Rank Organisation in 1948 was the spark for his very successful career. Big screen highlights included: The Blue Lamp, The Servant and the Doctor films based on Richard Gordon's novels.

In 1977 he embarked on a second career of several best-selling novels.

Bogarde was created a Knight Bachelor in 1992.

Born in 1921, he died aged 78 in 1999.

DISC ONE: Franz Liszt's Consolation No. 3 in D flat major - Jorge Bolet

DISC TWO: Oscar Straus's C'est la saison d'amour (from The Three Waltzes) - Yvonne Printemps

DISC THREE: Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto No 1 in E Flat / Hungarian Fantasy - Jorge Bolet with Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor: Morris Stoloff

DISC FOUR: The Worst Kind of Man - Judy Garland & the Gordon Jenkins Orchestra

DISC FIVE: Franz Lehár's Vilja (from The Merry Widow) - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf with Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus

DISC SIX: Symphony No. 5 in C minor - Columbia Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Bruno Walter

DISC SEVEN: Hello Dolly - Carol Channing

DISC EIGHT: I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face from My Fair Lady - Rex Harrison

BOOK CHOICE - The Swiss Family Robinson - Johann Wyss

LUXURY CHOICE - Conversation Piece by John Singer Sargent - a painting of the Sitwells

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Symphony No. 5 in C minor - Columbia Symphony Orchestra, conductor: Bruno Walter

Producer: Monica Chapman

First broadcast on the BBC Home Service in September 1964.

Actor Dirk Bogarde shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Actor Stanley Holloway shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley

Born in East London, Stanley became a stage and cinema stalwart, best known on screen for My Fair Lady, Brief Encounter, Passport To Pimlico, The Titfield Thunderbolt and The Lavender Hill Mob.

It was playing Eliza Doolittle's father Alfred in the original Broadway (1956) and London (1958) productions of My Fair Lady that won him the 1964 film role which brought Stanley international fame.

He was awarded an OBE in 1960.

Stanley Holloway died aged 91 in 1982.

DISC ONE: Bach Goes To Town - Arthur Young

DISC TWO: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Farewell, said he, Minnehaha (from Hiawatha) - Royal Choir Society Orchestra: Philharmonia

DISC THREE: The Old Superb - Peter Dawson

DISC FOUR: Wouldn't It Be Loverly? - André Previn and his Quartet

DISC FIVE: Elgar's Chanson de matin Op.15`2 - London Philharmonic Orchestra

DISC SIX: And This Is My Beloved - Doretta Morrow

DISC SEVEN: Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte - Cleveland Orchestra, conductor: George Szell

DISC EIGHT: Felix Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream Overture - Benno Moiseiwitsch

BOOK CHOICE - A book on the musical plays of the last century

LUXURY CHOICE - Manicure and pedicure set

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - And This Is My Beloved - Doretta Morrow

Producer: Ronald Cook

Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.

Popular Irish singer and guitarist Val Doonican shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Val hosted numerous TV series for the BBC from 1965 to 1986, pulling in over 17 million viewers

He was also rarely out of the UK charts in the 1960s and '70s with songs like Walk Tall and Elusive Butterfly.

Val died aged 88 in 2015.

DISC ONE: Swingle Singers - Bach English Suite No.2

DISC TWO: Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis

DISC THREE: George Jones - Four-O Thirty-Three

DISC FOUR: Concerto in D - John Williams

DISC FIVE: People Will Say We're in Love (Oklahoma) - Erroll Garner

DISC SIX: Dvorak - Symphony No.8 – Herbert von Karajan conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

DISC SEVEN: Scarborough Fair - Simon and Garfunkel

DISC EIGHT: As Praias Desertas - Charlie Byrd

BOOK CHOICE – a big anthology of classic literature

LUXURY CHOICE – a guitar

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE - Scarborough Fair - Simon and Garfunkel

First broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 in January 1970.

Singer and entertainer Val Doonican shares his castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Sir James Dyson is one of the richest men in Britain, but he began with an idea, a piece of cardboard and some sticky-backed plastic.

Five years and more than 5,000 prototypes later, he was confident that he had invented a new type of vacuum cleaner. But that was to prove only the beginning of a long, drawn-out battle to get it licensed.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1999.

Sue Lawley talks to inventor James Dyson.

Professor Kay Davies has dedicated much of her life to finding a cure for the severest form of muscular dystrophy. Before she was 40, she'd helped to develop the antenatal test which is now used around the world, then she isolated the gene sequence which could be instrumental in treating the condition.

It's quite something for a woman who doesn't have an O-level in biology. Although, even as a child she did possess that critical quality crucial to scientific pioneers: I loved solving problems, she says, I was very tenacious and would sit in my room until I had finished the problem. I am a sticker.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2009.

Kirsty Young talks to Professor Dame Kay Davies.

Professor Heinz Wolff came to public attention when he presented TV's The Great Egg Race, in which he challenged people to conquer engineering problems with a rubber band, a pencil and a pickled onion.

It was his father who encouraged his enthusiasm for invention, sharing his Sunday afternoons experimenting with his chemistry set, or organising talks from physicists who had to hide their surprise at assessing the ideas of a six-year-old child.

In the 1970s while designing aids for disabled people, Professor Heinz devised the phrase 'Tools for Living' to describe his work. After all, as he points out, we all use tools to cope with our environment, whether as an astronaut, a diver or an elderly person.

In the 80s, he founded the Institute for Bioengineering at Brunel University. There he continued his inventions devising for example, a box for experimenting in outer space, a voice machine for people who can't speak and a safety system for deep-sea divers.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1998.

Sue Lawley talks to Professor Heinz Wolff.

As well as choosing his eight records, book and luxury, Astronomer Royal Sir Martin will be discussing his work in cosmic evolution, or, to put it more simply, how the Earth and Solar System were formed.

He tells of his belief that it's more difficult to understand a frog than the cosmos.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 1997

From Edward Elgar to Gabriel Faure, the astrophysicist shares his castaway choices.

Singer and composer Christine McVie shares her choices with Kirsty Young.

Christine enjoyed huge success with Fleetwood Mac, penning many of their signature songs including You Make Loving Fun, Oh Daddy, Little Lies, Everywhere and Songbird.

The band has sold more than 100 million records and rumours remains one of the most popular albums of all time, with sales of over 40 million. It was recorded in 1976 whilst band members were going through relationship break-ups and the stories of excess and drug taking during the 1970s and 1980s are well documented.

In 1998, McVie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Fleetwood Mac and received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. The same year, after almost 30 years with the band, and having a developed a fear of flying, she opted to leave and lived in semi-retirement for the next 15 years, releasing only one solo album in 2004. She bought a Jacobean house in Kent and spent the next four years restoring it.

Christine re-joined the band officially in January 2014, and that year she received the British Academy's Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2017.

Christine McVie, musician, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs.

Musician and writer Tracey Thorn shares her castaway choices with Lauren Laverne.

Tracey is best known as one half of the duo Everything but the Girl. Brought up in Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire, she bought her first guitar, a black Les Paul copy, when she was 16 and her first band was called the Stern Bobs. Shortly after, she formed her own all-female band, Marine Girls, before moving to Hull University to study English. On her first night there, she met her future husband, Ben Watt, and they went on to form Everything But the Girl.

Between 1982 and 2000, they sold more than 9,000,000 records and toured Europe and America. Despite their success, Tracey did not always enjoy performing live.

At 35 she left the pop world to look after her twin girls, who were followed by her son Blake. She took about seven years out to be a full time parent, but since then she has come back to song-writing, recording music and writing: her first memoir Bedsit Disco Queen was a best seller, and she has a fortnightly column in the New Statesman.

In 2018 Tracey was presented with the outstanding contribution to music prize, at the AIM independent music awards.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2018.

Tracey Thorn, musician and writer, is interviewed by Lauren Laverne

Twenty-two years later he was successful. It was an achievement that earned him and his colleague John Kendrew the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962 - and has since contributed to the study of blood diseases like sickle cell anaemia and Huntington's disease.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2000.

The Nobel scientist Max Perutz shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

He was born in London before the Second World War and as a boy, remembers the first Doodlebug attack on the capital. Watching the flying bombs gave him an interest in rocket propulsion which was to lead to a life-long career in science. The son of a gas-fitter, he left school without O levels at the age of 15. His school careers' officer had laughed at his ambition to be a scientist and fixed him up with a job as a printer. He put himself through night school, and went on to graduate with a first class degree in physics.

The first MRI scan was performed using him as the guinea-pig and with next-of-kin on hand because of the risks involved. His pioneering research was carried out at the University of Nottingham where he became Emeritus Professor of Physics. In 2003 he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine at the age of 70.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2006.

The Nobel-winning scientist Peter Mansfield shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Egyptian writer and cultural commentator, Ahdaf Soueif shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Ahdaf was the first Muslim woman to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

From an early age, her life has been divided between Egypt and Britain. She was among the crowds in Tahrir Square in 2011, witnessing the uprising at first hand, and describing events for the world's media.

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2012.

Cairo born Ahdaf Soueif, novelist shares her castaway music with Kirsty Young.

Turkish writer Elif Shafak shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young

Elif has published ten novels and several volumes of non-fiction and her work is translated into 47 languages. She is the most widely read female novelist in Turkey today.

Born in 1971, she was raised by a single working mother and also, for the first ten years of her life, by her grandmother in Ankara. Her mother's job as a diplomat led to a move to Madrid when Elif was ten years old - and so began a peripatetic life which has taken her to places as diverse as Jordan and Germany, the United States and finally to London where she has lived for the past seven years.

Elif wrote her first novels in Turkish, but began writing in English shortly after the start of the new millennium. English, she says, has given her a new freedom to write about sensitive issues in Turkey. Her books draw on diverse cultures and reflect her interest in history, philosophy, spiritualism and Sufism. One commentator has said of her work: 'Stepping into the writing of this Turkish-born author for the first time is like breaking through the back of a children's wardrobe and walking into a whole new multicultural world of lives and histories - and, above all, fabulous stories.

She is a regular columnist both for English as well as Turkish papers and also writes lyrics for rock musicians.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2017.

Novelist Elif Shafak shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Novelist Jane Gardam shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Jane is best known for her trilogy of novels about an ex-colonial QC nicknamed Old Filth.

A writer for both adults and children, she has won two Whitbread awards, the Katherine Mansfield Award and has been shortlisted for the Booker and the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Born in 1928, she grew up in North Yorkshire where her father was a schoolmaster at a small independent boys' school. Her mother wrote sermons and was an inveterate letter-writer. After graduating, Jane had a number of literary jobs, but gave up working to raise her three young children. Although she wrote poems as a young girl, her writing career didn't begin in earnest until the day her youngest child started school when she began to write her first book.

Since then, she has published more than 30 books, including novels for children and adults as well as short stories and a non-fiction volume about the Yorkshire of her youth.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2017.

Jane Gardam, novelist, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs.

Wheelchair basketball's his sport and he partnered Clare Balding anchoring the television coverage of the 2012 London Paralympics.

When he's not in a studio explaining the intricacies of Goalball he's reporting from the rainforests of Nicaragua or the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Adversity seems to suit him - he even survived turning up for his first day at school aged seven in a pink checked suit and bow tie.

Inspired by his boyhood heroes Seb Coe and Daley Thompson, who he first saw on TV competing in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, sport became his passion. He says:

I think I've done more things with my disability than most able-bodied people would ever dream of doing'.

DISC ONE: Public Enemy - Harder than You Think

DISC TWO: Tunji Oyelana and the Benders - I Love my Country

DISC THREE: Dandy Livingstone - Message to you Rudy

DISC FOUR: Debbie Malone- Rescue Me

DISC FIVE: Orishas - Naci Orishas

DISC SIX: Minnie Riperton - The Edge of a Dream

DISC SEVEN: Linda Harrison - Be with You

DISC EIGHT: Bob Marley & The Wailers - One Love / People Get Ready

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Linda Harrison - Be with You

BOOK CHOICE: Chronicles of The Lensmen by E.E. Smith - E E Smith

LUXURY CHOICE: A basketball court with hoop and ball

Desert Island Discs was devised by Roy Plomley.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2012.

Paralympian Ade Adepitan is castaway Kirsty Young.

From Linda Harrison to Public Enemy, Paralympian Ade Adepitan shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2012.

Wheelchair basketball's his sport and he partnered Claire Balding anchoring the television coverage of the 2012 London Paralympics.

Inspired by his boyhood heroes Seb Coe and Daley Thompson, who he first saw on TV competing in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, sport became his passion. He says 'I think I've done more things with my disability than most able-bodied people would ever dream of doing'.

Her discipline was the heptathlon and it was at the 2000 Sydney Olympics that she leapt, threw, sprinted and hurdled her way on to the winner's podium. An only child of a single mother, she says her mum had always had ambition for her - and was there to witness her success. She said: 'Her face said it all, there were tears in her eyes and for me it felt like, yes mum, we've done it together'.

DISC ONE: Diana Ross - Ain't No Mountain High Enough

DISC TWO: Bob Marley - Is this Love

DISC THREE: a ?ha - Take On Me

DISC FOUR: Whitney Houston - One Moment in Time

DISC FIVE: Lauryn Hill - To Zion

DISC SIX: JLS - She Makes Me Wanna

DISC SEVEN: India.Arie - Ready for Love

DISC EIGHT: Mariah Carey - It's Like That

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: India.Arie - Ready for Love

BOOK CHOICE: Oprah: An Autobiography - Oprah Winfrey

LUXURY CHOICE: Sex and the City DVD box set

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2012.

Olympic medallist Denise Lewis is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Diana Ross to Lauren Hill. Olympic gold medallist Denise Lewis shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2012.

Olympic gold medallist Denise Lewis is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Professor Nick Webborn has chaired the British Paralympic Association since 2017. He is a world-leading expert on Paralympic sports medicine and the most widely-published author on the subject. He has attended 11 Paralympic and one Olympic Games.

He was born in Swansea in 1956, trained as a doctor in London and joined the RAF as a junior medical officer. In 1981 he was playing in an RAF rugby match when a mistimed opposition tackle left him with a severe spinal injury. After many months of treatment and rehabilitation, which he now describes as 'long and tortuous,' he wanted to return to work in medicine, but found that there was a reluctance to employ a doctor with a disability.

He worked as a GP and also pursued an interest in sports medicine, leading to research in this area and an academic role. When he saw the medical support available for Olympic athletes, he felt strongly that para-athletes deserved the same level of specialist help - especially as many also had to deal with underlying problems that their Olympic peers did not face. His pioneering research has made Paralympic sport safer for athletes, and has driven the development of sports medicine in areas such as rehabilitation. He also represented Great Britain in wheelchair tennis in 2005.

Nick is Professor of Sport and Exercise Medicine at the University of Brighton.

DISC ONE: Heroes by David Bowie

DISC TWO: Hallelujah, composed by George Frideric Handel, performed by London Musici Chamber Choir and London Musici Orchestra, conducted by Mark Stephenson

DISC THREE: Jamaica Farewell by Nina and Frederik

DISC FOUR: Will Ye Go Lassie Go by The Corries

DISC FIVE: For Crying out Loud by Meat Loaf

DISC SIX: This is Me by Keala Settle

DISC SEVEN: Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond

DISC EIGHT: You'll Never Walk Alone by Gerry & the Pacemakers

BOOK CHOICE: The Complete Works of Charles Dickens

LUXURY ITEM: Nick's adapted Segway, with a built-in espresso machine

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: This is Me by Keala Settle

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in Feburary 2022.

Professor Nick Webborn is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

From David Bowie to Handel. Professor Nick Webborn, British Paralympic Association Chair, makes his castaway choices. From 2022.

Tom started diving aged seven and by the age of 14 was representing Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

He has won six British Championships, three European Championships and won the World Championships in 2009 and 2017 in the 10m platform event.

Born in Plymouth in 1994, he's the oldest son of Rob and Debbie Daley. He has two younger brothers. His success at a very young age led to widespread media attention, but as he became famous, he was bullied and had to change schools at the age of 15.

His parents encouraged his sporting ambitions and he was always able to spot his father in the crowd at competitions because he'd be waving a huge union jack.

In 2006 Rob Daley was diagnosed with brain cancer and despite initially successful treatment, the cancer returned. He died in 2011, missing the London 2012 Olympics, where Tom won a bronze medal.

In 2013 Tom met Dustin Lance Black and they married in 2017. They recently became parents – through surrogacy – of a son called Robert.

Tom is currently in training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

DISC ONE: Heather Small - Proud

DISC TWO: Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds

DISC THREE: The Streets - Dry Your Eyes

DISC FOUR: The Carpenters - Top Of The World

DISC FIVE: Eagles - Peaceful Easy Feeling

DISC SIX: CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Ellie Goulding - How Long Will I Love You

DISC SEVEN: Shaggy - Angel (feat. Rayvon)

DISC EIGHT: Avicii - Levels

BOOK CHOICE: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling

LUXURY ITEM: An oven

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2018.

Multi-medal winning diver Tom Daley is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

From Avicii to Ellie Goulding. Olympic Diver Tom Daley shares his castaway choices with Lauren Laverne. From September 2018.

From Avicii to Ellie Goulding. Olympic Diver Tom Daley is Lauren Laverne's castaway.

Tom Daley started diving aged seven and by the age of 14 was representing Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He has won six British Championships, three European Championships and won the World Championships in 2009 and 2017 in the 10m platform event.

His parents encouraged his sporting ambitions and he was always able to spot his father in the crowd at competitions because he'd be waving a huge union jack. In 2006 Rob Daley was diagnosed with brain cancer and despite initially successful treatment, the cancer returned. He died in 2011, missing the London 2012 Olympics, where Tom won a bronze medal.

In 2013 Tom met Dustin Lance Black and they married in 2017. They recently became parents – through surrogacy – of a son called Robert. Tom is currently in training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2018.

American actor George Clooney shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley

George was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1961, the son of Nick Clooney, a TV newscaster. From the age of five, George spent time pottering round his father's sets, joining in where possible, shouting out the temperature during the weather report.

After an initial plan to follow his father into broadcasting, then studying for a short while at Northern Kentucky University, George failed to join the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. But then he got a part in a small film through his uncle, the actor Jose Ferrer. The film was never released, but it had persuaded George of his vocation.

Since this programme was made, George has become a family man and more involved in political and humanitarian work.

His Academy Awards include Best Supporting Actor for Syriana in 2005 and Best Picture for Argo in 2012.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2003.

Academy Award winning actor George Clooney shares his choices with Sue Lawley. From 2003.

Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Recorded shortly after her London West End triumph in ‘The Blue Room', Nicole traces her life from her suburban Australian upbringing to the heart of Hollywood and beyond.

Nicole was to go on and win the Academy Award in 2003 for Best Actress for her portrayal of writer Virginia Woolf in the drama film 'The Hour'.

In addition to her eight records to take to the mythical island, Nicole chooses a book and a luxury item.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1998.

Turner prize-winning artist and director, Steve McQueen shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Steve's 2013 film '12 Years a Slave' won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards. He is the first black British director to win the Best Picture Oscar.

Along with reaching the top of two professions he has also managed to please the diverging demands of his parents - his father wanted him to get a trade, his mother urged him to do what he wanted.

He says, 'I want to make films that are essential. We're all going to die and we haven't got a lot of time on this planet. Life goes very quickly, so we might as well make films people will go to see because they need it or want it.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2014.

British artist and film-maker Steve McQueen is Kirsty Young's guest. From 2014.

Hollywood film actor Dustin Hoffman is castaway by Kirsty Young.

In spite of Dustin's Aunt Pearl telling him he wasn't good looking enough to be an actor, for the past 45 years he's been crafting landmark movie performances.

He is that rare and apparently contradictory thing - a character actor and a superstar.

The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, Lenny, All The President's Men, Marathon Man, Kramer v Kramer, Tootsie, Rain Man, Wag The Dog, and Last Chance Harvey are just a handful of the movies that contribute to an unparalleled body of work.

Dustin is the only actor in history to have top billing in three films that won Best Picture Oscars.

Now in his mid-70s he is making his directorial debut.

He says 'I'm always fighting to break through... I'm trying to show you the part of me that wants to love, wants to kill, that wants to find my way out, that feels there is no way out.

DISC ONE: Ritchie Valens - La Bamba

DISC TWO: Slim Gaillard Cement Mixer

DISC THREE: Otis Redding - (Sittin'On) The Dock of the Bay

DISC FOUR: Diana Krall - Frim Fram Sauce

DISC FIVE: Bette Midler - Shoot the Breeze

DISC SIX: Jon Hendricks - How High the Moon

DISC SEVEN: Donnie Brooks - Memphis

DISC EIGHT: Trevor Peacock and David Ryall - Are You Havin' Any Fun?

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Trevor Peacock and David Ryall - Are You Havin' Any Fun?

BOOK CHOICE: The complete works - Charles Dickens

LUXURY CHOICE: An endless bar

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2012.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

From Bette Midler to Otis Redding. Hollywood film star Dustin Hoffman shares his music choices with Kirsty Young. From 2012.

[LISTEN NOW]

Costumer designer Jenny Beavan is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Jenny has won three Oscars for her costumes for the films Room with a View, Mad Max: Fury Road and Cruella, and has received nine further Academy Award nominations.

She was born in London, and her parents were both professional musicians who encouraged her to paint, draw and learn a musical instrument. After studying theatre design, she was invited at the age of just 21 to create the sets for a production of Carmen at the Royal Opera House, conducted by Sir Georg Solti. She also worked on the costumes, which eventually led to her current career.

Her credits now include more than 60 films and television series, including a long collaboration with the Merchant Ivory team, on titles such as Howards End and Remains of the Day, as well as Room with a View. Her costumes range from precise period recreations, in films such as The King's Speech, to the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max and the extravagant 1970s-inspired gowns for Emma Stone and Emma Thompson in Cruella. Along with her Oscars, Jenny has also won four Baftas and two Primetime Emmy awards.

She was appointed a OBE in 2017.

DISC ONE: Endure from Bach's St Matthew Passion. Performed by Hans Peter Blochwitz and the Chapelle Royale Orchestra, conducted by Philippe Herreweghe

DISC TWO: The Stately Homes of England - Noël Coward

DISC THREE: Bizet: Carmen / Act 2 - 'La fleur que tu m'avais jetée' (The flower you threw at me) Performed by Plácido Domingo and London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Georg Solti

DISC FOUR: O Mio Babbino Caro. Composed by Giacomo Puccini and performed by Kiri Te Kanawa and The London Philharmonic Orchestra

DISC FIVE: Scream - Caitlin Albery Beavan and Jim Bell

DISC SIX: Parking Fines - Joe Lycett from his That's the Way, A-Ha, A-Ha tour

DISC SEVEN: I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor

DISC EIGHT: Radamisto, HWV 12, Act 2: 'Ombra cara di mia sposa' (Radamisto) (Beloved shadow of my bride) Composed by George Frideric Handel, performed by Emöke Baráth and Ensemble Artaserse, conducted by Philippe Jaroussky

BOOK CHOICE: The Complete Novels of Jane Austen

LUXURY ITEM: A cello

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Endure from Bach's St Matthew Passion. Performed by Hans Peter Blochwitz and the Chapelle Royale Orchestra, conducted by Philippe Herreweghe

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2023.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

From Bach to Gloria Gaynor. Oscar-winning costume designer Jenny Beavan shares her music choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2023.

[LISTEN NOW]

Actor Kate Winslet is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Kate has achieved global fame playing Rose DeWitt Bukater, opposite Leonard DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, in the 1997 James Cameron epic Titanic.

During her career she has won five BAFTAs, two Emmys, five Golden Globes and an Academy Award for her role in the Reader.

Kate was born in Reading in 1975 and attended Redroofs School for the Performing Arts in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Her film debut came in 1994 when she played a teenage killer in Peter Jackson's film Heavenly Creatures.

The following year she played Marianne Dashwood opposite Emma Thompson's Elinor in Sense and Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee. Kate's performance earned her a BAFTA for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

She went on to consolidate her reputation as one of the most versatile actors of her generation by starring in a list of popular and critically acclaimed films including Hideous Kinky, Iris, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Holiday.

Last year Kate directed her first film, Goodbye June, starring Helen Mirren, Timothy Spall and Andrea Riseborough.

Kate has three children and lives in West Sussex with her husband Ned and her family.

DISC ONE: Georgia on my Mind - Roger Winslet and Sophie Breakenridge

DISC TWO: Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs - Brian and Michael

DISC THREE: Kiss from a Rose - Seal

DISC FOUR: Summertime - Ella Fitzgerald

DISC FIVE: Nuvole Bianche - Ludovico Einaudi

DISC SIX: Weird Fishes/ Arpeggi - Radiohead

DISC SEVEN: Blue Ridge Mountains - Fleet Foxes

DISC EIGHT: Pump up the Jam - Technotronic

BOOK CHOICE: Outside: Recipes for a Wilder Way of Eating by Gill Meller

LUXURY ITEM: Freshly ground coffee

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Georgia on my Mind – Roger Winslet and Sophie Breakenridge

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Paula McGinley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2025.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

From Ella Fitzgerald to Radiohead. Actor and director Kate Winslet shares her music choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2025.

[LISTEN NOW]

Costume designer Sandy Powell is cast away by Lauren Laverne.

Sandy won her first Academy Award for dressing Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love, and has since won two more Oscars - along with a further dozen nominations - and three BAFTAs.

Her credits range from Gangs of New York for Martin Scorsese to Mary Poppins Returns for Disney, and she's worked with many of the biggest current screen stars, including Leonardo di Caprio, Cate Blanchett and Al Pacino.

Sandy was born in south London and completed an art foundation course at St Martin's School of Art.

In 1981 she got her first job designing costumes for the choreographer Lindsay Kemp's show Nijinsky at La Scala in Milan. She later worked for the director Derek Jarman on his film Caravaggio and continued to collaborate with him until his death in 1994.

She has also enjoyed long working relationships with Martin Scorsese and Todd Haynes.

Sandy has won acclaim for her designs on films with historical settings, including The Wings of the Dove, The Young Victoria and The Favourite starring Olivia Colman, as well as the flamboyant glam rock world of Velvet Goldmine and the fairy-tale fantasy of Cinderella, starring Lily James.

In 2011 she was awarded an OBE for services for the film industry.

In 2023 she became the first costume designer to receive a BAFTA Fellowship.

DISC ONE: Jeepster - T Rex

DISC TWO: Adagietto, Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor. Composed by Gustav Mahler and performed by Orchestre de l'Académie de Santa Cécilia and conducted by Franco Mannino

DISC THREE: Life on Mars? - David Bowie

DISC FOUR: La Vie en Rose - Alan Dunn

DISC FIVE: I'll Never Fall in Love Again - Bobbi Gentry

DISC SIX: Satellite of Love - Lou Reed

DISC SEVEN: Where Love Lives (Come On In) - Alison Limerick

DISC EIGHT: I Left My Heart in San Francisco - Tony Bennett

BOOK CHOICE: Josef Koudelka: Gypsies

LUXURY ITEM: A lemon tree

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Life on Mars? - David Bowie

Producer: Paula McGinley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2022.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

From David Bowie to Tony Bennett. Costume designer Sandy Powell shares her music choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2022.

Sandy Powell won her first Academy Award for dressing Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love, and has since won two more Oscars - along with a further dozen nominations - and three BAFTAs. Her credits range from Gangs of New York for Martin Scorsese to Mary Poppins Returns for Disney, and she's worked with many of the biggest current screen stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett and Al Pacino.

Sandy was born in south London and completed an art foundation course at St Martin's School of Art. In 1981 she got her first job designing costumes for the choreographer Lindsay Kemp's show Nijinsky at La Scala in Milan. She later worked for the director Derek Jarman on his film Caravaggio and continued to collaborate with him until his death in 1994. She has also enjoyed long working relationships with Martin Scorsese and Todd Haynes.

In 2011 she was awarded an OBE for services for the film industry and in 2023 she became the first costume designer to receive a BAFTA Fellowship.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

[LISTEN NOW]

Royal photographer Arthur Edwards shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

He is a Fleet Street legend and, for over 40 years, has captured the most memorable moments of the House of Windsor - from the first tentative pictures of a teenage Lady Diana Spencer to the balcony kiss at the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

He's travelled the world, met the Pope and seen inside the Oval Office and the Kremlin - it's a life far removed from his early life in the East End of London where money was very tight and his mother saved up her wages as a cleaner to buy him his first camera.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in September 2011.

Royal photographer Arthur Edwards is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs

The Queen's younger sister, Her Royal Highness, Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, shares her castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Explaining how difficult it was choosing her discs – the princess recalls her early years and life during the Second World War – including VE night.

Looking back to her first solo public engagement aged 12, Margaret explains how busy she is kept with royal engagements and the organisations she supports.

She also talks about the way her life is reported in newspapers.

HRH Princess Margaret died aged 71 in 2002.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1981.

The castaway choices of the Queen's younger sister, HRH Princess Margaret

Her Royal Highness Princess Michael shares her castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

The princess was born in Czechoslovakia, but she was educated mainly in Australia. She came to England specifically to study interior design and eventually set up her own design company. She then became an author.

In 1978, she married Prince Michael of Kent - first cousin to the Queen and grandson of George V.

Discussing events in her life, the princess chooses the eight tracks she would take to the mythical island.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1984.

From Beethoven to Mozart. HRH Princess Michael of Kent makes her castaway choices.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent - cousin to the Queen - shares her castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

After a lifelong devotion to music, she will be whittling down her choice of eight records with great difficulty.

The Duchess studied music until she was 25.

She was the director of the National Foundation for Youth Music and served as the president of the Royal Northern College of Music.

Her Royal Highness tells Sue about her love of music, her Yorkshire childhood and her prolific work for charity.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Eve 1989.

The Queen's cousin makes her musical selection with Sue Lawley.

First cousin to the Queen, Margaret Rhodes LVO shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young

The former MI6 worker has a unique insight into the life of the royal family. She used to spend her summer holidays at Balmoral with the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret while, during the war, she worked for MI6 and lodged at Buckingham Palace. She attended the Queen's wedding and coronation and, in later life, worked as an assistant to the Queen Mother.

Remembering the Queen's coronation in 1953, she says:

'We had only just recovered from six or seven years of deprivation and blackouts and rationing - it was like the sun suddenly coming out behind a lot of very dark clouds and I think everybody felt that with a new young Queen, a whole new era was opening up. It was somehow exciting.'

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2012.

Former MI6 secretary and cousin to the Queen, Margaret Rhodes is castaway.

The Queen's nephew Viscount Linley shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

The son of Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon has always made a point of playing down his royal connections.

Having set up his own company specialising in bespoke furniture, David Linley is now one of the country's most fervent advocates for modern craftsmanship.

He talks about his life and work and chooses eight records, a book and a luxury to take to the mythical island.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2002.

The Queen's nephew Viscount Linley makes his castaway choices.

The Queen's nephew tells Sue Lawley about bespoke furniture and modern craftsmanship.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the poet and artist, Imtiaz Dharker.

Winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for her work, her life seems a perfect reflection of the inter-relatedness of The Commonwealth. Born in Pakistan she was no more than a few months old when the family packed up their belongings and flew four thousand miles to start a new life - exchanging the blistering, dusty lanes of Lahore for the blustery, rain-slicked roads of Glasgow.

Her father worked hard and, from scratch, built a big, successful business and a comfortable life for his children. But the immigrant fairytale came undone when his restless, well-educated, westernised daughter married in secret, running away to Bombay. Her parents disowned her and she would never see her mother again.

Her work centres on themes of freedom, cultural intolerance, everyday life and gender politics.

DISC ONE: Sachal Studios Orchestra -Take Five

DISC TWO: Donald O'Connor & Gene Kelly - Moses Supposes from Singin' in the Rain

DISC THREE: Shankar Mahadevan - Breathless

DISC FOUR: Ayesha Dharker - Charara charara maro chakro chale

DISC FIVE: Klemens Schnorr - Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for Organ

DISC SIX: Antony - If It be Your Will

DISC SEVEN: John Grierson and Stuart Legg - Benjamin Britten's Night Mail

DISC EIGHT: Ronald Binge - Sailing By into the Shipping Forecast read by Luke Tuddenham

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Ronald Binge - Sailing By into the Shipping Forecast read by Luke Tuddenham

BOOK CHOICE: An atlas of the whole world

LUXURY CHOICE: The Victoria and Albert Museum in London

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2015.

Poet Imtiaz Dharker is castaway by Kirsty Young.

From Shankar Mahadevan to Ronald Binge. Poet and artist Imtiaz Dharker shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. From 2015.

Poet and artist, Imtiaz Dharker is castaway by Kirsty Young.

Winner of the Queen's Gold Medal for her work, Imtiaz's life seems a perfect reflection of the inter-relatedness of The Commonwealth.

[LISTEN NOW]

Dub poet and reggae artist Linton Kwesi Johnson is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Linton was born in 1950s rural Jamaica.

He lived in a farming community and looked after the animals, helping with the sugar harvest and fetching firewood. He lived with his grandmother after his parents separated, loving being the man of the house. She would entertain the young Linton, who she called 'me husband', with folk songs, stories and ghost stories.

In 1963, when he was 11 years old, Linton came to live in England. It was a huge contrast:

'I had this childhood idea that literally the streets of London would be paved with gold and everybody living affluent lifestyles. So it was a bit of an eye-opener for me when I came and saw all these grey buildings with chimneys and smoke coming out of them and to see a white person sweeping the street!'

He experienced racism at school, from peers and teachers alike, and became interested in the black movement. He joined the British Black Panthers in his teens, discovered black literature and began to write poetry of his own.

DISC ONE: Roy Richards & Baba Brooks Band - Contact

DISC TWO: Don Drummond - Eastern Standard Time

DISC THREE: John Lennon - Imagine

DISC FOUR: Charlie Parker - Embraceable You

DISC FIVE: Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons - Spring

DISC SIX: Bob Marley & The Wailers - Redemption Song

DISC SEVEN: Otis Redding - My Lover's Prayer

DISC EIGHT: Marcia Griffiths - Feel Like Jumpin

FAVOURITE TRACK: Charlie Parker - Embraceable You

BOOK CHOICE : One Hundred Years Of Solitude

LUXURY: A bass guitar

Produced by Lisa Jenkinson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2002.

From Vivaldi to Otis Redding. Linton Kwesi Johnson shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2003.

Linton Kwesi Johnson was born in 1950s rural Jamaica. He lived in a farming community and looked after the animals, helping with the sugar harvest and fetching firewood. He lived with his grandmother after his parents separated, loving being the man of the house. She would entertain the young Linton, who she called 'me husband', with folk songs, stories and ghost stories.

In 1963, when he was eleven years old, Linton came to live in England. It was a huge contrast: 'I had this childhood idea that literally the streets of London would be paved with gold and everybody living affluent lifestyles. So it was a bit of an eye-opener for me when I came and saw all these grey buildings with chimneys and smoke coming out of them and to see a white person sweeping the street!' He experienced racism at school, from peers and teachers alike, and became interested in the black movement. He joined the British Black Panthers in his teens, discovered black literature and began to write poetry of his own.

[LISTEN NOW]

Dub poet and reggae artist Linton Kwesi Johnson is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Linton was born in 1950s rural Jamaica.

He lived in a farming community and looked after the animals, helping with the sugar harvest and fetching firewood. He lived with his grandmother after his parents separated, loving being the man of the house. She would entertain the young Linton, who she called 'me husband', with folk songs, stories and ghost stories.

In 1963, when he was 11 years old, Linton came to live in England. It was a huge contrast:

'I had this childhood idea that literally the streets of London would be paved with gold and everybody living affluent lifestyles. So it was a bit of an eye-opener for me when I came and saw all these grey buildings with chimneys and smoke coming out of them and to see a white person sweeping the street!'

He experienced racism at school, from peers and teachers alike, and became interested in the black movement. He joined the British Black Panthers in his teens, discovered black literature and began to write poetry of his own.

DISC ONE: Roy Richards & Baba Brooks Band - Contact

DISC TWO: Don Drummond - Eastern Standard Time

DISC THREE: John Lennon - Imagine

DISC FOUR: Charlie Parker - Embraceable You

DISC FIVE: Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons - Spring

DISC SIX: Bob Marley & The Wailers - Redemption Song

DISC SEVEN: Otis Redding - My Lover's Prayer

DISC EIGHT: Marcia Griffiths - Feel Like Jumpin

FAVOURITE TRACK: Charlie Parker - Embraceable You

BOOK CHOICE : One Hundred Years Of Solitude

LUXURY: A bass guitar

Produced by Lisa Jenkinson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2002.

From Vivaldi to Otis Redding. Linton Kwesi Johnson shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2003.

[LISTEN NOW]

Author and children's poet Michael Rosen is castaway by Sue Lawley.

Since his first book, Mind Your Own Business, was published more than than 30 years ago, Michael has been credited with revolutionising the way children's poems are written and performed.

Words and language have always formed an important part of his life. The son of two teachers, he was born into a London, Jewish family, and brought up in a home full of literature, conversation and debate. His poems often rely on snatches of dialogue and memories from his own childhood and relate his experiences with his own children.

His greatest commercial success has been his hugely popular re-telling of the American folk tale We're All Going on a Bear Hunt.

He's also published a series of memories aimed at adults rather than children. In particular, these attend to the central tragedy of his life, the sudden death of his second son Eddie, when he was 18 years old. His death became a public matter because Eddie had featured so often in Michael's early work and was a well-known character to millions of children.

DISC ONE: Original Cast - Oh, What a Lovely War

DISC TWO: Ewan MacColl - Fourpence a Day

DISC THREE: Big Bill Broonzy - Black, Brown and White

DISC FOUR: Aretha Franklin - Spanish Harlem

DISC FIVE: John Doherty - Miss Ramsay

DISC SIX: Léo Ferré - Paname

DISC SEVEN: Smiley Culture - Cockney Translation

DISC EIGHT: Toumani Diabete - Taj Mahal's Tunkaranke

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Big Bill Broonzy - Black, Brown and White

BOOK CHOICE: The Complete Poems - Carl Sandburg

LUXURY CHOICE: A didgeridoo belonging to his late son Eddie

Producer: Leanne Buckle

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2006.

Children's author Michael Rosen is castaway by Sue Lawley.

From Ewan MacColl to Smiley Culture. Children's author Michael Rosen shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 2006.

[LISTEN NOW]

From David Bowie to Joy Division. Poet Simon Armitage makes his castaway music choices.

Simon Armitage was appointed Poet Laureate in 2019. His poems celebrate the everyday and the ordinary with wit and affection. But beyond the wood chip and washing lines he addresses the complexities and the profound feelings that underpin daily life.

Born in Huddersfield, Simon Armitage grew up in the village of Marsden in West Yorkshire. Marsden has informed and inspired much of his work and as a boy he would look out of his bedroom window at night to watch the comings and goings of village life.

He vividly remembers as a teenager discovering the work of fellow laureate Ted Hughes, recalling an almost electrical surge of excitement when he realised the power of words on a page. Hughes grew up in the next valley and Simon admits to thinking 'If Ted Hughes can do it why can't I?

He worked as a probation officer in Manchester for several years, writing poetry in the evenings and at weekends. His first collection Zoom! was published in 1989 and a few years later he left the probation service to write full time. Prolific and popular, he was named the Millennium poet and in 2015 was appointed Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford. Three years later he was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.

Today he lives not far from Marsden where, when he's not writing poems, plays and novels, he still looks out of his window and daydreams.

DISC ONE: Moonage Daydream by David Bowie

DISC TWO: The Lamb by William Blake, composed by John Tavener, conducted by Andrew Nethsingha and performed by The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge

DISC THREE: You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two by Jonathan Pryce and the 1994 London Palladium Cast Of Oliver!

DISC FOUR: Icecrust and Snowflake by Ted Hughes

DISC FIVE: Atmosphere by Joy Division

DISC SIX: Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go? by Soft Cell

DISC SEVEN: Holmfirth Anthem by Jon Rennard

DISC EIGHT: My Heart's in the Highlands by Else Torpe and Christopher Bowers-Broadbent

BOOK CHOICE: The Oxford English Dictionary

LUXURY ITEM: A tennis ball

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Moonage Daydream by David Bowie

Presenter: Lauren Laverne

Producer: Paula McGinley

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2020.

Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate, shares the soundtrack of his life. With Lauren Laverne.

From David Bowie to Joy Division. Poet Simon Armitage makes his castaway music choices. With Lauren Laverne. From 2020.

Appointed Poet Laureate in 2019 - Simon Armitage is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is castaway by Lauren Laverne.

From David Bowie to Joy Division. Poet Simon Armitage shares his castaway music choices with Lauren Laverne. From 2020.

[LISTEN NOW]

Poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Forty years ago, Ian was working in a factory gluing together tennis ball halves. Then he got a grant, chucked in his job and devoted himself to writing and performing.

These days he's known as the Bard of Barnsley and his appeal stretches from the terraces of his local football club to the balcony of the London Coliseum... he is poet in residence at both Barnsley FC and the English National Opera...

He still lives in the village where he was born and he considers and analyses British culture from his very particular vantage point in south Yorkshire.

He says: 'You can do the universal in the local, I always think. You can see all the changes that have happened all over the world in the 20th and 21st centuries in microcosm.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2010.

Poet Ian McMillan joins Kirsty Young to choose his Desert Island Discs

Poet John Cooper Clarke, shares his castaway choices with Lauren Laverne.

John first achieved fame with his poetry during the punk rock era of the late 1970s. Despite some initially hostile receptions from audiences waiting for the Sex Pistols or the Buzzcocks, he acquired a cult status, going on to release five albums of his poetry set to music by former Joy Division producer Martin Hannett.

By early 1980s, he was also in the grip of a heroin addiction which would see him write very little for over a decade. He cleaned up in the early 90s after marrying his second wife, Evie, and having a daughter, Stella.

His star began to rise again in 2007 when one of his poems was used in an episode of The Sopranos and others were included on the GCSE syllabus, which led to collaborations with artists like Plan B and Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2019.

John Cooper Clarke, poet, shares the soundtrack of his life with Lauren Laverne

Poet Lemn Sissay shares his castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

As a poet, writer and playwright, much of his work tells the story of his search for his birth parents. Born to a young Ethiopian woman who wanted him temporarily fostered while she completed her studies, he was with a family until he was 12. He would spend the next five years in a number of children's homes where he began to write. On leaving care at 17, he self-published his first book of poetry while on the dole.

Several poetry collections, plays and programmes for radio and TV followed and his work has taken him around the world.

Lemn was the first poet to be commissioned to write for the 2012 London Olympics and his success has also brought him two doctorates and an MBE for services to literature.

He is currently Chancellor of the University of Manchester. He takes writers' workshops for care-leavers and set up Culture World, the first black writers' workshop.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2015.

Poet Lemn Sissay shares his castaway choices in conversation with Kirsty Young.

Poet Wendy Cope shares her castaway choices with Lauren Laverne.

Wendy is one of England's most popular and widely-read contemporary poets.

Her first volume of poetry, Making Cocoa For Kingsley Amis, was published in 1986, and became an instant success. Wendy gave up teaching to become a full time writer.

She has since published four volumes of a poetry: Serious Concerns (1992), If I Don't Know (2001), Family Values (2011) and Anecdotal Evidence (2018) as well as two volumes for children, Twiddling Your Thumbs (1988) and The River Girl (1991).

In 2011, Wendy sold her entire personal archive to the British Library, which consisted of 15 boxes of manuscript, including several unpublished early works.

Wendy lives in Ely and is married to fellow poet, Lachlan Mackinnon.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2019.

Poet Wendy Cope shares her eight track choices with Lauren Laverne.

Billie Jean King is regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

She shares her castaway choices and shares her life and times with Kirsty Young.

Born in California in 1943, Billie was the eldest daughter of Bill and Betty Moffitt. She discovered tennis aged ten: at 15 she won in her age bracket at the Southern California championships, and in 1961, she won the women's doubles at Wimbledon with Karen Hantze, the youngest pair to achieve such a victory.

In 1968, when professional competitors were admitted to Grand Slam tournaments, she won Wimbledon for the third time and was paid just £750 while Rod Laver, the men's champion, took home £2,000. So began her campaign for gender equality, which involved boycotting tournaments and setting up their own professional women's circuit. In 1973, then aged 29, she beat the 55-year-old former tennis champion Bobby Riggs in a match which became known as 'The Battle of the Sexes': it remains the most-watched tennis match ever. That year the US Open awarded the same financial reward to men and women and in 2007 Wimbledon followed suit. Billie Jean also founded the Women's Tennis Association and the Women's Sports Foundation in the 1970s.

She married her husband, Larry, in 1965 but by the late 1960s, she had realised that she was gay. She was outed by a former lover who sued her for palimony in 1981, and although she won the case, she lost almost all her commercial endorsements.

Billie has been with her partner, Ilana Kloss, for nearly 40 years and retired from singles matches in 1983 and doubles in 1990. She was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2009 and has continued to be an ambassador for her sport and for gender equality.

DISC ONE: Respect - Aretha Franklin

DISC TWO: Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross

DISC THREE: Winds Of Change (Mandela To Mandela) - Nona Hendryx

DISC FOUR: Gustav Holst's World In Union - Katherine Jenkins and the Crouch End Festival Chorus

DISC FIVE: If I Dare (from Battle of the Sexes) - Sara Bareilles

DISC SIX: You Don't Have To Say You Love Me - Dusty Springfield

DISC SEVEN: Philadelphia Freedom - Elton John Band

DISC EIGHT: Hey Jude - The Beatles

BOOK CHOICE: Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss

LUXURY CHOICE: Scrapbook of photos of her family

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Philadelphia Freedom - Elton John Band

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2018.

Billie Jean King shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

She has been the CEO of Lloyd's of London since January 2014 and was the first woman to hold the post in the 325 years since the insurer was founded in 1688.

She is the middle child of a Norwegian mother and an English father and grew up in Newbury, Berkshire. Her career in insurance began in London in the early 1980s, but she tired of the predominantly male culture of the industry and left the City in 1989 to go travelling for a year. On her return she worked for the Prudential and then for GE Solutions, the insurance arm of General Electrics, where the work took her abroad.

She left GE in 2006 to turn around a failing Swiss company, before joining the Zurich Insurance Group. Her last role before joining Lloyd's as CEO in 2014 was as chief executive of Canopius, a privately held Lloyd's insurer.

In 2015, she topped a power list of the world's leading 100 LGBT executives. She is openly bisexual after coming out in 2008 and has been married to her husband since 2013.

DISC ONE: Respect - Aretha Franklin

DISC TWO: Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens - Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five

DISC THREE: Edvard Grieg's Morning Mood from Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1, Op. 46 - Performer: Ulster Orchestra, conductor: Vernon Handley

DISC FOUR: Could You Be Loved - Bob Marley & The Wailers

DISC FIVE: A Man is in Love - The Waterboys

DISC SIX: Don't Stop Me Now - Members of the cast of We Will Rock You

DISC SEVEN: Pata Pata - Miriam Makeba

DISC EIGHT: Sweet About Me - Gabriella Cilmi

BOOK CHOICE: The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

LUXURY CHOICE: Daily supply of warm, sweet, milky tea

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Pata Pata - Miriam Makeba

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2016.

Inga Beale, Lloyd's of London CEO shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

Prize-winning writer Marlon James shares his castaway choices with Lauren Laverne.

Marlon won the Man Booker Prize in 2015 for A Brief History of Seven Killings, a novel which centres on an attempt to assassinate Bob Marley. Marlon was the first Jamaican to win the Prize.

After studying English at the University of the West Indies, he worked in advertising as a copywriter.

His first novel was rejected 78 times, and he thought he had destroyed every copy of it, until he met novelist Kaylie Jones at a writing workshop and she insisted on seeing it. She showed it to her publisher and his career was launched. The book, John Crow's Devil, was published in 2005.

His fourth novel, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the first of a fantasy trilogy, was published in 2019.

DISC ONE: Ring the Alarm - Tenor Saw

DISC TWO: Things Behind The Sun - Nick Drake

DISC THREE: Mercy Street - Peter Gabriel

DISC FOUR: Manchild - Neneh Cherry

DISC FIVE: Summertime Rolls - Jane's Addiction

DISC SIX: Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

DISC SEVEN: When Doves Cry - Prince

DISC EIGHT: In Limbo - Radiohead

BOOK CHOICE: Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

LUXURY CHOICE: A pressure cooker

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: When Doves Cry - Prince

Producer: Sarah Taylor

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2019.

Booker prize winner Marlon James chooses eight soundtracks with Lauren Laverne. From 2019.

She made history when she won the first ever Olympic gold medal in women's boxing at London 2012, retaining it in Rio 2016. She is the first woman fighter to hold European, World, Commonwealth and Olympic titles.

Having watched classic Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard fights on TV as she was growing up, she entered the ring for the first time at a working men's club when she was only 13. When she was 14, her mother contracted meningitis and for several months Nicola looked after herself and her younger brother. She turned to acting in order to help fund her boxing training, appearing as an extra in Coronation Street and Emmerdale. She first represented her country when she was 18. In 2009 it was announced that women's boxing would feature for the first time at the London Olympics, although before her selection for Team GB she fell down stairs and had to recover from a fracture in one of her vertebra.

In 2012 she topped The Independent newspaper's Pink List of the most powerful LGBT people in public life, was made an MBE for services to boxing in 2013 and received a 'Paving The Way' award at the 2016 Mobo awards.

DISC ONE: Summer Sixteen - Drake

DISC TWO: Moment 4 Life - Nicki Minaj

DISC THREE: New York, New York - Frank Sinatra, Jules Munshin & Gene Kelly

DISC FOUR: Jamming - Bob Marley & The Wailers

DISC FIVE: In the End - Linkin Park

DISC SIX: Roses - The Chainsmokers featuring Rozes

DISC SEVEN: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - Performer: New York City Ballet Orchestra, conductor: David Zinman

DISC EIGHT: Set You Free - N ?Trance

BOOK CHOICE: A Short History of Almost Everything by Bill Bryson

LUXURY CHOICE: A games console

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Roses - The Chainsmokers featuring Rozes

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.

Nicola Adams, boxer and Olympian, shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.