Desert Island Discs Revisited [Absent Friends]

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.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

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.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

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

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

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.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

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.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

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.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

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.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.

Selected castaway gems from the BBC Desert Island Discs archive.