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Desert Island Discs — Personal Journals
Desert Island Discs

Eight tracks, a book and a luxury: what would you take to a desert island? Guests share the soundtrack of their lives.

Copyright: © (C) BBC 2023

Latest Episodes:

Sir Anthony Caro Apr 16, 2000

Show notes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Sir Anthony Caro. Universally regarded as the 'grand old man of British sculpture', in the 1950s he had learnt from his mentor Henry Moore that artistic rules were there to be broken. So he yanked sculpture off it's pedestal and set it on the floor. And he rejected the traditional materials of bronze, marble and wood for girders, nuts and bolts. In fact as he confesses to Sue Lawley, nothing is safe from his magpie eye: parts of ships, cars, even kitchen equipment have all been incorporated into his work.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: String Quartet in C by Franz Schubert Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: Glue

Claire Tomalin Apr 09, 2000

Show notes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Claire Tomalin. A writer and literary editor, she is probably best known for a series of acclaimed biographies of women, including Mary Wollstonecraft, and Jane Austin. She began working in the literary world late in life, after bringing up her family. This, and a series of personal tragedies, including the death of her husband and two of her children, has no doubt made her particularly sympathetic to the lives of literary women in the 19th century.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Sull'aria. Che Soave Zeffietto (Act 3) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Complete diaries by Samuel Pepys Luxury: A garden

Harold Evans Apr 02, 2000

Show notes

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Harold Evans. One of the great campaigning journalists of all time, as editor of The Northern Echo in the 1960s he 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.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Mache Dich Mein Herze Rein by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: History of the American Civil War by Shelby Foote Luxury: Silk pyjamas

Adrian Noble Mar 26, 2000

Show notes

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is Adrian Noble. Now the Artistic Director of The Royal Shakespeare Company, he says he learnt a lot about theatre from watching his father, an undertaker, conduct funeral services. He fell in love with the stage when, as a boy, he saw Laurence Olivier play Othello. A stage play, he says, whether Shakespeare or Chekhov, should not simply be good entertainment, but make people ponder on life itself. In conversation with Sue Lawley, he talks about his life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Mir Ist So Wunderbar by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Art of Memory by Frances A Yates Luxury: Wine

Al Alvarez Mar 19, 2000

Show notes

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Al Alvarez. In the late 1950s, as the influential poetry critic of the Observer, he favoured a style of writing which reflected the disarray of the times, in the aftermath of the Second World War and the shadow of the nuclear bomb. He befriended and championed poets such as Robert Lowell, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Later he wrote The Savage God, a study of suicide in which he recalled her death and described his own attempt.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Quartet No. 132 by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud Luxury: Laptop computer with poker game software

Colin Montgomerie Mar 12, 2000

Show notes

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Colin Montgomerie.

One of the biggest earners in the history of golf, he's ranked number three in the world. Despite having a natural talent for the game, he'd never expected to play it professionally. Having applied for a job with a sports management company, his interview took place on the golf course. He played so well that the company persuaded him to become one of their stars.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Sailing by Rod Stewart Book: Any book by Michael Crichton

Robert McCrum Mar 05, 2000

Show notes

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Robert McCrum. The author of six highly acclaimed novels and literary editor of the Observer, he describes how he woke up one morning, at the age of 42, to a raging headache and partial paralysis. He had suffered a stroke and it was to take him more than a year to recover. Later, he was to write a memoir about that process which became not only a guide to other sufferers, but also a love story dedicated to his wife.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Prelude - Cello Suite No 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome Luxury: St John's Wort

Sheila Hancock Feb 27, 2000

Show notes

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Sheila Hancock. She first became a household name in the 1960s in the BBC sitcom The Rag Trade. Since then she has starred in everything from Carry On films to Chekhov. One of our most versatile actresses, she's been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, sung in West End musicals and directed at the National. Twelve years ago she developed cancer, an experience which naturally made her re-assess her life. Today, she says, she's calmer, more secure and more able to cherish herself.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: String Quartet No.8 - Opening by Dmitri Shostakovich Book: A title by Marcel Proust Luxury: Grand piano (and music scores)

Michael Holroyd Feb 20, 2000

Show notes

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Michael Holroyd. A respected biographer, as a boy, he sought refuge from an unhappy home in Maidenhead Public Library. It was there he discovered the work of Hugh Kingsmill who was to become his first biographical subject. And it was then that he "discovered the attraction," as he says, "of stepping from my own life into other people's". Since then he has devoted seven years to writing the life of Augustus John, and 17 to the biography of George Bernard Shaw.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Last movement of String Quartet - No16 in F Opus 135 by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The High Hill of the Muses - Anthology by Hugh Kingsmill Luxury: Waterbed

Professor Stuart Hall Feb 13, 2000

Show notes

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is Professor Stuart Hall. Nearly 10 years after he came to England from Jamaica in 1951, he helped found the first Centre of Cultural Studies in Birmingham, with the academic Richard Hoggart. It was, he says, a reaction to how fast Britain was changing after the war, including the break up of the class structure and the growing impact of TV and the mass media. Now retired, he's still concerned by the question of British identity. In conversation with Sue Lawley, he talks about his life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: I Waited For You by Gil Fuller Book: Portrait of a Lady by Henry James Luxury: Piano

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