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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

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John Harle May 24, 1998

Show notes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the most-recorded saxophonist in the world. Inspired by Duke Ellington and encouraged by Jack Brymer, John Harle is equally at home playing jazz or classical music. He once marched with the Coldstream Guards, but left to test himself against other musicians at the Royal College of Music, gaining 100% in his final exam. As a composer he has collaborated with among others, Paul McCartney and Harrison Birtwistle, and his first opera is premiered this week.

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

Favourite track: Hunting Song by Pentangle Book: The Aesthetics of Music by Roger Scruton Luxury: Lute and strings

Sir David Willcocks May 17, 1998

Show notes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is 'England's choir master', Sir David Willcocks. For some 38 years he trained the Bach Choir - the most popular amateur choir in Britain. His retirement in 1998 he describes as ""like the end of an affair"". As the Director of Music at Kings College Cambridge, he tranformed small boys with dirty knees into an angelic choir. His gift is a mix of natural talent and experience. At the age of eight he joined the choir school at Westminster Abbey, where he was conducted by Elgar. Later, he worked closely with Vaughan Williams whose humility and humour he remembers, produced some masterful performances.

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

Favourite track: Oh Sacred Head by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Book on astronomy Luxury: King's College Chapel

Antony Gormley May 10, 1998

Show notes

"Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the sculptor Antony Gormley.

His Angel of the North towers over the A1 just outside Gateshead. Elsewhere, his figures stand buried in sand at the mouth of an estuary, or hang from the ceiling of an American jailhouse. In 1994 he won the Turner Prize for his works called Field - thousands of small clay creatures, crafted by people from around the world. Another sculpture, Bed, he created from a mattress made from thousands of slices of bread - and then ATE his own body shape over several weeks.

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

Favourite track: Raga Jaijaiwanti by Hariprasad Chaurasia and Dilshad Khan Book: Principle of Hope by Ernst Bloch Luxury: Snorkel and mask

Susan Blackmore May 03, 1998

Show notes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week says changing her mind was one of the most difficult things she's ever had to do. After an out-of-body experience, psychologist Susan Blackmore set out to study and prove the existence of the paranormal. Twenty years on, she's a convinced sceptic.

She continues, however, to be fascinated by the question of consciousness. In particular, the new theory of memes which examines how habits and beliefs are passed on from one person to another. At their worst, she says, they're evident in fascism or religious fundamentalism. At their best, they're responsible for our co-operation and kindness.

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

Favourite track: Not Fade Away by Grateful Dead Book: Origin of Species by Charles Darwin Luxury: A handful of cannabis seeds

Sir Ernest Hall Apr 26, 1998

Show notes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the businessman Sir Ernest Hall.

His life is like a fairytale. From a sickly boy, living in the one room he and his family shared, he became a successful businessman and millionaire - and all because of an inspirational piece of music. Today on the site of an old carpet factory in Halifax, he's brought together his two loves - business and the arts - to form an environment in which plastic-bag manufacturers and building societies draw inspiration from the painters and sculptors who work alongside. At the age of 68 he has also realised his ambition to be a professional pianist.

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

Favourite track: Piano Trio in B Major by Franz Schubert Book: The collected works by William Blake Luxury: Piano

Sir Terry Frost Apr 19, 1998

Show notes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the abstract artist Sir Terry Frost.

He first became interested in art as a prisoner of war, when lack of food and freedom enhanced the beauty of a single leaf. On his return to Britain, nature continued to fascinate him and inform his work; bright circles of colour inspired by the Sun and Moon, or patterns of white-on-white remembered from a snowy landscape. Now 83, he's never been so busy. A good thing, he says, because it keeps the aches and pains away.

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

Favourite track: Tea For Two by Max Bygraves Book: Blank sheets to write his thoughts on imagination and memory Luxury: Mirror (for company)

Judi Dench Apr 12, 1998

Show notes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actress Dame Judi Dench.

She's been delighting audiences for some 40 years, on film, television and the stage. It's partly this versatility that makes her so special. Nominated for an Oscar for the film Mrs Brown, in which she played an ageing Queen Victoria, she says the difference between film and the theatre is that on stage she can make an audience believe that she's a tall, willowy blond, when in reality she is five foot nothing.

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

Favourite track: Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh Book: Ordnance Survey map of the world Luxury: The Man with a Glove painting by Titian

Gavin Bryars Apr 05, 1998

Show notes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the experimental composer Gavin Bryars. One of his best-known works, The Sinking of the Titanic, pays tribute to the band which continued to play as the ship went down. It poses the question what if they hadn't stop playing; how would their music have sounded under water? His most popular composition, Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, features a tramp singing the same verse again and again, building up layer upon layer of emotion.

Composing is a craft he learnt as an assistant to John Cage, after hearing his work Four minutes, thirty-three seconds - of silence. Today he is both established and establishment - the ENO are soon to stage his latest opera and if you look closely at the orchestra, you'll spot him on the bass!

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

Favourite track: My Foolish Heart by Bill Evans Trio Book: Science and Civilisation in China by Joseph Needham Luxury: Gravity chair

Alice Thomas Ellis Mar 29, 1998

Show notes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the novelist Alice Thomas Ellis.

A devout and traditional Catholic, she didn't begin writing until she was 42. The Sin Eater, that first novel, was her reaction to the changes in the Catholic Church after Vatican Two and channelled her anger at what she saw as the excesses of the 1960s. She's a woman of apparent contradictions. She wanted to be a nun, but fell in love and became a mother of seven instead. She's deeply religious but believes in ghosts and the supernatural and although her books are often triggered by anger, they are frequently tender and full of humour.

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

Favourite track: Rorate Caeli Desuper by Monks & Choirboys or Downside Abbey Book: Come Hither - An Anthology by Walter de la Mare Luxury: A very comfortable sofa

Andrew Motion Mar 22, 1998

Show notes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the poet Andrew Motion.

He describes his writing as a "biological thing" - like developing a headache or the flu - but much, much more pleasurable. Also a biographer, his first, controversial work was about his friend and fellow poet Philip Larkin. While researching for it, he collected together his own personal writings and burnt them. Dominant in his work is the figure of his mother; injured in an accident which left her severely ill and from which she eventually died. His poems, he says, are his way of bringing her back to life.

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

Favourite track: Cello Suite No. 6 in D by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Prelude - Penguin edition by William Wordsworth Luxury: Pencils and paper

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