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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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Rumer Godden Oct 13, 1996

Show notes

Always an outsider, she 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. On Desert Island Discs this week, the writer Rumer Godden 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. Now in her late 80s, and after publishing more than 50 books, including Black Narcissus and The River, she's just added another to her list.

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

Favourite track: Kinderscenen Traumerei by Robert Schumann Book: The Atlantic book of British and American Poetry by Edith Sitwell Luxury: A widow's cruse filled with whisky

Lewis Wolpert Oct 06, 1996

Show notes

The castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is Professor Lewis Wolpert. As Chairman of the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science, he is a passionate advocate of the value of science and the increasing need for the recognition and promotion of its importance. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his early life in South Africa, his recent struggle with clinical depression and his passion for the views of the 18th-century philosopher David Hume - particularly on the existence of God.

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

Favourite track: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and The Principles of Morals by David Hume Luxury: Bicycle

Ben Elton Sep 29, 1996

Show notes

His fourth novel, Popcorn, has been widely-acclaimed by the critics. He's about to begin a nationwide tour with his stand-up comedy routine. And, after the success of his TV series The Young Ones and Blackadder, he's currently writing The Thin Blue Line for BBC1. Yet despite all that, Ben Elton, this week's castaway, says he's more of an enthusiastic 'farty' than a "smug git in a shiny suit".

He muses as to whether his scatter-gun delivery (so mocked by the tabloids) is the result of his fear of the audience, or of a self-righteous belief in his own opinion, and when stranded on a desert island, he will reveal himself as a serious satirist or just a maverick motormouth.

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

Favourite track: And Your Bird Can Sing by The Beatles Book: His wedding photo album Luxury: The British Museum

Fran Landesman Sep 22, 1996

Show notes

She has written songs for her friends Barbra Streisand and Bette Davis, and admires Jarvis Cocker and Damon Albarn. This week, the poet and lyricist Fran Landesman chooses her eight records.

Although now in her 60s, retired to her bed and celibate, she is still writing lyrics and performing her poetry and has just published a new collection of her work. From poor little rich girl to a life of bohemian excess, she looks back at her experiences - free love, free speech and mind-expanding drugs - on Desert Island Discs.

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

Favourite track: Down by Nicki Leighton Thomas Book: Rebel Without Applause and Jay Walking by Jay Landesman Luxury: Cannabis seeds

Kevin Whately Sep 15, 1996

Show notes

The castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is the actor Kevin Whately. Having appeared increasingly prominently in three of the most successful series in recent TV history - Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, Inspector Morse and Peak Practice - he's currently 'hot property' in the casting world.

He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his boyhood in a remote part of Cumbria, his bold but inspired decision to chuck in accountancy in favour of the stage and his time busking at Oxford Circus to pay his way through drama school.

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

Favourite track: Symphony No 1 by Jean Sibelius Book: The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie Luxury: Northumbrian pipes

Professor Colin Blakemore Sep 08, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the scientist Colin Blakemore. A brilliant student, he became an Oxford professor at the age of 35 and since then he has commanded enormous influence through his research and the way he has tried to communicate the importance of science to the world at large.

He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his main work - the functioning of the human brain - and about his research on the relationship between vision and brain development. He'll also be describing how his experiments in this area involving animals have made him the target of attacks from animal rights activists.

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

Favourite track: Die Zauberflote Oittre Nicht - The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin Luxury: Solar-powered internet (to receive, not send)

Sir Terence Conran Sep 01, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the designer and entrepreneur Terence Conran. He first came to fame with the Habitat store which introduced British shoppers to consumer delights like the chicken brick and the duvet. Now considered one of the country's most successful restaurateurs - he currently owns seven restaurants and is involved in designing another 17 - he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his original foray into the restaurant world. His first venture was called The Soup Kitchen - and, misled by its name, attracted all the local tramps on its opening night.

He'll also be describing how Picasso bought one of the first chairs he designed. Finally, he'll be talking about how, after a somewhat tumultuous personal life, he now feels he has achieved some sort of equanimity.

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

Favourite track: Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert Part One by Keith Jarrett Book: History of the World by H G Wells Luxury: An endless supply of A4 paper and 4B pencils

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch Aug 25, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. One of the most distinguished members of the English Chamber Orchestra, she has toured all over the world with them.

However, as she will be telling Sue Lawley, up until the early 1980s, she always refused to visit one country - Germany. For it was from there that her Jewish parents were taken away by the Gestapo, never to be seen again. From the age of 18, she herself was taken away to Auschwitz. There, because she was able to play the cello, she survived, and played in the camp's orchestra. However, when she was later moved to Belsen, she nearly didn't. She'll be talking about playing in the orchestra at Auschwitz, about the importance of music in sustaining life both then and now, and about her feelings towards Germany and the Germans more than 50 years after the events of her early life.

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

Favourite track: Piano Sonata Opus 111 by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The History of the World by J M Roberts Luxury: Cello

André Previn Aug 18, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the composer and conductor André Previn. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he and his family fled from Nazi Germany and ended up in California. His skill as a jazz musician led to a job at MGM and four Oscars for the film scores he wrote there. However, in the mid-1960s he turned his back on Hollywood and became principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. He'll be discussing this dramatic transition, his famous appearance on the Morecambe and Wise Show and the perils of his now-abandoned celebrity status.

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

Favourite track: Symphony No 40 In G Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The collected works by Anton Chekhov Luxury: Piano

Quentin Crewe Jun 16, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the journalist and author Quentin Crewe. Since the age of 29, muscular dystrophy has left him in a wheelchair. Nevertheless, now 70, he can look back on a full and vivid life encompassing a 24,000 mile trip across South America and expeditions across the Sahara and the Saudi Arabian desert. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his travels, his close relationship with the Macmillan family, his work as a writer and restaurant critic and also his belief that disability need be no bar to a happy and fulfilled life.

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

Favourite track: String Quintet In C Major 163 by Franz Schubert Book: Essays by Michel de Montaigne Luxury: The cellar from Trinity College, Cambridge

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