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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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Simon Weston Mar 31, 1996

Show notes

Nearly 14 years ago, the young Simon Weston set off to serve with his regiment in the Falklands War. On 8th June 1982 in Bluff Cove, his ship was bombed, most of his friends were killed, but he survived.

This week on Desert Island Discs, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about that shattering moment, his subsequent rehabilitation and how his disfigurement has affected his life.

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

Favourite track: What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong Book: Sharpe's Eagle by Bernard Cornwell Luxury: Daily newspapers

Kyra Vayne Mar 24, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is someone who has unexpectedly encountered professional acclaim late in her life.

Singer Kyra Vayne could well be described as one of opera's forgotten voices - until this year when, thanks to the release of some previously-unknown recordings which had lived under her bed in Shepherd's Bush for 30 years, her voice reached a large new audience of admirers. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her reaction to the ecstatic reception given to her first CD, how she lived a life of obscurity working in a bank after she abandoned her career and about her life in pre-revolution Russia, where she and her family nearly starved to death before fleeing to England.

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

Favourite track: Symphony No 9 Final Movement by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: A culinary book Luxury: Peanuts and treats to tame animals and birds

Lord Alexander Mar 17, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Chairman of the National Westminster Bank Lord Alexander.

He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he began his career as a jobbing barrister, doing all manner of work on the western circuit where he earned a reputation which took him to the top of his profession. Among many others, he won cases for Jeffrey Archer and Kerry Packer, and lost one for Ken Livingstone's GLC. In the 1980s he moved to the City as Chairman of the Takeover Panel and then, to his surprise, he was invited to become Chairman of the National Westminster Bank. Tipped by those who know him well to become the next Lord Chancellor if the Conservatives stay in power, he'll be discussing his past, present and future and contemplating castaway life.

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

Favourite track: Do You Hear The People Sing? by Claude-Michel Schonberg Book: Other Men's Flowers by Lord A P Wavell Luxury: Paints and canvas

Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP Mar 03, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Shadow Chancellor Gordon Brown. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he was an early 'fast-track' pupil - going to Edinburgh University at 16 - their youngest student for 50 years, about the reasons behind his standing aside in favour of Tony Blair in the contest for the Labour leadership, and about his childhood as one of three sons of a Scottish minister.

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

Favourite track: Suite No. 3 in D major by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: The Story of Art by Sir Ernst Gombrich Luxury: Tennis ball machine and racket

Sir Roy Calne Feb 25, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a surgeon and a painter.

Sir Roy Calne - Professor of Surgery at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge - will be talking to Sue Lawley about his early conviction that transplant surgery was a viable way of treating kidney and liver disease, about his struggles to have his ideas accepted and about the paintings he has done of his patients - many of which have been the subject of several public exhibitions.

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

Favourite track: Symphony No 9 From The New World (Opus 95) by Antonin Dvořák Book: Global Biodiversity by Brian Groombridge Luxury: Paints and canvas

Professor George Steiner Feb 18, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Professor George Steiner. One of the most prominent intellectuals of our time, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how the English academic establishment has taken decades to accept him despite his early popularity as a Cambridge lecturer, and about the problem of reconciling the love of beauty with great acts of evil. He'll also be describing how his family left Austria for France in the 1920s and how he was one of only two boys to survive in his class in the largely Jewish lycee he attended in Paris.

When asked to select just one record to take to the island, Professor George said that for him, it was all or nothing.

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

Book: 500 year ahead calendar and appointment book Luxury: Computer

Susan Hill Feb 11, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is one of the country's best-known novelists.

Author of I'm the King of the Castle, Strange Meeting and The Woman in Black, among many other books, Susan Hill will be talking to Sue Lawley about the inspiration for her recent and highly-acclaimed sequel to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca; about the loneliness which characterised her childhood and about the relationship between tragedy in her own life and the way she writes about it in her novels.

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

Favourite track: Tom Bowling by Benjamin Britten Book: The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford Luxury: The Barnes Collection (paintings)

Eve Arnold Feb 04, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is one of the world's outstanding photojournalists, Eve Arnold. The first American woman member of the famous photographic co-operative, Magnum, she'll be talking about how her passion for photography began with the present of a camera, and how, since then, she has travelled the world in search of arresting pictures, living with hippy communes and with the black power movement, as well as photographing some of the great movie stars, including Paul Newman, Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe, with whom she had a close friendship for 10 years.

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

Favourite track: Flute Concerto No 1 in D Major Op 44R Op 44 by Antonio Vivaldi Book: Arabian Nights (1000 and One Nights) Luxury: Dark room, film and camera

Julian Barnes Jan 28, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the writer Julian Barnes. Since his first novel - Metroland - was published when he was 34, he has written another eight and won four literary prizes - most famously perhaps for Flaubert's Parrot.

He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his passion for Flaubert, his love for Leicester City, his notions of love and his fear of death.

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

Favourite track: Requiem Dies Irae (from Requiem) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Letters by Gustave Flaubert Luxury: Writing equipment

Chili Bouchier Jan 21, 1996

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the only surviving British star of the silent screen. Chili Bouchier will be talking to Sue Lawley about some of the perils of making silent movies and her transition into the talkies with hugely successful films like Carnival and Gypsy. She'll also be describing the ups and downs of a personal life which has been as vivid as her many films - encompassing two disastrous marriages with men who betrayed her, marriage proposals from Howard Hughes and breaking her Hollywood contract with Warner Brothers which meant she was blackballed and unable to make another film.

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

Favourite track: The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise by Acker Bilk Book: In Tune With The Infinite: Fullness of Peace Power by Ralph Waldo Trine Luxury: Make-up kit

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