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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:

Kenny Everett Oct 24, 1993

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the disc jockey Kenny Everett. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his Merseyside childhood, his discovery of classical music and his dependence on radio, all of which led him to an anarchic and erratic career on television and radio. He'll also be discussing his unorthodox life which has encompassed a suicide attempt, drugs and the break-up of his 12-year marriage after he came out as a homosexual.

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

Favourite track: Symphonic Prelude by Giacomo Puccini Book: Eagle annual Luxury: Bathroom suite

Raymond Seitz Oct 17, 1993

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the present American Ambassador in London, Raymond Seitz. The first career diplomat ever to be appointed to the job, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he also scored a first by surviving the transition from President Bush to President Clinton earlier this year. He'll also be discussing the role of the American Ambassador in a shifting political climate and describing life in the Ambassador's residence, Winfield House in Regent's Park.

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

Favourite track: Clarinet Quintet In A Major K581 Second Movement by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The Oxford Anthology of Modern Poetry Luxury: Big box full of family albums

Lesley Garrett Oct 10, 1993

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the opera singer Lesley Garrett. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her musical Yorkshire family - both her grandfathers were musical entertainers - and how she learnt to read music before she could read books. Having won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, she moved straight into performing and was snapped up by the English National Opera. She'll be discussing her favourite roles and her passionate belief that opera should lose its elitist image.

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

Favourite track: Broadway Babe Book: Photograph album Luxury: Tightrope

Rt Hon Virginia Bottomley MP Oct 03, 1993

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Secretary of State for Health, Virginia Bottomley. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the stresses and strains of her job, her public image as a do-gooder and her large extended family with its annual holidays on the Isle of Wight.

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

Favourite track: Exsultate Jubilate by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Norton's Star Atlas Luxury: Radio 4's Today programme

Lord Palumbo Sep 26, 1993

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Chairman of the Arts Council Lord Palumbo. Property developer and long-time patron of the arts, he will be talking to Sue Lawley about his passion for collecting, which extends from motor cars to houses built by famous 20th century architects, of which he owns four. He will also be discussing his 30-year mission to redevelop the Mansion House site in the City of London.

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

Favourite track: Symphony No 7 by Jean Sibelius Book: On The Road by Jack Kerouac Luxury: Telescope

Paul Merton Sep 19, 1993

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Paul Merton. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his enduring but secret ambition to be a comedian and the feeling he's had throughout his life that he would always make it somehow. He'll be describing his painful beginnings at London's Comedy Store, and his graduation from there to radio and television, where he now has his own series on Channel 4, as well as appearing on Radio Four's Just A Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and being part of the regular team of BBC2's Have I Got News For You?

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

Favourite track: Spreading by Kronos Quartet Book: Buster Keaton Biography by Rudi Blesh Luxury: Bed

Isabel Allende Sep 12, 1993

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the novelist Isabel Allende. One of the most widely-read Latin American writers, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her native Chile, from where she is now voluntarily exiled, and about her childhood home where she lived with her clairvoyant grandmother and on which she based her first book The House of the Spirits.

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

Favourite track: Carmina Burana Ecce Gratum by Carl Orff Book: All correspondence between her and her mother Luxury: Paper and pencils

Nicholas Hytner Jul 11, 1993

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the theatre director Nicholas Hytner. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his string of directorial successes, which include Miss Saigon, Wind in the Willows, Carousel and The Importance of Being Ernest. He'll also be discussing the health of the modern musical today and the problems of directing both drama and opera.

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

Favourite track: Don Giovanni Ah Taci, Ingiusto Core by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The collected works by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Luxury: Large supply of total block suncream

Peter Mayle Jul 04, 1993

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the writer Peter Mayle. Renowned for his best-selling books about life as an Englishman in France, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his years in advertising, and how he coined the catchphrase Nice one, Cyril', and also about the recent television adaptation of a Year in Provence, which attracted widespread criticism. Criticism and controversy have been a feature of his life since the massive success of his books and he'll be answering many of the charges levelled against him, amongst them the allegation that he has made fun of the French, presenting them as laughable stereotypes as well as attracting hordes of sightseers to disturb the peace of Provence.

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

Favourite track: Caruso by Luciano Pavarotti Book: The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa Luxury: The menu from his favourite Parisien restaurant

Sir Leon Brittan Jun 27, 1993

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Sir Leon Brittan. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about life as one of Britain's European Commissioners in Brussels, where he has been for the last five and a half years, since his resignation over the Westland affair. He'll also be looking back on his glittering early career - winning an Exhibition to Cambridge at 16, a double first in English and Law, and becoming, at 41, the youngest member of the Cabinet.

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

Favourite track: Sonnet No 116 by William Shakespeare Book: The collected works by Geoffrey Chaucer Luxury: Collection of large-scale Ordnance Survey maps of England

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