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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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Professor Ralf Dahrendorf Feb 03, 1991

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs is a German politician who became an English academic. The Germany of Professor Ralf Dahrendorf's youth was that of the Third Reich but he, like his family, was fiercely opposed to the Nazi regime, and suffered imprisonment for his views. After the war, his career took him from Minister of Foreign Affairs under Willi Brandt, to the European Commission in Brussels, and then to London, where he was Director of the London School of Economics during a particularly turbulent era of its history.

He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his academic and political career as well as his formative years in Germany; years which he believes shaped his subsequent stern and much-admired defence of libertarian principles.

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

Favourite track: Blueberry Hill by Louis Armstrong Book: A book of Greek poetry Luxury: Dice to test the luck of a ship rescuing him

Brian Eno Jan 27, 1991

Show notes

A variety of labels can be stuck on this week's Desert Island Discs castaway - from rock musician to experimental artist, from visual sculptor to composer and intellectual guru of the rock world. He is Brian Eno, and he started his career by making music playing with tape recorders, then went on to play with bands who rehearsed far more often than they performed, graduating through to the Portsmouth Sinfonia, and ending up with the hugely successful group Roxy Music.

Since his Roxy Music days, he has gone on to musical collaboration with David Bowie and production of the group U2. Brian Eno will be talking to Sue Lawley about his musical and artistic activities in the mainstream, as well as on the fringes of, international cultural life.

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

Favourite track: Lord Don't Forget About Me by Dorothy Love Coates Book: Contingency, Irony & Solidarity by Richard Rorty Luxury: Radio telescope

Fred Zinnemann Jan 20, 1991

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs is a man who has directed some of the most popular and memorable films in the history of cinema - High Noon, From Here to Eternity, Oklahoma! and A Man for All Seasons. He is Fred Zinnemann, and he will be talking to Sue Lawley about his boyhood at the beginning of the century in imperial Vienna, his thwarted ambitions to be a musician, and the years he spent working in Hollywood where he directed, and on several occasions discovered, some of the best-known names in the film world, including Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra.

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

Favourite track: Magnificat by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: Very large self renewing bottle of scotch

Adelaide Hall Jan 13, 1991

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is jazz singer Adelaide Hall. Now in her 80s and still performing, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her days at the Cotton Club in New York, the Moulin Rouge in Paris and the secrets of her enduring popularity.

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

Favourite track: Sophisticated Lady by Duke Ellington Book: A book of American history Luxury: Box of seeds

Lord Goodman Jan 06, 1991

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a man who has, on occasion, been described as the Mr Fixit of British public life. Arnold Goodman started off his professional life as a bright young North London solicitor, and, through a capacity for skilful negotiation and judicious advice, became the confidante of some of the most eminent political figures of post-war Britain. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his experience of Prime Ministers and politics, as well as his passion for opera, which, as a director of the Royal Opera House, he has been able to indulge to the full.

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

Favourite track: O Namenlose Freude by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Who's Who Luxury: An enormous box of chocolate ginger

Keith Floyd Dec 30, 1990

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is television cook Keith Floyd. Renowned for his garrulous charm as much as for his culinary expertise, he'll be describing the chronicle of failure that dogged him through spells in the Army, as a cub reporter, as an antiques dealer and as a restaurateur. He'll also be talking to Sue Lawley about his passion for good food, music and the elusive nature of romantic happiness.

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

Favourite track: Hey Jude by The Beatles Book: Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake Luxury: Pair of handmade blue suede shoes

Brian Keenan Dec 23, 1990

Show notes

Last August the world rejoiced at the liberation of a man who, to all intents and purposes, had vanished from its face more than four years previously. A pale and gaunt Brian Keenan emerged from a captivity of appalling deprivation and isolation after being kidnapped in Beirut by Islamic extremists.

This week on Desert Island Discs, he will be talking to Sue Lawley about those lost years, when, often blindfolded, chained and alone, he relived his life, conjuring up forgotten sights and sounds through imagined magical music, or by singing half-remembered lines from songs with John McCarthy when they were allowed to share their captivity.

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

Favourite track: Dweller On The Threshold by Van Morrison Book: The Life Times and Music of An Irish Harper by Donal O'Sullivan Luxury: Pencil

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi Dec 02, 1990

Show notes

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is one of the great European artists of today - Eduardo Paolozzi. One of his positions is Her Majesty's Sculptor In-ordinary for Scotland - a post rather like the Poet Laureate for Sculpture, but with no duties attached to it. But such eminence in the artistic world is in stark contrast to Sir Eduardo's humble beginnings as the son of Italian immigrants who had an ice-cream shop in Edinburgh. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his boyhood, when he was sent to Fascist youth camps in Italy for three months at a time, and the subsequent imprisonment and vilification which fell upon him and his family at the outbreak of war in 1940. He'll also be contemplating his years at the Slade and his flight to the artistic freedom of the Paris of Giacometti, Leger and Picasso.

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

Favourite track: L'Enfant Et Les Sortileges by Maurice Ravel Book: A tropical plant book in Italian with English gloss Luxury: Hurdy gurdy

Baroness Trumpington Nov 25, 1990

Show notes

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs rejoices in the title of the Baroness Trumpington of Sandwich in the County of Kent.

A tireless campaigner on myriad issues, she brings to her work a commodity which is often in short supply in political life - a healthy sense of humour. Among other things, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her career, during which she has risen from being Mayor of Cambridge to Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food - all without taking a single exam.

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

Favourite track: I'll Follow My Secret Heart by Noel Coward Book: George V by Kenneth Rose Luxury: Crown jewels (so someone will look for her)

Elisabeth Welch Nov 18, 1990

Show notes

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is the black American singer Elisabeth Welch, who, in a career spanning 60 years, made famous such songs as Love For Sale, Soloman and Stormy Weather. Her first big break came in 1931 in the Broadway show The New Yorkers. The show made her a star and also gave her the lasting friendship of Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Having been the toast of London, Paris and New York in pre-war years, her music still appeals across the generations.

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

Favourite track: Just One Of Those Things by Frank Sinatra Book: Who's Who In The Theatre Luxury: Photo of mother

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