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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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Sir Nicholas Henderson May 28, 1989

Show notes

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is one of the country's leading former diplomats, Sir Nicholas Henderson. He has served in Britain's embassies all over the world - including Poland, West Germany and Paris, but was most prominent as our man in Washington during the Falklands War. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the pleasures and pitfalls of this somewhat nomadic, but nevertheless glamorous existence, and choosing eight records to accompany him on this, his final posting.

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

Favourite track: Concerto No 19 In F Major Third Movement by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant Luxury: Sculpture from The Louvre and a box of different seeds

Katharine Hamnett May 21, 1989

Show notes

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is one of Britain's most successful fashion designers - Katharine Hamnett.

She started in the business 10 years ago with a £500 loan, and now runs a company with a £10 million turnover. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the connection between politics and fashion, and also about her famous baggy white t-shirts, which bear political and ecological slogans, and the memorable occasion when she wore one of them on a visit to 10 Downing Street.

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

Favourite track: Big Head by Max Bygraves Book: The I Ching Luxury: Aircraft carrier (to decorate)

Thora Hird May 14, 1989

Show notes

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is one of Britain's greatest and best-loved character actresses, Thora Hird. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her lifelong involvement with the theatre - she first appeared on the stage at eight weeks old - and discussing more recent roles, such as Doris in Alan Bennett's play A Cream Cracker Under the Settee; a part which this year won her the BAFTA award for best television actress.

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

Favourite track: Onward Christian Soldiers by The Harry Simeone Chorale Book: Scene & Hird by Thora Hird Luxury: Cleansing milk

Lenny Henry May 07, 1989

Show notes

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is one of Britain's most popular comedians, Lenny Henry. His talent emerged at the age of 16, when he was one of the star turns on New Faces, and he has since gone from strength to strength - appearing in television programmes like TISWAS and Three of a Kind, doing unforgettable imitations as well as creating his own characters.

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

He'll be giving Sue Lawley glimpses of these characters as well as talking about his time with the Black and White Minstrels, and his most recent role, as one of the moving forces behind Comic Relief, when he and fellow comedians banded together to raise millions of pounds for the people of Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.

Favourite track: I Just Called To Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder Book: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller Luxury: Graphic novels (Comics)

Lady Redgrave Apr 30, 1989

Show notes

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is someone who now sits at the head of one of this country's most famous theatrical dynasties - the remarkable Redgraves. But Lady Redgrave, as Rachel Kempson, is also a highly-regarded actress in her own right - still treading the boards at the age of 78 - and she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her long career on the stage, her marriage to Sir Michael Redgrave and the pitfalls and pleasures of a family which now encompasses three generations of acting talent.

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

Favourite track: If The Heart Of A Man by Michael Redgrave Book: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Luxury: Case of champagne

Miriam Rothschild Apr 23, 1989

Show notes

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is biologist and conservationist Miriam Rothschild. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her lifelong fascination with all forms of natural life, including her passion for fleas, worms and butterflies, and also how she welcomes the prospect of exile to the mythical island as an opportunity to discover and investigate unlimited flora and fauna.

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

Favourite track: Cello Suite No 5 - Prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica Luxury: Bag of wild flower seed

Lord Roy Jenkins Apr 16, 1989

Show notes

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is Lord Jenkins of Hillhead - formerly Roy Jenkins.

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

He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his long and varied political career, which has encompassed periods as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and this country's first President of the European Commission. He'll also be looking back on his Welsh origins and the early days of the Social Democratic Party, of which he was a founding member, as well as challenging his popular image as a claret-drinking intellectual.

Favourite track: Theme (from Enigma Variations) by Edward Elgar Book: Who Was Who Luxury: Case of Bordeaux wine

Leslie Grantham Apr 09, 1989

Show notes

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is an actor who rose to fame on the nation's television screens as the landlord in the BBC television series Eastenders - the volatile and villainous Dirty Den. He's Leslie Grantham, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about life after Dirty Den now that he has left the series, and also his time in prison when he served an 11-year sentence for a crime he committed as a teenage soldier.

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

Favourite track: Test Pilot Sketch (from Hancock's Half Hour) by Galton & Simpson Book: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Luxury: Metal detector

Sir Stephen Spender Apr 02, 1989

Show notes

In this week's Desert Island Discs, one of the most eminent English poets of this century, Sir Stephen Spender, talks to Sue Lawley about his radical and often flamboyant past, and his friendships with such notable literary figures as Christopher Isherwood, WH Auden and Virginia Woolfe.

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

Favourite track: String Quartet in A Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust Luxury: Painting or sculpture & photograph of daughter

Gerald Scarfe Mar 12, 1989

Show notes

Sue Lawley's castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the satirical cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. Renowned for his grotesquely exaggerated portrayals of political figures and issues, he will be talking about his isolated childhood, which was dominated by chronic asthma, and how, with no formal art training, he has now become one of the most eminent artists of our time, branching out from drawing his instantly-recognisable caricatures into the world of theatre, rock and opera.

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

Favourite track: Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: A title by Capability Brown Luxury: River painting by Turner

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