Desert Island Discs

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Arlene Phillips Jun 28, 2009

Show notes

Kirsty Young's castaway is the choreographer, Arlene Phillips. In a career spanning 40 years, she set up the dance group Hot Gossip and has masterminded numerous music videos and West End shows. Already one of the country's leading choreographers, the hit TV show Strictly Come Dancing then turned her into a household name.

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

Favourite track: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Dinah Washington Book: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Luxury: Tweezers.

Martin Shaw Jun 21, 2009

Show notes

Kirsty Young's castaway is the actor Martin Shaw. He has been one of Britain's most popular stage and television actors of the past 40 years and has taken on more than 100 different roles. Yet Martin has spent half a lifetime moving out of the shadow of one of his earliest parts: Ray Doyle in The Professionals.

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

Favourite track: Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs by George Frideric Handel Book: Post Captain in the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brien Luxury: A synthesiser to make up my own music.

Lord Healey Jun 14, 2009

Show notes

Kirsty Young's castaway is the Labour peer and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Denis Healey. As a politician, he was known for his sharp intellect and biting oratory and now, as he approaches his 92nd birthday, those skills are still very much in evidence. He talks of his regret that his lack of ambition meant that he did not push himself further in politics but, he says, it is better for people to wonder why he wasn't Prime Minister than to wonder why he was.

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

Favourite track: The Cavatina from String Quartet No.13 in B flat Major by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Faber book of English verse by John Hayward Luxury: Very big box of chocolates including nougat.

Piers Morgan Jun 07, 2009

Show notes

Kirsty Young's castaway is the journalist and broadcaster Piers Morgan. He spent more than a decade as a Fleet Street editor and pioneered a style of journalism that devoured the day-to-day lives of celebrities. Now, he has become something of a celebrity himself, fronting a TV interview programme and sitting as a judge on both America's Got Talent and Britain's Got Talent. He is, according to one friend, 'the ultimate proof that self-confidence and self-belief can become a self-fulfilling prophecy'.

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

Favourite track: Mambo Italiano by Dean Martin Book: An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan Luxury: My cricket bat.

Caroline, Countess of Cranbrook May 31, 2009

Show notes

Kirsty Young's castaway is Caroline, Countess of Cranbrook. Caroline has travelled the world to see how different zoos worked, spent years living in the jungle and, when she returned to Britain, taught herself how to be a farmer. She has become a champion of the countryside and, when a supermarket giant announced plans to open a store on her doorstep, she decided to take them on.

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

Favourite track: No. 54 Chorale: O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Food in England by Dorothy Hartley Luxury: Ink and a pen.

Barry Humphries May 24, 2009

Show notes

Kirsty Young's castaway is the comedian and performer Barry Humphries. For decades he has enjoyed global fame with his grotesque comic creations, the Melbourne housewife Dame Edna Everage and the drunken cultural attache Sir Les Patterson. Off stage, though, his life has been spent immersed in literature, music and the arts, and he says that his time spent on the desert island would allow him to devote himself to painting.

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

Favourite track: Songs of Sunset: They are not long, the weeping & the laughter by Frederick Delius Book: The Melbourne Street Directory Luxury: My paints.

Peter Sallis May 17, 2009

Show notes

Kirsty Young invites actor Peter Sallis to choose eight records to take to Radio 4's mythical desert island. As the unassuming Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine and the equally mild-mannered Wallace in Wallace and Gromit, Sallis brings to life a sepia-tinted Britain that barely seems to exist any more. Now aged 88 and with failing eyesight, no-one, he says, is more surprised at his success than himself: "I've been lucky enough to keep going and I realise now, though it's taken me nearly 100 years, that my voice is distinctive. I'm very lucky indeed."

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

Favourite track: The finale of Symphony No.5 in E flat Major by Jean Sibelius Book: The collected works by P G Wodehouse Luxury: No.7 Meccano outfit.

Whoopi Goldberg May 10, 2009

Show notes

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the comic and actress Whoopi Goldberg. As a child she used to practise the acceptance speeches she was sure she would one day make - little surprise then that she's one of a handful of people to have won an Oscar, a Grammy, a Tony and Emmy awards.

Favourite track: Lovely Day by Bill Withers Book: Letters to a Young Poet by Raine Maria Rilke Luxury: Wise potato chips

Sebastian Faulks Mar 29, 2009

Show notes

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the writer Sebastian Faulks. He is best known for his novel Birdsong, which told in shocking detail the misery of life in the Flanders trenches. It was published with little fanfare or glossy advertising and failed to win any major awards - but it became a literary phenomenon and a huge best-seller. He was inspired to write it after visiting the battlefields of the Western Front with some veterans of World War I. One old soldier held onto Sebastian's hand and recalled seeing his friend killed next to him and, for the first time for him, Sebastian says, the war emerged from the history books into real, tangible human experience. He concedes that he still struggles to get to grips with much of life. Writers, he says, are often trying to impose a structure on a world that they find generally baffling.

Favourite track: Miles by Miles Davis Book: Remembrance of Things Past (Proust) by CK Scott Moncrieff (transl.) Luxury: A wicket, cricket bat, net, an endless supply of balls and a bowling machine that can be set to replicate the style of any bowler

Athene Donald Mar 22, 2009

Show notes

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the scientist Athene Donald. A Cambridge professor and fellow of the Royal Society, she has dedicated much of her life to studying everyday objects like plastic, food or plants. Her enthusiasm is so strong that, at her daughter's eleventh birthday party, she couldn't resist describing the structure of melting ice-cream - it was a rare case of misjudging her audience.

By her own admission she is a workaholic - but she also champions the cause of women who want to become scientists and have families too. Her great triumph was to marry a supportive husband and after that, she says, the trick is learning how to cut corners: there are no 'dainty dinner parties' at her home, and she makes sure her clothes are machine washable and easy-iron.

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

Favourite track: The Dies Irae (from Requiem) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The Lymond Novels by Dorothy Dunnett Luxury: A bat.