Desert Island Discs: Archive 1991-1996
246 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 27 years ago - ★★★★★ - 64 ratingsGuests are invited to choose the eight records they would take to a desert island
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Elizabeth Jane Howard
October 29, 1995 11:15 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard. In 1950, her first novel The Beautiful Visit was published. Now, some 45 years later and after many other books, she has just completed the concluding book of The Cazalet Chronicles. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the problems of combining writing and marriage; she abandoned her three marriages - her first husband, being the naturalist Peter Scott, and her last, the writer Kingsley Amis; and she'll be...
Don Black
October 22, 1995 11:15 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is one of the country's most successful lyricists, Don Black. Songs like Born Free and Diamonds are Forever, and musicals like Sunset Boulevard, Billy and Aspects of Love have made him a rich man. But he'll be talking to Sue Lawley of his early memories of his poor but happy Jewish family in the East End of London and how an apprenticeship on the New Musical Express led him into the world of popular music. [Taken from the original programme ma...
Richard Hoggart
October 15, 1995 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the academic and author Richard Hoggart. Nearly 40 years ago, he wrote the hugely influential Uses of Literacy. In it, he argued that the working classes were being short changed - both by rampant consumerism and by the dross he felt was being churned out by the mass media. Cast well away from materialism and the media on the desert island, he'll be talking about how he now feels about his original thesis and about his own working-class backg...
Alan Yentob
October 08, 1995 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Controller of BBC1, Alan Yentob. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his upbringing in Manchester and London, the Cathedral boarding school where he and his twin brother were the only two Jewish boys and his 27 years at the BBC. During that time he rose steadily through the ranks to become Head of Music and Arts, ending up as the only person to have run both BBC1 and BBC2. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edi...
Jenny Pitman
October 01, 1995 10:15 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the racehorse trainer Jenny Pitman. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the empathy she feels for the horses she trains and her relationship with their owners. She won the Grand National in 1983 with Corbiere, and she has twice trained the winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. In 1995 her charge, Royal Athlete, won the Grand National, crowning her spectacular success as a trainer. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive ed...
Maurice Saatchi
September 24, 1995 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the advertising man, Maurice Saatchi. He and his brother Charles created what became the biggest advertising agency in the world. Saatchi & Saatchi masterminded the Conservative victory in 1979 with their slogan 'Labour isn't working'. He'll be telling Sue Lawley about the heady days of the 1980s - a red Ferrari would be delivered unannounced to the best names in the business, with the offer of a job with Saatchi & Saatchi. Then, last year, h...
Max Nicholson
September 17, 1995 10:15 - 40 minutes - 37.5 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a man who spans our century. Aged 91, Max Nicholson has enjoyed careers in conservation, politics, journalism and the Civil Service. But his great passion remains ornithology. As a tiny boy, his parents took him one rainy afternoon to see the stuffed birds in the Natural History Museum, and there his great obsession was born. He was a conservationist before anyone understood the idea of ecology. He's played major parts in the founding of the ...
John Updike
September 10, 1995 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBSue Lawley's castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is the celebrated American writer John Updike. His novels include Rabbit Run (and three Rabbit follow-ups), Couples and The Witches of Eastwick. He is both poet and historian, famous for charting the changes in post-war American society such as increasing marital breakdown and changing attitudes to death. He started his writing career by selling stories to the New Yorker magazine - something his mother had tried for years but had never ...
Wendy Richard
July 09, 1995 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the actress Wendy Richard, one of the best-known faces on British television. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about a career which started with the Arthur Haines show in the 60s, and took her through a whole series of long-running television programmes - The Newcomers, Are You Being Served? and its sequel Grace and Favour. However, it was 10 years ago that she took the part which was to bring her her greatest popularity - Pauline Fowler in E...
Duke Of Westminster
July 02, 1995 10:15 - 35 minutes - 32.8 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, the sixth Duke of Westminster. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the responsibilities and pleasures of being one of the country's richest men. Having enjoyed an idyllic childhood on the banks of Loch Ern in County Fermanagh, it was a rude shock to be transplanted to an English prep school at the age of seven. The comparatively early death of his father then meant that by the time he was just 19 he was managing on...
Jasper Conran
June 25, 1995 10:15 - 35 minutes - 32.4 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is clothes designer Jasper Conran. Son of Sir Terence Conran and Shirley Conran, he has art, design and business in his blood and was always determined to make his own way in the world of fashion without parental influence. He has said, "in a family like mine, if you're not successful, you drown". He'll be telling Sue Lawley about his difficult childhood of nannies and his public school where he was bullied for being overweight, all of which he ...
Sir Magdi Yacoub
June 18, 1995 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is one of the great pioneers of heart transplant surgery - Professor Sir Magdi Yacoub. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his dedication to his patients, whether heart transplants are now routinely successful and about some of the earlier controversies which his experimental surgery has attracted. He will also be describing his early ambitions to be a doctor, which were discouraged by his father, and how important music is to him. He often has...
John Lee Hooker
June 11, 1995 10:15 - 32 minutes - 29.5 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is one of the oldest and deepest voices in rock music - the legendary bluesman John Lee Hooker. The son of a preacher man, he was brought up in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and his first guitar was made from an old inner tube tied to the barn door. By the age of 14, he had his own guitar and ran away to Memphis with two dollars in his pocket for a life touring small blues clubs. With hits like Boom Boom, Dimples and Boogie Chillun, he has been one o...
Brian Blessed
June 04, 1995 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the actor Brian Blessed. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about Z Cars - the series which first brought him to public prominence in the 1960s, about his friendship with the actress Katherine Hepburn and his obsession with climbing mountains - mountains like Everest and Kilimanjaro - when he isn't acting. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Rite of Spring The Adoration ...
Marianne Faithfull
May 28, 1995 10:15 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Marianne Faithfull. Singer and actress, she was the original 1960s wild child. At the age of 17, when she was still a convent schoolgirl in Reading, she shot to fame with the hit single As Tears Go By; written for her by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. She was Mick Jagger's mistress, she hung out with Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix, she was young, beautiful and rich and she seemed to have it all. But the glamorous life of the pop star turned into...
Sir Bernard Ingham
May 21, 1995 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.3 MBSue Lawley's castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Sir Bernard Ingham. For 11 years, one month and five days, almost from when she came to power to the day she left office, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Mrs Thatcher. A former card-carrying member of the Labour Party, he became her Chief Press Secretary, adviser and supporter. He was accused by the media of crossing the line between civil service impartiality and political support on that fateful day in Paris in November 1990, ju...
Neil Simon
May 14, 1995 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is one of America's most successful playwrights. Since he opened Come Blow Your Horn on Broadway in 1961, Neil Simon has written at least a play a year, and they include Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, Lost in Yonkers, as well as the hit musicals Sweet Charity and They're Playing Our Song. He'll be telling Sue Lawley about his childhood in the Bronx, his days in the army, and how as one of New York's most famous literary sons,...
Dr George Carey
May 07, 1995 10:15 - 35 minutes - 32.9 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey. The son of a hospital porter, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his childhood in London during the war, his interrupted schooling which meant he left school at 15 with no qualifications and how when he decided he wanted to enter the church, he went on to acquire a clutch of 'O' and 'A' Levels in the space of a year. Never one to shirk a challenge, he'll also be describing his feelings when he ...
Pete Waterman
April 30, 1995 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week has a classic rags-to-riches story to relate. Born into a poor family in Coventry, record producer Pete Waterman is nowadays estimated to be worth at least 60 million pounds, and is the proud possessor of 10 Ferraris, 15 Jaguars and several houses and railway engines. He'll be telling Sue Lawley how, with no formal education - and still unable to do joined-up writing - he and his company wrote and produced enough hit records in the mid-1980s to ...
George Lloyd
April 23, 1995 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBThe castaway choosing his eight desert island discs this week will also be relating a story of early triumph, 25 years of obscurity and a revival of fortunes at the age of 81 which has made him one of the country's most successful classical composers. He is George Lloyd, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the shell-shock and bad luck which put paid to his early promise - his years growing carnations and mushrooms - and then, thanks to the late John Ogdon's intervention, his re-emergenc...
Hugh Grant
April 16, 1995 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the actor Hugh Grant. The star of the enormously successful Four Weddings and a Funeral, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his life before he was propelled into international celebrity status. Now firmly established as a cinematic symbol of a certain type of Englishman, he had his first big break in the Merchant Ivory film Maurice, after stints in repertory at Nottingham, writing commercials and filming what he calls Europuddings in Spain...
James Bowman
April 09, 1995 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the country's most distinguished counter-tenor James Bowman. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he uses his voice as an instrument, producing the unusually high falsetto sound which characterises counter-tenor parts. He'll also be describing his association with Benjamin Britten, who offered him his first part - as Oberon in Britten's opera A Midsummer Night's Dream. Britten went on to write parts for him in Death in Venice and The Journ...
Nina Bawden
April 02, 1995 10:15 - 41 minutes - 37.7 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the novelist Nina Bawden. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the autobiographical aspects of both her adult books - such as Afternoon of a Good Woman and Circles of Deceit - and her children's books like Carrie's War and The Peppermint Pig. All contain tales with twists and turns from her own experience - evacuation during the war, her years as a magistrate and the tragic death of her schizophrenic son. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about...
Felix Aprahamian
March 19, 1995 11:15 - 38 minutes - 34.9 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the music writer and critic Felix Aprahamian. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how, as a music critic on the Sunday Times for over 40 years, he has lived at the epicentre of 20th-century musical life - meeting such luminaries as Poulenc, Messiaen, Delius and the French organist and composer, Charles-Marie Widor. He'll also be discussing his views on the contemporary music scene, and describing his house in North London where, now aged 80, ...
Nigel Nicolson
March 12, 1995 11:15 - 37 minutes - 34.1 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the writer and publisher Nigel Nicolson. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his parents Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West and their unconventional marriage which was based on deep mutual love but also allowed both of them to enjoy homosexual affairs. His book Portrait of a Marriage - famously televised by the BBC - tells their story. He'll also be describing his isolated upbringing at Sissinghurst Castle, his relationship with his moth...
Professor Eric Hobsbawm
March 05, 1995 11:15 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the historian Professor Eric Hobsbawm. A life-long Communist and author of a series of books on the history of the 19th century which is regarded by many as a seminal work of scholarship, he has now turned his attention to the 20th century. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his views on the major historical events of the century, its future and his part in it. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert I...
Christopher Lee
February 26, 1995 11:15 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is British cinema's king of horror - Christopher Lee. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his disappointment at not being able to follow what he considers his true vocation, that of an opera singer, and about his 50-year career which has encompassed 230 films, 27 plays and numerous radio and television appearances. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Rinaldo by George F...
Jimmy Knapp
February 19, 1995 11:15 - 38 minutes - 34.9 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Jimmy Knapp, General Secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his Scottish childhood, his poor, working-class background and his rise from signalman to one of the most powerful and controversial trade union leaders in the country. He'll also be discussing his views on public ownership, the future of Clause 4 and such personal matters as his Scottishnesss, love of Spain and his much-maligned dres...
Sir Adrian Cadbury
January 29, 1995 11:15 - 39 minutes - 35.8 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Sir Adrian Cadbury, for nearly 20 years chairman of the famous chocolate factory that bears his family name. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his Quaker background and his experiences of rowing for Britain in the 1952 Olympics, as well as discussing his views on the standards and values which dominate British business life today. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite trac...
Dr Richard Dawkins
January 22, 1995 11:15 - 36 minutes - 33.8 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the biologist Dr Richard Dawkins. Author of popular science books such as The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his scientific beliefs which are firmly rooted in the conviction that Darwin's theory of evolution provides the starting point for all we need to know about our world. He'll be discussing the implications of his theories, as well as choosing eight records for his island exile. [Taken from t...
Phil Redmond
January 15, 1995 11:15 - 34 minutes - 31.8 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the creator, writer and producer of two of British television's most enduring and influential series - Grange Hill and Brookside. Phil Redmond will be talking to Sue Lawley about his Liverpool roots and his rise from a poor working-class background to become one of the country's highest-paid television executives. He'll also be discussing how the programmes he produces continue to attract controversy, criticism and audiences and what he think...
Patricia Hodge
January 08, 1995 11:15 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the actress Patricia Hodge. Currently in her prime as Miss Jean Brodie in the West End, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how John Mortimer selected her for her first prominent role as barrister Phyllida Trent in Rumpole of the Bailey. She went on to portray several aloof, beautiful women, but denies that she is by nature remote. She'll also be reminiscing about her childhood in Grimsby, where her parents ran a large three-star hotel, maki...
Alan Clark
January 01, 1995 11:15 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the politician, historian and diarist Alan Clark. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the impact his alarmingly frank diaries - published in 1993 - made on his colleagues, friends and enemies. Also, on the island he'll be ruminating on love, pain, parents, political ambition and the many attractions of his island exile. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Saul The De...
David Jason OBE
December 25, 1994 11:15 - 33 minutes - 30.7 MBThe castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is one of Britain's best-loved actors, David Jason. He will be talking to Sue Lawley about the rocky route from his first job as an electrician, through Bromley Rep, summer seasons and pantos, to the moment he was spotted for a television show called Do Not Adjust Your Set. Some success followed this, but it was when the BBC offered him the part of Delboy in Only Fools and Horses, to be followed 10 years later by the avuncular Pop Larkin in The D...
Penelope Hobhouse
December 18, 1994 11:15 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is one of the country's famous experts on gardens and garden design, Penelope Hobhouse. She will be talking to Sue Lawley about her childhood in Ulster, where she was brought up steeped in the politics of the province. From there, she went to Cambridge, married, and settled down to look after the garden of the beautiful house in Somerset which marriage had brought with it. Twenty-five years later, she wrote her first book which was about that gar...
Margaret Forster
December 04, 1994 11:15 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the writer Margaret Forster. Her second novel - Georgy Girl - was published in the 1960s and made into a popular film; another 20 books - both fiction and non-fiction - followed and her recent biography of Daphne du Maurier attracted much critical acclaim. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her early life in Carlisle, the stresses of working motherhood and the problems of having her husband, Hunter Davies, formerly confined to a newspaper o...
Sir Howard Hodgkin
November 27, 1994 11:15 - 37 minutes - 34.3 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the painter Sir Howard Hodgkin. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the hard road to recognition in this country - which he describes as being 'enemy territory' for painters. At 62, he has now achieved fame, fortune and to him a somewhat irksome knighthood. He'll be describing his problematic schoolboy years, his total commitment to art and what he considers to be the impact of his own work. [Taken from the original programme material for th...
Glenys Kinnock
November 20, 1994 11:15 - 35 minutes - 32.1 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Glenys Kinnock. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her upbringing in Wales, her role during the years of Neil Kinnock's leadership of the Labour Party and her own reincarnation as a politician on the European stage as an MEP. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Was A Sunny Day by Paul Simon Book: Atlas of the Third World Luxury: Toilet bag full of skin-barrier creams
Berthold Goldschmidt
November 13, 1994 11:15 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the composer and conductor Berthold Goldschmidt. Born in Hamburg 91 years ago, he enjoyed a brilliant early career working with many famous musicians in Germany and Russia. But he'll be telling Sue Lawley how, as a Jew, he was forced to flee the Nazis and take refuge in Britain. Sadly, the musical establishment of his adopted homeland found his music old-fashioned and neglected him until the 1980s, when his music started to be rediscovered and...
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
November 06, 1994 11:15 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Reverend Desmond Tutu. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his childhood and his first realisations that black children were treated very differently from their white counterparts, as well as his initial work as a teacher, which he gave up when he realised he was expected merely to train his black pupils for a life of service. He'll also be talking about the new freedom and responsibilities of So...
Kathleen Hale
October 30, 1994 11:15 - 38 minutes - 34.9 MBThe castaway this week in Desert Island Discs is the writer and illustrator Kathleen Hale. Mainly renowned for that hero of children's literature - Orlando, the Marmalade Cat - and now 96 years old, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the excitement and glamour of her bohemian girlhood after the First World War. As secretary to the painter Augustus John, she lived a turbulent but fascinating life at the heart of artistic London. Marriage and motherhood introduced stability into her life, ...
Lynda La Plante
October 23, 1994 11:15 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Lynda La Plante - the creator of much-admired television series like Prime Suspect, Widows and Civvies. Also the author of five novels, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how she made the transition from acting in repertory for six years, as well as Brian Rix's Whitehall farces, to becoming one of television's most prolific and successful writers. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs...
Sir George Christie
October 16, 1994 10:15 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Chairman of Glyndebourne, Sir George Christie. As Master of one of Europe's most distinguished opera houses, famous as a mainstay of the English social scene, as well as a centre of creativity and innovation, he has recently overseen its complete rebuilding. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the place in which he has spent his whole life and how he faces the prospect of retirement. [Taken from the original programme material for this a...
Jeanette Winterson
October 09, 1994 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the writer Jeanette Winterson. Her first book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was based on her Lancashire childhood where she grew up as the adopted daughter of evangelical parents. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her upbringing - in which her parents saw her as a child they could dedicate to God, about how she left home at 15 after falling in love with another woman and about how she finally managed to get herself into Oxford. Her first...
Professor James Fenton
October 02, 1994 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the poet and writer James Fenton. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his early life as a boy chorister, the death of his mother when he was just 10 and about his experiences as a foreign correspondent. It was in this capacity that he travelled with the Viet Cong when they captured Saigon, and fled from the Khmer Rouge when they entered Phnom Penh. He has also worked as a political and literary journalist and as a theatre critic. He'll be r...
Mary Stott
September 25, 1994 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a journalist and feminist. Mary Stott became Women's Editor of the Guardian newspaper in 1957 and under her editorship, the women's pages were transformed. Her commissioning of many distinguished writers as well as her encouragement to her readers themselves to write first-hand accounts of their experiences led to the foundation of many important women's organisations. Now 87, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her enduring support of femin...
John Tavener
September 18, 1994 10:15 - 38 minutes - 35.1 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the composer John Tavener. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the varied inspirations for his music and about how he regards the work of composition as an act of prayer. His music has won the admiration of both serious musicians and the general public - last year his work for cello and strings, The Protecting Veil, held the number one place in the classical charts for several months. Now nearly 50, his was a precocious talent - one of his ea...
Joanna Trollope
September 11, 1994 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the novelist Joanna Trollope. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how she made the move from writing historical romances to contemporary novels like The Rector's Wife, A Village Affair and A Spanish Lover, which have turned her into one of the country's most successful writers. She'll also be describing how she dislikes her books being described as 'aga-sagas' and discussing how much the events of her characters' lives mirror her own experie...
Rabbi Hugo Gryn
July 10, 1994 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Rabbi Hugo Gryn. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how his happy and secure childhood in Czechoslovakia was devastated by Nazism and how he survived two years in concentration camps. He'll also be discussing how his commitment to bettering relations between people of differing faiths is rooted in his experience of persecution during the Second World War. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island ...
Derek Jameson
July 03, 1994 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.2 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the journalist and broadcaster Derek Jameson. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his early poverty-stricken years in an East End foster home and his discovery, at the age of eight, that one of the girls in the home he had thought of as his older sister was, in fact, his mother. He'll also be describing how an aptitude for reading and writing, the encouragement of a concerned teacher and his own determination led him into journalism, where he...