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
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Episodes
John Drummond
June 26, 1994 10:15 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Director of the Promenade Concerts John Drummond. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his years at the BBC, starting as a general trainee, leaving it to become Director of the Edinburgh Festival and returning as Controller of Music and then Controller of Radio Three. He'll be discussing his passionate attachment to fine music and musicianship and his conviction that such music should not just be heard, but must be properly listened to. [...
Brian Sewell
June 19, 1994 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.8 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the controversial art critic Brian Sewell. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he did not go to school until he was 11, hated it when he got there, but managed, much against the wishes of the school, to teach himself history of art. He'll also be describing how he felt when his friend and mentor, Sir Anthony Blunt, the Keeper of the Queen's Pictures, was denounced as a spy in 1979. Sewell was thrust into the public eye as Blunt's protecto...
Zoe Wanamaker
June 12, 1994 10:15 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the actress Zoe Wanamaker. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the roles she has taken on in theatre and television - in Love Hurts, Prime Suspect and, more recently, in the West End hit Dead Funny. She'll also be describing how she has tried to cope with the death of her father - the distinguished actor Sam Wanamaker - at the end of last year. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Fa...
Milton Shulman
June 05, 1994 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Milton Shulman. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he came to Britain from Toronto as an Intelligence Officer during the Second World War, after which he wrote a book called Defeat in the West, which was based on interviews he conducted with defeated German officers. It was this book which brought him to the attention of Lord Beaverbrook, leading to his promotion from humble diarist on the London Evening Standard to its film critic. He t...
Peter Scudamore
May 29, 1994 10:15 - 33 minutes - 31 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the jockey Peter Scudamore. The son of a jockey who had won the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup - Scu, as he is known throughout the racing fraternity - resisted all attempts to turn him into an estate agent, and followed in his father's footsteps. Having broken nearly every bone in his body, he retired in 1993 after a career which encompassed 1,678 National Hunt victories and the title of Champion Jockey a record eight times. He'll...
Britt Ekland
May 22, 1994 10:15 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the actress Britt Ekland. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her miraculous transformation from an overweight, buck-toothed ugly duckling with large ears to a beautiful peroxided teenager. She'll also be describing her turbulent marriage to Peter Sellers and her passionate affair with the rock star Rod Stewart. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Mother by John Len...
Kate Adie
May 15, 1994 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the BBC's Chief News Correspondent Kate Adie. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the pleasures and perils of a job which has taken her to some of the world's most dangerous trouble spots. She'll also be describing how she felt when she was recently reunited with her natural mother after having been happily brought up by her adoptive family in Sunderland. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island ...
Sir John Wilson
May 08, 1994 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a man who has devoted his life to helping those who share his own disability - blindness. Sir John Wilson lost his sight at the age of 12 in an accident in his school chemistry laboratory. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how, undaunted, he went on to win a scholarship to Oxford, and then, at the age of 30, mortgaged his home and set up the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind. Since then, he has travelled an average of 50,000 miles a ...
Garrison Keillor
May 01, 1994 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the American writer and broadcaster Garrison Keillor. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his childhood in the small town of Anoka in Minnesota, on which his stories in his bestseller, Lake Wobegon Days, were based. One of six children of Protestant fundamentalist parents, he'll be remembering his home life where story-telling was an intrinsic element, and in which alcohol, television, parties and socialising were all forbidden. [Taken from ...
Trevor McDonald
April 24, 1994 10:15 - 35 minutes - 32.7 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week has recently topped the polls as the country's most popular newscaster. He is ITN's Trevor McDonald, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about a West Indian childhood which was dominated by English influences, a career which started in Caribbean local radio and television and how he copes with his emotions when having to report on particularly gruelling news stories. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert I...
Alan Hacker
April 17, 1994 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.6 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a musician who started his professional career as a clarinettist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. However, when he was 26, Alan Hacker was permanently disabled by a thrombosis on his spinal column. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how, since then, although confined to a wheelchair, he has been determined to prove his disability is not a handicap but just a nuisance. He'll be describing how he has carved out a niche for himself as ...
Roger McGough
April 10, 1994 10:15 - 35 minutes - 32.9 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the poet Roger McGough. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his boyhood in Liverpool where he showed little aptitude for literature - it wasn't until he went to Hull University that he discovered his true vocation. It was one that was to take him, via a best-selling number one record, Lily the Pink, with the group The Scaffold, to become one of the country's most enduringly successful poets. [Taken from the original programme material for th...
Sir Ranulph Fiennes
April 03, 1994 10:15 - 35 minutes - 32.9 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Over the last 23 years, he has navigated the White Nile in a hovercraft, travelled around the world through both poles, discovered a lost city and, most recently, he nearly perished in Antarctica. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his unhappy schooldays at Eton, his thwarted ambition to emulate his father's military career and the problems he has had with his companions on expeditions. [Taken from the ori...
Conrad Black
March 27, 1994 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.1 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week owns the Daily Telegraph and The Spectator - amongst two or three hundred other newspapers and magazines the world over. He is Canadian-born tycoon Conrad Black, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the notorious misbehaviour of his school days, the tuition his father gave him in the ways of corporate finance and how he views his powerful position in the British establishment. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edit...
Christina Dodwell
March 06, 1994 11:15 - 34 minutes - 31.2 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs is the explorer Christina Dodwell. Born in West Africa, she spent her early years running wild in the Bush. When her family returned to Camberley and the restriction of English boarding schools, Christina reacted by being expelled from a large number of them. She later ran away from the restrictions of London life in search of adventure on the African subcontinent, and she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her subsequent travels, the exhilaration of the lo...
Frances Partridge
February 27, 1994 11:15 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is as old as this century and is said to be the last survivor of the much written-about Bloomsbury set. She is Frances Partridge and she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her colourful life, unconventional beliefs and friendships with such influential writers and philosophers of her time as Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, EM Forster, Lytton Strachey and Maynard Keynes. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Dese...
Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke MP
February 20, 1994 11:15 - 39 minutes - 35.7 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his reputation as something of a bruiser, his childhood as the son of a Northamptonshire miner and about his aspirations to the top job in politics - a job which would crown a career which has encompassed six senior Cabinet posts in under 10 years. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: ...
Rosemary Verey
February 13, 1994 11:15 - 35 minutes - 32.4 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the gardener Rosemary Verey. Passionate about planting and growing flowers and herbs as a child in the 1930s, it wasn't until the 1950s, with her four children away at school, that she began a serious study of horticulture. Completely self-taught, she has gone on to develop a career designing some of Britain's most beautiful gardens and numbers Prince Charles and Elton John amongst her clients. [Taken from the original programme material for ...
Douglas Adams
February 06, 1994 11:15 - 35 minutes - 32.9 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Douglas Adams, creator of the anarchic world conjured up by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how, as a child, he found it difficult to communicate with the adult world, and didn't speak until he was four years old. But as his confidence grew, he set his sights on being a nuclear physicist - an ambition later replaced by a burning desire to be John Cleese in Monty Python's Flying Circus. In fact, he has...
Dame Cicely Saunders
January 30, 1994 11:15 - 38 minutes - 34.8 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the founder of the Hospice Movement Dame Cicely Saunders. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her schooldays at Roedean, how she trained as a nurse and much later, as a doctor. When she was 29 she fell in love with a young patient dying of cancer, who bequeathed her a legacy of £500. Starting with that bequest, she raised enough money for a new kind of hospice dedicated to care for the dying. There are now 190 similar hospices throughout the...
Willy Russell
January 23, 1994 11:15 - 36 minutes - 33.2 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the playwright Willy Russell. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the route his career has taken - from hairdressing, via teaching in Toxteth to a living as one of the country's most successful dramatists. He'll also be talking about his play about the Beatles, John, Paul, George, Ringo & Bert, which, 20 years ago, transferred to the West End and became a huge hit and how, since then, Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine and Blood Brothers have ...
Sir Harrison Birtwistle
January 16, 1994 11:15 - 37 minutes - 34.1 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the internationally-acclaimed composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his childhood in Lancashire, the solitude he craves when he writes his music and how he copes with the difficulties audiences encounter with some of his compositions. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Sherry by Frankie Valli Book: A Latin Primer Luxury: Chainsaw
Ian Hislop
January 09, 1994 11:15 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Ian Hislop. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the seven turbulent years of his editorship of Private Eye, as well as his early attempts at stand-up comedy before he became somewhat more successful at sit-down comedy as team captain of BBC TV's Have I Got News For You? [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: The Marriage Of Figaro Se Vuol Ballare, Signor Contino by Wolf...
Oliver Sacks
January 02, 1994 11:15 - 38 minutes - 34.8 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Dr Oliver Sacks. Now a distinguished Professor of Neurology, he was immortalised by Robin Williams in the film Awakenings. Inspired by Dr Sacks' book of the same name, it tells the story of the summer of 1969, when the catatonic patients he was treating at the time responded to an apparent miracle drug and came alive. He'll be talking about the excitements and disappointments of that summer and also about some of the 100s of extraordinary case...
Lord Ashley
December 26, 1993 11:15 - 37 minutes - 34.3 MBTwenty-six years ago, the then Labour MP Jack Ashley entered a world of silence - a minor operation on his ears went disastrously wrong and he lost his hearing completely. But, thanks to a complex operation, Jack Ashley, now Lord Ashley, can hear the voices of his grandchildren for the first time. In Desert Island Discs this week he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the struggles of his early poverty-stricken years, the misery of losing his hearing, and the dogged determination which has ea...
Phil Collins
December 19, 1993 11:15 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the rock star Phil Collins. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his rise to fame as the lead singer of the group Genesis and his subsequent transition to a dazzling solo career. As someone who has sold over 35 million records worldwide, his success has brought him riches, and, apparently, happiness. He'll be discussing how the Mr Nice Guy of the rock world manages money, marriage and making music. [Taken from the original programme material ...
Taki
November 28, 1993 11:15 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is proud to describe himself as a playboy - he is Taki Theodoracopulos - the millionaire journalist who pens the Spectator's High Life column every week. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his boyhood in Greece, where his father was a self-made shipping magnate, his subsequent life of tennis and nightclubs with the international jet-set and the abrupt end to this existence when he spent two months in Pentonville Prison after being found in poss...
Doris Lessing
November 21, 1993 11:15 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week has been described by some critics as Britain's greatest living writer. Doris Lessing will be talking to Sue Lawley about her early life in Southern Rhodesia, from where she was eventually exiled because of what the authorities called her 'subversive activities'. She'll also be describing the bleak London where she arrived in 1950, clutching her small son, with 40 pounds in her pocket and the manuscript of her first novel, The Grass is Singing. ...
Shirley Anne Field
November 14, 1993 11:15 - 36 minutes - 33.2 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the actress Shirley-Anne Field. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her Dickensian upbringing in different children's homes in the North of England and her extraordinary success as an actress in the 1960s, when she starred in The Entertainer and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. She'll also be reminiscing about her friendship with John F Kennedy and an ill-fated date with Frank Sinatra. [Taken from the original programme material for this ...
Sybil Marshall
November 07, 1993 11:15 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week has just produced her first novel in her 80th year. Sybil Marshall will be talking to Sue Lawley about this achievement, about her life in her beloved Fenlands of East Anglia, and about the village school she ran which revolutionised primary-school teaching methods. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Exsultate Jubilate Hallelujah Chorus by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: ...
Judge Stephen Tumin
October 31, 1993 11:15 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, Judge Stephen Tumim. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about many of the controversial issues surrounding the prison service today, as well as about his own private passions for books and painting. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Jerusalem by Blake/Parry Book: Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne Luxury: Marble bust of Laurence...
Kenny Everett
October 24, 1993 11:15 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBThe 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 materia...
Raymond Seitz
October 17, 1993 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.1 MBThe 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. ...
Lesley Garrett
October 10, 1993 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBThe 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 it...
Rt Hon Virginia Bottomley MP
October 03, 1993 10:15 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MBThe 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...
Lord Palumbo
September 26, 1993 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.6 MBThe 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 ...
Paul Merton
September 19, 1993 10:15 - 34 minutes - 31.6 MBThe 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 pa...
Isabel Allende
September 12, 1993 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34 MBThe 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 Buran...
Nicholas Hytner
July 11, 1993 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.2 MBThe 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 ...
Peter Mayle
July 04, 1993 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBThe 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...
Sir Leon Brittan
June 27, 1993 10:15 - 38 minutes - 34.9 MBThe 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...
Joan Baez
June 20, 1993 10:15 - 35 minutes - 32.9 MBSue Lawley's castaway is musician and campaigner Joan Baez. Favourite track: Salut! Demeure Chaste Et Pure by Charles Gounod Book: Diary by Anne Frank Luxury: Personal pouch with a silver lion in it
Rt Hon Betty Boothroyd MP
June 13, 1993 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.4 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Speaker of the House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her Yorkshire childhood, her venture south to join a dance troupe, and her much-vaunted but nevertheless fleeting appearance as a Tiller Girl. She'll also be discussing how she made history last year when she became the first woman to be elected Speaker, and also the first to be elected from the opposition benches since 1835. [Taken from the original p...
Frank Bruno
June 06, 1993 10:15 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the boxer Frank Bruno. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he got into trouble as a young boy for fighting with his contemporaries and ultimately with one of his sports teachers, after which he was sent to a special school where boxing was to become his salvation. He'll also be discussing the vicious nature of the sport and the rigorous training programme he undergoes before every fight. [Taken from the original programme material for t...
Kaye Webb
May 30, 1993 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.8 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a publisher. Kaye Webb was made editor of Puffin Books in the 1960s, and held the job for nearly 20 years. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about those years and also about the crowded professional life which preceded them. As an assistant editor for the pocket magazine Lilliput in the 1930s, she commissioned contributions from distinguished authors such as Evelyn Waugh, George Bernard Shaw and Dylan Thomas. [Taken from the original programme...
Lord Weinstock
May 23, 1993 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.4 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a businessman. Born into a family of Polish-Jewish immigrants, he was orphaned at the age of nine and brought up by his older brothers. He studied at the London School of Economics and married the daughter of a manufacturer - the owner of a small electrical company. By the age of 34, he was its Managing Director. Today that company is a huge institution - GEC - which its Managing Director Lord Weinstock has steered safely through the choppy w...
Eva Burrows
May 16, 1993 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBSue Lawley's castaway is General of the Salvation Army Eva Burrows. Favourite track: St Matthew Passion Konnen Tranen Meiner Wangen by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Faber Book of Religious Verse Luxury: Game of Scrabble with paper and pencil
John Cole
May 09, 1993 10:15 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBSue Lawley's castaway is journalist and broadcaster John Cole. Favourite track: The Ode To Joy (Symphony No 9) by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust Luxury: Typewriter
John Boorman
May 02, 1993 10:15 - 37 minutes - 33.9 MBSue Lawley's castaway is film director John Boorman. Favourite track: Symphony No 7 Second Movement by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Memories, Dreams and Reflections by Karl Jung Luxury: Telescope
Baroness Blackstone
April 25, 1993 10:15 - 36 minutes - 33.3 MBThe castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Baroness Blackstone. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her political radicalisation at the London School of Economics in the 1960s, the difficulties of working motherhood and the different demands of her varied professional life encompassing the academic, political and public worlds. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Cosi fan Tutte Soave Sia Il Vento by Wolfgan...