The 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 ...
Jan 23, 1994•36 min
The 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...
Jan 16, 1994•37 min
The 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 Wolfgang Am...
Jan 09, 1994•37 min
The 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 his...
Jan 02, 1994•38 min
Twenty-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 earned ...
Dec 26, 1993•37 min
The 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 for t...
Dec 19, 1993•36 min
The 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 possessi...
Nov 28, 1993•36 min
The 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. [Take...
Nov 21, 1993•37 min
The 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 archi...
Nov 14, 1993•36 min
The 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: Huckleb...
Nov 07, 1993•37 min
The 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 Sterne...
Oct 31, 1993•37 min
The 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 material for...
Oct 24, 1993•36 min
The 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. [Take...
Oct 17, 1993•36 min
The 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 its el...
Oct 10, 1993•38 min
The 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 progra...
Oct 03, 1993•37 min
The 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 of De...
Sep 26, 1993•37 min
The 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 part o...
Sep 19, 1993•35 min
The 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 Burana Ecce ...
Sep 12, 1993•37 min
The 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 Ah Taci...
Jul 11, 1993•36 min
The 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 of ...
Jul 04, 1993•37 min
The 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 mate...
Jun 27, 1993•38 min
Sue 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
Jun 20, 1993•36 min
The 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 progra...
Jun 13, 1993•36 min
The 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 this ar...
Jun 06, 1993•34 min
The 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 mater...
May 30, 1993•37 min
The 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 waters...
May 23, 1993•38 min
Sue 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
May 16, 1993•38 min
Sue 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
May 09, 1993•38 min
Sue 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
May 02, 1993•37 min
The 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 Wolfgang Amadeu...
Apr 25, 1993•36 min
