The 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 overc...
Jun 25, 1995•35 min
The 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 it p...
Jun 18, 1995•37 min
The 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 of the...
Jun 11, 1995•32 min
The 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 Of Earth...
Jun 04, 1995•37 min
The 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 a ni...
May 28, 1995•36 min
Sue 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, just 36...
May 21, 1995•37 min
The 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, he n...
May 14, 1995•37 min
The 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 was i...
May 07, 1995•36 min
The 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 have ...
Apr 30, 1995•36 min
The 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-emergence to...
Apr 23, 1995•38 min
The 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, wher...
Apr 16, 1995•37 min
The 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 Journey o...
Apr 09, 1995•36 min
The 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 her...
Apr 02, 1995•41 min
The 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, he l...
Mar 19, 1995•38 min
The 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 mother a...
Mar 12, 1995•37 min
The 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 Island...
Mar 05, 1995•38 min
The 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 Frideric...
Feb 26, 1995•38 min
The 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 dress se...
Feb 19, 1995•38 min
The 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 track: Symph...
Jan 29, 1995•39 min
The 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 the ori...
Jan 22, 1995•37 min
The 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 thinks of ...
Jan 15, 1995•35 min
The 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, making h...
Jan 08, 1995•37 min
The 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 Dead Marc...
Jan 01, 1995•38 min
The 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 Darli...
Dec 25, 1994•34 min
The 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 garden ...
Dec 18, 1994•36 min
The 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 offic...
Dec 04, 1994•37 min
The 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 this ar...
Nov 27, 1994•37 min
The 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...
Nov 20, 1994•35 min
The 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 wid...
Nov 13, 1994•39 min
The 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 South ...
Nov 06, 1994•38 min
