Stephen Sondheim
Sue Lawley's castaway is composer Stephen Sondheim. Favourite track: Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess? by George Gershwin Book: The collected works by E B White Luxury: Piano
Dec 31, 2000•37 min
Desert Island Discs
Eight tracks, a book and a luxury: what would you take to a desert island? Guests share the soundtrack of their lives.
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Episodes
Norman Painting
Sue Lawley's castaway for this special edition of Desert Island Discs is Norman Painting, who has played Phil Archer in The Archers ever since its first episode in January 1951. He chooses eight records to take with him to the mythical island. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: 2nd movement of Shubert's String Quintet in C by Shubert Book: The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley Luxury: An orrary - an electronic toy for...
Dec 26, 2000•42 min
Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the astrophysicist Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Jocelyn Bell Burnell was only twenty-four when she made the discovery of a lifetime: As she was mapping the universe for her PhD, she chanced upon the radio signal for a totally new kind of star, known as a 'pulsar'. Her find is seen as one of the most important contributions to astrophysics in the twentieth century. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Fa...
Dec 24, 2000•36 min
Richard Briers
Sue Lawley's castaway is actor Richard Briers. Favourite track: The Cuckoo and the Nightingale by George Frideric Handel Book: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Luxury: A huge supply of Chardonnay
Dec 17, 2000•33 min
Tim Smit
This week Sue Lawley's castaway is Tim Smit, the co-founder of the Eden Project in Cornwall. Before Tim Smit thought of building the largest greenhouse in the world, he had already attracted public attention by resurrecting The Lost Gardens of Heligan. Before that he'd enjoyed a successful music career, writing songs and working with - among others - Barry Manilow and the Nolan Sisters. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: ...
Dec 10, 2000•33 min
Tina Brown
This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is the editor of Talk magazine, Tina Brown. Her reputation as a formidable magazine editor spans both sides of the Atlantic - with the revamp of Tatler, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, raising eyebrows as well as circulation figures. In conversation with Sue Lawley, she talks about her life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Fa...
Dec 03, 2000•36 min
Albie Sachs
This week Sue Lawley's castaway is judge Albie Sachs. The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, his account of being placed in solitary confinement by the South African authorities, highlighted the dangers of campaigning against apartheid in the 1960s. After a long exile in Britain, Albie Sachs returned to his homeland in the 1990s to help shape its new constitution and become one of its most senior judges. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favouri...
Nov 26, 2000•36 min
Des Lynam
Sue Lawley's castaway is sports presenter Des Lynam. Favourite track: In Party mood by West End Celebrity Orchestra Book: Encyclopaedia of Natural Medicine Luxury: A drumkit
Nov 19, 2000•35 min
J K Rowling
Sue Lawley's castaway is the writer and creator of Harry Potter J K Rowling. Favourite track: First movement-Violin Concerto in D Major by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Book: SAS Survival Guide Luxury: Pen and unlimited paper
Nov 05, 2000•36 min
Ronald Harwood
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the writer Ronald Harwood. At the age of 17 Ronald Harwood left his home in South Africa and set sail for England, determined to become an actor. When that failed he turned his hand successfully to writing. Some plays, like The Dresser, draw on his theatrical experiences, others, like Articles of Faith deal with the political dilemmas. He leaves behind his thought-provoking work to join Sue Lawley on the mythical island. [Taken from the original programme mater...
Aug 27, 2000•36 min
Christopher Lloyd
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the gardener and writer Christopher Lloyd. Well known for his forthright opinions, Christopher Lloyd has tended his family garden at Great Dixter in Sussex for nearly 70 years. It's been the source of inspiration for his many books and his column in the magazine Country Life, which he's written without a break since 1963. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Goldberg Variations by Johann S...
Aug 20, 2000•37 min
Robert Swan
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the explorer and environmentalist, Robert Swan. When he was a boy Robert Swan became fascinated by Scott's attempt to conquer Antarctica and after university he decided not only to follow in his footsteps - but go one further and travel across the Arctic as well. In 1989 he achieved his dream - becoming the first man ever to walk unsupported to both the North and South Poles. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island ...
Aug 13, 2000•36 min
Sir Norman Wisdom
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actor and comedian Sir Norman Wisdom. His cloth cap and tight-fitting jacket became his screen trademark in the 1950s and 1960s and characters like Norman Pitkin won him fans all over the world. Sir Norman talks to Sue Lawley about a career that's spanned more than 60 years and chooses eight records to take with him the mythical island. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Don't Laugh ...
Aug 06, 2000•33 min
General Sir Charles Guthrie
This week, Sue Lawley's castaway on Desert Island Discs is General Sir Charles Guthrie. Favourite track: The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by Giuseppe Verdi Book: Vol 1 of biography of the Duke of Wellington - Year of the Sword by Lady Longford Luxury: Surfboard
Jul 30, 2000•35 min
Sir Roger Penrose
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the mathematician Sir Roger Penrose. His prize-winning work with Stephen Hawking on the nature of black holes brought his name to public attention in the 1960s. Since then he has made a controversial contribution to the debate over human consciousness and whether or not computers will ever be able to mimic the workings of the human mind. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Crucifixion fro...
Jul 23, 2000•37 min
Rt Hon Michael Portillo MP
This week, Sue Lawley's castaway on Desert Island Discs is Michael Portillo. Favourite track: Viene la Sera by Giacomo Puccini Book: Proust: Time Regained by Alain de Botton Luxury: Solar-powered laptop
Jul 16, 2000•36 min
Alan Parker
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Alan Parker. When Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone came out in 1975, it marked the beginning of a very successful and sometimes controversial career. Films like Midnight Express, Fame and The Commitments underline his versatility and have won him countless awards all over the world. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Nimrod by Edward Elgar Book: A giant photo album of his four children and gra...
Jul 09, 2000•34 min
Peter Nichols
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the playwright Peter Nichols. His award winning work, including Privates on Parade and A Day in The Death of Joe Egg has left audiences in stitches and sometimes in tears. With the recent revival of Passion Play, his darkly comic tale about adultery, Peter Nichols talks to Sue Lawley about his life and writing, and chooses eight records to take to the mythical desert island. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island D...
Jul 02, 2000•35 min
Dr Max Perutz
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Dr Max Perutz. When he left Austria in 1936 to study at Cambridge, his fellow students dismissed his ambition to decipher the structure of the protein haemoglobin as 'mad'. No-one had seriously attempted to map a molecule that was made up of 10,000 atoms. Twenty-two years later he was successful. It was an achievement that earned him and his colleague John Kendrew the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962 - and has since contributed to the study of blood diseases li...
Jun 25, 2000•37 min
Donald Sutherland
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Donald Sutherland. He has acted in 104 films, including such classics as MASH, Don't Look Now and JFK. Tall and lanky as a child, he was called 'Goofus' or 'Dumbo' because of his big ears. However, it was those ears that caught the attention of the director of The Dirty Dozen and thus his film career was launched. Now appearing on the British stage for the first time in 36 years, he chooses eight records to take to the mythical desert island. [Taken from the or...
Jun 18, 2000•35 min
Clive James
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Clive James. Author, critic and television personality, he is presently contemplating his fourth autobiography - tracing the journey from his childhood in Australia to the Footlights Review at Cambridge University, and then to becoming the wittiest television critic and presenter in Britain. During the interview Clive reads extracts from his poem 'Young Australian Rider, P.G. Burman', taken from his book Other Passport Poems 1958-1985. [Taken from the original ...
Jun 11, 2000•34 min
Professor Géza Vermes
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Professor Geza Vermes . When he wrote Jesus the Jew in the early 1970s, it shocked the Christian world. He continued to examine Jesus through three more books, drawing on his lifetime's study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Born in Hungary in the 1920s, his Jewish parents had converted to Catholicism, but it did not save them from the Nazis. He was ordained a Catholic priest, but returned his Jewish roots and his study of the religion and culture of first-century Pale...
Jun 04, 2000•39 min
John Bird
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is John Bird. As a student, he changed the face of the Cambridge Footlights review by rejecting jokes on bed-makers and punting and writing a political review instead. In the early 1960s he helped found The Establishment Club with Peter Cook. Writing sketches with John Fortune, they found they were unable to find suitable actors to perform their work, and so took to the stage themselves. Satire, he says, died in the late 1960s and he struggled to make a living, un...
May 28, 2000•38 min
Dame Norma Major
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Dame Norma Major. In her book on the Prime Minister's residence, Chequers, she revealed how Neville Chamberlain would spend time measuring the girths of his favourite trees, and how Ramsay MacDonald chopped wood every morning dressed in plus-fours. She herself was uncomfortable there, and she remembers the loneliness and stress of being the country's First Lady. She says her love of music, and her work for charity helped her through the tough times. [Taken from...
May 21, 2000•35 min
Kathleen Turner
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Kathleen Turner. A versatile actress, she's been the femme fatal in films like Body Heat, parodied that role in comedies like Serial Mom, and played the romantic adventurer in Romancing the Stone. But, she says, ''I never play the victim, because I'm not attracted to a woman who doesn't try''. It's an attitude which must have helped her when she developed rheumatoid arthritis which left her severely bloated and in pain. Presently wowing audiences as Mrs Robinso...
May 14, 2000•33 min
Sir John Mills
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Sir John Mills. He was only six when he decided he wanted to be an actor. And now after seventy years in show business he is still touring the world with his one man show. It was the war which made him a star and the films he made then eventually led to Hollywood. There he made friends with Laurence Olivier, Rex Harrison and Noel Coward, to whom he says he owes a great debt. He won an Oscar for his performance in Ryan's Daughter, but one of his favourite films ...
May 07, 2000•34 min
Sir Peter Bonfield
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Sir Peter Bonfield. The chief executive of British Telecommunications, it is said that when he left his previous company, its Japanese owner presented him with a samurai sword and helmet to remind him of the warrior qualities he would need at BT. And certainly the challenges facing him in this fast moving industry have tested all his discipline and determination - qualities he says he learnt as a boy at the local convent school. [Taken from the original program...
Apr 30, 2000•34 min
Leonard Slatkin
This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is the conductor Leonard Slatkin. An American, he is about to take on the mantle of chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Renouned for his championing of both the American and British cannons, his aim has always been to demystify music of all kinds. He has spun discs on a pirate radio station and played honky tonk piano in a jazz bar. His parents' Hollywood String Quartet was the best known band in town and the Slatkin household was often fi...
Apr 23, 2000•38 min
Sir Anthony Caro
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Sir Anthony Caro. Universally regarded as the 'grand old man of British sculpture', in the 1950s he had learnt from his mentor Henry Moore that artistic rules were there to be broken. So he yanked sculpture off it's pedestal and set it on the floor. And he rejected the traditional materials of bronze, marble and wood for girders, nuts and bolts. In fact as he confesses to Sue Lawley, nothing is safe from his magpie eye: parts of ships, cars, even kitchen equipm...
Apr 16, 2000•35 min
Claire Tomalin
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Claire Tomalin. A writer and literary editor, she is probably best known for a series of acclaimed biographies of women, including Mary Wollstonecraft, and Jane Austin. She began working in the literary world late in life, after bringing up her family. This, and a series of personal tragedies, including the death of her husband and two of her children, has no doubt made her particularly sympathetic to the lives of literary women in the 19th century. [Taken from...
Apr 09, 2000•38 min
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