Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Bill Nighy
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Bill Nighy
This week Sue's castaway is the award winning actor Bill Nighy.
Originally from Caterham in Surrey, he left school at 15 without any qualifications and ended up working at his local employment office. He hoped to become an author and began work on The Field magazine as a messenger boy, but then ran away to Paris at seventeen to write a novel. This venture failed and he ended up begging on the streets before returning to Britain and the Guildford School of Drama and Dance.
His first film role was as a delivery boy in Joan Collins' steamy film The Bitch. He's featured in numerous stage, TV, and radio dramas including the acclaimed Men's Room in 1991 and, more recently, in State of Play, where he played a newspaper editor. His career has been described by some critics as a slow burn rather than a beacon, although he's now widely recognised as achieving the acclaim he deserves. In February he won Best Supporting Actor at the Baftas for his role as Billy Mack, a washed up singer in the film Love Actually.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Winter by The Rolling Stones
Book: 1st edition of 49 Stories by Ernest Hemingway
Luxury: Boxed set of blues harps (harmonicas) and instruction book
View all episodes
By BBC Radio 4
4.6
6262 ratings
This week Sue's castaway is the award winning actor Bill Nighy.
Originally from Caterham in Surrey, he left school at 15 without any qualifications and ended up working at his local employment office. He hoped to become an author and began work on The Field magazine as a messenger boy, but then ran away to Paris at seventeen to write a novel. This venture failed and he ended up begging on the streets before returning to Britain and the Guildford School of Drama and Dance.
His first film role was as a delivery boy in Joan Collins' steamy film The Bitch. He's featured in numerous stage, TV, and radio dramas including the acclaimed Men's Room in 1991 and, more recently, in State of Play, where he played a newspaper editor. His career has been described by some critics as a slow burn rather than a beacon, although he's now widely recognised as achieving the acclaim he deserves. In February he won Best Supporting Actor at the Baftas for his role as Billy Mack, a washed up singer in the film Love Actually.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Winter by The Rolling Stones
Book: 1st edition of 49 Stories by Ernest Hemingway
Luxury: Boxed set of blues harps (harmonicas) and instruction book
More shows like Desert Island Discs: Archive 2000-2005
View all
Global News Podcast
7,585 Listeners
Newshour
1,049 Listeners
Woman's Hour
400 Listeners
In Our Time
5,454 Listeners
The Documentary Podcast
1,794 Listeners
6 Minute English
1,751 Listeners
Learning English Conversations
1,045 Listeners
The Infinite Monkey Cage
2,085 Listeners
Desert Island Discs
1,977 Listeners
Great Lives
479 Listeners
Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010
153 Listeners
Desert Island Discs: Archive 1991-1996
78 Listeners
Last Word
44 Listeners
Desert Island Discs: Archive 1996-2000
54 Listeners
F1: Chequered Flag
775 Listeners
Private Passions
45 Listeners
Desert Island Discs: Archive 2011-2015
57 Listeners
You're Dead to Me
3,188 Listeners
Life Changing
104 Listeners
Cyber Hack
1,619 Listeners
This Cultural Life
81 Listeners
Young Again
45 Listeners
Brydon &
80 Listeners
Rosebud with Gyles Brandreth
500 Listeners
Desert Island Discs: Archive: 2016-2018
27 Listeners