Desert Island Discs: Archive 1991-1996

Sue Lawley's guest on Desert Island Discs today is the writer Martin Amis. He describes his books as comedies, but, like London Fields and Other People, they are frequently dark and disturbing.

He says that he has no choice as to the subjects of his books. "They come from nowhere and feel like a little gulp in your digestive system". Although he admits that he's sometimes appalled by the characters he creates, writing itself is something he loves.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Yesterdays by Buddy Rich

The castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is Absolutely Fabulous! Jennifer Saunders began "doing funny things with props" in the early 1980s. With her stage partner Dawn French, she toured the clubs and comedy venues making people laugh with acts like The Menopause Sisters. As part of the Comic Strip performers, she burst onto our TV screens as one of the famous, if rather manic, five.

Now through her characters Edina and Patsy, she has created a comedy classic. But as she tells Sue Lawley, Absolutely Fabulous came about because, having taken a year off from French and Saunders, the phone was ominously silent, and she had absolutely nothing else to do.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: I Didn't Have The Nerve To Say No by Blondie

Today's castaway on Desert Island Discs confused the rock critics in the late 1970s with songs like Sweet Gene Vincent, Reasons to be Cheerful and outraged the BBC with Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll. Ian Dury and the Blockheads were part vaudeville act and part punk rock band. In his songs, he created the characters Clevor Trever and Billericay Dickie and so invented the original Essex Man. He's also a painter and an actor, but as he reveals to Sue Lawley, he's writing songs again and hopes to be back in the charts soon.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Ramblin by Ornette Coleman

On Desert Island Discs today the castaway is Robert Winston.

As Professor of Fertility Studies at Hammersmith Hospital in London, he has been at the forefront of medical developments in his field. He pioneered the screening of embryos for genetic defects and has frequently made the headlines with his views that all women, including widows, lesbians and those who are HIV positive, should be considered for treatment.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Goldberg Varations - Aria And Reprise From Variation by Johann Sebastian Bach

This week's castaway on Desert Island Discs may be nearing 70, but he knows how to play The Generation Game. Bruce Forsyth is one of the great all-rounders - television host, pianist, dancer and comedian.

He began performing as a child, tap-dancing on the roof of his father's lock-up garages. But, as he tells Sue Lawley, his big night came when he was asked to compere Sunday Night at the Palladium. He has spent more than five decades in showbiz, progressing from Boy Bruce the Mighty Atom, to probably the most successful game show host on television. To quote one of his own famous catchphrases, "Didn't he do well?"

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: I'll Never Love This Way Again by Dionne Warwick

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the Leader of the Opposition, the Right Honourable Tony Blair. He will be describing his beliefs, both political and religious, and revealing the man behind the sound bites.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Recuerdos De La Alhambra by John Williams

Atlanta was her sixth Olympic Games. The first was 20 years before. On Desert Island Discs, Tessa Sanderson reveals the competitive drive that brought her back from retirement at the age of 40 to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. She fondly recalls her rivalry with fellow competitor Fatima Whitbread, and remembers the moment she became the first and only British woman to win an Olympic throwing gold medal.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a writer, a traveller and an advisor to a Prince and Prime Minister.

Now nearly 90, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his early years in South Africa, his incarceration as a Japanese prisoner-of-war and his life-long campaign to save the bushmen of the Kalahari Desert.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Piano Sonata No. 17 in Dm 'Tempest' by Ludwig van Beethoven

He's called "His Excellency" by some; to others he's "Fatty Patten". Next year he will hand over Hong Kong to the Chinese.

Chris Patten, this week's castaway on Desert Island Discs, describes the challenges of being the colony's last British Governor. He recalls the moment he won the election for the Conservative Party, but lost his own seat, and how, as Environment Secretary, he found himself implementing "the single most unpopular policy that any British government has tried to introduce since the last war" - the poll tax.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Mass No. 18 in C minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the wine writer Jancis Robinson.

One of only 200 Masters of Wine in the world, she recalls how her passion was first aroused by a full-bodied Chambolle-Musigny. It was, she says, the first time she realised that wine was an intellectual experience and not just for lubrication. A familiar face on television for her Matters of Taste and Wine Course series, she also edited the prestigious Oxford Companion to Wine. But her main occupation is tasting, and she can sip and spit more than a hundred varieties at a sitting.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Sabat Mater Inflammatus Et Accensus by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi