Desert Island Discs: Archive 1996-2000

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the actress Nicole Kidman. Fresh from her West End triumph in The Blue Room, she traces her life from her suburban Australian upbringing to the heart of Hollywood and beyond. She chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

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

Favourite track: What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the nuclear physicist and Nobel Peace Laureate, Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat. During World War II he quit the notorious Manhattan Project to develop the atom bomb when he realised that 'nothing good can come out of evil'. Fifty years later he is still committed to multilateral disarmament and the pursuit of peace.

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

Favourite track: A Rill will be a Stream, a Stream will be a Flood by Swedish Physicians in Concert for the Prevention of Nuclear War

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the conductor Paul Daniel. Within weeks of becoming Music Director of the English National Opera his boss had resigned and there was talk of its merging with Covent Garden. He recalls how he won the war for the ENO's survival and the musical experiences which led him there.

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

Favourite track: Irrlicht from Winterreise. by Franz Schubert

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the television script writer Lucy Gannon. Her life informs much of her work. When she created Soldier Soldier she used her experience of the military police. In The Gift she drew on her grief when her mother died. And Trip Trap reflected the violence of her first marriage.

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

Favourite track: The Best by Tina Turner

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the stage designer Ralph Koltai. He says his work is not about art, but about ideas. His stage sets are a metaphor for the whole play. Thus he thrilled Ken Russell by building him four stages each resembling different parts of a woman's body. His aim? To represent the degradation of women in the 18th century.

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

Favourite track: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor by Max Bruch

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the Australian poet Les Murray. He began writing when he realised that poetry didn't have to be about daffodils in a far off English field but could reflect the world around him; from the sheep and cows on the family farm, to the wallabies in the outback. His most powerful subject though, is his own depression which has dogged him for more than 50 years.

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

Favourite track: La Valse a Mille Temps by Jacques Brel

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the explorer David Hempleman Adams. This year he completed the Adventurer's Grand Slam. It took 18 years. When he reached the North Pole this April he had conquered the four main poles, and climbed the highest peaks in each of the seven continents. He was quite literally on top of the world.

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

Favourite track: Manha de Carnaval by Stan Getz

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the political cartoonist Ralph Steadman. His career was launched in 1961 with a five-pound cheque from the satirical magazine Private Eye. Later he collaborated with Hunter S Thompson and illustrated his Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. More recently he's begun to write and illustrate his own books - on Freud, Leonardo da Vinci and God.

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

Favourite track: Wish You Were Here by Theo Steadman

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the singer-songwriter Chris de Burgh. Best known for his ballad Lady in Red, he began his career playing to guests in the crumbling Irish castle which his family ran as a hotel. He chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

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

Favourite track: Kyrie from the Misa Criolla by Ariel Ramirez

Sue Lawley's castaway is the playwright Howard Brenton. In the 1960s he was part of a movement called the New Jacobeans. They took drama out of the drawing room and on to a bigger stage. Often controversial, in Romans in Britain he drew parallels with Northern Ireland and earned the wrath of Mary Whitehouse for what she described as "procuring the cast to commit immoral acts".

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

Favourite track: Weichet nur, Betrube Schatten, from the Wedding Cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach