Desert Island Discs

By BBC Radio 4

Personal Journals Society & Culture

What's Desert Island Discs about?

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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LAST EPISODE

Professor Averil Mansfield,...

10.18.2020

Averil Mansfield is a retired vascular surgeon and was the first female Professor of Surgery in the UK when she was appointed in 1993. She was born in 1937 in Blackpool, where her father worked as a welder on the ...

Desert Island Discs episodes:

10.18.2020 Professor Averil Mansfield, retired surgeon Averil Mansfield is a retired vascular surgeon and was the first female Professor of Surgery in the UK when she was appointed in 1993. She was born in 1937 in Blackpool, where her father worked as a welder on the ...
10.15.2020 Baroness Floella Benjamin, DBE Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE is a Trinidadian-British broadcaster, writer and politician. She became a familiar face to millions of viewers through her work on children's television, most notably on Play School, which she first presented in 1976. She was born ...
10.04.2020 Samantha Morton, actor Samantha Morton is an actor and director. She has appeared in films directed by Woody Allen and Steven Spielberg, and is also known for her work on independent productions, often with serious themes such as prostitution and bereavement. She has ...
09.27.2020 Yusuf Cat Stevens, musician Yusuf Cat Stevens is a singer-songwriter who first enjoyed success more than 50 years ago. He was born Steven Demetre Georgiou in July 1948. His Greek Cypriot father and his Swedish mother ran a restaurant in the West End of ...
09.20.2020 Bernardine Evaristo, writer Bernardine Evaristo won the Booker Prize in 2019 for her novel, Girl, Woman, Other. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London. Bernardine was born in May 1959, the fourth of eight children, to an English mother and ...
09.13.2020 Classic Desert Island Discs - Jack Charlton The ball rolled past the gap between him and Gordon Banks and into the back of the net. The Germans were one goal up. Jack Charlton, Sue Lawley's castaway, recalls the match which was to bring him to his knees ...
09.06.2020 Classic Desert Island Discs - Liz Smith Kirsty Young's castaway is the actress Liz Smith. Her story is a triumph of talent and perseverance over circumstance. Her mother died when she was tiny, her father walked out of her life and for many years she was brought ...
08.30.2020 Classic Desert Island Discs - Terry Jones Roy Plomley's castaway is the Monty Python comedian Terry Jones, in a programme first broadcast in 1983. Terry Jones died in January 2020, at the age of 77.
08.23.2020 Classic Desert Island Discs - Wendy Cope Wendy Cope is one of England’s most popular and widely-read contemporary poets. Wendy was born in Erith, Kent. Her father was 29 years older than her mother and she was sent to boarding school at the age of seven. Although ...
08.16.2020 Classic Desert Island Discs - Bryan Stevenson Kirsty Young's castaway is Bryan Stevenson. An American lawyer, he is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a private, not-for-profit organisation working on death penalty cases, cases of children sentenced as adults, prison and sentencing reform, ...
08.10.2020 Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate Maria Balshaw is the Director of Tate, overseeing four major art galleries: Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, Tate Modern and Tate St Ives. Maria was born in 1970 in Birmingham, and grew up in Northampton, where her father, Walter, was a ...
08.02.2020 Steve Backshall, Explorer Steve Backshall is an explorer, naturalist and broadcaster. His BAFTA-winning programmes bring viewers of every generation closer to nature – from the children's series Deadly 60, featuring close encounters with the most dangerous and venomous creatures on earth, to Blue ...
07.26.2020 Sharon Horgan, writer, actor, producer Sharon Horgan is a writer, actor and producer best known for co-writing and co-starring in the Channel 4 series Catastrophe with US comedian Rob Delaney. Sharon was born in 1970 in east London, where her parents Ursula and John were ...
07.19.2020 Annie Nightingale, DJ Annie Nightingale was BBC Radio 1’s first female presenter and is its longest-serving DJ, celebrating her 50th anniversary at the station this year. Born and brought up in south west London, she fell in love with the romance and mystery ...
07.12.2020 Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg is the Secretary General of NATO and a former Prime Minister of Norway. Although he was born into a political family in Norway, he grew up thinking he would become a statistician, before turning to a career in ...
07.05.2020 Helen Fielding, author Helen Fielding, writer and journalist, is best known for creating Bridget Jones, who first appeared in a newspaper column in the Independent in 1995, in the form of a diary detailing the single 30-something’s exploits in London as she tried ...
06.28.2020 Helen McCrory, actress Helen McCrory shares the eight tracks, book and luxury she would want to take with her if cast away to a desert island. Helen McCrory OBE is one of the most versatile and critically acclaimed actresses working today. On screen ...
06.21.2020 Mark Johnston, racehorse trainer Racehorse trainer Mark Johnston is a lynchpin of British flat racing. In August 2018 - when 20-1 shot Poet's Society, ridden by Frankie Dettori, streaked to victory at York - Mark became the most prolific winning trainer in British racing ...
06.14.2020 Joe Wicks, fitness trainer and author Joe Wicks, professionally known as The Body Coach, is a fitness and nutrition coach. Since the lockdown, he has been running daily free virtual PE lessons for children and adults stuck at home. In March he became a Guinness World ...
06.07.2020 Martin Lewis, financial campaigner Martin Lewis is a financial journalist, campaigner and broadcaster. His high-profile campaigns on bank charges, student finance, and mental health and debt have made headlines, and millions of people subscribe to his weekly money tips email. He founded the Money ...
05.31.2020 Professor Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, former nurse Elizabeth Anionwu is a retired nurse, campaigner and Emeritus Professor of Nursing at the University of West London. A fellow of the Royal College of Nursing, she spent 40 years in the profession and has been named one of the ...
05.24.2020 Charles Hazlewood, conductor Charles Hazlewood is a conductor and the founder of Paraorchestra, the world's first professional ensemble of disabled musicians. Once described as the Heston Blumenthal of orchestral music, Charles has spent his career challenging Britain’s musical palate, exploding boundaries and expanding ...
05.17.2020 Sinead Burke, disability rights activist and teacher Sinead Burke is a disability rights activist and teacher. She has combined her love of education and style to campaign for more representation of diversity in the fashion industry. Born in Dublin, Sinead has achondroplasia – a genetic condition which ...
05.10.2020 Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate Simon Armitage was appointed Poet Laureate in 2019. His poems celebrate the everyday and the ordinary with wit and affection. But beyond the wood chip and washing lines he addresses the complexities and the profound feelings that underpin daily life. ...
05.03.2020 Classic Desert Island Discs - Lubaina Himid Lauren Laverne's castaway is the artist Lubaina Himid. The programme was first broadcast in June 2019.
04.26.2020 Classic Desert Island Discs - John Cooper Clarke Lauren Laverne's castaway is the poet John Cooper Clarke. The programme was first broadcast in July 2019.
04.19.2020 Classic Desert Island Discs - Albert & Michel Roux Michael Parkinson's castaways are the restaurateurs and chefs Albert and Michel Roux (broadcast in 1986). Michel died in March 2020 at the age of 78.
04.12.2020 Classic Desert Island Discs - Jilly Cooper Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer Jilly Cooper, best known for her best-selling series of romantic novels The Rutshire Chronicles.
03.29.2020 Brian Cox, actor Brian Cox CBE is a Scottish actor whose career spans almost 60 years, from his early days sweeping the stage at his local theatre in Dundee to his current Golden Globe-winning role as the media patriarch Logan Roy in the ...
03.22.2020 Dame Helena Morrissey, financier and campaigner Dame Helena Morrissey is a former City fund manager and chief executive of a major investment company, who has also campaigned to boost the number of women in the boardroom. Newspapers regularly describe her as 'Superwoman', because alongside her many ...
03.15.2020 Daniel Radcliffe, actor Daniel Radcliffe reached a global audience in the title role of the hugely successful Harry Potter films. He has also appeared on Broadway and in the West End, as well as in over a dozen films since the final part ...
03.08.2020 Chris Riddell, illustrator, author and political cartoonist Chris Riddell is an illustrator, author of children’s books and a political cartoonist. From 2015 to 2017, he was the Children’s Laureate, and he has won three Greenaway Medals for his work – more than any other illustrator. He was ...
03.01.2020 Dorothy Byrne, journalist Dorothy Byrne is the head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4, and has worked in journalism for more than four decades. In 2018 she received the Outstanding Contribution Award at Royal Television Society Journalism Awards, and her recent ...
02.23.2020 Melanie C Melanie Chisholm - known as Melanie C - is a singer and songwriter who found global fame as one fifth of the Spice Girls, the most commercially successful female group ever. Melanie was one of 400 other hopefuls who answered ...
02.16.2020 Ian Wright, former footballer and broadcaster Ian Wright is a former professional footballer and now a football pundit on TV and radio. He began his career at Crystal Palace before moving to Arsenal where he became their highest goal scorer of all time, a record only ...
02.09.2020 Zoe Ball, broadcaster Zoe Ball is a radio and television presenter. She became the first woman to present the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show in 1997, and then the first woman to present the Radio 2 Breakfast Show in 2019. Zoe grew up ...
02.02.2020 Sonita Alleyne, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge Sonita Alleyne is the Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, the first woman to hold the post and - more significantly - the first black master of any Oxbridge college. In her previous career in the media, she was the co-founder ...
01.26.2020 Anne Enright, writer Anne Enright won the Booker Prize for her fourth novel, The Gathering, in 2007, and was appointed the inaugural Laureate for Irish Fiction in 2015. She has written seven novels, two collections of short stories and a book of essays ...
01.19.2020 Dame Sue Campbell, Director Women's Football at the FA Dame Sue Campbell is the Director of Women’s Football at the Football Association. The women’s game has become increasingly popular recently and last year the England team - the Lionesses - made it to the World Cup semi-finals. Born in ...
01.12.2020 Michael Lewis, writer Michael Lewis is a best-selling non-fiction writer and journalist. He initially worked for an investment bank, and his experiences of Wall Street excess in the 1980s informed his acclaimed first book, Liar’s Poker. Three of his later books – Moneyball, ...
01.09.2020 Rupert Everett, actor Rupert Everett is an actor, writer and director whose breakthrough came in 1981 when he was cast as a gay schoolboy in Another Country, Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film. Rupert later starred in Dance with a Stranger before making ...
12.22.2019 Stephen Merchant, writer, comedian and actor Stephen Merchant first came to fame with the TV sitcom The Office, which he co-wrote and co-directed with Ricky Gervais. He continued to work with Gervais on the series Extras, Life is Short and An Idiot Abroad. His comedy hero ...
12.15.2019 Heidi Thomas, screenwriter Heidi Thomas is a screenwriter and playwright best known for Call the Midwife. The BBC TV series, which began in 2012, was originally a six part adaptation of a trilogy of memoirs by Jennifer Worth, recalling her experiences as a ...
12.08.2019 Professor Russell Foster, professor of circadian neuroscience Professor Russell Foster is head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford, professor of circadian neuroscience and the director of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology. An expert in sleep, he describes it as 'the single ...
12.01.2019 Asif Kapadia, film director Asif Kapadia is an Academy Award-winning film director, renowned for his documentaries about the musician Amy Winehouse, the Brazilian motor racing star Ayrton Senna, and the Argentinian footballer, Diego Maradona. Born in 1972, Asif is the youngest of five children. ...
11.24.2019 Isabella Tree, writer and conservationist Isabella Tree is a conservationist and writer of the award-winning book Wilding: the Return of Nature to a British Farm, which tells the story of rewilding a 3,500 acre farm estate in Sussex, which she oversaw with her husband Charlie. ...
11.17.2019 Stephen Graham, actor Stephen Graham is an actor, whose credits include key roles in films including This is England and The Irishman, and in TV dramas such as Boardwalk Empire and Line of Duty. Stephen was born in Kirkby just outside Liverpool in ...
11.13.2019 Lauren Laverne picks some of her favourite episodes Hear stories & track choices from castaways including Len Goodman, Maya Angelou and Stephen Hawking.
11.10.2019 Kimberley Motley, lawyer Kimberley Motley is an American attorney and the first foreign lawyer to practise in Afghanistan. Born in 1975 to an African-American father and a North Korean mother, she grew up in a poor neighbourhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where hers was ...
11.03.2019 Russell T Davies, screenwriter Russell T Davies is one of the U.K.’s most successful television writers. He spent his teenage years learning his dramatic craft with the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre, and his career in television began in the children’s department at the BBC. ...

Older episodes

Desert Island Discs

What's Desert Island Discs about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Desert Island Discs episodes:

Professor Averil Mansfield, retired surgeon

Baroness Floella Benjamin, DBE

Samantha Morton, actor

Yusuf Cat Stevens, musician

Bernardine Evaristo, writer

Classic Desert Island Discs - Jack Charlton

Classic Desert Island Discs - Liz Smith

Classic Desert Island Discs - Terry Jones

Classic Desert Island Discs - Wendy Cope

Classic Desert Island Discs - Bryan Stevenson

Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate

Steve Backshall, Explorer

Sharon Horgan, writer, actor, producer

Annie Nightingale, DJ

Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO

Helen Fielding, author

Helen McCrory, actress

Mark Johnston, racehorse trainer

Joe Wicks, fitness trainer and author

Martin Lewis, financial campaigner

Professor Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, former nurse

Charles Hazlewood, conductor

Sinead Burke, disability rights activist and teacher

Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate

Classic Desert Island Discs - Lubaina Himid

Classic Desert Island Discs - John Cooper Clarke

Classic Desert Island Discs - Albert & Michel Roux

Classic Desert Island Discs - Jilly Cooper

Brian Cox, actor

Dame Helena Morrissey, financier and campaigner

Daniel Radcliffe, actor

Chris Riddell, illustrator, author and political cartoonist

Dorothy Byrne, journalist

Melanie C

Ian Wright, former footballer and broadcaster

Zoe Ball, broadcaster

Sonita Alleyne, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge

Anne Enright, writer

Dame Sue Campbell, Director Women's Football at the FA

Michael Lewis, writer

Rupert Everett, actor

Stephen Merchant, writer, comedian and actor

Heidi Thomas, screenwriter

Professor Russell Foster, professor of circadian neuroscience

Asif Kapadia, film director

Isabella Tree, writer and conservationist

Stephen Graham, actor

Lauren Laverne picks some of her favourite episodes

Kimberley Motley, lawyer

Russell T Davies, screenwriter

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