Desert Island Discs

Mark Strong, actor

03.07.2021 - By BBC Radio 4Play

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Mark Strong has appeared in more than 60 films, along with numerous TV dramas and plays. His career took off after he won a leading role in the landmark 1996 BBC series Our Friends in the North, and since then his screen work includes dramas such as Syriana, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Zero Dark Thirty and The Imitation Game, as well as the fantasy and comic book worlds of Stardust, Kick Ass and Shazam. In 2015 he won the Olivier best actor award for his London stage performance in A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller, in a production that also won him great acclaim in New York. Mark was born in London, the only child of an Austrian mother and an Italian father. His father left the family when Mark was a baby and has played no part in his life. Thanks to his mother, Mark is fluent in German, and he spent most of his school holidays with his Austrian grandmother. His mother had two jobs to support them both, and Mark attended state boarding schools in the UK from the age of six. His first taste of performing came in a punk rock band at school, but he began his further education by starting a law degree in Germany, before changing course and returning to the UK to study drama. Most recently he has been filming the TV drama Temple, in which he plays a rogue surgeon operating in abandoned tunnels beneath a London underground station. DISC ONE: Spanish Stroll by Mink DeVille

DISC TWO: Are You Lonesome Tonight (Laughing Version) by Elvis Presley

DISC THREE: Helden by David Bowie

DISC FOUR: Police and Thieves by The Clash

DISC FIVE: (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by Devo

DISC SIX: You’ve Got the Love by The Source featuring Candi Staton (Eren’s Bootleg Mix)

DISC SEVEN: Peter Piper by Run DMC

DISC EIGHT: Whole Lotta Love by Ike and Tina Turner

BOOK CHOICE: Magnum Streetwise: The Ultimate Collection of Street Photography

LUXURY ITEM: A wind up radio

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Helden by David Bowie Presenter Lauren Laverne

Producer Sarah Taylor

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