Desert Island Discs

Tracey Ullman, actor and comedian

09.26.2021 - By BBC Radio 4Play

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Tracey Ullman was the first woman to be offered her own television sketch show – both in Britain and America – and has starred in film and television dramas alongside Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett and Hugh Grant. The Emmy-winning Tracey Ullman Show ran for four seasons in the US and provided the launch pad for the Simpsons. Tracey was born in Slough and as a child she would impersonate people and put on shows for the amusement of her mother after the death of her father. At 12 she won a scholarship to the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London and worked in repertory theatre and the West End in London before her television career took off. She was one of the stars of the BBC’s prime time sketch show Three of a Kind alongside David Copperfield and a young Lenny Henry. In 1985 she moved to Los Angeles with her husband, the producer Allan McKeown, where her uncanny impressions of Americans from all walks of life won her acclaim and awards in equal measure. After the death of her husband Tracey returned to the UK in 2016 and was soon back on our screens in a new sketch series, Tracey Ullman’s Show, which showcased her enduring talent for sending up the powerful and the famous, including Dame Judi Dench, Angela Merkel and Theresa May. DISC ONE: American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

DISC TWO: You Won't See Me by The Beatles

DISC THREE: Nichols and May At Work by Mike Nichols And Elaine May

DISC FOUR: That's The Way Of The World by Earth, Wind & Fire

DISC FIVE: Everyday I Write the Book by Elvis Costello And The Attractions

DISC SIX: They Don’t Know by Kirsty MacColl

DISC SEVEN: You and I by Stevie Wonder

DISC EIGHT: This Is the Sea by The Waterboys BOOK CHOICE: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend

LUXURY ITEM: Nuts

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: You and I by Stevie Wonder Presenter Lauren Laverne

Producer Paula McGinley

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