Desert Island Discs Revisited: By Royal Appointment - Sir Ian McKellen

DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT - SIR IAN MCKELLEN (320kbs-m4a/97mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 21st May 2023

Sir Ian McKellen shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

The actor grew up in Lancashire attending Wigan Grammar school and then Bolton School where he was Head Boy. His first trip to the theatre was as a three year old when he went to see Peter Pan at Manchester Opera House. At seven, a treasured Christmas present was a fold-away Victorian theatre from Pollocks Toy Theatres. Ian's older sister Jean introduced him to Shakespeare - taking him to see Twelfth Night at Wigan's Little Theatre. His first Shakespeare performance was playing Malvolio from the same play at the amateur Hopefield Miniature theatre when he was 13 years old.

Ian won a scholarship to read English at St Catharine's College, Cambridge and was soon appearing in regular productions, including appearing alongside now famous alumni such as Derek Jacobi, David Frost, Trevor Nunn and Margaret Drabble.

By the time Ian graduated in 1961 he had decided to become an actor, and got his first job in a production of A Man for All Seasons at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry. He has not been out of work since, appearing at the National Theatre and the RSC, and he has also forged a successful film career.

He's played an acclaimed Richard III for which he also wrote the screenplay, and had parts in X-Men, Gods and Monsters, for which his performance was Oscar-nominated, and playing Gandalf in Lord of the Rings.

Ian was made a Knight of the British Empire for services to the performing arts in the Queen's New Year Honours of 1990.

BOOK CHOICE: A dictionary of flora and fauna
LUXURY CHOICE: Grand piano
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Stormy Weather - Lena Horne

Producer: Lisa Jenkinson

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2003.

Vladimir Horowitz - Stars And Stripes Forever
Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor: Geoffrey Simon - Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings
Lindsay String Quartet - Beethoven's String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130 (2nd Movement)
Ethel Merman - Rose's Turn
Lena Horne - Stormy Weather
Nina Simone - Mississippi Goddam
Joanna MacGregor - Harrison's Clocks
ABBA - Dancing Queen

The Poet Laureate Has GoneTto His Shed - Ian McKellen

THE POET LAUREATE HAS GONE TO HIS SHED - IAN MCKELLEN (320kbs-m4a/140mb/61mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 5th February 2023

If the poets of the past sat in their garrets dipping their quills in ink, waiting for inspiration to strike, our current Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has a more mundane and domestic arrangement. From his wooden shed in the garden, surrounded on all sides by the Pennine Hills, he's been working on a new kind of poem he's invented - the Flyku - inspired by the moths and butterflies he sees around him. Any distraction is welcome, even encouraged, to talk about creativity, music, art, sheds, music, poetry and the countryside.

To kick off the new series, Sir Ian McKellen, whose acting career spans seven decades joins Simon to talk about everything from his early childhood in Wigan, creating the character of Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, remembering Shakespearian lines and getting an Elvish tattoo.

Produced by Susan Roberts