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DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: OSCAR WINNERS 3 - DUSTIN HOFFMAN (320kbs-m4a/96mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 9th March 2026
Hollywood film actor Dustin Hoffman is castaway by Kirsty Young.
In spite of Dustin's Aunt Pearl telling him he wasn't good looking enough to be an actor, for the past 45 years he's been crafting landmark movie performances.
He is that rare and apparently contradictory thing - a character actor and a superstar.
The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, Lenny, All The President's Men, Marathon Man, Kramer v Kramer, Tootsie, Rain Man, Wag The Dog, and Last Chance Harvey are just a handful of the movies that contribute to an unparalleled body of work.
Dustin is the only actor in history to have top billing in three films that won Best Picture Oscars.
Now in his mid-70s he is making his directorial debut.
He says "I'm always fighting to break through... I'm trying to show you the part of me that wants to love, wants to kill, that wants to find my way out, that feels there is no way out."
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Trevor Peacock and David Ryall - Are You Havin' Any Fun?
BOOK CHOICE: The complete works - Charles Dickens
LUXURY CHOICE: An endless bar
Producer: Cathy Drysdale
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2012.
Ritchie Valens - La Bamba
Slim Gaillard - Cement Mixer
Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
Diana Krall - Frim Fram Sauce
Bette Midler - Shoot The Breeze
Jon Hendricks - How High The Moon
Donnie Brooks - Memphis
Trevor Peacock & David Ryall - Are You Havin' Any Fun?
DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: THE INTERVIEWERS - LOUIS THEROUX (320kbs-m4a/97mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 1st March 2026
Filmmaker Louis Theroux is castaway by Lauren Laverne.
Louis is a TV documentary-maker. He has received two BAFTAs and a Royal Television Society Award for his work which includes the series Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends and When Louis Met…
Born in 1970, and brought up in south London, he is the son of the American writer Paul Theroux and the BBC World Service radio producer Anne Castle.
He was privately educated at Westminster School and read History at Oxford, graduating with a first.
He moved to the USA where he was introduced to the American documentary maker Michael Moore and started making segments on unusual subcultures for Moore’s show TV Nation.
He was given his own series – Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends – by the BBC in the late 1990s and, after three series, he went on to present two series of When Louis Met…, which included Neil and Christine Hamilton, Max Clifford, Chris Eubank and Jimmy Savile.
Since then, he has made dozens of documentaries, many of them in the USA. In 2016, he revisited his encounters with Jimmy Savile in the wake of Savile’s death and the surfacing of allegations of child sexual abuse.
The same year, his only feature-length film, My Scientology Movie, was released. His most recent documentaries dealt with sexual assault on American campuses, mothers with post-natal mental illness, and escorting.
BOOK CHOICE: Remembrance of things Past – Marcel Proust
LUXURY: 40,000 piece Jigsaw puzzle
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: "Heaven on their Minds" from the album Jesus Christ Superstar
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2019.
Marvin Gaye - All the Way Around
Murray Head - Heaven On Their Minds
The Smiths - Panic
Eric B. & Rakim - Paid In Full (Seven Minutes Of Madness - Coldcut Remix)
Bob Dylan - Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Fat Joe (feat. Ashanti) - What's Luv?
Joni Mitchell - California
Antônio Carlos Jobim & Herbie Mann - One Note Samba
DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: ABSENT FRIENDS 2025 - TERENCE STAMP (320kbs-m4a/97mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 7th December 2025
BBC Radio 4 Extra remembers some of the desert island castaways who we lost in 2025.
Actor Terence Stamp is castaway for the second-time by Sue Lawley.
He originally joined Michael Parkinson in 1987.
Terence Stamp was one of the new group of confident, beautiful, working class young people who came to define the 1960s.
He shared a flat with Michael Caine, dated the actress Julie Christie and the first supermodel Jean Shrimpton. He became an overnight success - and won an Oscar nomination - for his first film role as Billy Budd. He acted alongside Christie in Far from the Madding Crowd and found further fame with roles in The Collector and Modesty Blaise.
He was driven to act after first seeing Beau Geste when he was just a small boy - the cinema offered an escape route from the monochrome world of London's East End.
But when the 1960s ended he found he was offered fewer interesting roles, his relationship with Shrimpton ended and he headed eastwards on a journey of self-discovery.
Now 66, he's suave, still acting and recently married.
Terence Stamp died on 17th August 2025 aged 87.
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Claudio Arrau - Frédéric Chopin’s Impromptu No.4 in C sharp Minor
BOOK CHOICE: The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
LUXURY CHOICE: One of his wheat-free loaves
Producer: Leanne Buckle
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in March 2006.
Claude Debussy - Clair de lune (from Suite bergamasque) [ASV]
Cole Porter - It's De-Lovely [Verve]
The Dave Brubeck Quartet - Perdido [Fantasy]
Dean Martin - Memories Are Made Of This [Capitol]
Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah [Columbia]
Tim Hardin - If I Were a Carpenter [Polydor]
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower [MCD]
Frédéric Chopin - Impromptu No.4 in C sharp Minor [Philips]
DESERT ISLAND DISCS: GORDON BUCHANAN (320kbs-m4a/133mb/58mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 30th November 2025
Gordon Buchanan is a wildlife cameraman and TV presenter. He is best known for the Animal Family & Me series of BBC documentaries in which he gets up close to wild bears, Arctic wolves, elephants and reindeer among other species.
Gordon was brought up in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull where he spent his days exploring the island and developed his lifelong love of the outdoors. In 1988, when he was 17, he met the charismatic wildlife cameraman Nick Gordon who invited him to become his assistant for a project to film primates on the island of Tiwai in Sierra Leone.
Gordon spent 18 months in Sierra Leone working with Nick and after that the two of them worked in West Africa and South America. At 22 Gordon set up on his own – his first job was a year-long assignment to make three half-hour programmes for a 14-part wildlife series called Wild Islands.
In 2001 he made his debut as a presenter on the BBC's Natural World strand. He was appointed an MBE for services to conservation and wildlife filmmaking in 2020.
Gordon lives in Glasgow with his wife Wendy. They have two children.
BOOK CHOICE: Teach Yourself Tap Dancing by Derek Hartley
LUXURY ITEM: A mask, snorkel and fins
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: High and Dry - Radiohead
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
Desert Island Discs has cast many wildlife experts and broadcasters away including Dr George McGavin, Professor Carl Jones, Sir David Attenborough and Dr Jane Goodall. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.
John Denver - Take Me Home, Country Roads [Windstar]
Peat & Diesel - Brandy In The Airidh [Wee Studio]
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Purple Haze [Legacy Recordings]
Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box [Geffen]
Radiohead - High And Dry [XL Recordings]
The Strokes - Last Nite [RCA]
U2 - Electrical Storm [UMC (Universal Music Catalogue)]
Beyoncé - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) [Music World Music/Columbia]
DESERT ISLAND DISCS: SIR SALMAN RUSHDIE (320kbs-m4a/133mb/58mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 23rd November 2025
Sir Salman Rushdie is a writer who has written over 20 books, seven of which have been nominated for the Booker Prize. In 1981 he won with his novel Midnight's Children which also topped the polls for the 25th and 40th anniversaries of the prize, making it the most lauded novel in Booker history.
He was born in Bombay in 1947 and educated at Rugby School in Warwickshire. After studying history at the University of Cambridge he worked as a copywriter at various advertising agencies before publishing his first novel Grimus in 1975. His breakthrough came with Midnight's Children and he was one of 20 writers named on Granta magazine's inaugural list of Best Young British novelists alongside writers including Martin Amis and AN Wilson.
He attracted considerable controversy with his fourth novel the Satanic Verses which won the Whitbread Award and was shortlisted for the Booker. Some Muslims considered the subject matter blasphemous and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the death of Salman and the publishers of the book. Salman spent the following decade in hiding under police protection.
In 2022 he was stabbed multiple times while on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. He had been invited there to talk about keeping writers safe from harm. He survived devasting injuries – including the loss of his right eye – and wrote about the attack and its aftermath in his memoir Knife.
That same year he was awarded a Companion of Honour for services to literature.
Salman is married to the poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths and they live in New York. He has two grown up sons and two grandchildren.
BOOK CHOICE: Homer's Odyssey (Translated by Emily Wilson)
LUXURY ITEM: A bed with a mosquito net
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: For the Love of You, Pts. 1 & 2 - The Isley Brothers
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
Lou Reed - Walk On The Wild Side [RCA/Legacy]
Geeta Dutt & Mohammed Rafi - Yeh Hain Bombay Meri Jaan [Eben Entertainment]
Bob Dylan - Blowin' In The Wind [Columbia/Legacy]
The Rolling Stones - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction [ABKCO]
Whitney Houston - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) [Arista/Legacy]
Paul Simon - Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard [Sony Music UK]
Stevie Wonder - Isn't She Lovely [Sony Music UK]
The Isley Brothers - For the Love of You, Pts. 1 & 2 [Legacy Recordings]
DESERT ISLAND DISCS: RONNIE WOOD (320kbs-m4a/132mb/58mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 12th October 2025
Ronnie Wood is a musician and artist who has been a major player on the UK music scene for over 60 years. In 1975 Ronnie became a member of the Rolling Stones, one of the most influential and enduring bands of the rock era.
Ronnie's parents were born and worked on barges moving cargo up and down the canals between Manchester, Stratford-upon-Avon and London. Ronnie and his two older brothers were the first in the family to be born on dry land.
Ronnie's brothers, Ted and Art, were accomplished musicians and played in highly respected bands. Ronnie made his debut at nine-years-old when he played the washboard in Ted's band during a performance at their local cinema. Ronnie formed his first band, The Birds, with some friends. In 1967 he joined the Jeff Beck Group with his lifelong friend Rod Stewart. Two years later they formed the Faces with the remaining members of the Small Faces.
Ronnie joined the Rolling Stones in 1975, replacing the band's previous guitarist Mick Taylor. Ronnie's love of art developed in childhood and he studied at Ealing College of Art. His work has been shown in exhibitions around the world.
Ronnie lives in Hertfordshire with his wife Sally and their two children.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
There are more than 2000 programmes in our archive available for you to listen to. We have cast away other musicians and songwriters including Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper. Ronnie's fellow Stones, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts, are in our archive too along with Ronnie's friend Paul McCartney. You can find their episodes on BBC Sounds or on our Desert Island Discs website.
Big Bill Broonzy - Guitar Shuffle [Stardust]
Jimmy Reed - Shame, Shame, Shame [Life Series]
Howlin' Wolf - Smokestack Lightning [Avid Entertainment]
Muddy Waters - You Need Love [Acrobat]
Frank Sinatra - Adelaide [Classic Soundtracks]
Anda Géza - Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467: II. Andante "Elvira Madigan" [Deutsche Grammophon (DG)]
Chuck Berry - Roll Over Beethoven [Universal Music S.A.]
Paul McCartney - Maybe I'm Amazed [Paul McCartney Catalog]
DESERT ISLAND DISCS: MICHAEL SHEEN (320kbs-m4a/133mb/58mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 28th September 2025
Michael Sheen is an award-winning actor.
After finding his love for the stage with the West Glamorgan Youth theatre as a teenager, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
He spent the 1990s making a name for himself as a stage actor, shining in the classics from Romeo and Juliet to Peer Gynt as well as in 20th century masterpieces such as Look Back in Anger and Amadeus, receiving several Olivier Award nominations along the way.
A relocation to the US in the early 2000s with his then partner, the actress Kate Beckinsale, and their young daughter Lily prompted a move into films. His breakthrough came in 2003 when he portrayed Tony Blair in a Stephen Frears film called The Deal. It was the beginning of what became an unlikely specialism: morphing into real people from recent history: Kenneth Williams, David Frost, Brian Clough, Chris Tarrant, and Prince Andrew – with two more outings as Tony Blair thrown in for good measure.
Michael was born in Newport, South Wales, in February 1969, the eldest of two children to Meyrick and Irene. He grew up in Port Talbot from the age of eight and considers it his hometown.
His first love was football, and he was spotted as youngster by an Arsenal talent scout to play for their youth team. His parents decided against moving the family to London and he turned to acting instead and graduated from RADA in 1991.
Alongside the classic dramas, his range extends to appearing in fantasy and science fiction films such as The Twilight Saga and Tron: Legacy.
Michael has said that the most meaningful project to him was a modern restaging of the passion play in Port Talbot in 2011, which involved the participation of a thousand local people, because it opened his eyes to the difficulties many of them were experiencing. He has since used his own money to fund the 2019 Homeless World Cup in Cardiff and set up an organisation which supports community groups.
Michael lives in Wales with his partner, the actress Anna Lundberg, and their two young daughters.
BOOK CHOICE: The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
LUXURY ITEM: A football
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Vienna - Ultravox
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor
There are more than 2000 programmes in our archive available for you to listen to. We have cast away other notable actors including Sir Anthony Hopkins and some of the people Michael has played including Kenneth Williams, Chris Tarrant and Tony Blair. You can find all those episodes and more by searching BBC Sounds.
Ultravox - Vienna
Ennio Morricone - The Ecstasy Of Gold
Talk Talk - Desire
The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
Manic Street Preachers - Ready For Drowning
Peter Gabriel - Passion
Lau - Dark Secret
Yello - Oh Yeah
DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: FROM FRINGE TO FAME - RORY BREMNER (320kbs-m4a/100mb/43mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 24th August 2025
Satirist and impressionist Rory Bremner is castaway by Sue Lawley.
Rory was born in Edinburgh in 1961. A self-confessed show-off, he started doing impersonations at primary school, sending up teachers, sports commentators and Moira Anderson! Entertaining his school friends inevitably developed into performing on stage and he worked as a stand up on the comedy circuit, and notably at the Edinburgh Festival.
The BBC offered him his first TV series, Now Something Else. It ran on BBC2 for seven years. In 1993 he moved to Channel 4, where his show Rory Bremner - Who Else? developed a more hard-edged, satirical and political bite. Rory was also a regular on Spitting Image and Mock the Week.
An opera lover with an academic side to him, Rory has translated three operatic works into English.
In more recent years, Rory has been on Strictly, Who Do You Think You Are? The Imitation Game - not forgetting I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Van Morrison - Have I Told You Lately
BOOK CHOICE: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon
LUXURY CHOICE: Radio
Producer: Miranda Birch
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2003.
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards - Highland Cathedral
Danny Kaye - Masters Of All Masters
Brian Johnston & Jonathan Agnew - Test Match Special (9/8/1991)
Cologne Radio Orchestra, conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig - excerpt from Kurt Weill's The Silver Lake The Finale
Julie London - I'm In The Mood For Love
Frank Sinatra - I've Got You Under My Skin
Van Morrison - Have I Told You Lately
Kiri Te Kanawa - Georges Bizet's Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante (from Carmen)
DESERT ISLAND DISCS: NOEL GALLAGHER (320kbs-m4a/99mb/43mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 19th July 2015
Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the musician, Noel Gallagher.
He was the principal songwriter of the band Oasis - his younger brother, Liam was the lead singer. Born to Irish parents, as a child he spent his summers visiting his mother's family in rural County Mayo, in sharp contrast to the Manchester council estate where they lived. He taught himself to play the guitar and loved music: he was road manager for the Inspiral Carpets before joining Liam in Oasis.
Their debut album in 1994 marked the beginning of the band's rise to fame as part of the Britpop movement. In 1996 they played in front of 250,000 fans over two consecutive nights at Knebworth and following the Labour landslide in 1997, Noel attended what became known as the Cool Britannia party held in Downing Street by Tony Blair. Oasis won six BRIT Awards and two Ivor Novello Awards before disbanding in August 2009.
He's since formed his own band - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.
Producer: Cathy Drysdale.
Be My Baby by The Ronettes - CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE
On the Road by Jack Kerouac - BOOK CHOICE
Guitar and plectrum - LUXURY ITEM
Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant [Virgin]
David Bowie - Let's Dance [EMI]
Pink Floyd - Nobody Home [EMI]
The Smiths - Hand In Glove [Warner]
A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray (Original Mix) [CD Pool]
U2 - With Or Without You [Island]
The Ronettes - Be My Baby [ABKCO]
The Beatles - Ticket To Ride [Parlophone]
DESERT ISLAND DISCS: ROMESH RANGANATHAN (320kbs-m4a/133mb/58mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 1st June 2025
Romesh Ranganathan is a comedian and BAFTA-winning broadcaster who has been a fixture on British television screens for the past decade. In addition to his TV shows and stand-up tours he presents the Weakest Link on BBC One, Radio Two's Saturday morning show and another weekly Radio Two programme in which he shares his passion for hip hop music.
Romesh was born in Crawley in West Sussex where he still lives. His parents came to the UK from Sri Lanka in 1975. His father Ranga was an accountant who spent time in prison for fraud during Romesh's teenage years. At that point Romesh and his brother were brought up by their mother Sivashanthini – known as Shanthi – who has appeared alongside Romesh on several of his television programmes.
In 2001 Romesh became a maths teacher at the school where he'd previously been a pupil. A few years later he started taking part in open mic evenings where he developed his skills as a stand-up. In 2011 he quit his teaching job to pursue a career in comedy.
He has spoken candidly about his own mental health and in 2023 he became a patron of the charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably).
Romesh lives in Crawley with his wife Leesa and their three sons.
BOOK CHOICE: Life of Pi by Yann Martel
LUXURY ITEM: An unlimited supply of aubergine curry
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Back at One - Brian McKnight
If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, including urgent support, a list of organisations that can help is available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
Eminem - Lose Yourself [Shady / Interscope]
Deniece Williams - Let's Hear It For The Boy [Columbia]
Huey Lewis And The News - The Power Of Love [Universal Music India Pvt Ltd.]
Ye - Through The Wire [Roc-A-Fella]
SZA - Broken Clocks [TDE / RCA]
Brian McKnight - Back At One [Universal Music Group International]
Stevie Wonder - I Wish [UNI/Motown]
Public Enemy - Bring The Noise [Def Jam Recordings]
DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: TV'S HISTORY CASTAWAYS - DAVID OLUSOGA (320kbs-m4a/98mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 16th March 2025
Historian David Olusoga is castaway by Lauren Laverne.
David is an historian, writer and broadcaster who has presented a range of programmes including the BBC's A House Through Time and Civilisations.
He is currently professor of public history at Manchester University.
Born in Lagos, the second child to a Nigerian father and a British mother, David was brought up by his mother in Gateshead after his parents' marriage broke down. As a child he and his siblings experienced sustained racism and he remembers school as a place of violence and cruelty.
He credits his mother's tenacity and her determination to educate her children for his later success in getting to university and establishing a career in TV.
His love of history developed from a young age, thanks to one of his teachers who taught him why an understanding of history matters. Watching TV documentaries also opened up a world of possibility and David fondly recalls programmes from the 1980s presented by the historian Michael Wood, who made history seem cool in the eyes of the young schoolboy glued to the TV in his Gateshead council house.
In 2020, David delivered the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival in which he talked candidly about his loneliness at being the only black person on a production team and the difficulties he had trying to explain the racial implications of how, for example, people in Africa were often portrayed on screen.
BOOK CHOICE: The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell: An Age Like This, 1920-40
LUXURY ITEM: Acoustic guitar
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground by Blind Willie Johnson
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2021.
Fela Kuti - Zombie
Aunt Molly Jackson - Roll On Buddy
Bessie Smith - Black Mountain Blues
Dr Alimantado - Just The Other Day
Blind Willie Johnson - Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground
Geeshie Wiley - Last Kind Words
Bob Marley & The Wailers - You Can't Blame The Youth (Live At The Record Plant '73)
Aretha Franklin - Precious Lord, Take My Hand / You've Got A Friend
DESERT ISLAND DISCS: STEPHEN MANGAN (320kbs-m4a/132mb/58mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 9th February 2025
Stephen Mangan is an award winning actor who is also a presenter and writer. His prolific career includes comedic roles in TV hits Green Wing; Episodes and Adrian Mole. He also plays the much loved Nathan in BBC drama The Split and has appeared in many award winning theatre productions in the UK and on Broadway.
Born in London to Irish immigrant parents, Stephen studied Law at Cambridge University. His passion though was for acting and after taking time out to care for his mother, he spent three years at RADA before pursuing a successful career on stage, screen and film.
Stephen lives in London with his wife and three sons.
BOOK CHOICE: Collected Works of Seamus Heaney
LUXURY ITEM: A piano
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Stayin Alive - Bee Gees
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor
Roger Miller - King Of The Road [Archive Of Folk & Jazz Music]
Don Williams - I Recall A Gypsy Woman [Geffen]
John Lennon - Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) [Beatles Catalog MKT (C91)]
Fairport Convention - Who Knows Where The Time Goes? [UMC (Universal Music Catalogue)]
Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive [Bee Gees Catalog]
Maurice Ravel - Piano Concerto In G Major, M. 83: II. Adagio Assai
George Gershwin - Rhapsody In Blue
Jackie Wilson - (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher [EMI TV]
DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: BRIT AWARD WINNERS - NEIL TENNANT (320kbs-m4a/97mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 9th February 2025
Singer and songwriter Neil Tennant is castaway by Kirsty Young.
Neil is best known as one half of The Pet Shop Boys which, over the past 20 years, has been one of Britain's most successful and popular bands, noted for combining dance music with witty lyrics and delivering them in a uniquely English style.
As a teenager growing up in Newcastle upon Tyne, he felt himself to be an outsider at school, but found friends in an amateur theatre company. Yet he always felt his life would be different to theirs and used to tell them that he would become a celebrated pop star.
But Neil was 30 when he finally left his day job as a writer for Smash Hits magazine to pursue the musical interests that had dominated his life since he was a teenager. By that time, he was anxious that he had missed the boat.
Now, as well as continuing to release records with The Pet Shop Boys, he has branched out into other forms of composition,.
He's written a live score for the film Battleship Potemkin, a West End musical and has collaborated with Robbie Williams and the Scissor Sisters, amongst many others.
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Dusty Springfield - I Don't Want to Hear It Anymore
BOOK CHOICE: The Human Comedy - Honore de Balzac
LUXURY CHOICE: DVD projector and DVDs
Producer: Leanne Buckle
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2007.
Rex Harrison - Why Can't The English?
The Beatles - She Loves You
Sinfonia of London Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli - Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia On A Theme by Thomas Tallis
David Bowie - Changes
Shannon - Give Me Tonight
Billie Holiday - Good Morning, Heartache
Dusty Springfield - I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore
New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein - Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in D minor (1st movement)
DESERT ISLAND DISCS: NICK CAVE (320kbs-m4a/133mb/58mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 26th January 2025
Nick Cave is a singer and writer who, with his band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, has released emotionally intense and provocative music since the mid-Eighties. He is also a novelist, composer and has written film scripts and soundtracks along with his writing partner and Bad Seed Warren Ellis.
Nick grew up in Wangaratta, Australia the third of four children. He formed his first band, the Boys Next Door, in 1973 while he was at school. He studied fine art at the Caulfield Institute of Technology in Melbourne but left to pursue music. In 1980 the band relocated to London, renaming themselves the Birthday Party on the flight over. In 1984 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ released their debut album, From Her to Eternity, and they have gone on to put out a further 17 albums.
In 2015 Nick lost his son Arthur who died after accidentally falling off a cliff and seven years later his eldest son Jethro died. In 2018 Nick started the Red Hand Files, an online blog in which he answers questions posed by his fans, to try and articulate his feelings about grief. He has described it as a “strange exercise in communal vulnerability and transparency.”
In 2017 he was named an Officer of the Order of Australia.
BOOK CHOICE: The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
LUXURY ITEM: A suit
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Am a God – Kanye West
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
T. Rex - Metal Guru [T-Rex Catalog (Spirit Music)]
Nina Simone - My Father [Epic/Associated/Legacy]
The Saints - (I'm) Stranded [EMI Music Australia]
John Lee Hooker - It Serves You Right To Suffer [Geffen*]
Karen Dalton - Something On Your Mind [Light In The Attic]
Bob Dylan (feat. Johnny Cash) - Girl From The North Country [Columbia Nashville Legacy]
Ye - I Am A God [Rock The World/IDJ/Kanye/LP6]
Tim Rose - Morning Dew [Columbia]
DESERT ISLAND DISCS: LAURIE ANDERSON (320kbs-m4a/133mb/58mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 12th January 2025
Laurie Anderson is an artist and performer who came to fame in the UK with her 1981 hit O Superman. Her work spans music, film and multimedia projects which interrogate our relationship with technology and tell stories about the world we live in.
She was born in Chicago in 1947, the second-oldest of eight children, and started learning the violin when she was five. She studied Art History at Barnard College in New York and took a Masters in Sculpture at Columbia University.
In the 1970s she was part of the downtown New York art scene and her friends and contemporaries included Philip Glass, Gordon Matta-Clark and the choreographer and dancer Trisha Brown. One of Laurie's first performance art pieces featured a symphony played by car horns.
In 1992 she met Lou Reed, the singer and songwriter who fronted the Velvet Underground. They were together for 21 years until his death in 2013. Laurie is the head of Lou's archive which is at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and open to anyone who wants to learn more about his musical adventures.
In 2024 Laurie was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award at the Grammys and a Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication.
BOOK CHOICE: Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
LUXURY ITEM: A dog collar
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Gracias a la vida - Violetta Parra
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
Chubby Checker - Pony Time [AudioSonic]
Mercedes Sosa - Gracias A La Vida [Universal Music Latino]
Tusen Tankar - Triakel [MNW Music AB]
Philip Glass Ensemble - Part 1 [Nonesuch]
Ken Nordine With The Fred Katz Group - Flibberty Jib [Master Classics]
Lou Reed - Doin' The Things That We Want To [RCA]
The Magnetic Fields - Washington, D.C [Merge]
Soul Coughing - Is Chicago, Is Not Chicago [Roundhill]
DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: POET CASTAWAYS - MICHAEL ROSEN (320kbs-m4a/98mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 20th October 2024
Author and children's poet Michael Rosen is castaway by Sue Lawley.
Since his first book, Mind Your Own Business, was published more than than 30 years ago, Michael has been credited with revolutionising the way children's poems are written and performed.
Words and language have always formed an important part of his life. The son of two teachers, he was born into a London, Jewish family, and brought up in a home full of literature, conversation and debate. His poems often rely on snatches of dialogue and memories from his own childhood and relate his experiences with his own children.
His greatest commercial success has been his hugely popular re-telling of the American folk tale We're All Going on a Bear Hunt.
He's also published a series of memories aimed at adults rather than children. In particular, these attend to the central tragedy of his life, the sudden death of his second son Eddie, when he was 18 years old. His death became a public matter because Eddie had featured so often in Michael's early work and was a well-known character to millions of children.
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Big Bill Broonzy - Black, Brown and White
BOOK CHOICE: The Complete Poems - Carl Sandburg
LUXURY CHOICE: A didgeridoo belonging to his late son Eddie
Producer: Leanne Buckle
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2006.
Original Cast - Oh, What A Lovely War
Ewan MacColl - Fourpence A Day
Big Bill Broonzy - Black, Brown And White
Aretha Franklin - Spanish Harlem
John Doherty - Miss Ramsay
Léo Ferré - Paname
Smiley Culture - Cockney Translation
Toumani Diabete - Taj Mahal's Tunkaranke
DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: POET CASTAWAYS - SIMON ARMITAGE (320kbs-m4a/98mb/42mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 6th October 2024
Appointed Poet Laureate in 2019 - Simon Armitage is castaway by Lauren Laverne.
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.
Born in Huddersfield, Simon Armitage grew up in the village of Marsden in West Yorkshire. Marsden has informed and inspired much of his work and as a boy he would look out of his bedroom window at night to watch the comings and goings of village life.
He vividly remembers as a teenager discovering the work of fellow laureate Ted Hughes, recalling an almost electrical surge of excitement when he realised the power of words on a page. Hughes grew up in the next valley and Simon admits to thinking "If Ted Hughes can do it why can't I?"
He worked as a probation officer in Manchester for several years, writing poetry in the evenings and at weekends. His first collection Zoom! was published in 1989 and a few years later he left the probation service to write full time.
Prolific and popular, he was named the Millennium poet and in 2015 was appointed Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford. Three years later he was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
Today he lives not far from Marsden where, when he's not writing poems, plays and novels, he still looks out of his window and daydreams.
BOOK CHOICE: The Oxford English Dictionary
LUXURY ITEM: A tennis ball
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Moonage Daydream by David Bowie
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2020.
David Bowie - Moonage Daydream
The Choir of St John's College, Cambridge - The Lamb by William Blake, composed by John Tavener, conducted by Andrew Nethsingha
Jonathan Pryce and the 1994 London Palladium Cast Of Oliver! - You've Got To Pick A Pocket Or Two
Ted Hughes - Icecrust and Snowflake
Joy Division - Atmosphere
Soft Cell - Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go?
Jon Rennard - Holmfirth Anthem
Else Torpe and Christopher Bowers-Broadbent - My Heart's In The Highlands
DESERT ISLAND DISCS: CLASSIC DESERT ISLAND DISCS - DONALD SUTHERLAND (320kbs-m4a/78mb/34mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 1st September 2024
Sue Lawley talks to actor Donald Sutherland in a programme first broadcast in 2000. Donald Sutherland died in June 2024, aged 88. He has acted in 104 films, including such classics as MASH, Don't Look Now and JFK. Tall and lanky as a child, he was called 'Goofus' or 'Dumbo' because of his big ears. However, it was those ears that caught the attention of the director of The Dirty Dozen and thus his film career was launched.
Now appearing on the British stage for the first time in 36 years, he chooses eight records to take to the mythical desert island.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: Horn Concerto No. 1 in D major 412 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Book: A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman
Luxury: 100 cases of vintage Bordeaux
Peggy Lee - The Best Is Yet To Come [Capitol]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Horn Concerto No. 1 in D major [EMI]
Patsy Cline - Sweet Dreams [MCA]
Johann Sebastian Bach - Goldberg Variations [Sony Classical]
The Beatles - The Ballad Of John And Yoko [Apple]
Dave Brubeck - Take Five [Columbia]
Janis Joplin - Me And Bobby McGee [Columbia]
Diane Dufresne - J'ai recontre l'homme de ma vie [Barclay]
DESERT ISLAND DISCS REVISITED: AMERICAN SINGERS - ALICE COOPER (320kbs-m4a/99mb/43mins)
BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast: 8th August 2024
American rock musician Alice Cooper is castaway by Kirsty Young.
As a teenager he says it was British music that he tuned in to - listening to The Beatles, The Yardbirds and The Who.
He realised that while rock music had many heroes, there were few villains - that was the territory he marked out for himself. He developed his trademark look - blackened eyes, straggly hair and glamorous clothes - and set about designing live shows that were gleefully gory and macabre.
While critics have described him as 'the world's most beloved heavy metal entertainer', it took him a while to untangle himself from his creation.
"For a long time I honestly didn't know where I began and Alice ended. My friends at the time were Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and I was trying to keep up with them. And I realised when they all died that you didn't have to be your character off stage."
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Work Song
BOOK CHOICE: Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
LUXURY CHOICE: An indoor golf driving range
Producer: Leanne Buckle
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 2010.
The Yardbirds - Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
The Beach Boys - I Get Around
The Who - I'm A Boy
Laura Nyro - Timer
King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man (incl. Mirrors)
Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing
The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Work Song
Bob Dylan - Ballad Of A Thin Man
DESERT ISLAND DISCS: GREG DAVIES (320kbs-m4a/133mb/58mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 12th May 2024
Greg Davies is a familiar face on television as the host of Taskmaster, the BAFTA-winning game show, and he has achieved sell out national arena tours as a stand-up. His on-screen breakthrough came in 2008 when he played the head of the sixth form, Mr Gilbert, in the highly successful teenage comedy series the Inbetweeners. He wrote and starred in the black comedy the Cleaner and co-wrote the sitcom Man Down in which he played a man in the grip of a midlife crisis.
Greg was born in St Asaph in North Wales and grew up in Shropshire. At school he gravitated towards what he calls the silly boys who created characters and devised comedy sketches in the playground. When he was 18 he discovered Eddie Murphy whose stand-up routines about his relatives spurred Greg to look to his own family as comedic source material.
Greg spent 13 years as an English and Drama teacher – a time he looks back on with mixed emotions and which he has mined for his stage act. When he was 33 he left teaching and started performing stand-up gigs and performed his first solo stand-up show at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010.
Greg lives in south London.
BOOK CHOICE: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
LUXURY ITEM: Sausages
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: 100% Endurance - Yard Act
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
Madness - Baggy Trousers [Union Square Music]
Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman [Capitol Nashville]
Yard Act - 100% Endurance [Universal/Island]
The Wonder Stuff - Circlesquare [Polydor]
The Smiths - Cemetry Gates (2008 Remaster) [Rhino/Warner]
Jack Wild And The Orchestra, conducted by John Green - Consider Yourself [Sony BMG]
The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary [Warner]
Dr. Dre (feat. Snoop Dogg) - The Next Episode [Aftermath]