Desert Island Discs

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, Judge Stephen Tumim. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about many of the controversial issues surrounding the prison service today, as well as about his own private passions for books and painting. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Jeru...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the disc jockey Kenny Everett. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his Merseyside childhood, his discovery of classical music and his dependence on radio, all of which led him to an anarchic and erratic career on television and radio. He'll also be discussing his unorthodox life which has encompassed a suicide attempt, drugs and the break-up of his...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the present American Ambassador in London, Raymond Seitz. The first career diplomat ever to be appointed to the job, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he also scored a first by surviving the transition from President Bush to President Clinton earlier this year. He'll also be discussing the role of the American Ambassador in a shifting politic...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the opera singer Lesley Garrett. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her musical Yorkshire family - both her grandfathers were musical entertainers - and how she learnt to read music before she could read books. Having won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, she moved straight into performing and was snapped up by the English National Ope...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Secretary of State for Health, Virginia Bottomley. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the stresses and strains of her job, her public image as a do-gooder and her large extended family with its annual holidays on the Isle of Wight. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Ex...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Chairman of the Arts Council Lord Palumbo. Property developer and long-time patron of the arts, he will be talking to Sue Lawley about his passion for collecting, which extends from motor cars to houses built by famous 20th century architects, of which he owns four. He will also be discussing his 30-year mission to redevelop the Mansion House si...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Paul Merton. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his enduring but secret ambition to be a comedian and the feeling he's had throughout his life that he would always make it somehow. He'll be describing his painful beginnings at London's Comedy Store, and his graduation from there to radio and television, where he now has his own series on Channel 4...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the novelist Isabel Allende. One of the most widely-read Latin American writers, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her native Chile, from where she is now voluntarily exiled, and about her childhood home where she lived with her clairvoyant grandmother and on which she based her first book The House of the Spirits. [Taken from the original progr...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the theatre director Nicholas Hytner. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his string of directorial successes, which include Miss Saigon, Wind in the Willows, Carousel and The Importance of Being Ernest. He'll also be discussing the health of the modern musical today and the problems of directing both drama and opera. [Taken from the original progr...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the writer Peter Mayle. Renowned for his best-selling books about life as an Englishman in France, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his years in advertising, and how he coined the catchphrase Nice one, Cyril', and also about the recent television adaptation of a Year in Provence, which attracted widespread criticism. Criticism and controversy ha...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Sir Leon Brittan. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about life as one of Britain's European Commissioners in Brussels, where he has been for the last five and a half years, since his resignation over the Westland affair. He'll also be looking back on his glittering early career - winning an Exhibition to Cambridge at 16, a double first in English and L...

Sue Lawley's castaway is musician and campaigner Joan Baez. Favourite track: Salut! Demeure Chaste Et Pure by Charles Gounod Book: Diary by Anne Frank Luxury: Personal pouch with a silver lion in it

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Speaker of the House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her Yorkshire childhood, her venture south to join a dance troupe, and her much-vaunted but nevertheless fleeting appearance as a Tiller Girl. She'll also be discussing how she made history last year when she became the first woman to be elected Speaker, and...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the boxer Frank Bruno. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he got into trouble as a young boy for fighting with his contemporaries and ultimately with one of his sports teachers, after which he was sent to a special school where boxing was to become his salvation. He'll also be discussing the vicious nature of the sport and the rigorous trainin...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a publisher. Kaye Webb was made editor of Puffin Books in the 1960s, and held the job for nearly 20 years. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about those years and also about the crowded professional life which preceded them. As an assistant editor for the pocket magazine Lilliput in the 1930s, she commissioned contributions from distinguished authors...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a businessman. Born into a family of Polish-Jewish immigrants, he was orphaned at the age of nine and brought up by his older brothers. He studied at the London School of Economics and married the daughter of a manufacturer - the owner of a small electrical company. By the age of 34, he was its Managing Director. Today that company is a huge institu...

Sue Lawley's castaway is General of the Salvation Army Eva Burrows. Favourite track: St Matthew Passion Konnen Tranen Meiner Wangen by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Faber Book of Religious Verse Luxury: Game of Scrabble with paper and pencil

Sue Lawley's castaway is journalist and broadcaster John Cole. Favourite track: The Ode To Joy (Symphony No 9) by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust Luxury: Typewriter

Sue Lawley's castaway is film director John Boorman. Favourite track: Symphony No 7 Second Movement by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Memories, Dreams and Reflections by Karl Jung Luxury: Telescope

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Baroness Blackstone. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her political radicalisation at the London School of Economics in the 1960s, the difficulties of working motherhood and the different demands of her varied professional life encompassing the academic, political and public worlds. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive e...

Sue Lawley's castaway is chef Anton Edelmann. Favourite track: Clarinet Concerto in A by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Rinpoche Luxury: Wok

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the jockey and racing journalist Lord Oaksey. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he decided to give up a career in the law to become a junior racing correspondent on the Daily Telegraph and about his time as an amateur jockey when he rode 200 winners and nearly won the Grand National in 1963. [Taken from the original programme material for thi...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Professor Richard Gregory. He is a scientist who comes from a long line of academics - his father was an astronomer who recruited him at an early age to help build a homemade aeroplane, the 'flying flea', but luckily the project was abandoned before its fatal design fault was discovered. Professor Gregory has gone on since then to invent robots, hea...

Sue Lawley's castaway is writer David Croft. Favourite track: Not While I'm Around by Cleo Laine Book: Collected Poems by Sir John Betjeman Luxury: Piano

Sue Lawley's castaway is politician Ken Livingstone. Favourite track: Joe Hill by Paul Robeson Book: The Myths of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley Luxury: The BBC World Service