Desert Island Discs

Sue Lawley's castaway is photo-journalist Mohamed Amin. Favourite track: My Way by Frank Sinatra Book: Life of John F Kennedy Luxury: Satellite dish and television set

Sue Lawley's castaway is politician Clare Short. Favourite track: Nun Sag Ich Dir Zum Ersten Mal by Arnold Schoenberg Book: Geometry Tutor Luxury: Piano

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is fashion designer Vivienne Westwood. Avant-garde, surprising and often shocking, Vivienne first drew media attention when, in the late 1970s, she founded the punk movement with Malcolm McLaren. These days, though hardly orthodox, she has become more mainstream - in 1990 and 1991 she was named Designer of the Year, and she has just been awarded an OBE...

In 1987, as an Ambassador of the Anglican Church trying to engineer the freedom of men held in Lebanon, Terry Waite was taken hostage himself. Nearly five years later, courageous and resilient, he emerged from a captivity of appalling deprivation and isolation. This week on Desert Island Discs he will be talking to Sue Lawley about those years and recalling the three vows he took - no regrets, no...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is actor Robert Lindsay. Born in Derbyshire 42 years ago, he's recognised today as one of Britain's most versatile performers. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his schooldays at a secondary modern and the art master who introduced him and the rest of the school to drama. He'll also be recalling the days when he couldn't walk down the street without...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the swimmer Duncan Goodhew. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his early life, which was dogged by misadventure - a fall from an apple tree left him permanently and completely bald; and in his early teens, he was discovered to be dyslexic. Nevertheless, these setbacks merely strengthened his resolve to succeed at swimming, and to go on and win a g...

Sue Lawley's castaway is one of the country's favourite actresses Prunella Scales. She's most easily recognised as Sybil Fawlty, wife of John Cleese, the manic hotelkeeper in the television series Fawlty Towers, but it's a role which represents a very small part of all she's done. Since her debut in Bristol 40 years ago, she has never been out of work, and recently she's scaled new heights with he...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the country's most senior serving judge Lord Taylor of Gosforth. Recently appointed the Lord Chief Justice of England, he'll be discussing the public's perception of the English legal system, following the recent series of miscarriages of justice; and also, his plans to open up areas of the law and to rid the system of some of its more antiquated tr...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is television executive Michael Grade. As a member of the famous Grade dynasty, he grew up in the showbiz atmosphere of London's West End. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about being brought up by his formidable grandmother after his mother left him when he was very young; and about his career, which has taken him from Daily Mirror sports journalist to...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is rugby player Will Carling. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how, as a six year old, he dreamed of captaining England, and then, having achieved his ambition at the startlingly early age of 22, he went on to take his team to the final of the World Cup and to win the Grand Slam for the last two years running. [Taken from the original programme mat...

This week's castaway in Desert Island Discs is Henrietta, Marchioness of Tavistock. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about, amongst other things, her idyllic childhood, her passion for breeding horses and explaining why she initially refused to live with her husband in his family's ancestral home, Woburn Abbey. Favourite track: Cavalleria Rusticana Intermezzo by Pietro Mascagni Book: History of the...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the distinguished tenor Anthony Rolfe Johnson. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his Methodist upbringing in the East End of London, his years as a farmer in Sussex and explaining why he was 29 years old before he took his enormous talent for singing seriously. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island...

The castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is art historian Sir Ernst Gombrich. His most famous book, The Story of Art, was written more than 40 years ago, yet it remains the world's most popular introduction to great artists and their work. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his life and work recalling his first impressions of England to which he came from Vienna in 1936, his time translatin...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Lady Soames, historian and only surviving child of Winston Churchill. A distinguished author and now Chairman of the Board of the National Theatre, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her extraordinary life - recalling her blissful childhood spent at Chartwell, the family's country home. She'll also be talking about the many state visits she made...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is philosopher and historian Sir Isaiah Berlin. Born in Latvia 80 years ago, he was brought to England by his family when he was ten years old and barely able to speak English. He is now internationally regarded as one of the most brilliant scholars of his age. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his early years in Russia, his commitment to, and respe...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is entrepreneur, newspaperman and public servant Jocelyn Stevens. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his love of life - he works in London and spends his weekends in Gstaad - and his impressive career: he revitalised Queen Magazine, launched Radio Caroline, saved the Evening Standard and served as Managing Director of Express Newspapers. [Taken from...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is geneticist Dr Steve Jones. Eminent in his field, he's made a lifelong study of the evolution of the snail, the reproduction of the fruit fly and the sex life of the slug. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the study of genetics, reflecting on its disreputable past, analysing the problems of genetic engineering and discussing the research that insp...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is singer-songwriter Elvis Costello. Widely regarded as one of the best British songwriters of recent years, he comes from a musical family - both his father and grandfather were trumpeters. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his eclectic taste in music, comparing classical singers to pop stars, and choosing eight records, not for pleasure, but to pr...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Sir Roger Bannister, the man who first ran the four-minute mile. Now an eminent neurologist, he is as proud of his research during the last 15 years into the effects of low blood pressure, as he is of his achievements on the athletics field. Master of Pembroke College, he's taken up sculling, and with a night school qualification in navigation as we...

In memory of Robbie Coltrane. The actor was Sue Lawley's castaway in Desert Island Discs in 1992. He first became noticed in the early 1980s in television programmes such as The Comic Strip, The Young Ones and Saturday Night Live. After that he became an international star. He talked to Sue Lawley about, amongst other things, his love of Scotland, his passion for vintage cars and his fear of live...

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is writer JG Ballard. Since the early 1960s, he has been well-known as a science fiction writer. But more recently he has reached an even wider audience with his autobiographical novels Empire of the Sun and The Kindness of Women. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his extraordinary life - his childhood in Shanghai, his adolescence spent in a Japanese pri...

Few people will be surprised to hear that the castaway in this week's special 50th anniversary edition of Desert Island Discs is the Prime Minister John Major. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his very happy childhood years, his more traumatic adolescence and his transformation into the perfect Conservative parliamentary candidate. He'll also be discussing his love of music and books, and reve...

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is one of Britain's most well-known church leaders, the Right Reverend David Jenkins, the Lord Bishop of Durham. At the age of 60, after a career spent mainly as an academic theologian, he was catapulted into controversy: his views on the virgin birth and the resurrection caused outrage, and his opinions on the divisions between rich and poor infuriate...

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is actor, writer and director Steven Berkoff. Irreverent, energetic and compelling, his work has brought him an international reputation and his last West End production, Kvetch, was voted comedy of the year. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his love of drama and why it changed his life, his short spell in Hollywood playing archetypal villains an...

The castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is actor Gorden Kaye. Lovers of British situation comedy knew him a long time ago as a familiar supporting figure in It Ain't Half Hot, Mum and Are You Being Served?, but for most people he has only one part: that of the French cafe owner Rene Artois in 'Allo 'Allo. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his childhood years in Yorkshire, his love of come...