Desert Island Discs: Archive 2000-2005

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the leader of the Liberal Democrats Charles Kennedy. Born in Inverness, Charles grew up on a croft near Fort William spending his early life learning how to shear sheep and milk cows on his grandfather's neighbouring farm. Music was always a big part of life with his father playing the fiddle at home and at local events but Charles's real passion was astronomy. He saved to buy a three-inch refractor telescope from his pocket money inspired by the Apollo Moon Landings and encouraged by the clear Highlands skies.Politics and current affairs were another early passion. He ran home from school to catch news of the Watergate hearings on television, he was a star of his school's debating society and one friend recalls how he always dreamed of becoming prime minister. His first political allegiance was to the Labour Party, but at University he switched to the newly formed Social Democratic Party - eventually taking a seat for them in 1983 General Election at the age of 23. Now, 20 years later, following various incarnations of the party, the Liberal Democrats hold a record number of seats in the House of Commons and are hoping to become the main party of opposition in Britain today.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Cameron Highlanders by Ian Kennedy Book: The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth Luxury: CD player

This week, Sue Lawley's castaway is the Irish businessman and writer Bill Cullen. He was one of 14 children born to William Cullen and Mary Darcy. His childhood, in the tenement slums of inner-city Dublin was one of extreme poverty. Born during the war, the family lived in a one-room dilapidated tenement. Learning the secrets of street trading from his mother and grandmother, Bill started selling from market stalls from the age of five. He sold everything from fruit to evening papers home-fashioned Judy Garland dolls to paper flowers. He eventually started working in a car dealership and went on to own Renault Ireland. He is now a millionaire many times over. He puts his success down to sheer hard work and the support and determination of a close knit family. He has written about his life and says his autobiography, It's A Long Way From Penny Apples, is a tribute to the strong women of Ireland - like his own mother - who held families together through thick and thin. Royalties from the book have been given to the charity of which he is a director, The Irish Youth Foundation. In the past 17 years he has raised £20 million through his charitable work. He is now working on his second book Streetwise, which will impart the business knowledge he has gained over the years.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: New York, New York by Frank Sinatra Book: Glimpses by Brendan Kennelly Luxury: An accordion

This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the journalist and songwriter Herbert Kretzmer. Born in South Africa in 1925, he came to Europe after World War II. For a while he lived in Paris, playing piano in a bar. He rubbed shoulders with Jean Paul Sartre and became friends with one of France's greatest singer-songwriters Charles Aznavour. The two formed a musical partnership and Kretzmer re-worked many of his songs into English - including the hits Yesterday, When I Was Young and She, which was more recently recorded by Elvis Costello for the film Notting Hill. His day job was as a journalist and Kretzmer wrote celebrity profiles for the Daily Express. He says his most memorable interviewees were "writers and fighters", including George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, Truman Capote and Arthur Miller. But it wasn't until he was nearly sixty that he had his greatest success. The director Cameron Mackintosh was working on Les Miserables but did not have a 'book' - that is, a set of songs that he could produce. He remembered a chance meeting he'd had with Kretzmer, recalled the songs he'd written and his connection with France - and invited him to write the lyrics. The show has been running in London for the past 19 years and has played all over the world. Now aged 78, he continues to work. He is currently collaborating with the former ABBA musicians, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus on another musical.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Gymnopedies by Yikin Seow Book: The Great War and Modern Memory by Prof Paul Fussell Luxury: Zippo Lighter

This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the broadcaster, cook, mother and domestic goddess Nigella Lawson. She came from a privileged background - her father, the former Conservative chancellor Nigel Lawson, her mother the society beauty and heir to the Lyons Corner House empire Vanessa Salmon. After graduating from Oxford, she wrote a restaurant column for the Spectator. She became deputy literary editor of the Sunday Times in 1986 and it was on that paper that she met John Diamond - the couple married three years later. She credits him with uncovering her potential - suggesting she wear more flattering clothes and make-up, encouraging her food writing and investing faith and pride in her. He came up with the title of her first book How to Eat. It was a huge success and was followed by a second, award-winning book How to be a Domestic Goddess, which held out hope to would-be goddesses that even the most meagre skills could produce stunning results. But her life has been tainted by cancer. Her mother died of liver cancer in her 40s and her sister Thomasina was in her 30s when she died of breast cancer. When her husband had hospital tests for a cyst on his neck it was Nigella who chased up the doctors to find out the results and interrupted EastEnders to tell him that he too had been diagnosed with the disease. John Diamond died in 2001, leaving Nigella to bring up their two children, Cosima and Bruno. She has written a further two books and her series Nigella Bites has been bought up by American television. She says "I suppose I do think that awful things can happen at any moment, so while they are not happening you may as well be pleased."[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Yeke, Yeke by Mary Kante Book: Divine Comedy (in Italian) by Dante Alighieri Luxury: Liquid Temazepam "...to give me the possibility of a very pleasant exit"

This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the internationally successful author Nick Hornby. Originally from suburban Maidenhead, his obsession with football, as chronicled in the autobiographical Fever Pitch, began after his parents divorced and his dad struggled to find a suitable way to pass the weekend. The decision to visit Arsenal had lasting repercussions with Hornby becoming a fanatical supporter. His next work, High Fidelity, featured Horrnby's other great passion - pop music. It became a bible for all men who've ever catalogued their record collections in alphabetical order or agonised over their own Desert Island Discs choices. His next book, About a Boy, resulted in a bidding war with Robert De Niro's film company buying the rights for £2 million. How to Be Good, which followed, changed tack with a female narrator and is in part autobiographical reflecting the pros and cons of a virtuous life - questions he's had to ask following the birth of his son Danny who suffers from severe autism. He's since set up the TreeHouse Fund, a national charity for autism which has a school in London.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Kitty's Back by Bruce Springsteen Book: Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens Luxury: An mp3 player (iPod)

This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel. Still only in his 30s, he's sung at the world's biggest opera houses and can pick and choose where he works and the productions he wants to star in. He began singing in his first competitions at the age of three. Born into a farming family in the tiny village of Pentglas in North Wales which has only a handful of houses, one shop and one church, he was brought up singing at Chapel and regularly competed and won the National Eistedfodd cultural event.His first language was Welsh and as a young child he had to communicate with English children camping on his parents land in the summer holidays with sign language. It was from those children he eventually learnt the language and by watching television. As a teenager, he considered being a fireman or a policeman, but he won a scholarship to the Guildhall in London and the rest is history. Since then, he's performed and recorded all the great operatic works as well as a number of 'cross-over' CDs of hits from musicals and also an album in Welsh.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Return to Sender by Elvis Presley Book: Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt Luxury: Millenium Centre in Cardiff

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the popular novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford. Born in Upper Armley, Leeds, by the age of 16 Barbara had graduated from the typing pool and was a cub reporter in the newsroom of the Yorkshire Evening Post. By twenty she was Fashion Editor of Woman's Own in London.In 1976, after a number of failed attempts, she sold her first novel to a publisher on the basis of a ten-page outline. That book A Woman of Substance, has gone on to sell in the region of 20 million copies. The heroine, Emma Harte, inspired such a following that she and her dynasty were the subjects of two further books and despite Emma being 'killed off' in the second, Taylor Bradford has resurrected her for a 'lost years' prequel this summer. Emma's Secret will be her 19th novel, with 10 of them made into TV films.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Vissi d'Arte by Giacomo Puccini Book: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Luxury: Bag of eye make-up, especially mascara

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the architect Daniel Libeskind. Daniel Libeskind's parents were Polish Jews. Daniel himself was a prodigiously talented musician, but the family couldn't afford the attention a piano would draw to them and so he learned the accordion. In Israel he won a prestigious music scholarship - Daniel Barenboim and Itzhak Perlmen were other recipients - and the family moved to New York. In his teens Libeskind dropped music suddenly and completely and turned to architecture: In 1989 he won the commission to build a Jewish Museum in Berlin and it opened in 2001 amid much controversy. Closer to home he has designed and built the Imperial War Museum North at Trafford, Manchester - its design based on a shattered globe to reflect the themes of conflict. One of his most controversial designs in this country is the proposed V&A extension known as The Spiral. It has been variously described as 'a public lavatory', 'a pile of boxes' and 'quartz crystals'. His most recent commission and his biggest project to date is the complex to be built at the site of the destroyed twin towers in New York. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Aria from Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: The Prisons (Le Carceri): The Complete First and Second States by Giovanni Battista Piranesi Luxury: Pencil and paper

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is The Bishop of Birmingham, John Sentamu. When John Sentamu was born, the sixth of 13 children, near Kampala in Uganda in 1949, he was so small the local bishop was called in to baptise him immediately. He survived his birth, a sickly childhood and a famine to become, a mere 25 years later, a judge in the Uganda High Court. In 1974 he managed to get a visa to leave Uganda and come to Britain where he studied theology with a view to returning to the Ugandan justice system at the end of his studies. However, when his friend the Ugandan Archbishop Janani Luwum was murdered he vowed "You kill my friend, I take his place", and he was ordained in 1979. He served in parishes in Cambridge and London, and was vicar of Holy Trinity Church in South London for 13 years during which time he raised £1.6 million to restore his church and its organ as well as increasing his congregation tenfold. He is now the Bishop of Birmingham, and one of only two senior bishops from ethnic minorities. He was an advisor to the Stephen Lawrence Judicial Inquiry and the Chairman of the Damilola Taylor Review board.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: I Was Glad by Sir Hubert Parry Book: The Complete Chronicles of Narnia by C S Lewis Luxury: A kitchen

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the veteran broadcaster Mark Tully. Born in Calcutta and with ancestors who were involved in the Indian Mutiny, he has a love of India in his bones and has made his career reporting it. Indeed, in his 30 years as BBC India correspondent his name and the role became synonymous - he has been called a cult figure and his reports were broadcast in English, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Nepali and Bengali to as many as 50 million people on the sub-continent.As a young man he considered entering the clergy but he left theology college to begin his career at the BBC. Shortly thereafter he returned to India after an absence of more than a decade and felt like he had come home. He's been there ever since. He has mapped the great events on the sub-continent since the 1960s, including Bangladesh's war of independence, the upheavals in Pakistan, the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Union Carbide disaster at Bhopal, the Indian army attack on the Golden Temple at Amritsa and the assassinations of both Indira and Rajiv Gandhi. He has heard a crowd chanting 'death to Tully' as well as being expelled from the country, captured, threatened, imprisoned and even accused of bringing down the government. For his pains he has been awarded the OBE and the Tadma Shre, an Indian honour rarely bestowed on foreigners. These days he spends a couple of months a year in Britain seeing friends and family and recording some of his Radio 4 programmes Something Understood.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Requiem for Athene by Taverner Book: Major works by Gerard Manley Hopkins Luxury: Modern mini brewery

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Vittorio Radice. Born in 1957 and brought up near Lake Como, Radice is the son of a furniture retailer. He surprised himself and his family by studying agriculture at Milan University, but he was never destined to become a farmer. His military service he insists entailed nothing much more pressing than typing and taking the general's wife shopping, but this seems to have been the last period of treading water in his life. After leaving the army he joined Associated Merchandising Corporation, one of the largest global buying organisations and by the age of 30 he was Head of Worldwide Sourcing for its Home department. In 1990 he joined Habitat International as Buying Director, and two years later was appointed Managing Director, transforming the company's losses of £7 million into profits of over £14 million. In 1996 he was headhunted to join Selfridges as Managing Director, quickly becoming Chief Executive and transforming its fortunes. This year he has joined Marks & Spencer Plc as Executive Director for the Home Group.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Birima by Youssou N'dour Book: La première gorgée de Bière et autres plaisirs minuscules by Philippe Delerm Luxury: Sunglasses

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actor and writer Meera Syal. She was born in the sixties after her parents had immigrated here from the Punjab and brought up in Essington, a Staffordshire mining village five miles north east of Wolverhampton. She studied English and Drama at Manchester University. Her one woman show One Of Us went to the Edinburgh Festival where she was spotted by a director from the Royal Court Theatre in London and offered an immediate equity card. Meera gave up her academic plans and moved to London to act in the theatre. She wrote and starred in 'My Sister Wife' for BBC2 and moved on to write and perform in the popular Goodness Gracious Me and to play the flirtatious granny in the Kumars at Number 42. She has written the script for the London musical Bombay Dreams which will be going to Broadway.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Young, Gifted and Black by Bob and Marcia Book: Hindi-English dictionary Alternative to Bible: Bhagvadgita - ancient Hindu text Luxury: A piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Derek Brown the Director of the Michelin Red Guides which are the French bible for restaurants. The original Guide was invented in 1900 to help travellers in France find good food at reasonable prices. These days the annual publication always creates a stir with restaurateurs and gourmands alike, all waiting on tenterhooks to see who has been awarded the prestigious Michelin stars - or who has had them taken away. In recent years some high profile chefs have created controversy by sending back their stars, although Brown says the stars don't belong to the chefs but are awarded to the restaurant itself and judged purely on the experience of the meal on the day.Derek Brown himself comes from a middle-class Portsmouth family and his first ambition was to be a history teacher. After spending a summer earning pocket money as a waiter he realised that hotel management was his path in life and cherished a dream of owning his own hotel. At twenty-seven he saw an advert for Michelin inspectors and gradually worked his way up to the top job.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: 2nd Movement of Symphony No.7 in A Major by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens Luxury: A steamer chair

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the director Franco Zeffirelli. He was born the illegitimate son of a philandering businessman and a successful fashion designer, both of whom were married to other people. Unable to give him his father's or her own name, his mother plucked a word out of a Mozart opera - 'Zefferetti', meaning 'little breeze' - and gave it to her son. Somewhere along the line a slip of a pen transformed it into Zeffirelli, and Franco has gone by it for 80 years. He was only six when his mother died of tuberculosis. His father was reluctant to take care of Franco but was shamed into palming him off onto an aunt, and later his English secretary Mary O'Neill. Mary belonged to a society of English ex-pats in Florence and young Franco grew up under their extraordinary influence. His experiences were eventually fictionalised into his 1999 film Tea With Mussolini, starring Joan Plowright, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Cher. In the war he fought as a partisan and twice faced a firing squad before he met up with the 1st Scots Guards and became their interpreter. As well as using his linguistic talents, the Scots Guards gave him an early opportunity for theatrical creativity, and he made an open-air auditorium from 30 army trucks and some camouflage netting. After the war he studied art and architecture and was drawn into the worlds of theatre and film, working as assistant to the Marxist director Luchino Visconti initially but soon designing and directing his own films, plays and operas. His filmography runs to some 20 movies from the ground-breaking, and at the time shocking Romeo and Juliet of 1968 to the brooding Jane Eyre of 1996 via his stunning seven-hour Jesus of Nazareth for television in 1977, not to mention his 1990 Hamlet with Mel Gibson in the leading role. On stage he is famed for his opulent productions at the opera and he has worked with the titans of the art including Maria Callas, Placido Domingo, Joan Sutherland and Herbert Von Karajan.He is in London to direct Pirandello's Absolutely! (Perhaps) starring Joan Plowright and Oliver Ford Davies, which opened at Wyndham's Theatre on 7th May.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Casta diva (from Norma) by Vincenzo Bellini Book: Inferno by Dante Alighieri Luxury: A hammock from Hermes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the composer George Fenton, whose work includes music for Groundhog Day, Shadowlands, Cry Freedom, The Company of Wolves and The Fisher King. Born George Howe in South London in 1950, he taught himself to play the guitar at the age of eight and by the age of 14 was playing the organ - "dreadfully"! He wanted to be an actor, and got an early break in Alan Bennett's play Forty Years On. As time went on, however, he found directors were always asking him to play an instrument, so he switched to music as his main focus. He got his first job as composer and musical director for a production of Twelfth Night at the RSC in Stratford in 1974. Eight years later, and still almost entirely self-taught, he was nominated for an Oscar for his score for Richard Attenborough's Gandhi. It was only his fourth attempt at film music.Since 1982 he has been nominated for four more Oscars (for Cry Freedom, The Fisher King and Dangerous Liaisons) and three Golden Globes; he's won three BAFTAs, two Ivor Novello Awards and an EMMY and written music for more than 100 television productions including Bergerac, The Jewel in the Crown, Talking Heads and The Blue Planet. In addition he cornered the market in jingles for daily news bulletins across the BBC. George Fenton is a visiting professor at the Royal College of Music in London, and regularly appears on television arts shows and documentaries as an authority on music.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: On Going to Sleep from Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss Book: Short Stories by Anton Chekhov Luxury: A piano or, failing that, for comfort a tin of condensed milk & tin opener

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the sociologist and Oxford Emeritus Professor A H Halsey. Prof Halsey played a key part in the switch to comprehensives as an adviser to Labour Education Secretary Anthony Crossland in the 1960s. Born in 1923 to working class parents he grew up convinced that intelligence wasn't dependent on class. Chelly, as Halsey was universally known, won a scholarship to grammar school but started his career inauspiciously as a sanitary inspector's apprentice, where he became intimately acquainted with such delights as the putrid lungs of diseased cattle. During the war he trained as a fighter pilot and perfected the 'aerial handbrake turn' that would keep him out of the way of the Japanese Kamikaze pilots. It was practising this manoevre that very nearly cost him his life as his plane took a nose dive, recovering only yards from the ground. After the war he went to the LSE and on to make a name for himself in the rapidly expanding discipline of sociology, and for some 40 years has held a professorship at Nuffield College, Oxford. Along the way he's taken on the grammar school system, the class system, the establishment and feminism. As he turns eighty, he talks to Sue Lawley about his life and times.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Benedictus by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Utopia by Thomas Moore Luxury: Solar-powered radio

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the impressionist and satirist Rory Bremner. He 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. Following his sell-out run at the Festival in 1986 the BBC offered him his first television 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 much more hard-edged, satirical and political bite. It also picked up more than 10 major awards including Baftas for himself and fellow writer-performers John Bird and John Fortune. His meticulous research and observation of the politicians he mimics inevitably led to his fraternising with them and ultimately led to being awarded the final accolade for a satirist: he was banned from Labour's battle bus in the 2001 election campaign.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Have I Told You Lately? by Van Morrison Book: The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon Luxury: Radio

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the writer Margaret Atwood. Born just after the outbreak of the Second World War, Margaret Atwood spent much of her childhood in the Canadian outback where her father's work involved studying insects. She grew up mostly without television, cinema, mains electricity or even a proper road to civilisation. For company she had only her parents and her brother, with whom she wrote "serials, mainly about space travel".It wasn't until her teens that the urge to write struck seriously, an event she describes as "a large, invisible thumb descended from the sky and pressed down on the top of my head. A poem formed." After University, a spell in England and a period teaching early morning classes to engineering students she had her first novel, The Edible Woman, published. Since then she has written nine more novels, four of which were Booker nominated with The Blind Assassin finally winning in 2000. Three of those novels have been made into films: Surfacing, The Handmaid's Tale and The Blind Assassin. She has also published some dozen books of poetry, five collections of short stories, four books for children and assorted non-fiction titles. Her latest novel, Oryx and Crake, set in a genetically engineered, post-apocalyptic landscape is published on May 5th this year.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Shepherd's Hymn from Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Stories from 1001 Arabian Nights - traditional Luxury: A huge vat of Culpepers Rose Geranium bath salts

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. Gilmour grew up in Cambridge, where his father was a senior lecturer in zoology and his mother was also a lecturer and film editor. He was educated at a private school, in the hope that he would shine academically, but he really wanted to be playing music with his friends at the local state school, the County. At 16 he left and went to the Cambridge Tech where he became friends with Syd Barratt, the legendary founder of The Pink Floyd Sound, as they were originally known. Pink Floyd went on to become one of the most successful bands of all time with albums such as Animals, Meddle and Wish You Were Here, and most famously, The Dark Side of the Moon and, later, The Wall. Dark Side of the Moon has remained in the best-selling albums chart ever since its release 30 years ago and has racked up some 35 million copies sold worldwide. The records were as groundbreaking in their presentation as their music, and the covers, designed by Storm Thorgerson, became iconic in their own rights: the man on fire on Wish You Were Here, the flying pig over Battersea power station on Animals, the black gatefold with a prism streaming light on Dark Side of the Moon. Pink Floyd concerts became a byword for spectacle through the 1970s and 1980s with lights and lasers and special effects. Since the seventies, David Gilmour has also worked solo and guested with Bryan Ferry and Paul McCartney among others. He has several charitable interests, recently selling his mansion in Maida Vale to Earl Spencer and donating the £4.5 million to Crisis, a homelessness and housing charity. In 2001 he performed a mainly acoustic selection of his and Pink Floyd's songs at Robert Wyatt's Meltdown on the South Bank. He lives on 300 acres of land in Sussex with his second wife, writer Polly Samson and four of his eight children. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Dancing in the Street by Martha and the Vandellas Book: An English translation of the Koran Luxury: An acoustic Martin D.35 guitar

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actress Kristin Scott Thomas. She was born in Redruth, Cornwall in 1960. Her father, a Naval pilot, was killed in a crash when she was five. Her mother married another pilot six years later, but he was also killed under similar circumstances. Kristin moved around the country with her parents and four siblings until she went to Cheltenham Ladies College at the age of eight, where she was 'always bottom of the class'. On leaving school she didn't go to drama school, but took up a teaching course instead. When she tried to move over to the acting course she was told the only way she'd get to play Lady Macbeth was if she joined an amateur dramatic society. Stung, she moved to Paris where she was encouraged by the family she was working for to enroll at a Parisian drama school, which she did. She has worked almost constantly since, in France, England and America, on stage, television and film. Her first starring film role was opposite Prince in his film Under the Cherry Moon and others soon followed. Among her most famous roles are Lady Brenda in A Handful of Dust, Fiona in Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Katherine Clifton in The English Patient. She has lived in Paris ever since moving there at the age of 19 and is married to a French obstetrician, Francois Olivennes. The couple have three children aged 14, 10 and two. Kristin Scott Thomas is in London to appear in Chekov's Three Sisters at the Playhouse in the West End. This is her first British stage appearance.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Morgen, Op.27.No 4 by Richard Strauss Book: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen Luxury: A pair of mules by Christian Louboutin

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the composer of the hit musicals Les Miserables and Miss Saigon, Claude-Michel Schönberg. Claude-Michel always knew he would be a composer. As a small boy growing up in Brittany he would play the piano and compose pieces for his mother. He dreamt of getting away from his little village on the French coast and going to live in Paris and compose operas.To please his mother Claude-Michel went to University to study mathematics, but whilst he was there he formed a band and began writing songs. They caught the attention of an EMI A&R man which resulted in two singles and a job for Claude-Michel as an A&R assistant. Claude-Michel enjoyed a brief career as a pop star, when he had a huge hit in France with Le Premier Pas (The first date) - a song that is still played on the radio there today. During this time he had met lyricist Alain Boublil who had been impressed with his pop songs and both were keen to take on a bigger project. The result was La Révolution Française which did moderately well in France. The duo perfected their skills when they went on to create the hugely successful musicals Les Miserables, Miss Saigon and Martin Guerre.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Beim Schlagengehen by Richard Strauss Book: All the Little Live Things by Wallace Earle Stegner Luxury: Grand piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the photo journalist Nick Danziger. Nick was born in London but grew up in Monaco and Switzerland. He developed a taste for adventure and travel from a young age, and, inspired by the comic-strip Belgian reporter Tintin, took off on his first trip to Paris aged 13. Without passport or air ticket, he managed to enter the country and travel around, selling sketches to make money.Nick's initial ambition was to be an artist, and he attended art school, got an MA and representation in a gallery. But his desire for travel remained - he applied and was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship in 1982 and used it to follow ancient trade routes - he travelled on foot or traditional local transport from Turkey to China and documented his adventures in diaries. The diaries formed his first book, the best-selling Danziger's Travels, and he never looked back. He has since travelled around the world taking photographs and in 1991 made his first documentary in Afghanistan, War Lives and Videotape, based on children abandoned in the Marastoon mental asylum in Kabul. It was shown as part of the BBC's video diaries series and won the Prix Italia for best television documentary series. Nick has since travelled the world taking photographs and making documentaries about the people he has met. He has published four books, including his latest, The British, for which he returned to his roots.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Girl From Ipanema by Stan Getz Book: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Luxury: Pencils, paper and watercolours

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the comedian Jim Moir, best known by the name of his alter ego Vic Reeves. Jim was born in Leeds but soon moved to Darlington with his family. He attended the local school and left with one O level in Art. He fulfilled the expectations of his school by getting a job in a factory, completing his apprenticeship and working there for four years. However, he was bored so he moved to London with three friends. After trying a few different jobs he began running club nights - with music, acts and entertainment. He would hire a venue and the bands and he would be the compere. Jim decided to take on the persona of Vic Reeves as it gave him an excuse to act up. A comedy night came up and instead of booking three comedians, he decided to do the whole night himself. Vic Reeves' Big Night Out was born. After teaming up with Bob Mortimer, a solicitor who had been in the audience of one of his shows, the show went from strength to strength. It was a huge success and TV rights were fought over by the BBC and Channel 4. Since then, he has appeared on both channels with a variety of programmes including The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, Shooting Stars and Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased). The programmes have won BAFTA Awards for Originality and Best Live Performance plus British Comedy Awards.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams Book: Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome Luxury: Potato seeds

"Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the singer-songwriter Gene Pitney. Gene grew up in Rockville, Connecticut, the middle child of a large family. His father worked in the local mills and the family sold fruit and vegetables from their garden to supplement this income. A shy child, Gene says that performing couldn't have been further from his mind, although he enjoyed singing. His first solo performance at school resulted in an embarrassing whimper as Gene was petrified by the expectant audience. In his teens he began to learn the guitar and piano, and formed a local band whilst at high school, finding that performing was a good way to overcome his shyness. Spotted by what Gene calls "the proverbial fat man with a cigar", he was taken to New York and recording contracts soon followed. Soon his songs were being recorded by some of the biggest stars of the time - Hello Mary Lou was released by Rick Nelson, Roy Orbison recorded Today's Teardrops as the B-side to his million-selling single, Blue Angel, and Rubber Ball became a worldwide hit for US artist Bobby Vee and UK artist Marty Wilde. By the mid sixties Gene had found international success with the Bacharach song Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa. In 1990 he had his first number one in this country with Something's Gotten Hold Of My Heart, a duet with Marc Almond.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Last Song by Elton John Book: The Giant Book of Mensa Puzzles by Robert Allen Luxury: Case of Opus One wine

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actor, George Clooney. George was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1961, the son of Nick Clooney, a TV newscaster. From the age of five, George spent time pottering round his father's sets, joining in where possible, shouting out the temperature during the weather report. After an initial plan to follow his father into broadcasting, then studying for a short while at Northern Kentucky University, George failed to join the Cincinnati Reds baseball team. But then he got a part in a small film through his uncle, the actor Jose Ferrer. The film was never released, but it had persuaded George of his vocation. Now decided on a career in acting, George moved to L.A. in 1982 and for a year tried to get a role while he slept in a friend's closet. His first film, in which he starred with Charlie Sheen, stayed unreleased, but got him the producers' attention for later contracts. He got parts in sit-coms such as The Facts Of Life, and Roseanne, and earned decent money, although fame eluded him. Then came a part as Doug Ross in the US TV drama ER. It was to be a huge success and made George's name around the world. Film parts soon flooded in and today he is one of Hollywood's biggest stars, featuring in many Hollywood blockbusters such as From Dusk Til Dawn, One Fine Day, The Peacemaker, Out of Sight, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Ocean's Eleven. After numerous Golden Globe and Emmy nominations, in 2001 George was awarded a Golden Globe for best leading actor in a comedy for O Brother, Where Art Thou?[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Destination Moon by Dinah Washington Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: An anchored yacht

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the artist Cornelia Parker. Cornelia grew up in the country where she lived on a small holding looked after by her father. She spent much of her time mucking out pigs, milking cows, laying hedges and tying up tomato plants. Her means of escape was to run into the fields to daydream. English and art were her favourite subjects, and a trip to the Tate Gallery in London with her school when she was aged 15 confirmed that she wanted to be an artist. After studying art at college, Cornelia turned her hand to sculpture, inspired by the Arte Povera movement in Italy which rejected traditional marble and bronze and used any materials they chose. She developed her style by mixing with other students and collaborating with theatre groups. Cornelia liked the idea of her work being ephemeral and didn't worry about it's existence beyond an exhibition. For her first solo exhibition in 1980 she showed a number of pieces and because she had nowhere to store them, told the organisers that afterwards they could give them to local schools. "I don't know what they did with them!" she says. After a car accident in 1994 Cornelia began to realise the importance of keeping some of her work and she began to be represented by a gallery. She broadened her collaborations - for her piece Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View she got the British Army to blow up a shed so that she could hang it back together again, suspended around a lightbulb. For her piece Wedding Ring Drawing she employed a silversmith who could draw a gold wedding ring into a very fine thread. In 1995 she worked with the actress Tilda Swinton on a project The Maybe, which included Tilda herself exhibited in a glass case. In 1997 Cornelia was nominated for the Turner Prize for her work.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Cry Baby by Janis Joplin Book: World of Wonder: 10,000 things every child should know by Charles Ray Luxury: A solar-powered vibrator

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actor Sir Ian McKellen. Ian 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 thirteen 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, most recently, 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.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Stormy Weather by Lena Horne Book: A dictionary of flora and fauna Luxury: Grand piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the comedian and star of The Fast Show, Paul Whitehouse. Born in the Rhonda Valley in Wales, Paul and his family soon moved to Enfield where he grew up. Paul was never particularly ambitious, but he was bright and got a place at University, although he dropped out in his first year. He went on to work as a plasterer and was quite content, enjoying a bit of humorous banter in the pub with his friends who included Harry Enfield and Charlie Higson.Harry was the first to get employment as a comedian - on Saturday Night Live, and he employed Paul and Charlie to write for him. Soon Paul was a regular contributor to Harry's show Harry Enfield and Chums. But Paul and Charlie were awash with ideas and characters and decided together to form their own show - a fast paced sketch show where the characters would come on, deliver a catchphrase, and exit. The Fast Show was born, and with it came an influx of new catchphrases that swamped common vernacular, such as "Brilliant!" "Very, very drunk" "Suit you, sir!" and "which was nice". After various acting roles on television and completing a live tour of The Fast Show Paul decided to write a situation comedy, and in 2001 the series Happiness was born.At the 1998 Baftas Paul won the Best Light Entertainment Performance prize and The Fast Show won Best Light Entertainment Programme. Paul was also recently listed number seven in a Radio Times poll of the 50 most powerful people in British TV comedy.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Tumbling Dice by Rolling Stones Book: A chord book full of songs and arias Luxury: A piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the theatre director Trevor Nunn. At the age of five Trevor had decided, to the great surprise of his parents, that he wanted to be an actor. He won his first part at the age of 13 when a local company needed a child actor. But his plans to act fell by the wayside when he realised there was such a job as directing after he directed a school revue at age 16, a role he took initially because he "had the loudest voice". After winning a scholarship to attend Cambridge University, Trevor took up an English degree and involved himself in various drama groups. In 1962 he won an ABC director's scholarship to the Belgrade Theatre Coventry. After two years his old Cambridge acquaintance Peter Hall had come and seen one of his performances and asked him to join him at Royal Shakespeare Company.Trevor worked alongside Peter Hall for four years until he took over as Artistic Director. He was the youngest person ever to do so at the tender age of 27. He has said "It was paralyzing, I reckoned I had just about learned how to run a rehearsal at the point where I took over the company". But he stayed there for a successful 18 years. In 1996 Trevor joined the National Theatre as artistic director and by February 2000 he had won 9 Olivier awards for the National, including best director.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Ode to Joy (Symphony No 9) by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The complete works by Charles Dickens Luxury: A photo of his wife and all of his children

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Professor Baruch Blumberg. Barry Blumberg was born in Brooklyn, New York in the 1920s, just before the economic depression in 1929. As a young boy he was particularly interested in science, and when his family moved to Queens he turned the basement of his parents house into a laboratory. At age 17, during the Second World War, he was enlisted into the Navy. They sent him to do an accelerated two year physics degree before he was trained to become a deck officer serving on small amphibious ships - he was fortunate not to be in war areas and enjoyed his experience.After the war Barry re-trained as a doctor. He worked in a large New York hospital before becoming interested in research. After a spell doing his doctorate at Oxford University he returned to the United States and focused on basic research into ethnic diversity. He was interested in how people differ to each other, why some people got sick and others didn't, with particular reference to disease. Through extensive research on this subject, Barry and his team discovered the Hepatitis B virus. This discovery of the antigen was the key to developing a vaccine and put in place special blood screening for transfusions to prevent further spread of the disease. In 1976 Barry was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Since then he has continued his research and also worked at NASA where he has been researching astral biology - the possibility of life on other planets.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: City of New Orleans by Willie Nelson Book: Ulysses by James Joyce Luxury: A flat water kayak suitable for rough water

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Gillian Anderson, best known for her role as Dana Scully in The X Files. Gillian was born in Chicago, Illinois. When she was two, she moved with her parents to London. At 11, the family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan which she found deathly dull in comparison to the big city life of London. Gillian began acting in community theatre productions while in high school and decided to study drama at the Goodman Theater School at Chicago's DePaul University. After she finished her degree, she moved to New York City to find work. She performed in a couple of plays, but then was cast as the female lead in a new science fiction TV series. The X Files turned out to be a massive success and in September 1993, Gillian began a nine-year stint in the FOX TV series. For her role she received two Screen Actors Guild awards, an Emmy and a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series. In 1999 Gillian wrote and directed her own episode. In 2000, Gillian played Lily Bart in the Terence Davies' feature The House of Mirth and won the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress. This year she debuts on the West End in Michael Weller's What the Night is For.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley Book: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle Luxury: Recordings of her daughter and "her love" reading self-written stories and poetry

George Foreman was born in Texas into a large but poor family. His earliest memories are of being hungry. He found school difficult and felt he was written off because of his scruffy clothes. He had a short temper and would often get into fights as a child, sometimes beating people up for no reason. Soon he discovered that mugging was an easy way to get funds and terrorised his neighbourhood, although he never used knives - just his fists. Heading nowhere fast, George was saved by The Job Corps, a project started by President Lyndon Johnson which aimed to get training and jobs for young people with few opportunities in life. It introduced him to boxing and he began to train seriously. George won the gold medal for heavyweight boxing at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 and became a professional boxer. He defeated Joe Frazier in 1973 and became heavyweight champion at the age of 24. After being defeated by Muhammed Ali at the infamous Rumble in the Jungle in 1974, George took up religion and became a preacher, giving up boxing for good, or so he thought. By the mid-80s George was short of money: he was building a community centre and wanted it to be well stocked with equipment. So he returned to the only honest way he knew of making money. Ten years out of practice in 1987 when he was 38, George started to train again. Remarkably, on 5 November 1994, at the age of 45, George won the heavyweight title for the second time - this time against Michael Moorer, aged 26, by a knockout in the 10th round. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: All You Need Is Love by The Beatles Book: An anthology of poems which include the poem Waiting by John Burroughs Luxury: A pillow

Patricia Daniels was born in 1956 in Miami, Florida. After her parents divorced she moved with her mother and two brothers to Montreat, North Carolina. Her mother suffered from depression and sought help from the Reverend Billy Graham. The reverend's wife, Ruth Bell Graham, became Patricia's friend and mentor and encouraged her to write. She particularly loved telling ghost stories, and would scare the children in her neighbourhood at Halloween. Patricia majored in English at Davidson, a private liberal arts college in North Carolina and married one of her professors, Charles Cornwell. The marriage lasted 10 years, by which time Patricia had progressed from a summer job compiling TV listings for The Charlotte Observer to crime reporter to a job at the medical examiner's office in Virginia. It was all good research for her crime novels, but her first published book in 1983 was A Time for Remembering, a biography of Ruth Bell Graham. Patricia had had three thrillers rejected by publishers so she tried again, this time changing a minor character, Kay Scarpetta, chief medical examiner for Virginia, into her main protagonist for the book Postmortem. Postmortem was initially rejected by seven major publishing houses and finally accepted at the very end of 1988. It was a huge success and made her the only author ever to win all four major mystery awards in a single year on both sides of the Atlantic - The Edgar, The John Creasey, The Antony and the MacAvity. Thirteen novels later, she is still producing best sellers and has most recently published a book investigating Jack the Ripper. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Pachelbel Canon by Johann Pachelbel Book: Essay on population by Thomas Malthus Luxury: An endless supply of notebooks and pens

Rowan Williams grew up in Swansea and Cardiff. He enjoyed reading, being outdoors and acting in school plays. He remembers attending church every day in Holy week, getting involved cleaning out the store rooms and making a bonfire of the rubbish. In his later teenage years he was inspired by the excellent choir, youth activities and Canon Eddie Hughes, vicar of All Saints, Oystermouth. Rowan went to Cambridge to study theology and for a time he was torn between Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism. He decided on the latter and soon after, when he was 28 years old, he was ordained as a priest. He spent the next few years lecturing and working with students and the local community. He became professor of Divinity at Oxford University. He left academic work to take up the post of Bishop of Monmouth in 1991 and in 1999 he was elected Archbishop of Wales. Rowan was officially confirmed on 2nd December as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury. He is also a philosopher, a poet, and a linguist who speaks seven languages. He has written a number of books on the history of theology and spirituality and published collections of articles and sermons as well as two books of poetry. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Opening of Solo Cello Suite 1 in G Major by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Collection of poems by W H Auden Luxury: A piano

Sinead Cusack was born in Ireland into a acting dynasty. Her first ambition, whilst at convent school, was to be a saint. But her behaviour didn't match her early aspiration: as a teenager she was nearly expelled from school for dramatising the Profumo affair for the headmistress's feast day. Her first professional part was at the age of eleven when her father, the actor Cyril Cusack, cast her in an adaptation of Kafka's The Trial at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin. She played a deaf mute - she says perhaps he did it to keep her quiet, because he wasn't keen for her to pursue acting and said she would never be a classical actress. Sinead's first roles were at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, whilst she was still at university. She came to London, where she took over from a pregnant Judi Dench in London Assurance in 1975. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company which, she says, taught her all she knows. For Our Lady of Sligo (1998), in which Sinead played the lead role of Mai O Hara and showed in Ireland, on Broadway and at the National, she received the 1998 Evening Standard Award for Best Actress and 1998 Critics Drama Award for Best Actress. She was also nominated for Best Actress/Drama Desk Award and for Best Actress for Olivier Award.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Pie Jesu from Faure's Requiem by Gabriel Fauré Book: Collected plays by Anton Chekhov Luxury: A big hat with a lot of muslin

Sue Lawley's castaway is dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. Linton Kwesi Johnson was born in 1950s rural Jamaica. He lived in a farming community and looked after the animals, helping with the sugar harvest and fetching firewood. He lived with his grandmother after his parents separated, loving being the man of the house. She would entertain the young Linton, who she called "me husband", with folk songs, stories and ghost stories. In 1963, when he was eleven years old, Linton came to live in England. It was a huge contrast: "I had this childhood idea that literally the streets of London would be paved with gold and everybody living affluent lifestyles. So it was a bit of an eye-opener for me when I came and saw all these grey buildings with chimneys and smoke coming out of them and to see a white person sweeping the street!" He experienced racism at school, from peers and teachers alike, and became interested in the black movement. He joined the British Black Panthers in his teens, discovered black literature and began to write poetry of his own. He gained a sociology degree in the mid-1970s and had poems, inspired by politics and the Black movement, published in the journal Race Today. He soon became known for his poetry written in dialect and would often use reggae music to accompany it. He still tours with his band and can command stadium-size stages. Linton Kwesi Johnson became one of only two living poets to be published in a Penguin Modern Classic in 2002. He says "I've made a small contribution to bring poetry back to the people."During the interview, Linton Kwesi reads extracts from the following poems: 'Sonny's Lettah' taken from Inglan is a Bitch, 'Five Nights of Bleeding (for Leroy Harris)' from Things an Times and 'New Craas Massahkah (to the memory of the fourteen dead)'.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Embraceable You by Charlie Parker Book: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Luxury: A bass guitar

John Malkovich makes his film directorial debut this year with The Dancer Upstairs. He's best known for his laconic sophistication in films such as Dangerous Liaisons, In the Line of Fire and The Man in the Iron Mask. He was celebrated in 1999's Being John Malkovich, in which he played himself. Malkovich was born in rural America, where his family ran the local newspaper. He attended Illinois State University but soon changed his major from environmental studies to drama. He and two friends formed the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, an experimental theatre company, in 1976. Based in Chicago, it became one of the most exciting regional groups in America. Malkovich acted in, directed and helped on dozens of plays, while earning money painting houses and driving school buses. In 1983 Malkovich made his New York debut in an off-Broadway production of Sam Shepard's True West and won an Obie award for his performance. This led to the role of Biff in the 1984 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, in which Dustin Hoffman played Willy Loman. Their performances were captured for posterity in a film version a year later. John has received three Oscar nominations for Places In The Heart, The Killing Fields and In the Line of Fire. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Who Knows Where The Time Goes by Nina Simone Book: The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner Luxury: A cappuccino maker

Described by Lord Tebbit as "a remarkably normal family man with children", Iain has just completed twelve months as Leader of the Conservative Party - he was the first Leader to be elected by a ballot of the Party's membership. Iain married Betsy in 1982 and they have two sons and two daughters.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Benedictus (from Requiem) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell Luxury: Oil paints

Christopher Ondaatje was born in the British colony of Ceylon and educated at Blundell's School in Tiverton, Devon. He moved to Canada and in 1964 was a member of the Canadian Olympic Bobsled team. He is a retired businessman with a taste for adventure, philanthropy and cricket (he is a patron of Somerset County Cricket Club). He is a member of the exclusive club of Labour's 'million plus' donors and his philanthropy does not stop there - he has also given over a million pounds to the Royal Geographical Society and the National Portrait Gallery, who named a wing of the gallery after him. Married with three children and 12 grandchildren, Mr Ondaatje is now based in London when he is not travelling the world. His lust for adventure has fuelled several books - most famously Journey to the Source of the Nile. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Einleitung / Introduction by Richard Strauss Book: Anthology of Poetry by Robert Service Luxury: The Blue Nude by Justin Deranyagala

Marguerite Wolff has dedicated her life to performing all around the world. Sir Arthur Bliss composed for her and she studied under Louis Kentner. Marguerite was born into a musical family in London in the 1920s. Her mother began teaching her the piano and would sit and practice with her daily. Soon she was getting up at six in the morning to practice, and continuing on her return from school. Her first public performance was in the Wigmore Hall when she was ten years-old, after she won a competition run by the piano firm Murdoch. At fifteen, she performed with Sir John Barbirolli. Later in her teens Marguerite went to study with Louis Kentner, who she continued to work with until he died in 1985. During World War II Marguerite toured the country entertaining the troops with a group put together by Walter Legge of HMV. It gave her a taste for travel and, after the war, a concert she gave in Paris was her first experience of foreign travel. She has since toured around the world and is well-known for her beautiful couture gowns, the first of which was by Norman Hartnell. Still performing, in June 2002 Marguerite was awarded an OBE for services to music world-wide. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: First act of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Book: Liszt biography by Alan Walker Luxury: A piano

Robin Cook was born in Larnarkshire, east of Glasgow; an only child whose father was a science teacher. In his teens the family moved to Edinburgh so that his father could take up a headmaster job and Robin attended the same school. At school his favourite pursuits were the debating society and drama and he had an early interest in politics. Whilst his school friends were poring over the New Musical Express, Robin was reading the New Statesman. Friends recall he always wore two badges on his blazer - an anti-apartheid one, and a CND one. In 1964 he went to Edinburgh University to read English as he loved reading and literature and his ambition was to be a minister - he planned to go on to study Divinity. But doubts about his beliefs set in, and he turned his passion and determination into the Labour Party and socialism. His first job was as a teacher but he soon went to work at the Workers Educational Association and became involved in the political scene, becoming an MP for Edinburgh Central in February 1974. He was elected MP for Livingston in 1983. He was Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Security from 1987-92; Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 1994-97; Chair of the Labour party 1996-98 and a Privy Councillor since 1996. He was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when Labour were returned to government in 1997 and first came up with the idea of Labour's ethical foreign policy. He moved from the Foreign Office to become Leader of the House Commons last year and is responsible for parliamentary reform.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Siegfried Idyll by Richard Wagner Book: The National Hunt Form Book Luxury: A chess computer

P D James was born in Oxford, later moving to Ludlow on the Welsh Borders where she experienced a childhood which she says had more in common with a Victorian childhood than anything today. She was a well-behaved, quiet child who entertained herself and her siblings by telling and writing stories. Phyllis attended an old-fashioned grammar school where she enjoyed English lessons. She says "I knew I was going to write books".Because of financial pressures at home, she had to leave school at sixteen, first following her father into the tax office, then in a theatre where she met her husband, who was training to be a doctor. World War Two intervened and, because her husband returned from work in the Medical Corps with a severe mental illness, Phyllis had to be the main breadwinner, working as principal hospital administrator at the North West Regional Hospital Board, London in charge of five psychiatric hospitals. It wasn't until she was thirty-nine years old, whilst working in the hospital, that Phyllis began her first novel, Cover Her Face. "I knew it was something I was going to do, and it was just that life was so busy I didn't get round to it". She chose the name P D James because it looked good on a book jacket, and crime genre because she didn't want to draw on autobiographical details. The book was immediately accepted by a publisher, and in 1979 she gave up her other jobs to become a full-time writer, focusing on Detective Adam Dalgleish of Scotland Yard as her main character. P D James was awarded the OBE in 1982, she has chaired the Booker Prize panel of judges, has been on the BBC Board of Governors, was made an Associate fellow, Downing College, Cambridge in 1986 and made a Life Peer in 1992. Her books have made her a household name and she is now working on her 17th novel.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Opening Chorus of the St Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: Pencils and paper

Carl Djerassi was born in Vienna to an Austrian mother and Bulgarian father. Both parents were involved in the medical profession and, growing up surrounded by medical paraphernalia, he assumed that he would become a doctor. For the first four years of his schooling in Austria, he attended a girls' school as the boys school was full. He says "women are much more important than men in my life. I mean, I enjoyed it, I'm not complaining at all!" He didn't start studying science until his mid-teens and the outbreak of war meant a move to America, where he attended a pre-medical course at college. He soon became interested in organic chemistry and focussed on this subject for his PhD. Whilst working at a pharmaceutical company he was involved in two important discoveries. The synthesis of cortisone from plant material was, at that time, the most competitive and difficult project amongst chemists. Cortisone was considered a wonder drug in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation and eczema. The other discovery was the creation of a progesterone that could be orally active - aimed at treating menstrual disorders and infertility. It was realised that it could be used as a contraceptive but, as Carl says: "in the 1950s contraception was not high on the priority list. Pharmaceutical companies, with one exception, were not interested in that field. The population explosion and these concepts did not come about until 10 years later". It wasn't until 1960 that it was approved by the FDA as a contraceptive and became the Pill. Carl spent the next few years working in research and universities. He has also published five novels, three plays, a book of short stories, an autobiography and a memoir and is still writing. He describes a lot of his work as science in fiction - not science fiction - which explores aspects of scientific behaviour and of scientific facts. As he says, "Disguising them in the cloak of fiction, it is possible to illustrate ethical dilemmas that frequently are not raised for reasons of discretion, embarrassment, or fear of retribution".[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Songs on the Death of Children by Gustav Mahler Book: Collected poetry and prose by Wallace Stevens Luxury: A solar powered computer with a secret compartment containing a white powder

Paul Gambaccini was born in New York City in 1949 and revelled growing up to the sounds of the 1960s. He loved listening to the radio and chose to go to Dartmouth College in preference to Harvard or Yale because it had a student-run commercial college radio station. He soon became a news reporter, DJ and eventually manager. Paul came to England to study PPE at Oxford University and, although he was despondent when the local radio station wouldn't give him a job, his luck changed following his graduation when he was offered an American Music slot on the recently launched BBC Radio 1. At 24 years of age, he was their youngest broadcaster and stayed with the network for 18 years. He has worked on most radio and television networks, including a film review slot, which ran for 13 years, on breakfast television, and presenting the film edition of BBC Radio 4's Kaleidoscope programme. He has also written a number of books, including co-authoring The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, which illustrates his remarkable memory for music facts and figures. He now presents America's Greatest Hits on BBC Radio 2 and Classic Countdown on Classic FM. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Finale of Rhapsody in Blue by George Gerhswin Book: The complete Carl Barks Library by Carl Barks Luxury: A piano

Philip Pullman is the author of the celebrated His Dark Materials trilogy: Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. He was born in Norwich and spent his early years travelling all over the world with his father, who was in the RAF, and his mother and brother. Whilst in Australia he devoured comic book stories, which made a big contrast to the traditional stories his clergyman grandfather would tell him on return trips to Norwich. Philip planned to be a writer from the age of six and, when the family moved to Wales when he was 11, he developed a real passion for stories, encouraged by a school teacher to read more and write them down. Philip went to study English at Oxford, although he says it was really after he finished his degree that he started to learn. He began his first novel the day he left and although he says "it was terrible" he didn't give up. He worked in a variety of jobs to enable him to write and eventually went into teaching. He developed his writing style further by writing school plays and dealing with the challenge of making them accessible to both the children and the parents: it was an ideal training ground. Philip has since written many books for children: Clockwork, I was a Rat! (which was dramatised for BBC television), and The Firework-Maker's Daughter, which won the Smarties Gold Award in 1996 and the Sally Lockhart Award. The His Dark Materials trilogy has become a huge success with children and adults, and, on 22nd January 2002, Philip won the Whitbread Prize for the third book in the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass. This was the first time that a children's book had won either the Booker or the Whitbread.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Sonata Reminiscenza in A Minor by Nickolay Medtner Book: A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust Luxury: A Jar of Apricots, by Chardin

Dame Alicia Markova was born Lilian Alice Marks in December 1910, in a two-bedroom flat in Finsbury Park, London. She began ballet classes because she was flat footed and knock kneed. Her natural talent, when she was ten, was spotted by Diaghilev, the Russian artistic impresario who founded the Ballets Russes and brought the contemporary arts of Russia to Europe. Dame Alicia joined Diaghilev's company, which was based in Monte Carlo, in 1925, a month after her 14th birthday. Diaghilev changed her name to Alicia Markova and cast her in the title role of Nightingale in Le Rossignol, a ballet scored by Stravinsky, choreographed by Balanchine and with costumes designed by Matisse. It premiered in Paris in June 1925. After Diaghilev's death in 1929 she returned to England and became a leading figure of the emerging English ballet scene, dancing with the Ballet Rambert and Vic Wells Ballet, as well as at Sadlers Wells. Dame Alicia danced the leading roles in Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Giselle, which became her trademark, illustrating her unique style of fragility and strength. In 1950, together with her dancing partner Anton Dolin, Dame Alicia founded The London Festival Ballet which eventually became the English National Ballet. She was still dancing Giselle at the age of 48 and had her last dance on stage in the early 1960s. Subsequently she has worked as director, patron and teacher and was awarded the CBE for services to dance in 1958. Her memory for dance steps has proved invaluable for dance historians, pupils and teachers alike. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Softly Awakes my Heart from Samson and Delilah by Camille Saint-Saëns Book: Speaking of Diaghilev by John Drummond Luxury: The perfume Knowing by Estee Lauder

Timothy Spall grew up in Battersea, South London. He found school pretty uninspiring and left with art as his only qualification. However, when he played the part of the Cowardly Lion in the school production of The Wizard of Oz, aged 16, he felt he had found his niche. He says "it had a good big audience and they just laughed, and when I came out to do my bow they gave me a big cheer. Something went off in my head then." He had a natural talent, and soon found a place at RADA. Within a year he was snapped up by the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he played key roles such as Andre in Chekhov's The Three Sisters, a role which he was amazed to take over from Ian McKellan. It was a huge learning period and the critics weren't going to cut him any slack just because he was straight out of drama school. He says, "you're up there playing with the big boys so you learn pretty quick!"His first TV part was as the Brummie builder, Barry, in Auf Weidersehen Pet in 1983 and he has had many TV roles since: Our Mutual Friend and Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise both earned him Best Actor nominations at the Baftas. His role in the Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies won him critical acclaim, as well as two best actor nominations, at the Baftas and at the London Film Critic Circle. He has also been sought by Hollywood, recently appearing in the blockbuster Vanilla Sky. He won best actor at Prix d'Italia and Cinema Tout Ecran awards for the television drama Shooting the Past and was awarded the OBE in 2000. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Mary's Prayer by Danny Wilson Book: The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens Luxury: A drum kit

Brian May spent his childhood in Feltham near London and he learnt his first chords on his father's ukelele banjo. He soon progressed to the guitar, which he started learning when he was eight. He perfected his technique by buying records and copying the trickiest guitar parts. Although Brian's dream was to be a guitarist, it didn't seem like a reality so, encouraged by his parents, he went to London University's Imperial College to study physics. Whilst there he continued playing in bands with his drummer friend Roger Taylor. They were soon joined by art student Freddie Bulsara (who became Freddie Mercury) and John Deacon and formed Queen. Brian was researching infra red astronomy and part-time tutoring, but Queen soon hit the big time with their 1974 album Sheer Heart Attack, a success on both sides of the Atlantic. The band recorded 20 albums over a 22 year period and had frequent hits around the world with Killer Queen, Radio Ga Ga and Bohemian Rhapsody. Brian wrote huge Queen hits such as We will Rock You, Fat Bottomed Girls and Flash. They were known for their flamboyant live shows, where Brian provided technical brilliance and extended guitar solos inspired by Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. When lead singer Freddie Mercury died of an AIDS-related illness in 1991, Brian and his fellow band members organised a huge tribute concert for AIDS research which was shown on television screens around the world. Thirty-one years after Queen began, the band is still popular: Bohemian Rhapsody was voted most popular British song in a BBC Radio 2 poll this year, 24 years after its first release. Brian has also written and toured with his own band and in June this year he kicked off the Queen's Jubilee concert with an amazing guitar solo of The National Anthem from the roof of Buckingham Palace. This month he came fifth in a poll to find the World's Greatest Guitarists. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Saturn - the Bringer of Old Age by Gustav Holst Book: Out of the Silent Planet by C S Lewis Luxury: His own guitar: the Red Special

Alan Titchmarsh was drawn to gardening from an early age in Ilkley, Yorkshire, making his first polythene greenhouse at the age of twelve and deciding he was going to be a gardener when he grew up. He left school at fifteen and became an apprentice gardener in the Parks Department of Ilkley Urban District Council, going on to horticultural college at the age of 18. His interest in English literature and writing prompted him to apply for a job as assistant editor of gardening books at Hamlyn Publishing and he began to write gardening books of his own, publishing his first in 1976. Alan experienced his first taste of television when there was a plague of greenfly on the south coast and he was approached to report on it in Margate for Nationwide. He says, "I suddenly tasted blood. It was wow!, I like this. I want to do more." He became a presenter of Daytime Live, a Birmingham-based chat show, interviewing stars like Placido Domingo, Barry Manilow and Julia Roberts. He also presented Songs of Praise but never forgot his gardening, and took to the screens as a gardener with the amazingly successful garden make-over programme, Ground Force, in 1997. As well as presenting the more 'serious' gardening programme, Gardener's World, Alan recently took viewers back to basics with the series How to be a Gardener and, having written a grand total of thirty-seven gardening books, he remains the UK's premier gardener.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams Book: One of the 'Blandings' novels by P G Wodehouse Luxury: A box of watercolours

After Minette Walters' father died of injuries sustained in World War II she won a scholarship to Godolphin School, and eventually became Head Girl. From a young age she shunned girls' story books, preferring the more gripping Biggles and later, Agatha Christie. Her ambition was to be a writer. She says, "I just adored the whole thing of escapism into somebody else's world. When you're a writer and you are creating a world - you can only relate to one reader at a time, so it's: how do you persuade people? how can you draw the reader into that world so you can share it together? It's very exciting and any good writer, that is exactly what they do - they are tempting you into a world of their creation." Minette Walters went to Durham University to read modern languages. When she left she took on barmaid and secretarial work that would allow her to continue her writing but all her many manuscripts, in particular plays to BBC Radio, were rejected. Her efforts in magazine publishing were more successful and, after a stint as an editor, she soon found herself writing 30,000 word hospital romances. She was inspired to attempt a novel and after having two children she turned her attention to crime fiction, a subject that had held her interest since childhood. But she says of The Dark Room: "there is virtually no comparison with Agatha Christie - it's much deeper and darker and more naturalistic, realistic, gritty. That's why I put 'fart' in the first paragraph, because I thought, whoever reads the first page of this book is not going to think they are reading an Agatha Christie!" She has written eight books in ten years and received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for the best crime novel published in America for The Sculptress and won the Gold Dagger Award for best British Crime novel in 1994 for The Scold's Bridle. Her books have been translated into 36 languages and five of her books have been made into television films. Minette says she never knows who has done the crime until she finishes the book: "I set up a limited number - if I knew which one was guilty I would either underwrite them or overwrite them and if I don't know then I still explore them in depth. This joy, of going inside their heads, I'd be bored stiff if I knew what was going to happen."[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Free as a Bird from his Orlean's Function by Louis Armstrong Book: The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations by Elizabeth Knowles Luxury: Van Gogh's Irises