Desert Island Discs: Archive 2000-2005

Sue Lawley's castaway is broadcaster Chris Tarrant.Favourite track: Tequila Sunrise by Eagles Book: The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris Luxury: A lucky sixpence

Admired as a keen observer and chronicler of rural life, Ronald Bythe is perhaps best known for his 'oral histories' - Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village, which won the Heinemann Award in 1969, and The View in Winter: Reflections on Old Age. In conversation with Sue Lawley, he talks about his life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Die Wetterfahne by Franz Schubert Book: Life of Johnson by James Boswell Luxury: Lots of paper with pens

This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the paralympic athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson. Tanni Grey-Thompson has won medals in four Paralympic Games: when she was 19 she competed at Seoul and took the Bronze for the 200m. During the following 12 years her tally of medals has increased to nine golds and three silvers. She chooses eight records to take with her to the mythical island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Knowing Me, Knowing You by Steve Coogan/Rebecca Front Book: A guide to edible foods on a desert island Luxury: Five juggling balls

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Sir Alec Broers. As a professor of electrical engineering at the forefront of research into microchip technology, Sir Alec says of his work, "If cars had made the same progress as electronics have in the past decade, then you would be able to drive from Cambridge to London in half a second". He chooses eight records to take with him to the mythical island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Mir Ist So Wunderbar by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: Lots and lots of chocolate

This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the children's author and illustrator, Shirley Hughes. The many characters Shirley Hughes has created - such as Alfie, Lucy & Tom and Dogger - have been delighting children and adults since the 1960s. She now has over 50 books to her name, in addition to illustrating the work of other writers, including the My Naughty Little Sister series by Dorothy Edwards.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Quoniam Tu Solus Sanctus from Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi Book: Embarrassment of Riches by Simon Schama Luxury: Painting by Titian: Bacchus & Ariadne

Sue Lawley's castaway on Desert Island Discs is the Regius Professor of Foresenic Medicine and Science at the University of Glasgow, Peter Vanezis. Professor Vanezis has had a major role in examining the mass graves found in Bosnia, Rwanda and Chile and is a member of the international scientific team working on Otzi the 'Iceman' - the 5,300-year-old mummy discovered in the Alps in 1991. In conversation with Sue Lawley, he talks about his life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Record: Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves Book: Christ Re-Crucified by Nicos Kazantsakis Luxury: Big photo album of friends and family

Sue Lawley's castaway is broadcaster and porcelain expert Henry Sandon.Favourite track: Salutation from Gerald Finzi 'Dies Natalis' by Gerald Finzi Book: A Shropshire Lad by A E Houseman Luxury: A huge supply of Indian tea with a Worcester tea pot

Sue Lawley's castaway is pianist John Lill.Record: Beethoven's String Quartet No.14 in C Sharp Book: Huge Tome on fauna and flora Luxury: Solar-powered piano

Sue Lawley's castaway is Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts.Favourite track: Dance of the Coachmen & Grooms -from 4th by Igor Stravinsky Book: Collected Poems 1934-52 by Dylan Thomas Luxury: Drumsticks

Sue Lawley's castaway is epidemiologist Professor Sir Richard Doll.Favourite track: Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin Book: Oxford Textbook of Medicine by D A Warrell Luxury: A down pillow

Sue Lawley's castaway is actor and writer Griff Rhys Jones.Favourite track: Un Di Felice from Act One of La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi Book: The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens Luxury: Newspaper

Sue Lawley's castaway is writer and barrister Sir John Mortimer.Favourite track: Dio, Che Nell'alma Infondere from Act Two by Giuseppe Verdi Book: Oxford Book of English Verse by Chirstopher Ricks Luxury: Velasquez painting of old lady frying eggs

For forty years, the photographer Terry 0'Neill has been capturing the rich and famous on film - from Sir Laurence Olivier and Mick Jagger to Brigitte Bardot and Kate Moss. He talks to Sue Lawley about his childhood, his glamorous career and his chances of surviving as a 'castaway' on a desert island. He chooses eight records to take with him to the mythical island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Baby Baby all the Time by Diana Krall Book: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Luxury: A wind-up radio

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is the cookery writer Marguerite Patten. Known as the 'doyenne of British cookery', Marguerite Patten has written 167 cookery books and given thousands of demonstrations - including several at the London Palladium. In conversation with Sue Lawley, she talks about her life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Nous Avons En Tete Une Affaire from Act 2 by Bizet Book: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Luxury: A trowel for digging

This week Sue Lawley's castaway is the writer George MacDonald Fraser. When George MacDonald Fraser decided to write about Flashman, the well-known bully in Tom Brown's Schooldays, he found the perfect star for a series of Victorian adventures - from the Opium Wars and Custer's Last Stand to the Charge of the Light Brigade. Eleven books later, the caddish Flashman now boasts a huge following all over the world.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Title Music for the Adventures of Robin Hood by Erich Wolfgang Korngold Book: Complete Oxford English Dictionary Luxury: Typewriter

Sue Lawley's castaway is the owner of Longleat, the Marquess Of Bath.Favourite track: The Ode to Joy (Symphony No 9) by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Combined dictionary and thesaurus Luxury: Laptop computer

Sue Lawley's castaway is composer Stephen Sondheim.Favourite track: Oh Bess, Oh Where's My Bess? by George Gershwin Book: The collected works by E B White Luxury: Piano

Sue Lawley's castaway for this special edition of Desert Island Discs is Norman Painting, who has played Phil Archer in The Archers ever since its first episode in January 1951. He chooses eight records to take with him to the mythical island. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: 2nd movement of Shubert's String Quintet in C by Shubert Book: The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley Luxury: An orrary - an electronic toy for looking at the sky

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the astrophysicist Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Jocelyn Bell Burnell was only twenty-four when she made the discovery of a lifetime: As she was mapping the universe for her PhD, she chanced upon the radio signal for a totally new kind of star, known as a 'pulsar'. Her find is seen as one of the most important contributions to astrophysics in the twentieth century. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by Giuseppe Verdi Book: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Luxury: Book on how to sketch and some paper and pens

Sue Lawley's castaway is actor Richard Briers.Favourite track: The Cuckoo and the Nightingale by George Frideric Handel Book: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Luxury: A huge supply of Chardonnay

This week Sue Lawley's castaway is Tim Smit, the co-founder of the Eden Project in Cornwall. Before Tim Smit thought of building the largest greenhouse in the world, he had already attracted public attention by resurrecting The Lost Gardens of Heligan. Before that he'd enjoyed a successful music career, writing songs and working with - among others - Barry Manilow and the Nolan Sisters.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Dancing in the Street by David Bowie and Mick Jagger Book: Book with plain pages Luxury: Piano

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is the editor of Talk magazine, Tina Brown. Her reputation as a formidable magazine editor spans both sides of the Atlantic - with the revamp of Tatler, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, raising eyebrows as well as circulation figures. In conversation with Sue Lawley, she talks about her life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Chan Chan by The Buena Vista Social Club Book: Middlemarch by George Eliot Luxury: Rollercoaster

This week Sue Lawley's castaway is judge Albie Sachs. The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, his account of being placed in solitary confinement by the South African authorities, highlighted the dangers of campaigning against apartheid in the 1960s. After a long exile in Britain, Albie Sachs returned to his homeland in the 1990s to help shape its new constitution and become one of its most senior judges.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Hammerklavier-Piano Sonata No.29 in B Flat by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Charterhouse of Palma by Stendhal Luxury: Little bottle of aftershave

Sue Lawley's castaway is sports presenter Des Lynam.Favourite track: In Party mood by West End Celebrity Orchestra Book: Encyclopaedia of Natural Medicine Luxury: A drumkit

Sue Lawley's castaway is the writer and creator of Harry Potter J K Rowling.Favourite track: First movement-Violin Concerto in D Major by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Book: SAS Survival Guide Luxury: Pen and unlimited paper

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the writer Ronald Harwood. At the age of 17 Ronald Harwood left his home in South Africa and set sail for England, determined to become an actor. When that failed he turned his hand successfully to writing. Some plays, like The Dresser, draw on his theatrical experiences, others, like Articles of Faith deal with the political dilemmas. He leaves behind his thought-provoking work to join Sue Lawley on the mythical island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Emperor Concerto No 5 in E Flat, Opus 73 by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh Luxury: My bathroom

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the gardener and writer Christopher Lloyd. Well known for his forthright opinions, Christopher Lloyd has tended his family garden at Great Dixter in Sussex for nearly 70 years. It's been the source of inspiration for his many books and his column in the magazine Country Life, which he's written without a break since 1963.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Letters by Gustave Flaubert Luxury: Syndicate whisky

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the explorer and environmentalist, Robert Swan. When he was a boy Robert Swan became fascinated by Scott's attempt to conquer Antarctica and after university he decided not only to follow in his footsteps - but go one further and travel across the Arctic as well. In 1989 he achieved his dream - becoming the first man ever to walk unsupported to both the North and South Poles.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Better Off Alone by Alice Deejay Book: Huge copy of Times Atlas - largest available so I can see where I have been (168 countries so far) Luxury: An accountancy course

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actor and comedian Sir Norman Wisdom. His cloth cap and tight-fitting jacket became his screen trademark in the 1950s and 1960s and characters like Norman Pitkin won him fans all over the world. Sir Norman talks to Sue Lawley about a career that's spanned more than 60 years and chooses eight records to take with him the mythical island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Don't Laugh at Me 'Cos I'm a Fool by Norman Wisdom Book: Reach for the Skies by Sir Douglas Bader Luxury: Pot of stew with two dumplings

This week, Sue Lawley's castaway on Desert Island Discs is General Sir Charles Guthrie.Favourite track: The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by Giuseppe Verdi Book: Vol 1 of biography of the Duke of Wellington - Year of the Sword by Lady Longford Luxury: Surfboard

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the mathematician Sir Roger Penrose. His prize-winning work with Stephen Hawking on the nature of black holes brought his name to public attention in the 1960s. Since then he has made a controversial contribution to the debate over human consciousness and whether or not computers will ever be able to mimic the workings of the human mind.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Crucifixion from B Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: The fattest book by Michael Frayne Luxury: 19-note piano

This week, Sue Lawley's castaway on Desert Island Discs is Michael Portillo.Favourite track: Viene la Sera by Giacomo Puccini Book: Proust: Time Regained by Alain de Botton Luxury: Solar-powered laptop

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Alan Parker. When Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone came out in 1975, it marked the beginning of a very successful and sometimes controversial career. Films like Midnight Express, Fame and The Commitments underline his versatility and have won him countless awards all over the world.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Nimrod by Edward Elgar Book: A giant photo album of his four children and grandchildren that goes back over twenty years. Luxury: Watercolour paint box (plus brush and pad)

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the playwright Peter Nichols. His award winning work, including Privates on Parade and A Day in The Death of Joe Egg has left audiences in stitches and sometimes in tears. With the recent revival of Passion Play, his darkly comic tale about adultery, Peter Nichols talks to Sue Lawley about his life and writing, and chooses eight records to take to the mythical desert island. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Hostias (from Requiem in D Minor) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: His diary which he has kept since he was 18 - to relive life since 1945 Luxury: Cyanide tablet (if he can't have a tower and telescope or a full-size snooker table)

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Dr Max Perutz. When he left Austria in 1936 to study at Cambridge, his fellow students dismissed his ambition to decipher the structure of the protein haemoglobin as 'mad'. No-one had seriously attempted to map a molecule that was made up of 10,000 atoms. Twenty-two years later he was successful. It was an achievement that earned him and his colleague John Kendrew the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962 - and has since contributed to the study of blood diseases like sickle cell anaemia and Huntington's disease. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Piano Sonata No.30 in E Major by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin Luxury: Skis

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Donald Sutherland. He has acted in 104 films, including such classics as MASH, Don't Look Now and JFK. Tall and lanky as a child, he was called 'Goofus' or 'Dumbo' because of his big ears. However, it was those ears that caught the attention of the director of The Dirty Dozen and thus his film career was launched. Now appearing on the British stage for the first time in 36 years, he chooses eight records to take to the mythical desert island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Horn Concerto No. 1 in D major 412 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman Luxury: 100 cases of vintage Bordeaux

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Clive James. Author, critic and television personality, he is presently contemplating his fourth autobiography - tracing the journey from his childhood in Australia to the Footlights Review at Cambridge University, and then to becoming the wittiest television critic and presenter in Britain.During the interview Clive reads extracts from his poem 'Young Australian Rider, P.G. Burman', taken from his book Other Passport Poems 1958-1985.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley Book: My Method of Singing by Enrico Caruso Luxury: Karaoke piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Professor Geza Vermes . When he wrote Jesus the Jew in the early 1970s, it shocked the Christian world. He continued to examine Jesus through three more books, drawing on his lifetime's study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Born in Hungary in the 1920s, his Jewish parents had converted to Catholicism, but it did not save them from the Nazis. He was ordained a Catholic priest, but returned his Jewish roots and his study of the religion and culture of first-century Palestine.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Now from the Sixth Hour by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: The Complete Works by Flavius Josephus Luxury: Comfortable armchair/desk

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is John Bird. As a student, he changed the face of the Cambridge Footlights review by rejecting jokes on bed-makers and punting and writing a political review instead. In the early 1960s he helped found The Establishment Club with Peter Cook. Writing sketches with John Fortune, they found they were unable to find suitable actors to perform their work, and so took to the stage themselves. Satire, he says, died in the late 1960s and he struggled to make a living, until Rory Bremner hired them. As 'The Two Johns', their dialogues featuring an awkward interviewer and slippery politician have won them much recognition and a BAFTA award.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Repons by Pierre Boulez Book: The collected works by Wallace Stevens Luxury: 2,000 soft loo rolls

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Dame Norma Major. In her book on the Prime Minister's residence, Chequers, she revealed how Neville Chamberlain would spend time measuring the girths of his favourite trees, and how Ramsay MacDonald chopped wood every morning dressed in plus-fours. She herself was uncomfortable there, and she remembers the loneliness and stress of being the country's First Lady. She says her love of music, and her work for charity helped her through the tough times. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Norma by Bellini Book: Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers Luxury: Solar laptop

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Kathleen Turner. A versatile actress, she's been the femme fatal in films like Body Heat, parodied that role in comedies like Serial Mom, and played the romantic adventurer in Romancing the Stone. But, she says, ''I never play the victim, because I'm not attracted to a woman who doesn't try''. It's an attitude which must have helped her when she developed rheumatoid arthritis which left her severely bloated and in pain. Presently wowing audiences as Mrs Robinson in London's West End production of The Graduate, she chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Piano Concerto No 1 in B flat minor by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Book: Emma by Jane Austen Luxury: Roses

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Sir John Mills. He was only six when he decided he wanted to be an actor. And now after seventy years in show business he is still touring the world with his one man show. It was the war which made him a star and the films he made then eventually led to Hollywood. There he made friends with Laurence Olivier, Rex Harrison and Noel Coward, to whom he says he owes a great debt.He won an Oscar for his performance in Ryan's Daughter, but one of his favourite films remains Ice Cold in Alex. In it, he got to kiss Sylvia Sims, a scene which was later cut by the censor for showing too much of her cleavage and which had to be reshot with only three buttons undone instead of four. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: All the Things You Are by Chick Henderson Book: The Warden by Anthony Trollope Luxury: His piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Sir Peter Bonfield. The chief executive of British Telecommunications, it is said that when he left his previous company, its Japanese owner presented him with a samurai sword and helmet to remind him of the warrior qualities he would need at BT. And certainly the challenges facing him in this fast moving industry have tested all his discipline and determination - qualities he says he learnt as a boy at the local convent school.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: American Pie by Don McLean Book: A book on celestial navigation Luxury: A windsurfer

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is the conductor Leonard Slatkin. An American, he is about to take on the mantle of chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Renouned for his championing of both the American and British cannons, his aim has always been to demystify music of all kinds. He has spun discs on a pirate radio station and played honky tonk piano in a jazz bar. His parents' Hollywood String Quartet was the best known band in town and the Slatkin household was often filled with film stars. From these two influences he developed his love of chamber music and a passion for Doris Day. In conversation with Sue Lawley, he talks about his life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Danny Boy by Percy Grainger Book: Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin Luxury: Wine

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Sir Anthony Caro. Universally regarded as the 'grand old man of British sculpture', in the 1950s he had learnt from his mentor Henry Moore that artistic rules were there to be broken. So he yanked sculpture off it's pedestal and set it on the floor. And he rejected the traditional materials of bronze, marble and wood for girders, nuts and bolts. In fact as he confesses to Sue Lawley, nothing is safe from his magpie eye: parts of ships, cars, even kitchen equipment have all been incorporated into his work.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: String Quartet in C by Franz Schubert Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: Glue

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Claire Tomalin. A writer and literary editor, she is probably best known for a series of acclaimed biographies of women, including Mary Wollstonecraft, and Jane Austin. She began working in the literary world late in life, after bringing up her family. This, and a series of personal tragedies, including the death of her husband and two of her children, has no doubt made her particularly sympathetic to the lives of literary women in the 19th century.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Sull'aria. Che Soave Zeffietto (Act 3) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Complete diaries by Samuel Pepys Luxury: A garden

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Harold Evans. One of the great campaigning journalists of all time, as editor of The Northern Echo in the 1960s he argued the the case for cervical smear tests for women. At The Sunday Times, he highlighted the problems of the Thalidomide children. When Rupert Murdoch bought The Times he was given the job of editor and then sacked. After writing a book which decribed how a newspaper changes when the owner becomes editorially involved, he left for America where he lives a life of apparent glamour, with his wife, magazine editor Tina Brown.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Mache Dich Mein Herze Rein by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: History of the American Civil War by Shelby Foote Luxury: Silk pyjamas

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is Adrian Noble. Now the Artistic Director of The Royal Shakespeare Company, he says he learnt a lot about theatre from watching his father, an undertaker, conduct funeral services. He fell in love with the stage when, as a boy, he saw Laurence Olivier play Othello. A stage play, he says, whether Shakespeare or Chekhov, should not simply be good entertainment, but make people ponder on life itself. In conversation with Sue Lawley, he talks about his life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Mir Ist So Wunderbar by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Art of Memory by Frances A Yates Luxury: Wine

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Al Alvarez. In the late 1950s, as the influential poetry critic of the Observer, he favoured a style of writing which reflected the disarray of the times, in the aftermath of the Second World War and the shadow of the nuclear bomb. He befriended and championed poets such as Robert Lowell, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Later he wrote The Savage God, a study of suicide in which he recalled her death and described his own attempt.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Quartet No. 132 by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud Luxury: Laptop computer with poker game software

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Colin Montgomerie.One of the biggest earners in the history of golf, he's ranked number three in the world. Despite having a natural talent for the game, he'd never expected to play it professionally. Having applied for a job with a sports management company, his interview took place on the golf course. He played so well that the company persuaded him to become one of their stars.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Sailing by Rod Stewart Book: Any book by Michael Crichton