Desert Island Discs

Kirsty Young's castaway is the crossbench peer and social entrepreneur Lord Victor Adebowale. For the past decade, when not in the House of Lords, he has devoted his time to overseeing services for people who are homeless, suffer from drug or alcohol addiction and have mental health issues or learning disabilities. To many, they are the most disadvantaged people in society, but he says that's not a term he finds useful: "I find it very difficult when people use words like 'bottom of the pile' and 'disadvantaged' - you'd be amazed that the veneer that separates people who don't think they're at the bottom of the pile from people who are is quite thin." Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer and actor Mark Gatiss.His childhood passions have fuelled his adult creative life. As a boy he says he was drawn towards the macabre and gothic - while his teachers remarked that his school essays resembled scripts for Hammer horror films. He has written for - and acted in - Dr Who, was one of the creators of The League of Gentlemen and his re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes for a contemporary TV audience was a huge success. He says: "When I was a kid, anything supernatural drew me, I would try and find it in anything - Gardeners' Question Time - I would look for something." Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the athlete Michael Johnson.He is the only person ever to hold world records in the 200 and 400 metres at the same time and, by the time he hung up his legendary gold trainers, his haul of medals included five Olympic golds. His upright running style earned him the nickname 'the duck'. He says: "They called me a really fast duck! I was ranked number one in the world - I'm so far ahead of the other people, why am I the one that's wrong?"Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the veteran hairdresser Vidal Sassoon. He developed the architecturally precise bobs and cropped styles that were a defining look of the 1960s. Mary Quant, Mia Farrow and Twiggy were among the glamorous clients who came to his salons in London and Beverly Hills. His scissors and ambition lifted him out of the grinding poverty of his childhood - he spent six years in an orphanage because his mother could not afford to keep him at home. Now aged 83, he says:" I've had the best adventure you could possible have, for a kid that started from nowhere."Record: Mahler's 8th Symphony Book: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Luxury: A dozen bottles of Vidal Sassoon hair shampooProducer: Isabel Sargent.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the children's TV producer Anne Wood. Her creations - which include Teletubbies, Rosie and Jim and In the Night Garden - have delighted millions of children around the world. She says she is driven by her fascination with children's creative development - and was horrified by the critical response when Teletubbies was first screened. "I wanted to make a programme that had love in it," she says, "You'd have thought I'd started World War Three the response that happened - it's innocent fun, that's all it is." Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the royal photographer Arthur Edwards. He is a Fleet Street legend and, for more than thirty years, has captured the most memorable moments of the House of Windsor - from the first tentative pictures of a teenage Lady Diana Spencer to the balcony kiss at the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton. He's travelled the world, met the Pope and seen inside the Oval Office and the Kremlin - it's a life far removed from his early life in the East End of London where money was very tight and his mother saved up her wages as a cleaner to buy him his first camera. Record: Panis Angelicus Book: A photographic album with pictures of his family Luxury: An inexhaustible supply of tea and a kettle Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the actor Martin Clunes. He became a household name in the 1990s in the comedy "Men Behaving Badly" and, in the years since, has performed at The National Theatre, presented a number of natural history documentaries and become the gruff GP in the comedy drama "Doc Martin."His prominent ears are among his trademarks and he reveals that early in his career he turned down an opportunity to have them pinned back. He said: "I just didn't fancy it - maybe I hadn't noticed them".Record: Sailing - Rod Stewart Book: Puckoon by Spike Milligan Luxury: An electric guitarProducer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the broadcaster and writer Danny Baker. He is a Sony Gold award winning broadcaster with one of the most recognisable voices on our airwaves and his numerous radio and TV shows have brought him legions of fans. As a writer, he has put words in the mouths of Jeremy Clarkson, Ricky Gervais, Chris Evans and even the legendary George Burns. Despite the successes, he says he's never plotted his next career move: "No plan - certainly no plan - you've only got to look at the incredible way this is all botched together and yet I don't feel that's somehow lucky when you look around at some of the half-wits and boss-eyed bozos who people this business - and they're running departments. All of this is an ant-hill that somebody's kicked over, and I happen to be one of the more bumptious ants."Record: I've Grown Accustomed to her Face Book: The Most of S J Perelman Luxury: My blue suede shoesProducer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the businesswoman Heather Rabbatts. Born in Jamaica and raised in Britain, her early years were unpromising and she left school with just a few O levels. But after evening classes, she studied law and became a barrister before making her name as the youngest council chief in the country. She's at home in the toughest business environments - from Millwall Football Club to the Royal Opera House - and says: "I definitely like being in charge and I've always felt that I can gather everyone's spirits and energies to take that jump into the unknown together."Record: Que Sera Sera by Corinne Bailey Rae Book: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Luxury: A solar powered digital photo album Producer: Isabel Sargent.

Michael McIntyre interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs. In less than five years he's gone from being an unknown stand-up with debts of more than £30,000 to become one of the most successful comedians in the business - with awards, chart topping DVDs and sell-out arena shows under his belt. He says: "I was on the circuit for years, I did get more and more in debt - it really did drag on and I just couldn't get a break. But when my chance came, I'd envisaged it so many times, I wasn't even nervous. I knew I could do it." Record: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - Ella Fitzgerald Book: The Complete Prose of Woody Allen. Luxury: A pen Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the crossword compiler John Graham. Now aged 90, he works under the name Araucaria and, for more than fifty years, has infuriated, intrigued and entertained with fiendish clues and mind-twisting anagrams. Like his father and grandfather he became a vicar but, when divorce forced him to leave the church, crosswords provided an unlikely source of revenue. Of the skills needed to dream up cryptic clues, he says: "So much of it is something that goes on unconsciously. You see the word, you play with it in your mind, you don't actually think about the punters at all at that stage, you try and do it for yourself. I hope that it equips one for life in the sense that it makes one think more clearly and that can only be good."Record: Haydn - The Heavens are Telling Book: The complete works of Saki. Luxury: A telescope Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the actor and broadcaster Tony Robinson. His Baldrick to Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder turned idiocy into an art form and the series went on to become one of our best-loved comedies. The role changed his life but, he says, when he first saw the script he didn't think much of it: "It was only about eight lines of dialogue and none of them were funny - but it was with these incredible people. On the one hand, I thought what a lousy part and on the other hand I thought, I'd love to work with these people".Record: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - The Band Book: Middlemarch - George Eliot Luxury: A luxury bed and mattress.Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the actress Dame Harriet Walter. She has been a stalwart of the stage for more than three decades - winning great acclaim for her work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Performing ran in the family - her uncle is the actor Christopher Lee and she remembers how, as a child, he would make her shriek by putting on his famous 'Mummy' walk to scare her. She turned down a place at Oxford because she knew she wanted to act - only to find that the drama schools weren't keen on her... she was turned down five times before securing a place. She says she has never thought about making clever career choices, but, in the year in which she has been made a dame, turned sixty and married for the first time, she says it has all turned out better than she ever expected. Record: My Baby Just Cares for Me - Nina Simone. Book: The complete works of Isabella Bird. Luxury: A flute Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the international dance judge, Len Goodman. He became a star of Strictly Come Dancing and the US show Dancing with the Stars, after a forty year career as a ballroom dancer and judge. Born in London's east end, as a kid he was a barrow-boy, selling fruit and veg on his grandfather's stall. He went on to work on the docks as a welder. But come Saturday night he would don his best threads and head for the Embassy ballroom in Welling. He was in his sixties when he found international fame and it was, he says, perfect timing. "If it had happened when I was thirty, I'd have been one these people that would be seen rolling out of nightclubs drunk, with a couple of dolly-birds on my arm. The pilot was on my sixtieth birthday and I think it was the perfect age because I was sensible by then, my feet were planted firmly on the ground."Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer Andrea Levy. Born in London to Jamaican parents, she has spent much of her career describing the experiences of Caribbean immigrants and cementing the role they have played in British life. Her books have found both a large and appreciative audience as well as critical success - Small Island was named Whitbread Book of the Year, while Long Song, was shortlisted for the Man-Booker Prize. Her achievements are all the more extraordinary because she says she didn't read her first novel until she was 23 years old. She says: "The reason I write is because I am exploring my heritage - and there's still a lot of that story untold."Producer: Isabel Sargent.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the singer Alfie Boe. He is one of our most popular tenors and, highly unusually, is a sell-out success in both opera houses and musical theatre. The youngest of nine children, he left school to work as a mechanic - before being plucked off the shop-floor for stardom. However, while he's at home on the stage, you won't necessarily find him in the stalls: "I like good singers, I don't necessarily like one genre of music, I just like good singers, good voices and good songs," he says, adding: "I never go to the opera.... it's just not my world."Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the musician Roger Waters. As one of the founding members of the band Pink Floyd, he has seen huge critical and commercial success. But in 1985 he walked away from the group and years of acrimony followed. They were reunited for one final performance, twenty years later, for Live 8. It was a moment many of their fans thought they would not live to see and it was, he says, highly emotional."We did a run through on the Friday night and it was remarkable, there were about fifty or sixty people working on the site, putting out rubbish bins or whatever it was they were doing and they all stopped and at the end they all applauded - that was a very moving moment."Record: Mahler - Symphony No.5 in C Sharp - 4th movement Book: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy Luxury: A grand pianoProducer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the singer Debbie Harry. Her group Blondie started out in seedy New York bars and went on to achieve international success - selling tens of millions of albums along the way. She was ultra cool - a striking beauty with platinum hair and a sneer. Now aged 65, her trademark look continues to serve her well, she says: "As far as ageing goes it's rough - I try my best - I'm healthy and I exercise like a fiend. I'm glad that I've had all the radical experiences in my life - it suits me." Record: Mahler's Symphony No.5 in C sharp Minor -4th movement Book: War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy Luxury: Paints and papersProducer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the actor, director and playwright, Kwame Kwei-Armah. His creative output spans both high art and popular culture. He became a household name starring in BBC One's Casualty, but at the same time he was pursuing a career in writing and his award-winning plays have been staged at the National Theatre. He's just finished a stint as the artistic director of The World Festival of Black Arts in Senegal and his next posting is to the US, where he's taking over a theatre in Baltimore. Throughout his life, he says, he continues to be inspired by the joyful atmosphere he grew up in. "My home was so warm, so full of life and noise. Most of my theatre I call the theatre of my front room. My memory was just this citadel to love and joy."Record: Fight the Power Book: The complete works of August Wilson Luxury: A basic word processorProducer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the doyenne of bohemian living, Molly Parkin. She left the Welsh valleys to train as a fine artist in London and was a successful painter then teacher before becoming a fashion writer and novelist. She is as well known, though, for her lifestyle as her work. She adopted a hedonistic approach to life - smoking and drinking through the night and picking up numerous lovers along the way. Now aged 79 she prefers to live alone and says she has found a calmer way of living. "I have been blessed, and made it my business, to surround myself with larger than life characters," she says, "love, on a very profound level comes unexpectedly and brilliantly."Record: Good Golly Miss Molly Book: The History of the Colony by Sophie Parkin Luxury: Her entire outfit including her Andrew Logan brooch Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the President of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Professor David Phillips. His love of science has taken him on an extraordinary journey. At the height of the Cold War, he swapped a post in America for a place at the Academy of Sciences in Moscow, where he partied with the Bolshoi and was interrogated by the KGB. He is also Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at Imperial College, but, despite his eminence, he admits his students had a 'professor button' fitted onto their hi-tech lasers. It was, he explains, a knob he could twiddle while showing visitors around the lab, but it wasn't connected to the machinery and meant he didn't ruin his students' experiments. Record: The Marriage of Figaro Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: A piano with music Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the designer Cath Kidston. Cheerful and practical, her products nod towards the 1950s. She began with ironing board covers but these days you can listen to a radio decorated with one of her designs, pitch one of her tents or decorate the children's bedroom with her cowboy wallpaper. In her own room as a child she used to play at keeping shop. These days her business has a turnover of more than £50 million. "I really felt, from very, very early on, I was onto something with the notion of what I was doing," she says. "I remember feeling I'd really overstepped the mark when I opened my second shop - thinking, that's probably going a stage too far." Record: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life Book: The Larousse French/English dictionary Luxury: A hot water bottle Producer: Isabel Sargent.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the pioneering fashion journalist Felicity Green. As hem-lines headed north in the early 60s she was hitting her stride in Fleet Street. She was the first woman on the board of a national paper and, as society changed, she kept right up with it. She introduced readers to Mary Quant, Biba and Twiggy and, on one memorable occasion, gave Harold Wilson's wife Mary a home perm. Now in her mid-80s she is still mentoring students at St Martin's College and says "I have never been fashionable - fashion needs to be followed at a very, very respectful distance. My blue-print for fashion is to be simple and stylish."Record: Chan Chan Book: Finishing the Hat by Stephen Sondheim Luxury: A bronze sculpture by Giles Penny Producer: Rachel Simpson.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the animator and director Terry Gilliam. He first planted his foot-print on our cultural landscape more than thirty years ago - back then, it was a huge, animated foot which squashed everything beneath it and became one of the defining images of Monty Python's Flying Circus. In the years since, his film credits have included Brazil, Twelve Monkeys and The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus. Now aged 70, he's directing his first opera. He says: "I've always liked the extremes, the edges. I like to know where the cliff is, but you only find out by stepping off." Record: Ein Heldenleben Book: Dictionary Luxury: A mirror Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the actor Martin Sheen.In recent years he has won great acclaim and a Golden Globe for playing the leader of the free world in the hugely successful political drama The West Wing. He's made more than a 100 movies, including Apocalypse Now, Badlands and The Departed. For him, work is often a family affair, in Wall Street he acted alongside his son Charlie Sheen and in his latest movie, The Way he was directed by another of his children - Emilio Estevez.But away from the film set, he's an activist and campaigner - he's been arrested around 70 times and is motivated, he says by faith and conscience above politics.Record: Knockin' on Heaven's Door Book: The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. Luxury: A full set of golf clubs and a bag of golf balls.Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Dame Anne Owers. A long-time human rights campaigner, she's spent years immersing herself in the problems of people on the margins of society. During the time she was Chief Inspector, the prison population expanded hugely. "The thing that saddened me greatly is that our prisons became better places but they also became places that soaked up a lot of money and into which we put a lot of people. My view is a lot of that money could have been better spent doing things that stopped people getting there in the first place and therefore prevented there being victims of crime." Record: Handel's Messiah Book: An Anthology of British poetry Luxury: A solar powered word processor Producer: Isabel Sargent.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio. He was capped 85 times for England, played in three Lions tours and led his club side, Wasps, to the top of the premiership five times. Yet, he says, he only started playing rugby seriously after the death of his sister, Francesca. She died in the Marchioness disaster on the Thames when he was 16 and her death, he says, blew his world apart. "Losing my sister was devastating. It made me more determined to do something to bring my parents together. When I first took up rugby, I took it up not for sporting reasons, I needed something to grab onto, I needed an olive branch." Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Immediately recognisable as one of Britain's most versatile actresses she's worked in television, theatre and films over the past four decades. While she's taken roles at the Royal Shakespeare Company and in big budget films, it's her instinct for TV comedy - working alongside Victoria Wood and Julie Walters - that has made her a household name. Audiences loved the spoof soap opera Acorn Antiques and she won an Olivier Award for her role in the stage production. In the early days, though, she remembers the camera crews were unsure what was going on. "I do remember the cameramen watching what had been a very slick show up until Acorn Antiques and then just thinking, 'Why is this bit so bad? Why is the scenery swaying in the background?'"Record: Tiptoe Through the Tulips Book: The Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Luxury: A cut glass crystal chandelier with candlesProducer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer Howard Jacobson. After many years of swiping at literary prizes, last October he walked off with the biggest one going, the Man Booker. His book, The Finkler Question, was a study of what it meant to be Jewish in England. It's a subject that has been very near to Howard Jacobson's heart. He says: "My sense of myself has always meant being on the outside. On the outside as a Jew, looking into gentile England, but also on the outside of Jewishness too. I have always felt myself to be on the outside of everything."Record: You're a Sweetheart Book: The Oxford Book of English Verse Luxury: A never ending supply of pressed shirts and trousers Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the journalist Jon Snow.For the past 21 years he's been the face of Channel Four's nightly bulletins where, along with his patent enthusiasm and vigour for dissecting the day's stories, he's noted for his natty line in neckties and socks.He's a highly experienced foreign correspondent too - he's reported from Haiti, New Orleans, Washington and East Africa among many locations. However it was in El Salvador that he found his name on the list of people who might be targeted by death squads. It was, he says, something of a 'badge of honour'. "I cry on location", he says, "and it's a good thing, because otherwise you bottle it up and come home bonkers."Record: Petite Messe Solennelle Book: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin Luxury: A set of watercolours and an endless supply of paper Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the veteran Coronation Street actress Betty Driver. For more than forty years she's been pulling pints and dishing up her hot-pot in the Rovers Return. But her career in showbusiness started decades before she took up residence on Britain's most famous street. She was a child when her mother put her on the stage and she toured the country with an act that showcased her stunning singing voice - it brought success but not happiness. "I did it for over twenty years," she says, "and hated every day of it." Although she has been working now for an incredible 80 years, she says: "I just love work and I will never retire. They'll have to shoot me to get rid of me!"Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond.He has spent his political life campaigning for Scottish independence. As a schoolboy he stood in classroom elections - back then, he won on the canny ticket of half-days for all and replacing the school milk with ice-cream. He was a child when he realised he had a knack for public performance - he was a boy soprano who seemed to have a promising career ahead of him. He says: "If you can sing in front of thousands of people when you're ten or eleven then being Scottish First Minister is nothing in comparison."Record: Joe Hill sung by Paul Robeson Book: The complete works of Robert Burns Luxury: A Sand Wedge & endless golf balls for playing golf. Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is Gyles Brandreth. A former Conservative MP, he is also a some-time actor, broadcaster and prolific writer who has authored biographies, diaries, stage plays and mysteries. Pursuing a political career has been, he says, the over-riding ambition of his life. However the happiest moment came not from politics, but when he was performing in a West End show that he had written himself. These days, his ambitions are to return to the stage and the role he wants to take on is Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. "I have no complaints" he says; "my life has been one long series of tomato and marmite sandwiches. I've always had what I wanted." Record: I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face sung by Simon Cadell Book: The Complete plays of Anton Chekhov Luxury: Michelangelo's Pietà Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the veteran RAF pilot Tony Iveson.Aged 21, he survived being shot down in his Spitfire over the North Sea during his first taste of combat in the Battle of Britain. Unusually for a fighter pilot, he then went on to join Bomber Command and the famous Dambusters squadron, sinking the German battleship The Tirpitz and winning a Distinguished Flying Cross. Aged 89 he returned to the skies, becoming the oldest man to fly a Lancaster bomber: "Well, I got out of that aeroplane and looked at it and it and thought how did we do it?" he says. "I know it was a long time ago and I was young and fit and a professional flier. But I thought about some of my friends who had been lost and it was an emotional experience." Record: Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor Book: A volume of Somerset Maugham's short stories Luxury: Two established vines and a tin bath to make wine Producer: Rachel Simpson.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the singer Sandie Shaw. With her melodic, velvety voice, bare feet and Sassoon bob she was the epitome of everything that was swinging about the '60s. She was just 17 when she first topped the charts with Always Something There to Remind Me and went on to become Britain's first Eurovision winner with Puppet on a String. She loathed the song at the time, but has recently come to terms with it after recording a new version which is, she says, rather forlorn.Along with the highs have been terrible lows - years that she calls her dark ages, when, without money or creative freedom, she felt hopeless. It was Buddhism that turned her fortunes around and became central to her life. Now, she says, she cannot believe the journey life has taken her on and she is preparing for a final flourish as a performer. Record: None of them! Book: Lecture on The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life by Daisaku Ikeda Luxury: Omamori GohonzonProducer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the Oscar-winning animator Nick Park.His most famous creations are Wallace and Gromit: Gromit the silent but wise dog; Wallace, his well meaning owner with notably less brain-power. They now hold the same place in the nation's heart at Christmas that Morcambe and Wise once occupied. They are old-fashioned and quintessentially British - as familiar as bread and butter, or hoping the rain holds off - but their appeal is international. The world they inhabit is one of Jacobs cream crackers and tea-strainers - so it's little surprise that in real life too Nick Park's own creature comforts are modest: "The thing is, I have everything I want really. I've got my little house, I've got a campervan, I love the British countryside, I'm not after yachts or things like that."Record: I Forgot that Love Existed - Van Morrison Book: A Collins Bird book Luxury: My own 'Amazing pair of binoculars' Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway week is the aviator, inventor and arts patron, Sir Torquil Norman. He comes from a family where derring-do is in the DNA - his grandfather was a pioneering airman, his grandmother an adventurer and his father also a keen pilot. Torquil ended up in the toy trade where the skills needed were, he says, a close attention to detail combined with the outlook on life of a seven year old. He was, he admits, perfectly qualified. In retirement he set about his biggest project - he bought a disused railway engine shed and raised tens of millions of pounds to safeguard its future as a venue for performing arts and a centre for young people.Record: Nobody Knows You when You're Down and Out - Bessie Smith Book: Book by his father: Nigel Norman - Verses 1911 - 1943. Luxury: A miniature still with a little ice-making machine attached to it to make dry martinis.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer and historian Frances Wood. As head of the Chinese collection at the British Library she is the gatekeeper to some of the rarest printed texts in the world. Her life has been immersed in the language and culture of the Far East and, along the way, she's spent time learning how to throw hand-grenades, plant rice in the paddy-fields and bundle Chinese cabbages. She was in China in the final months of Mao Zedong's regime and remembers being aware of the sense of national unease: "There were the bodies that floated down the Pearl River to Hong Kong - you did get a real sense of foreboding. You did know that the whole country was on edge." Producer: Leanne Buckle Record: Don Carlos Book: A copy of Chinese dictionary Cihai, (which means Sea of Words) from the 1930s Luxury: The War Memorial outside Euston Station.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the best-selling writer Robert Harris. He was, apparently, a political junkie from a young age; he was just six when he wrote the essay: 'Why me and my dad don't like Sir Alec Douglas Home' and he also had an early realisation that he wanted to grow up to be a writer. His first novel - Fatherland - imagined a world after the Nazis had won World War II. It sold more than three million copies and made him a household name. "I can remember I wrote the opening sentence and I practically had to go and lie down afterwards," he said, "the possibilities of it - and the feeling that I'd finally arrived at what I wanted to do - it was overwhelming." Record: Every Day I write the book - Elvis Costello Book: Scoop by Evelyn Waugh Luxury: A nightly fragrant bath.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the rock musician Alice Cooper.As a teenager he says it was British music that he tuned in to - listening to The Beatles, The Yardbirds and The Who. He realised that while rock music had many heroes, there were few villains - that was the territory he marked out for himself. He developed his trademark look - blackened eyes, straggly hair and glamorous clothes - and set about designing live shows that were gleefully gory and macabre. While critics have described him as 'the world's most beloved heavy metal entertainer', it took him a while to untangle himself from his creation. "For a long time I honestly didn't know where I began and Alice ended. My friends at the time were Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and I was trying to keep up with them. And I realised when they all died that you didn't have to be your character off stage." Record: Work Song - The Butterfield Blues Band Book: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Luxury: An indoor golf driving rangeProducer: Leanne Buckle.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the cookery writer Anna Del Conte. Born to a wealthy Milanese family, she arrived in Britain in 1949 where her Italian ingenuity with food was sorely needed in a nation still facing rationing and no olive oil. Her books, starting with Portrait of Pasta in 1976, helped to change all that, and established her as a food hero for younger cooks like Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith. She has still more to teach however: whatever you do, she says, you shouldn't serve bolognese with spaghetti as it's just the wrong shape. Tagliatelle is much better. Record: Part of the duet from the first act of Otello Book: The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa Luxury: Extra virgin olive oil.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan. Thirty years ago he was working in a factory gluing together tennis ball halves. Then he got a grant, chucked in his job and devoted himself to writing and performing. These days he's known as the Bard of Barnsley and his appeal stretches from the terraces of his local football club to the balcony of the London Coliseum... he is poet in residence at both Barnsley FC and the English National Opera... He still lives in the village where he was born and he considers and analyses British culture from his very particular vantage point in south Yorkshire. He says: "You can do the universal in the local, I always think. You can see all the changes that have happened all over the world in the 20th and 21st centuries in microcosm." Producer: Leanne BuckleRecord: 4' 33" - John Cage Book: The Long and The Short of It: Poems 1955-2005 by Roy Fisher Luxury: A tandem bike with wooden models of his family on the front.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the Chinese pianist Lang Lang. He was five years old when he gave his first public recital in front of an audience of 800 people. It was a pivotal moment and from that point on it was clear where his future lay. His parents were both musical too but, during the cultural revolution, had not been able to pursue their own ambitions. Lang Lang was born under the one-child rule and so he was, he says, their only chance. Their aim was that he should become the No.1 pianist in China and in the years that followed, family life was sacrificed to that end. Still only 28 years old, he is a phenomenon in the classical music world - he played to a global audience of four and a half billion people for the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics and, when he returns to China, he says he is mobbed in the streets. Producer: Leanne Buckle Record: The Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 played by Vladimir Horowitz Book: The Analects of Confucius. Luxury: Two feathered pillows.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg. Of his career, he says: "Joining the Liberal Party was a no brainer for me - when you're a young man, you don't get a calculator out saying 'Am I going to get to power?' you get propelled forward by idealism". Yet this week more than any other, critics have questioned whether his interest in power has meant his ideals have had to take a back seat. In this candid conversation, he describes the behind-the-scenes negotiations that underpinned the coalition and he shares the personal trauma when, after his wife and baby son had both been dangerously ill, he wondered whether a political career would place too heavy a burden on his family. Producer: Leanne BuckleRecord: Schubert - Impromptu No.3 in G flat major Book: The Leopard by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa Luxury: A stash of cigarettes.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the barrister Michael Mansfield.He is one of Britain's leading QCs - the Birmingham six, the Marchioness disaster, the Stephen Lawrence trial and the death of Jean Charles de Menezes are only a handful of the high profile cases he's been involved in.He describes himself as a 'radical lawyer' and says he's been educated by the cases he's taken on. He has become, he says, increasingly angry and radical over the years. "I do feel that reputation, standing up for principle, is one of the few ways in which a difference can be made." Record: The Goons - What's the Time, Eccles? Book: The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine as his Bible: and The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz Luxury: A drum kit.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the founder of Storm model agency, Sarah Doukas. She has never, she says, had a normal career - after running away from school, she ran bric-a-brac stalls in London and Paris and then lived in America before returning to Britain. She enjoyed a stint as a model herself (her speciality, at only five feet two inches tall, was perching on car bonnets so they seemed bigger in advertising pictures). But she discovered she had a knack for spotting future talent and is best known for finding a 14 year old Kate Moss and turning her into an international star. "I'm a terrible old rocker" she says, "I always knew my life would be unconventional." Producer: Leanne BuckleRecord: Mercy Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye Book: The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin Luxury: A photo album of all my family.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the entertainer Johnny Vegas. As a stand-up comic he made his name as one of the most brilliant and unpredictable acts on the circuit. His stage persona was a belligerent drunk who would heckle his own audience. But the more successful he became, the more the similarities between his own life and his stage character seemed to blur. "I found popularity through self-destruction" he says, "and that can be quite addictive". In recent years, he has cut down on his drinking, lost weight and now got engaged - all part of a plan to ensure he reached his 40th birthday and could be a proper father to his young son. "Life's actually turned around and been very good to me," he says. Producer: Leanne BuckleRecord: Hurt - Johnny Cash Book: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Luxury: A Kiln.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the singer Sir Tom Jones. In a career spanning fifty years he's sold 150 million albums and his hits have included It's Not Unusual, What's New Pussycat? and Delilah. As a child it was assumed he'd follow in his father's footsteps and become a miner. But he developed TB when he was twelve and doctors warned his parents against sending their only son to the pit; they said his lungs were too weak. Now aged seventy, he has no plans to retire. "Singing's like breathing to me", he says, "my voice drives me, it tells me that I have to do it". Producer: Leanne Buckle Record: A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On Book: The Rise and Fall of the British Empire -Lawrence James Luxury: A Bucket and Spade.

From Lady Gaga to The Specials. Actor and director Kathy Burke shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.She became a household name for her comedy performances, working with Harry Enfield to create the characters Kevin and Perry. She won critical acclaim for serious roles and picked up the Best Actress award at Cannes for her portrayal of an abused wife in the film "Nil By Mouth".Kathy's early life had been tumultuous - her mother died before she was two and her father was often drunk, leaving her older brother to run the family home. She was a teenager when she discovered acting and, she says, it was the saving of her. First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in August 2010.

Kirsty Young's castaway on Desert Island Discs is Lord David Cobbold. He was just 32 years old when he took over the ancestral pile Knebworth House and he succeeded in turning a crumbling corner of the establishment into one of the best rock concert venues in the world. Over the past forty years, everyone from Led Zeppelin to Paul McCartney to Robbie Williams has played there. The concerts have not only allowed him to keep the house in private hands, but have also given him a front-row seat to some of the most celebrated performances in rock history. Record: Pink Floyd - Brain Damage Book: Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton Luxury: A fishing rodProducer: Leanne Buckle.