Desert Island Discs

Kirsty Young's castaway is the comedian and performer Barry Humphries. For decades he has enjoyed global fame with his grotesque comic creations, the Melbourne housewife Dame Edna Everage and the drunken cultural attache Sir Les Patterson. Off stage, though, his life has been spent immersed in literature, music and the arts, and he says that his time spent on the desert island would allow him to devote himself to painting.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Songs of Sunset: They are not long, the weeping & the laughter by Frederick Delius Book: The Melbourne Street Directory Luxury: My paints.

Kirsty Young invites actor Peter Sallis to choose eight records to take to Radio 4's mythical desert island. As the unassuming Clegg in Last of the Summer Wine and the equally mild-mannered Wallace in Wallace and Gromit, Sallis brings to life a sepia-tinted Britain that barely seems to exist any more. Now aged 88 and with failing eyesight, no-one, he says, is more surprised at his success than himself: "I've been lucky enough to keep going and I realise now, though it's taken me nearly 100 years, that my voice is distinctive. I'm very lucky indeed."[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The finale of Symphony No.5 in E flat Major by Jean Sibelius Book: The collected works by P G Wodehouse Luxury: No.7 Meccano outfit.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the comic and actress Whoopi Goldberg. As a child she used to practise the acceptance speeches she was sure she would one day make - little surprise then that she's one of a handful of people to have won an Oscar, a Grammy, a Tony and Emmy awards. Favourite track: Lovely Day by Bill Withers Book: Letters to a Young Poet by Raine Maria Rilke Luxury: Wise potato chips

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the writer Sebastian Faulks. He is best known for his novel Birdsong, which told in shocking detail the misery of life in the Flanders trenches. It was published with little fanfare or glossy advertising and failed to win any major awards - but it became a literary phenomenon and a huge best-seller. He was inspired to write it after visiting the battlefields of the Western Front with some veterans of World War I. One old soldier held onto Sebastian's hand and recalled seeing his friend killed next to him and, for the first time for him, Sebastian says, the war emerged from the history books into real, tangible human experience. He concedes that he still struggles to get to grips with much of life. Writers, he says, are often trying to impose a structure on a world that they find generally baffling.Favourite track: Miles by Miles Davis Book: Remembrance of Things Past (Proust) by CK Scott Moncrieff (transl.) Luxury: A wicket, cricket bat, net, an endless supply of balls and a bowling machine that can be set to replicate the style of any bowler

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the scientist Athene Donald. A Cambridge professor and fellow of the Royal Society, she has dedicated much of her life to studying everyday objects like plastic, food or plants. Her enthusiasm is so strong that, at her daughter's eleventh birthday party, she couldn't resist describing the structure of melting ice-cream - it was a rare case of misjudging her audience. By her own admission she is a workaholic - but she also champions the cause of women who want to become scientists and have families too. Her great triumph was to marry a supportive husband and after that, she says, the trick is learning how to cut corners: there are no 'dainty dinner parties' at her home, and she makes sure her clothes are machine washable and easy-iron.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Dies Irae (from Requiem) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The Lymond Novels by Dorothy Dunnett Luxury: A bat.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the musician Baaba Maal. He's among the best known African artists in the West, performing at events as diverse as the Glastonbury Festival and the Proms. Born in Senegal, music was always part of his life, but was not seen as a possible career option. Yet through his singing he has gained an incredible international profile - he represents the UN's development programme on HIV, is an ambassador for Nelson Mandela's 46664 campaign and champions the right of African communities to be involved in the aid projects which are intended to benefit them.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: So What by Miles Davis Book: Coups de Pilon by David Diop Alternative to Bible: Koran Luxury: Guitar.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Richard Madeley. It's 20 years since he opened the first edition of ITV's This Morning programme with his wife Judy Finnigan and, in the years since, pretty well everyone has sat on their sofa, from Madonna to Tony Blair, from the Clintons to, notoriously, OJ Simpson. Today, Richard Madeley is the epitome of a certain kind of smooth charm. In this frank interview though, he describes how he wasn't always so confident: he used to be so anxious about holding a conversation with his colleagues that he'd make excuses to hide himself away. He was in his 20s when he decided to become, he says, embarrassingly frank. He recognised how both his father and grandfather had deliberately stifled their own emotions and decided that he would be healthier and happier giving voice to them.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Summertime by Ella Fitzgerald Book: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Suzanna Clarke Luxury: Guitar.

Kirsty Young's castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is Brian Rix. For many years he brought farce to a large and appreciative audience - dropping his trousers thousands of times for the benefit of television viewers and theatre-goers. He was one of the most successful actor-managers that Britain has produced. But, more than 30 years ago, he called a halt to his first career to devote himself to altering legislation and attitudes towards disability. His eldest child, Shelley, was born with Down's syndrome and her birth prompted him towards his extraordinary second career. As a campaigner and fundraiser he has been described as having done more for people with learning disabilities than possibly anyone else in the country.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Love by Nat King Cole Book: Encyclopædia Britannica Luxury: A proper orthopaedic cushion.

Kirsty Young's castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is David Walliams. He has seen extraordinary success - as one half of the comedy duo behind Little Britain, as a cross-channel swimmer and more recently on the West End stage and as a novelist. In this frank interview, he describes his life away from the spotlight; how he used to practise comedy routines in his bathroom, the excitement of an early trip out wearing a John Paul Gaultier skirt, the inner drive that propels him and the unhappiness he feels when he has no company except his own.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths Book: Collected Poems by Philip Larkin Alternative to Bible: None - Bible not taken Luxury: A gun.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the scientist Professor Kay Davies. She has dedicated much of her life to finding a cure for the severest form of muscular dystrophy. Before she was 40, she had helped to develop the antenatal test which is now used around the world, then she isolated the gene sequence which could be instrumental in treating the condition. After years spent working on that, human trials for a possible treatment are about to begin.It's quite something for a woman who doesn't have an O-level in biology. Although, even as a child she did possess that critical quality crucial to scientific pioneers: "I loved solving problems," she says, "I was very tenacious and would sit in my room until I had finished the problem. I am a sticker."[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Piano Sonata in B Flat by Franz Schubert Book: Untold Stories by Alan Bennett Luxury: A piano.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actor David Suchet. He has won armfuls of awards for his work - most recently an Emmy for his portrayal of Robert Maxwell - but he is best known for the character he has been associated with for 20 years, Hercule Poirot.His approach to his work is meticulous and he says he has to inhabit each role he takes on. In this illuminating interview he recalls how, early in his career, a psychologist showed him how to shed his character at the end of each performance otherwise, he found, the edges between his own life and those of the person he was playing became blurred.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: When I Fall In Love by Nat King Cole Book: Magnum Magnum by Brigitte Lardinois Luxury: His clarinet and an unlimited supply of reeds.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff. He has performed in concert halls the world over under the batons of the finest conductors and, while he made his name as a Lieder singer, he's equally popular for his jazz, spiritual and gospel recordings. Music critics say he is "one of the great singers of our time and one of the most remarkable of any time." That his life has been remarkable is a reference to his disability: he was born suffering the effects of Thalidomide and although his early musical talent was spotted, his inability to play the piano meant he was not allowed to take up a place at a conservatoire.In this candid and moving interview, though, he describes how, with his family's support, he went on to build a highly successful career. Now, living contentedly with his wife and daughter, he says his life is a full and satisfying one. He adds that when he sees how readily people become consumed by envy and resentment, he questions whether that too isn't a kind of disability.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Adagietto from 5th symphony by Gustav Mahler Book: Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela Luxury: Good wine.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the writer Alan Sillitoe. 50 years ago his debut novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning captured the truth and brutality of post war working class life. It was a world he knew intimately - he grew up in the tight, terraced streets of Nottingham and, from a very young age, harboured an ambition to escape. As a child, he read voraciously and knew he wanted to explore the world. During the war he was a navigator in Malaya but, when he returned to Britain, he was shocked to be told he had contracted tuberculosis. As he convalesced in hospital he started writing and, once he had been discharged, his disability pension gave him the security to sustain him while he pursued his career. When Saturday Night and Sunday Morning was published, critics said his was a more authentic voice than D H Lawrence's. But the extraordinary reviews made scant impact on Alan Sillitoe - he says he had developed a healthy scorn for the opinions of critics - but he remains grateful, he says, to the book that brought him security and which has allowed him the freedom to write throughout his life.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Le Ca Ira by Edith Piaf Book: The Air Publication 1234 (RAF Manual) Luxury: A communications receiver (receiving only).

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesman, Vince Cable. He studied economics at Cambridge and had a rich career before entering parliament in 1997. Now, he's become something of a media darling; seen by many as one of the few people able to understand - and make credible suggestions about - the current financial crisis. In this personal interview, however, politics is largely set aside and instead Vince describes the home-life that shaped him as he grew up and the rich family life he has enjoyed as an adult. His fiercely ambitious father was an activist for the local Conservative party: he was talented, driven and passionate, but also overbearing and unwilling to hear voices of dissent. Vince dismayed his father by dropping his science degree in favour of economics and later outraged him by marrying his first wife, Olympia, who was from Kenya. Despite his father's view that mixed-race marriages 'didn't work', they were married for more than 13 years and raised their three children together before Olympia's death from cancer. After her death, he says, he envisaged a lonely old-age lay ahead - but an unpromising debate about free trade and agriculture brought him together with his second wife. Now he says he wears both his wedding rings together as a tribute to the two happy marriages he has enjoyed, he continues to go dancing every week with his second wife Rachel, as he did with Olympia and he is, he cheerfully confesses, a romantic.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: La Ci Darem La Mano from Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking Luxury: An Aston Martin car.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the poet Ruth Padel. She is a highly acclaimed writer who is fascinated with the natural world around her. She's said of her poetry: "wildness, and wild animals lie at the heart of what I feel about writing". And perhaps that's no surprise - she is the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin. As a child, her hero was Bagheera - the black panther from The Jungle Book. For a time, she confesses, she used to want to be a black panther. Later, she simply wanted to marry one. As an adult she has spent several years travelling across India, Sumatra and parts of Russia tracking tigers and trying to understand their lives. She notes ruefully that while her illustrious ancestor was involved in understanding how different species came into being, her own work was more a matter of documenting their decline. Her interests have been with her since childhood. Back then, she says, "looking at nature properly, knowing the names of the plants, seeing how the petals worked, observing animal behaviour was just there. That was what you did. That was what being a person was."[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: E Voi Ridete? - And you're laughing? by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The Iliad by Homer Luxury: A lot of paper and pencils.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the adventurer and businessman Simon Murray. What many of us would struggle to do over three life-times he has managed in one - as a teenager, nursing a broken heart and determined to prove himself, he joined the French Foreign Legion. Fighting in the Algerian war, he risked his life many times over; combat was at close quarters and was very bloody. Next, he set his sights on business - he ran some of the most well-known companies in South East Asia and was one of Chris Patten's key allies during the handover of Hong Kong. Then, in his 60s and looking for a new challenge, he chanced upon the idea of polar adventure, and went on to become the oldest person to walk unsupported to the South Pole. But after all this, his greatest achievement, he says, is his marriage. Perhaps it's no surprise that his wife of 43 years, Jennifer, is the first woman to have flown a helicopter solo around the world. These days their three children try to curb their enthusiasm for dangerous pursuits. But, Simon snorts, the couple simply say: "we're not listening."This programme contains descriptions that some listeners may find disturbing.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: O Soave Fanciulla (Oh beautiful maiden) by Giacomo Puccini Book: Cautionary Tales by Hilaire Belloc Luxury: Lots of paper, pencil and pencil sharpener.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Baroness Haleh Afshar. An expert in Middle Eastern Affairs, she's a professor of politics and women's studies and Islamic law as well as being a cross-bench peer. She grew up in Iran and France living a life of huge privilege but, inspired by reading Jane Eyre, she decided she needed to learn to stand on her own two feet. She came to Britain as a boarding school pupil when she was 14 and has made her home here.She has been an outspoken critic of the Iranian regime and, coming from a long line of independent-minded women, that's little surprise. Her mother campaigned for women to have the vote while her grandmother refused to wear the veil. Though in her grandmother's case, that was because she thought she was too pretty to be covered up.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Record: Prelude to Bach's Cello Suite No.1 Book: Collected poems by Hafiz Alternate to Bible: Koran Luxury: A rose bush.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is James Nesbitt. He is one of our most popular and successful actors and his long list of credits includes Cold Feet, Bloody Sunday, Jekyll and Murphy's Law. In this warm and illuminating interview he recalls his childhood in County Antrim where he grew up in a close-knit, rural community. He was the only boy and the youngest of four children and, when he was told he was 'spoilt', says he always understood that it meant the same as 'loved'. His father was the headmaster of the local primary school and there was an expectation that his children would follow him to become teachers. But James was a keen actor and says it is only now, in his 40s, that he can look back clearly and see he always felt an affinity to being on the stage. The first role he was cast in was as the Artful Dodger in Oliver. It's a character, he jokes, that has stayed with him through many of the roles he has taken on since.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Come Fly With Me by Frank Sinatra Book: Collected writings by James Lawton Luxury: A bottle of chilled Sancerre for every night.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the Oscar-winning film producer Michael Deeley. Over the past 40 years he's been involved in some of the most highly acclaimed movies we've seen, including Don't Look Now, The Deer Hunter and The Italian Job. Yet his job is one that's barely understood. Neither the artistic visionary nor the star player the producer, he says, is the person who is the ramrod-figure who causes a film to be made - buying the rights to stories, hiring actors, finding locations and overseeing the production. He fell into it - he'd always thought he'd be a diplomat or a lawyer - but a casual job ended up being a career of many decades standing. He says rather modestly, "I just found I had the knack".[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That) by Meat Loaf Book: Decent translation of the Koran Luxury: Two hundred cases of vintage wine.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the mathematician Marcus du Sautoy. A professor of mathematics at Oxford University and a fellow of New College, he has recently been named as the next Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science. He has always been driven to try to demystify and popularise his field. It's clearly a task he takes seriously - his father has recently enrolled on an Open University course in maths and, he admits, when he took his young son to visit the Alhambra in Spain, he challenged him to find the 17 forms of plane symmetry in the palace.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Prelude to Parsifal by Richard Wagner Book: The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse Alternative to Bible: Mahabharata Luxury: My own trumpet.

Kirsty Young's castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is Michael Eavis. It's more than 30 years since he launched the Glastonbury Festival at his dairy farm in Somerset. Back in 1970, the headline act was Marc Bolan. His fee for appearing was just £500 and party-goers were given all the milk that the farm's herd of Friesians produced. Over the years Michael risked losing his farm in order to fund the festival, faced years when the event was mired in mud and was criticised for booking a hip-hop act to top this year's bill. But, he says, he always felt compelled to keep the Glastonbury Festival going and now it attracts 180,000 people each year and brings millions of pounds into the local economy.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: How Great Thou Art by Elvis Presley Book: Blake by Peter Ackroyd Luxury: A mouth organ with instruction book.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Janet Street-Porter. Born, she says, with 'frilly teeth, big glasses and beige hair' she also came with a healthy measure of ambition, brains and creativity and she used those talents to pioneer a new style of television. In this personal interview, she describes how, as she gets older, she can't bear to look in a mirror and see traces of her mother; how her shyness can make it difficult for her to walk into a room full of strangers and that what she likes best is to be walking in the hills, in the rain and sleet, mulling over ideas for her next project. She may be a pensioner with a good body of work behind her, but, she says, her mind is on the career that lies ahead.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Always on My Mind by Pet Shop Boys Book: Larousse Gastronomique by Hamlyn Luxury: Notebook and Pens.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the Conservative politician David Davis. Born just before Christmas in 1948 to a single mother he was brought up in poverty in first York and then London. He says that he learnt early on the importance of not running away from a challenge and his grandfather and step-father taught him how to face up to his own fears. He went on to join the SAS through the territorial army and, during his career at Westminster, has earned the nicknames 'Bone Crusher' and 'Bovver Boy'. Yet he shocked his own party when, in June last summer, he stood down as Shadow Home Secretary and announced he was going to campaign against what he saw as a fundamental assault by the government on our civil liberties. In this personal interview, he describes the anxieties that beset him as he made that decision - and the extent to which his political life changed as a result of it.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Un Bel Di - One Fine Day by Kiri Te Kanawa Book: The complete works by Iain Banks Luxury: A magic wine cellar which never runs out.

Kirsty Young's castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is one of our best-loved children's authors, Allan Ahlberg. He started writing stories for children at his wife Janet's suggestion - she wanted someone to write the words so that she could provide the illustrations. They went on to produce more than three dozen picture books together including The Jolly Postman, Each Peach Pear Plum and Peepo! and their books sold in their millions. In this moving programme, Allan describes the impact of Janet's diagnosis, how she faced up to the knowledge that she was dying and how, after her death, he worked through his grief by compiling another book - a very personal collection about her life and work.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Closing Time by Leonard Cohen Book: Selected Stories by Alice Munro Luxury: A wall to kick a football against.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti. A pithy and incisive speaker, she is rarely out of the media spotlight and has been voted 'one of our most inspiring political figures'. She joined Liberty the day before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and, as the events unfolded on the television screens, it was, she says, impossible to predict just how much they would shape the civil rights debate in the years that followed. For her, it was not just a matter of philosophical or political principle - her son was born soon after the attacks and his birth, she says, influenced her own feelings: "I understood more what it is to be afraid, what it is to really worry about whether your family are going to be blown up on the underground."[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free by Nina Simone Book: To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee Luxury: A private screening room with movies.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the tenor Ian Bostridge. He is regarded as one of the great Lieder singers of our time and has delighted audiences in opera houses and concert halls the world over. But for him, music wasn't a straightforward career choice. He started out as a historian, and for years led two parallel lives, spending term times at Oxford, writing about witchcraft and magic, while in the holidays he'd throw himself into an operatic production. Eventually, his book on witchcraft was finished just before his debut with the English National Opera. Magic appeals to people in a way that is both mysterious and irrational and so it is, he says, not so different to music.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Last movement of the Piano Sonata No.31 in A flat by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: A solar computer loaded with pictures of my family and friends.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the American composer, singer and song-writer Randy Newman. Colleagues say he stands shoulder-to-shoulder with musical legends Cole Porter and George Gershwin. He first made his name by writing mordant and often satirical pop songs - including A Few Words in Defence of Our Country, Political Science and Short People. For the past 25 years he has been better known for his Hollywood film music - including writing the scores for the first four Disney/Pixar films. He held the unique distinction for being Oscar-nominated 15 times without winning until 2002, when he picked up the award for Best Original Song for If I Didn't Have You from Monsters Inc. His songs are often written from the point of view of unlikeable characters - from slave masters to stalkers - it was a style, he acknowledges, that wasn't universally liked, but he adds: "I wouldn't have it any differently".[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The 3rd movement of String Quartet No.16 in F Major by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Divine Comedy (with translation) by Dante Alighieri Luxury: A piano.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Sanjeev Bhaskar. A writer, comic and actor, Sanjeev has brought the British Asian experience into mainstream comedy with his television programmes Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No 42. Despite initial worries from the broadcasters, both attracted a loyal following and great critical acclaim.This represented a turn-around in Sanjeev's fortunes: aged 30, he had been unemployed, single, depressed and living at home. Now he is enjoying great success professionally and is one half of a golden couple of entertainment - he is married to fellow writer and performer Meera Syal. "At times," he says, "it's felt like living someone else's life. But I'm not going to give it back to whoever owns it legitimately."[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Waters of March by Susannah McCorkle Book: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Luxury: A grand piano.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the opera director David McVicar. He is hailed as the opera director of his generation and is in such great demand that he's booked up for the next five years. Opera appealed to him when he was still a boy, offering him a means of escape from his lonely and unhappy childhood in Glasgow. He immersed himself in it so much that now, he says, it's pretty well impossible for him to come to an opera fresh, somewhere it will already be in his memory. He says: "I didn't choose to work in opera - opera chose me. But I think opera made the right choice."[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Von Ewiger Liebe by Johannes Brahms Book: Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray Alternative to Bible: Bhagavad Gita Luxury: Well stocked bar & fridge.

Kirsty Young's guest on Desert Island Discs this week is the actress Miriam Margolyes. Her rich career has seen her work with directors such as Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann and she's won awards and acclaim for her film work, her theatre performances and her book readings. She made the leap from the Cambridge Footlights to become one of our most successful and popular character actresses. Yet, despite having one of the most sought after voices in the business, she says she hasn't had the career that she aspired to. She yearned to be taken more seriously and given meatier roles but, she jokes, Joan Plowright always stood in her way. On stage she seems to have the confidence and chutzpah of someone who is beyond embarrassment - but in reality, she says, for most of her life she has simply been a 'frightened little muffin'.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The opening of the Fourth movement of the Trout Quintet by Franz Schubert Book: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens Luxury: A flush toilet.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actress Ruthie Henshall. A West End and Broadway star she has performed in many of the most successful productions of the past twenty years, including Miss Saigon, Les Miserables and Chicago. On stage she has left audiences and reviewers breathless at the dazzling brilliance of her performances. But, off-stage, her life has often been defined more by shade than light.In this moving interview she talks openly about the abuse she endured as a child and the depression she suffered as an adult. She speaks too of her grief after the death of her "warm and brilliant" sister Noel last year and of the lasting impact Noel has had on her life. Now, Ruthie's happily married with two young daughters but, of the dark days behind her, she says, "I'd spent so many years entertaining and pretending everything was alright, but no matter where you get to it's never enough: you're always looking for the next thing."[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Over the Rainbow by Eva Cassidy Book: The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde Luxury: A jar of Hellman's mayonnaise.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the philosopher Professor A C Grayling. He was a child growing up in Africa when he was first drawn to philosophy because it offered, he says, a licence to study 'the whole horizon of human knowledge and endeavour'. It's a study he has undertaken seriously and practically - he has tried his hand at composing music, writing plays and painting - not because he wanted to master those skills, but to acquire a greater understanding of the talents of musicians, writers and artists. He lives in London with his wife and young daughter and teaches at Birkbeck College, but he remains evangelical about taking philosophy out of the ivory towers and into people's homes - so that it is a practical tool to help people live lives that are engaging and fulfilling. He is motivated, he says, by the knowledge that the human life-span is fewer than a thousand months - and with our time so limited, it is incumbent upon us all to use it thoughtfully and well. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The adagio from the Violin Concerto in D Major by Johannes Brahms Book: The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil Luxury: A good piano.

Kirsty Young's guest on Desert Island Discs this week is Richard Ingrams. Former editor and a founder of the satirical magazine Private Eye, he's one of the godfathers of contemporary British satire. Pseud's Corner, Dear Bill, and Colemanballs all originated with him at the helm. Now editor of The Oldie, he's still taking part in regular ideas meetings at Private Eye and says he wouldn't know what to do if he stopped working.From a privileged and well-connected background he seemed an unlikely outsider, yet he's spent a lifetime pulling the rug from under the feet of the great and the good. It's often proved a risky route, bringing him into conflict with army recruiting sergeants, cabinet ministers and billionaire industrialists alike. One of four boys, his favourite childhood memories are of accompanying his mother on the piano while she played the violin. He met Willie Rushton at school when they worked on the school magazine and at Oxford he met Paul Foot and other Private Eye regulars contributing to more magazines - Parson's Pleasure and Mesopotamia.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Gloria from Mass in B Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Teach yourself piano tuning Luxury: Grand piano.

Kirsty Young's castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is the writer Antonia Fraser. Born Antonia Pakenham, the eldest of eight children, it was while growing up in Oxford that she became fascinated with the past and would make daily trips to the town's library to fuel her passion for history. With seven brothers and sisters it was, she says, "something of mine". Her father, Lord Longford, was a classicist and their lives were rich with interesting visitors like John Betjeman, William Beveridge and Isaiah Berlin. Both her parents stood unsuccessfully as Labour candidates. An internationally regarded historian, her best-selling books are credited with bringing the past to life, full of painstakingly researched detail and strong narrative. Her first job was in publishing, working for George Weidenfeld and then marrying the Tory MP Hugh Fraser. She wrote the first of her best selling historical biographies, Mary Queen of Scots in 1969 while the mother of six young children - "the little baby enjoyed the sound of the typewriter".Along with her husband, Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, she has been at the centre of London's literati for well over 30 years. Her writing is still "place of solitude and a solace".[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: 3rd Movement of Piano Concerto No. 23 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The complete works by Walter Scott Luxury: Strings and strings of false pearls.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is one of the world's leading interior designers, John Stefanidis. Described as brilliant and inimitable, his work has blazed a trail since the late 1960s. The homes he designs for a closely-guarded list of loyal customers include palaces in Saudi Arabia and log cabins in Aspen, Colorado. His clients will sometimes ask him to design four or five houses for them. He's also designed commercial properties - the public areas in the Bank of England as well as suites at Claridges and Rocco Forte's Le Richemond Hotel on the shores of Lake Geneva. He had a cosmopolitan upbringing. The only child of Greek parents he was born in Alexandria but, from the age of eight, he mostly lived with his aunt and uncle in Cairo where he became a frequent visitor to the Cairo Museum. It was growing up among the teeming, richly scented streets and bone dry heat of Egypt that he became enraptured with architecture, artefacts and the transformative power of light. On coming to England for the first time as a teenager he watched 12 plays in 10 days - and says in spite of the cold rooms and dripping walls of his halls at Oxford, he found the rain and green grass exotic.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Vissi d'Arte from Tosca by Giacomo Puccini Book: Odyssey by Homer Luxury: Sketch book with lots of pencils.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the soprano, Dame Felicity Lott. She is one of Britain's best known and best loved singers and has given performances in opera houses the world over under the batons of such notable conductors as Bernard Haitink, Carlos Kleiber and Georg Solti.As a child, she had always loved singing, but was, she says, a shy, gawky girl who didn't have sharp enough elbows to get to the top. She tried her hand at teaching, but found she was so crippled with nerves that she had to abandon the idea. By good fortune she was delivered to a singing teacher who spotted her talent and gave her encouragement. It was exactly what she needed - she has enjoyed a career spanning more than 30 years and over that time has won a large and loyal army of fans.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Moonlight Music - the prelude to the final scene of Capriccio by Richard Strauss Book: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo Luxury: Lots of champagne and pistachio nuts.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the cook Antonio Carluccio. He's been hailed as perhaps the best Italian cook in Britain today and the flavours and methods he holds dear are the ones he learnt at his mother's knee, growing up in Northern Italy. The food he ate then was high quality, locally produced and carefully prepared - now, that's every chefs mantra, but when he arrived in Britain in the 1970s it was ground-breaking. Within a few years he'd taken over the Neal Street Restaurant in London's Covent Garden and turned it into an institution and now his highly successful cafes are scattered throughout Britain.For him preparing and cooking food is a sensual act, so perhaps it's no surprise that in his spare time he whittles wood into intricately-patterned walking sticks and tries his hand at clay modelling too. It's all part of a life that, at its best, is a tactile, sensual experience.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Finale to The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns Book: His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman Luxury: White truffles.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week the cartoonist, writer and illustrator Posy Simmonds. Her social observation and sharp wit gained a loyal following in The Guardian where - among their stripped pine, lentils and patchwork - she depicted the lives of prototype woolly liberals Wendy and George Weber. Since then she's gone on to create highly acclaimed children's books and also graphic novels Gemma Bovary and Tamara Drew. Posy says she started drawing as soon as she could pick up a pencil and as a child was making magazines and little comics with titles like How to Turn Yourself Into an Up-to-Date Ted and How to Make Love and Be Loved in Four Easy Lessons. She remembers drawing as the perfect thing to do, because she could sit on her own and talk to herself.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The opening of the prelude from Cello Suite No 1 in G Major by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Four volumes of the London Telephone Directory Luxury: The Crown Jewels.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the pioneering surgeon Professor Ara Darzi. He was born in Iraq and brought up in Baghdad but he moved to Ireland when he was 17 to study medicine. He came to England to finish his training and, highly talented and ambitious, was made a consultant when he was barely out of his 20s. Since then he's been nick-named 'Robo-doc' for spearheading the use of keyhole surgery in Britain and for introducing robotics to the operating theatre.For the past year he has combined his surgical work with a position in government - he is a health minister and, on the eve of the NHS's 60th birthday, he is charged with reshaping the NHS in England. It is, he says, the greatest challenge he has yet faced.Favourite track: Seven Seconds by Youssou N’Dour and Neneh Cherry Book: Yes, Minister by Jonathan Lynn Luxury: Pencil and paper

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the author Peter Carey. He says he grew up in his homeland "thinking that Australian history was dull and Australian literature was dull" and that he developed a strong passion to make it new and fresh. In this he has surely succeeded - he is one of only two novelists to have been awarded the Booker Prize twice. Yet he came to writing relatively late. The son of a car salesman he started off studying science but he abandoned his university career and ended up, in his 20s, drifting into advertising. It was only then that his literary awakening began. "I announced with great confidence one day, 'I’m going to be a writer',' he says, 'I’m an obsessive fool, I was determined to do it!"Favourite track: The Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah by George Frideric Handel Book: Austerlitz by W G Sebald Luxury: A ‘magic’ pudding and a drink

Kirsty's castaway this week is the comedian and actor, Bill Bailey. Lauded for his hugely inventive stand up, he has carved out a highly successful career with an altogether atypical approach. He's a familiar face on television from his regular appearances on quiz shows Have I Got News for You, QI and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.At school he was a gifted pupil who gave up on his education and a pitch-perfect piano student who flunked his music school entrance. He started drifting as a teenager and gave up on university within days of arrival - he says he was looking for the next challenge, and that turned out to be stand-up comedy. He loved having to think on his feet and found the laughter of strangers intoxicating.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads Book: The collected works by W. Somerset Maugham Luxury: A pack of cards.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales Lord Woolf. Throughout his career, he has been at the forefront of shaping our justice system. Following the Strangeways riots in 1990 he issued far-reaching reports on penal reform and his part in authorizing the release of James Bulger's killers attracted huge attention. As Master of the Rolls he made an historic judgement allowing Diane Blood to use her dead husband's sperm to have a child. Lord Woolf's appetite to see justice done was sharpened as a wartime school boy and the only Jew at Fettes College in Edinburgh - he developed an early antipathy towards any perceived unfairness. His school master's contention that being a barrister wasn't the profession for a boy with a stutter only made him more determined to succeed.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Prisoner's Chorus from Fidelio by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Koran Luxury: A happy photograph of the whole family including the latest grandchildren.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the composer Howard Goodall. He's a man of eclectic musical tastes and talents creating choral works, popular TV show themes like Black Adder and The Vicar of Dibley and movie scores and musicals. His enthusiasm and deep-rooted commitment to his life's work has regularly propelled him away from the score and onto our television screens where he's presented award winning documentaries like How Music Works. In January 2007 he was appointed as England's first ever National Ambassador for Singing, leading a £40 million scheme to improve group singing in primary schools.Howard says he hears music in his head all the time - and can't imagine life without it.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The first movement of Introitus from the Durufle Requiem by Maurice Durufle Book: The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank Luxury: Ice-cold vanilla vodka and tonics.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the MP Diane Abbott. She was the first black woman to become a Member of Parliament and, after her election in 1987, she said she would find herself sitting on the green benches of the House of Commons wondering whether she was really entitled to be there. It was not the first British institution she'd cracked - she had already propelled herself through Cambridge and then into the Civil Service. But she has not always sat comfortably inside these great bastions of the establishment; she says Gordon Brown booted her off an influential committee because she asked too many questions; she was a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq and she attracted a good deal of controversy when she decided to send her son to private school. After more than 20 years in the House of Commons, she is, she says, happy for people to judge her on what she has done and what she has stood up for.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Nkosi Sikelel 'Iafrika by Ladysmith Black Mambazo Book: Volumes of architectural and historical surveys of London Luxury: A nice bed with comfortable mattress, sheets & mosquito net.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is one of our most successful singer-songwriters, Annie Lennox. Her extraordinary voice has captivated us for more than a quarter of a century and, as one half of the group Eurythmics and as a solo artist, she's sold tens of millions of records and won fistfuls of awards. As a teenager, her musical ability was her passport out of her home town of Aberdeen. At that point, a career as a flautist beckoned: but, after studying in London, she felt she could never make her mark as a classical musician. It was a chance encounter with aspiring pop-star Dave Stewart that set her on an entirely different path.For much of the 1980s, all her creative energy went into making music. But when her children were born, she says, her priorities shifted. Now she devotes much of her time and energy to supporting different humanitarian causes. She says: "I need to find meaning in my life to make me happy; and that's been an ongoing struggle."[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: I Say A Little Prayer by Aretha Franklin Book: Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle Luxury: Suncream.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actress Penelope Wilton. Her first love is the theatre and she's been highly acclaimed for her stage work in plays by Ibsen, Shaw, Shakespeare, Beckett - she relishes and shines in the difficult roles. Yet as one of our leading classical actresses she has no qualms about turning her talents to TV and film - Calendar Girls, Shaun of the Dead and Dr Who are among her more recent on screen appearances. In-spite of being one of our best regarded actresses she is intensely private, intent upon disappearing into the lives of her characters. Penelope says that thing about being an actor is that you turn into other people, you have to hide yourself a bit in order to let that other person come out. People should see the character on the stage, not the actor. Penelope grew up the middle of three girls and says that her mother was frail and often ill - she says this taught her to be self contained: "I was always worried that I would hurt her by taking a different view so one was sort of being terribly amenable - well of course that’s not in one's nature, I’m quite sharp and rather argumentative."Favourite track: The 2nd movement of String Quintet in C Major by Franz Schubert Book: An anthology of 20th Century European poetry Luxury: An open-air cinema with a selection of films

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the cartoonist Mac. He's been the Daily Mail's cartoonist for the past 38 years - and it's his job, he says, to make the "dreary news copy of the daily paper brighter, by putting in a laugh". Since he was a child he was always drawing - inventing strip cartoons in his spare time and sketching figures in the margins of his school books. Yet despite his obvious talent, there was scant nurturing of his ambitions at home. His father told him he'd never make the grade and, instead, he should concentrate on finding a proper job. But Mac says that all the way through, he's been lucky. Whenever he's found himself stuck, he's come across someone who would encourage him to take the next step. Life has, he says, been a series of lucky coincidences.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Adagio from Bruch's Violin Concerto in G Minor by Bruch Book: The collected works by John Steinbeck Luxury: Tenor saxophone.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the radical thinker, writer and broadcaster Tariq Ali. Forty years since the streets of London were filled with demonstrators, Tariq Ali describes how he came to be involved in anti-establishment politics and how, from an early age, he felt drawn towards those people who were the underdogs of society. He was born to privileged, atheist parents in Pakistan, he led his first street protest at 12 and his first strike at 15 He became increasingly political until, after a military coup, his parents were advised to send him out of the country for his own safety and so he came to study at Oxford. He travelled to Vietnam at the height of the war to observe and document the suffering there and also travelled to Bolivia and Palestine. His role as an anti-establishment agitator was cemented when he led two revolutionary marches in London in 1968. Forty years on - and after a successful career as a film-maker and writer - he says it remains important to voice dissenting views and he insists that despite his privilege and status he remains firmly outside the establishment.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Meda Ishq Vi Toon by Pathaney Khan Book: The collected works by Marcel Proust Luxury: A mini DVD player.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actress Liz Smith. Her story is a triumph of talent and perseverance over circumstance. Her mother died when she was tiny, her father walked out of her life and for many years she was brought up by her grandmother who was in mourning for her only child and her own husband. For Liz, acting and making people laugh was an escape from the often harsh realities of life, but she had to wait until she was 50 for her first real break - a role in Mike Leigh's film Bleak Moments. By that time, she'd raised her two children on her own with very little money and knew that this was her opportunity to prove what she could do.She won critical acclaim and was later awarded a Bafta for her appearance in Alan Bennett's A Private Function and finally, when she was in her 70s, she became a household name through her roles in The Vicar of Dibley and The Royle Family. She's now 86 years old and, although she concedes the characters she plays have a habit of dying on screen, she isn't planning to retire any time soon.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Only The Lonely by Roy Orbison Book: A very large catalogue Luxury: A complete artist's set.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actor and singer Michael Ball. For more than 20 years he's been the West End's leading man - winning stacks of awards, building a hugely successful recording career and attracting a large and loyal army of fans.He was a teenage drop-out, but when a teacher encouraged him to go to drama school he suddenly realised what he wanted to do. Success seemed to come easily to him and he quickly took on leading roles in Les Miserables, Aspects of Love and Phantom of the Opera. But at one point he feared he would have to abandon his career; he was on stage performing in Les Miserables when he suffered his first panic attack. They became so severe that he could barely leave his flat and he hated the thought of anyone looking at him. He shut himself away for nearly a year as he tried to work out what was wrong with him and overcome his anxieties.In Desert Island Discs he describes how he managed to return to the stage - and reveals the role his partner, Cathy McGowan, has played in rebuilding his confidence.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Sailing By by Ronald Binge Book: The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman Luxury: Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough district of New Zealand.