Desert Island Discs

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the broadcaster Gloria Hunniford. She's one of our most popular interviewers and presenters and for 40 years has been a warm, but always incisive, figure on our radio and television airwaves. She grew up in Northern Ireland and first of all thought her career lay in singing - as a young girl she would spend several evenings each week singing in local church halls. Although she moved in to broadcasting, those early years lay the foundation for the success and gave her a confidence performing in front of a crowd and a genuine interest in people and their lives. She was among the vanguard of women who tried to have it all - to combine motherhood with a fulfilling career. Her eldest daughter, Caron Keating, followed her into the profession and shared Gloria's ready warmth and wit. But Caron was just 41 when she died from breast cancer and Gloria's moving account of her experiences has now touched tens of thousands of people.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Miss You Nights by Cliff Richard Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: Family photographs

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the playwright Sir Arnold Wesker. He's a prolific writer and has penned more than 40 plays as well as books of poetry, short stories, children's tales and most recently a novel. But he first came to prominence in the late 1950s as one of the group of Angry Young Men; dramatists who made their art out of the stuff of everyday life.He was the son of Jewish communists and was brought up in the East End of London in the 1930s. He remembers being taken on marches and demonstrations and says that memories of Cable Street, when Oswald Mosley was prevented from marching his blackshirts through predominantly Jewish areas of London, weighed heavily in his home. His background strongly informed his writing and his first five plays were all staged at the Royal Court Theatre. He says that even today, he must write something each day as a way of justifying his existence - even if it is only his daily diary entry.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: The end of Gurrelieder by Arnold Schoenberg Book: Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust Luxury: Supplies of pen and paper

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Britain's most successful contemporary composer, Karl Jenkins. He is most famous for developing a style that fuses his classical background with his interest in jazz and world music and his albums top the charts around the world. He was brought up in a small Welsh village and, after his mother died, lived with his father, grandmother and widowed aunt. His father taught him the piano when he was a child and in his teens he gravitated towards the oboe and went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music.His first musical career was as a jazz musician - he won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival and played venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall and Ronnie Scott's. In the 1980s, he gave up life on the road and started writing advertising music and jingles. More awards followed, but he felt cramped by the nature of the work and wanted to write music that was more expansive. A track which he'd written for a minute long commercial went on to become the corner-stone of his most well-known work, The Adiemus Project. He's said that it was only then that he realised his niche lay in composing work that was grounded in his classical upbringing but also benefited from his interest in jazz and world music. And, while critics have on occasion sneered at his work, he has collected countless gold and platinum discs and a worldwide audience.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: The Final trio from the third Act of Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss Book: The Michelin Guide to France by Michelin Luxury: A piano

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the music impresario Raymond Gubbay. For 40 years he has brought popular classics and opera to the masses. His name has become synonymous with glittering evenings based on classical favourites with concerts often topped off with lasers, fireworks and light displays. He's worked with everyone from Pavarotti to Ray Charles and, while snooty critics dismiss it as 'middle-brow music for Middle England', it attracts audiences in their droves; two million people have now attended his 'Classical Spectacular' evenings.It's a long way from his early days, when he toured the country with a small troupe of singers and a pianist. Then, venues would pay him 84 guineas to put on a Viennese evening or a Gilbert and Sullivan night and he had to pay the musicians and cover the cost of transport and hotels before he earned a penny. He says he gives people what they want, "tunes they can hum" and more often than not, he gets it right. But in 2004, for once, he misjudged his audience: he wanted to open a third opera house in London offering cheaper seats to a wider audience, but even before the curtain rose for the first time he knew they weren't selling enough tickets to stay open. He says it's been the biggest disappointment of his career, but he doesn't rule out another attempt to bring opera to the West End.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Final movement of Emperor piano concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Unabridged Collins/Robert/ English /French dictionary Luxury: An espresso coffee machine with coffee

Kirsty Young's castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is the comedy performer and writer Matt Lucas. As one half of the team that created the hit TV show Little Britain, he's been responsible for dreaming up such characters as Vicky Pollard, the Asbo teenager who swapped her baby for a Westlife CD and Dafydd, the Welsh homosexual who is adamant he's "the only gay in the village".When he was six years old his hair fell out and as a result he acquired a certain local notoriety - from then on it simply never occurred to him that he wouldn't go on to become famous. Just five years ago he was struggling to have his work commissioned and thought of abandoning his career in comedy. Today, he's one of the most popular and recognisable entertainers in Britain.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: These are the Days of Our Lives by Queen Book: The Deeper Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams Luxury: Favourite London restaurant

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the author Stephen King. He's written more than 40 novels, won 23 major awards and sold hundreds of millions of books worldwide. He is best known for his tales of small-town America corrupted by the supernatural and macabre; with novels such as The Shining, Misery, Salem's Lot and Carrie making him a household name. His first success came with Carrie - at the time he was scraping a living as a teacher, living with his young family in a trailer and writing short stories to supplement his income. He threw the first draft of Carrie in the bin and it was his wife Tabitha who fished it out and urged him to finish it. But with success came drug and alcohol abuse - and again it was his wife who intervened and encouraged him to stop. He nearly gave up writing after a road accident in 1999 which nearly killed him. But, to the delight of his legions of fans, he took up his pen again and the stories keep on coming.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Desolation Row by Bob Dylan Book: Collected poetry by W H Auden Luxury: Water hammock

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the former head of the Metropolitan Police, Lord Stevens. Although he was to become known as 'the policeman's policeman', it was not his first career choice - as a child he wanted to be a pilot but was told that his eyesight was not good enough for him to make it his career.His first beat, more than forty years ago, was on Tottenham Court Road in London. He soon moved over to CID and earned the nickname 'Swifty Stevens' for his impressive arrest record. When he took over at the Met in 2000, it had just been branded 'institutionally racist' and the morale and reputation of the force was at rock bottom. He's credited with turning it around and regaining public confidence. Even in his retirement, he's continuing to head two major investigations - one into the circumstances around the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and the second into football bungs.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Reach for the Sky by Central Band of the R.A.F. Book: Reach for the Sky: The Story of Douglas Bader by Paul Brickhill Luxury: Cellar of champagne

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the veteran jazz musician and radio presenter Humphrey Lyttelton. To Radio 4 listeners, he's best known as Chairman Humph who has spent more than 30 years picking his bewildered way through the innuendo and mayhem of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. But his first love is jazz - as a child, he was always fascinated by music and when he was a teenager it was Louis Armstrong who inspired him to take up the trumpet. Fittingly, Armstrong went on to hail Humph as 'Britain's top trumpetman'. Now aged 85, Humph is still recording and touring with his band and says that he finds he's kept awake at night by new ideas for music they can play together.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: That's My Home by Louis Armstrong Book: Collected works by James Thurber Luxury: A keyboard

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the chef Heston Blumenthal. He is one of only three chefs working in Britain today to be awarded three Michelin stars and last year his restaurant, The Fat Duck, was named the best in the world by a panel of 5,000 food experts. His speedy rise to the top of his profession is little short of extraordinary. He has only ever spent a week in a professional kitchen and taught himself classical French cookery. He became fascinated by the science of cooking and has become the Willy Wonka of modern cuisine - dishes he's created include mango and douglas fir puree, salmon poached with liquorice and, most famously, snail porridge. But he acknowledges his success has been largely due too to his wife's support and now wants to change the balance of his life towards spending more time with his young family.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Love has Finally Come at Last by Bobby Womack Book: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee Luxury: Japanese knives

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the children's campaigner Camila Batmanghelidjh. Camila Batmanghelidjh has devoted her life to the kind of children most people would cross the street to avoid - youngsters who are often violent, don't go to school and who are unfamiliar with a stable family life. More than a decade ago she took over a run of disused railway arches in South London to set up a centre offering food, advice, education and counselling. Now her outreach projects serve more than 11,000 children each year and, such is her success, she's feted by celebrities and courted by politicians.The product of a wealthy Iranian family herself, she decided early on that her vocation lay in working with children and that this was a task she could not combine with motherhood. Last week she was named Woman of the Year in recognition of her ground-breaking work.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Redemption Song by Bob Marley Book: Being and Nothingness by Jean Paul Sartre Luxury: A yoyo

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the journalist Robert Fisk. He is one of our most distinguished foreign correspondents and has spent his life covering conflicts around the world - the past 30 years immersed in the life and politics of the Middle East. He formed his ambition at a young age - he saw Hitchcock's film Foreign Correspondent when he was just 12 years old and was determined to join their ranks. War, too, was a strong influence - his father had fought on the Western Front and was haunted by his experiences. He insisted that young Robert should learn about the war and his first foreign holiday was a tour of the Somme.He has become used to living in a war zone - he has escaped a kidnap attempt, survived an attack by Afghan refugees and risked his life to secure interviews of which other journalists dream. Perhaps his greatest scoop was securing a series of face-to-face interviews with Osama Bin Laden.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber Book: Le Mort D'Arthur by Thomas Mallory Luxury: A violin

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actress Jane Horrocks. She specialises in unconventional, complex roles - from the eccentric secretary Bubble in the cult sit-com Absolutely Fabulous to a bulimic teenager in Mike Leigh's film Life is Sweet. But the role that brought her the greatest public recognition and critical acclaim was Little Voice. Written especially for her, it told the story of a cripplingly shy girl who only finds liberation and expression when she takes on the voices of musical legends. Jane Horrocks's ability to sing like Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe, among others, was so convincing that the film's credits had to make it clear she had sung every note and not been dubbed by the originals. The film had parallels with Jane's own life - as a shy school-girl, she too had discovered her facility for copying voices and would entertain family and friends with her portrayals of Shirley Bassey and Julie Andrews. She says that as soon as she found her gift she used it to win friends - and knew she had discovered her niche in life.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: I Miss You by Björk Book: Jamie's Dinners by Jamie Oliver Luxury: The Essential Family Cookbook

Kirsty Young's first castaway is one of our most popular illustrators, Quentin Blake. His work is immediately recognisable and is full of energy, anarchy and joy. An award-winning author in his own right, he is best known for his long collaboration with the author Roald Dahl. In the same way that it is impossible to think of Alice in Wonderland without imagining Tenniel's solemn drawings, when one imagines Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or James and the Giant Peach it is invariably Quentin Blake's pictures that spring to mind. As a child growing up in the London suburbs he was self-contained, quiet and serious. Family friends remember that he didn't say much - but that he always loved drawing. His cartoons were first published in Punch when he was 16, making him one of its youngest ever contributors, but after graduating from Cambridge and training as a teacher, he decided his future lay not in one-off sketches for magazines, but in book illustration. He was named the first ever Children's Laureate in 1999 and in 2005 was awarded the CBE. He lives in London and continues to work towards the establishment of a museum celebrating the history and techniques of illustration.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: String Quartet No 2 - Intimate Letters by Janácek Book: Collected Works by Charles Dickens Luxury: Arches watercolour paper

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actress Joan Plowright.Dame Joan Plowright is an actress who has been at the forefront of her profession since she first appeared at the Royal Court Theatre in London half a century ago. In those days she was identified with the new wave, appearing in plays by writers such as Arnold Wesker and John Osborne. She went on to make her name in more established roles - winning Actress Of The Year for her performance as Shaw's 'St Joan'. Through her marriage to Laurence Olivier, she became closely associated with his work at Chichester, and the foundation of the National Theatre. After his death, she added a career on screen to her theatre work. She was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Enchanted April and her latest film, Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont will be released later this year.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Piano Sonata in C Major- 1st Movement by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust Luxury: A piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the critic and columnist A A Gill. His witty, first-person articles have earned him a whole host of awards and a loyal following. But his life as a successful writer was preceded by more than a decade that was spent living in squalid squats, taking drugs and existing in an alcoholic haze. It was the unplanned intervention of a GP that made him face up to his alcoholism and seek treatment. It's now 21 years since he last had a drink and he has been given, he says, the chance to start again and live a second life. He abandoned his early hopes of becoming an artist, for a while he ran cookery courses in his own home and, at the same time, he started writing. Despite suffering from dyslexia so severe that he has to dictate all his columns to copytakers he found his voice immediately - as soon as he began writing his articles, he says, he felt he had come home.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Love Song from Sanders of the River by Paul Robeson Book: Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor by Mervyn Peake Luxury: My children's pillows

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the television star Simon Cowell. Simon Cowell is one of our most successful pop music moguls. He is the mastermind behind more than 100 number one songs in Britain and abroad and Westlife, whom he signed, holds the record for having seven consecutive number one songs in the UK. A lot of his early successes were gimmicky hits - singing wrestlers, the Power Rangers and Teletubbies - but it was first Robson and Jerome and then Westlife who brought him credibility. His tenacity and his ability to spot a seller were already legendary within the music world when he devised a format for a television show that would bring new talent to the fore. Pop Idol, American Idol and now The X Factor launched the careers of Will Young and Gareth Gates among others. They've made Simon Cowell a celebrity too. His shows play to the aspirations of the young, who believe fame and fortune can be theirs. But when their ambitions exceed their talent, he's there to tell them. He's reduced many contestants to tears and been threatened by others but, he says, he's only being cruel to be kind.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Mack the Knife by Bobby Darin Book: Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins Luxury: A mirror

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the author and children's poet Michael Rosen. Since his first book, Mind Your Own Business, was published more than than 30 years ago, he has been credited with revolutionising the way children's poems are written and performed. Words and language have always formed an important part of his life. The son of two teachers, he was born into a London, Jewish family, and brought up in a home full of literature, conversation and debate. His poems often rely on snatches of dialogue and memories from his own childhood and relate his experiences with his own children. His greatest commercial success has been his hugely popular re-telling of the American folk tale We're All Going on a Bear Hunt. More recently he's published a series of memories aimed at adults rather than children. In particular, these attend to the central tragedy of his life, the sudden death of his second son Eddie, when he was 18 years old. His death became a public matter because Eddie had featured so often in Michael's early work and was a well-known character to millions of children.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Black, Brown and White by Big Bill Broonzy Book: The Complete Poems by Carl Sandburg Luxury: A didgeridoo belonging to his late son Eddie.

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is a playwright whose work has chronicled Britain's changing political landscape over the past 30 years. David Edgar was brought up in a leafy suburb of Birmingham, but was radicalised during the 1960s and has never looked back. In 1976, he examined the right-wing National Front movement in Destiny, a play for the RSC. It was his first award-winning play and the work of which to date he is the most proud. His interest in theatre goes back to his childhood; his parents both had theatrical connections and his father even turned a garden shed into an elaborate theatre. It was here that as a boy he was to star in plays in which he cast himself in the leading role. Despite the shift of politics to the centre ground, he remains committed to the left-wing cause and to exploring the difference between utopia and reality. He also writes for TV and radio, and his plays are regularly performed on the international as well as the British stage.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Cum Sancto Spiritu - With the Holy Ghost by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan Luxury: A piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the psychoanalyst Dr Hanna Segal. Hanna Segal is one of the most distinguished psychoanalysts of our time. She was born in Poland at the end of the First World War and after a sometimes difficult childhood her family moved to Switzerland and then France to flee the Nazis. They ended up on a Polish troop ship that brought them to Britain just in time, as she says, for the Blitz. As a teenager she was passionate about aesthetics and politics but did not know how how to combine her passions in a career - once she discovered the work of Sigmund Freud she knew her calling lay in psychoanalysis. Her mentor was Melanie Klein and she wrote what has become a standard text about her work. Dr Segal has written too about psychoanalysis and aesthetics and our response to the threat posed by nuclear weapons. She has held the post of Freud Professor at University College London and is a past president of the British Psychoanalytical Society. Now aged 87, she continues to work overseeing student analysts and giving seminars.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: 2nd movement of String Quartet in C Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust Luxury: A snorkel and Polaroids

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the writer Ian Rankin. Ian Rankin is an award-winning writer of crime fiction and the creator of the Scottish detective John Rebus who has featured in 17 novels to date. Born in Fife, Rankin came from a working-class background in a coal-mining town where he says he spent most of his childhood trying to "look like he fitted in". In his bedroom he would live out a fantasy life, writing poems, stories and creating strip-cartoons. He admits there are many parallels between himself and Rebus - they lived at the same Edinburgh address, both are fond of a drink and now they even share the same taste in music, though unlike Rebus, Rankin has never smoked. However all that is about to change; Rebus has reached the age of retirement in the police force and Rankin's next novel will be the last in the series.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Solid Air by John Martyn Book: A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell Luxury: Pinball machine (traditional American one)

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the gardener and broadcaster, Monty Don. Three years ago Monty Don became the nation's most high-profile gardener when he took over from Alan Titchmarsh as the lead presenter of Gardener's World. Entirely self-taught, he has been gardening since he was a child - but it was not until he was in his late thirties that he found he could make his great passion become his vocation. His first career ended disastrously; he and his wife Sarah set up a jewellery business together and during the 1980s they prospered; they had shops and offices in Knightsbridge and counted singers and film stars among their clients. But when the slump came they lost everything - the business, their jobs and their home. Monty suffered years of depression that left him barely able to function. It was by chance that he was offered some stints presenting gardening slots on television. He never looked back - he says there hasn't been a day since when he's not been working and he's become a successful gardening columnist, broadcaster and author.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: A Hard Day's Night by The Beatles Book: Collected Poems of Henry Vaughan Luxury: Hendrickje Bathing by Rembrandt

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the chief executive of BP, John Browne. His father had also worked for the company and through visits to Iran as a boy, he witnessed spectacular oil-well blow-outs which gave him a fascination for the business. He joined BP after leaving university, starting at the sharp end as a petroleum engineer in Alaska in the 1970s. For 20 years, he travelled the world, working his way up the ladder before permanently settling in London. Almost 10 years ago, he said that oil companies must take seriously the threat of global warming and take measures to tackle the issue. He was knighted in 1998, and created a life peer in 2001 as Lord Browne of Madingley.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: An extract from the end of Act 1 of Cosi Fan Tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Other Men's Flowers: An Anthology of Poetry by Lord Wavell Luxury: A lifetime's supply of great cigars

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the Nobel prize-winning physicist Sir Peter Mansfield. His work in magnetic resonance imaging more than 30 years ago led to the development of the MRI scanner, which has revolutionised the diagnosis of illness today. He was born in London before the Second World War and as a boy, remembers the first Doodlebug attack on the capital. Watching the flying bombs gave him an interest in rocket propulsion which was to lead to a life-long career in science. The son of a gas-fitter, he left school without O levels at the age of 15. His school careers' officer had laughed at his ambition to be a scientist and fixed him up with a job as a printer. He put himself through night school, and went on to graduate with a first class degree in physics. The first MRI scan was performed using him as the guinea-pig and with next-of-kin on hand because of the risks involved. His pioneering research was carried out at the University of Nottingham where he became Emeritus Professor of Physics. In 2003 he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine at the age of 70.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Vltava Suite from Smetana's Má Vast by Bedrich Smetana Book: Family photograph albums Luxury: Helicopter

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the retail legend George Davies. In the 1980s he changed the shape of our high streets with his chain Next. In the 1990s he made supermarket clothes fashionable with his George range for Asda and in 2001 he launched his Per Una collection in Marks and Spencer - it's credited with helping the store find renewed financial success. He was brought up in Liverpool and showed early promise as a footballer - he was talent-spotted by the legendary Bill Shankly, but wasn't good enough to play at the highest level. Then he nearly became a dentist but, after dropping out of university, found a job with Littlewoods as stock controller in charge of children's ankle socks. From the day he started he says he never looked back - he knew his future lay in retail. His trick is knowing his market, and he does that by carefully studying the details of how his clothes sell. Each week he analyses sales figures for every garment, in every store up and down the country - the result, he says, is that he not only knows what women like, he knows what they think.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: You'll Never Walk Alone by Gerry and the Pacemakers Book: A book about learning to paint Luxury: A Cannondale Bike

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the satirist Armando Iannucci. He has lampooned news journalism with his creations On the Hour and The Day Today and plumbed the shallows of the chat show circuit through the vain and insecure Alan Partridge. His most recent work has been more biting: his Westminster satire The Thick of It dissects the relationship between politicians, their spin-doctors and the media they want to control. Decisions are made on the hoof, in haste and in response to media pressure - there's not a politician, civil servant or journalist who isn't compromised in the process. A highly academic child at a Jesuit school, in his teens he harboured ambitions to become a Catholic priest. His parents thought he might become a doctor or lawyer, but after getting a first-class degree from Oxford, and spending three years writing a thesis about religious language with reference to Milton, he concentrated on comedy instead. He joined the BBC and ended up producing the radio comedy programmes he had listened to as a child. He is currently involved in developing new comedy for the BBC and is this year's Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media at Oxford University.This programme includes language which may offend some listeners.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Opening of Mahler's 9th Symphony by Gustav Mahler Book: Complete Short Stories by H G Wells Luxury: Virtual sherry trifle

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Rt Hon David Cameron MP, Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition. He was elected last December, beating his rival David Davis by more than 70,000 votes. Educated at Eton and Oxford, should he become Prime Minister, he would be the first Conservative Old Etonian to do so since Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1963. He grew up in West Berkshire, the son of a stockbroker father and a mother who was a magistrate. After graduating with a First in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, he joined the Conservative Research Department in 1988, where he witnessed the downfall of Margaret Thatcher. He became special adviser to the former chancellor Norman Lamont and was at his side on Black Wednesday. His own political career took off in 2001 when he was elected MP for Witney. From the beginning he was tipped for high office and in 2004 he joined Michael Howard's shadow cabinet. He divides his time between homes in London and an Oxfordshire village, where he has won first prize for his home-grown tomatoes.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Tangled Up In Blue by Bob Dylan Book: The River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Luxury: A crate of Scottish whisky

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the Director General of the CBI, Sir Digby Jones. He was born and grew up in the West Midlands at a time where 'the Austin' car plant formed the 'centre of the universe'. His father ran the local grocer's shop until the arrival of the supermarkets in the 1960s, giving Digby his first taste of business. After winning a scholarship to public school, he joined the Royal Navy to pay his way through university where he studied law, before becoming a high-flier in the world of corporate finance. Six years ago he was head-hunted to become 'the voice of British business'. Knighted in 2005, he is a regular visitor to Downing Street and bangs the drum for the UK around the world, while sporting his union flag cufflinks. He is known for his energy and enthusiasm, and his charity fund-raising has taken him from Lands End to John O'Groats on a bike. Typically, he will make two speeches a day, while his love of food gets him through the vast amounts of 'professional eating' involved in the job. He reaches the end of his term at the CBI in July.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Wind Beneath my Wings by Bette Midler Book: How Britain Made The Modern World by Niall Ferguson Luxury: Video or pictorial book of '100 examples of excellence'

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the ballerina Darcey Bussell OBE. At the age of twenty, she became the Royal Ballet's youngest Principal and went on to dance on the international stage in Paris, New York, St Petersburg and Milan. She was spotted by the great choreographer Sir Kenneth Macmillan at the age of 16, and though tall for a ballerina, she had an energy that he found refreshing. In 1989 she made her debut in Covent Garden as Princess Rose in The Prince of the Pagodas, a role created for her. Her classical repertory has included principal roles in Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. Her first child was born prematurely as a result of the life-threatening condition pre-eclampsia. Her speedy recovery she put down to her strength and fitness, and she returned to dance three months later. She has announced her decision to retire as a Principal of the Royal Ballet next month, though she will continue to dance as a guest artist.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai Book: A biography of Audrey Hepburn Luxury: Eye lash curler

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. As this year's Reith Lecturer on Radio 4 he described how he interprets and understands life through music. On Desert Island Discs he gives a personal insight into his own life and career. He was a child prodigy - the only son of musical parents, he gave his first piano recital at the age of seven and when he was 11 the legendary conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler described him as 'a phenomenon'. His marriage to the British cellist Jacqueline du Prè made them the most celebrated musical couple of their day - but less than two years after they were married, she began to show symptoms of multiple sclerosis - the disease that would kill her. In a moving interview recorded in his home in Jerusalem, Daniel Barenboim talks frankly about their relationship and the cruelty of her illness; he reveals his own musical influences and also discusses his plans to spend more time playing the piano, after stepping down as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra later this year. He would, Daniel says, only take musical scores to the island, and not records.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Book: Ethics by Benedict Spinoza Luxury: A piano with a mattress

Sue Lawley's castaway is the actor Terence Stamp.Terence Stamp was one of the new group of confident, beautiful, working class young people who came to define the 1960s. He shared a flat with Michael Caine, dated the actress Julie Christie and the first supermodel Jean Shrimpton. He became an overnight success - and won an Oscar nomination - for his first film role as Billy Budd. He acted alongside Christie in Far from the Madding Crowd and found further fame with roles in The Collector and Modesty Blaise. He was driven to act after first seeing Beau Geste when he was just a small boy - the cinema offered an escape route from the monochrome world of London's East End.But when the 1960s ended he found he was offered fewer interesting roles, his relationship with Shrimpton ended and he headed eastwards on a journey of self-discovery. Now 66, he's suave, still acting and recently married.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Impromptu No.4 in C sharp Minor by Frédéric Chopin Book: Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame Luxury: One of his wheat-free loaves

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the thriller writer Harry Patterson - otherwise known as Jack Higgins. Harry Patterson grew up in the midst of the violence and disarray of 1940s Belfast and the turmoil he witnessed there has been an enduring influence on his work. He always knew he wanted to become a writer, but he wasn't a promising pupil at school and left without qualifications. He took himself off to evening classes, gained a degree and trained as a teacher - but he spent every spare evening dreaming up plots for thrillers, always hoping that they might earn him 'an extra bob or two'.A chance encounter with one of his old teachers made him change his style and develop his characters more fully. He took on the pseudonym Jack Higgins and, in his mid-forties, wrote the book that made him a household name: The Eagle Has Landed. He's written more than sixty novels and sold hundreds of millions of books worldwide. He is one of the few British writers to be as successful in America as here and, at the age of 76, is still creating new plots and new characters.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Let's Face the Music and Dance by Fred Astaire Book: Complete works by Charles Dickens Luxury: Mobile phone

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the artist Rachel Whiteread.She came to public prominence in 1993 with the life-size concrete cast of a Victorian house in East London. The sculpture prompted a public debate about what conceptual art is - the house was destroyed shortly afterwards. At the same time, Whiteread was named winner of the Turner Prize at the age of 30. She had studied sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art and became one of the generation of Young British Artists, with her work displayed alongside that of Damien Hirst. Her most controversial work - a memorial to 65,000 Austrian Jews who died in the Holocaust - was unveiled in Vienna in 2000 amid heightened political tension. Much of her work focuses on casting hidden spaces, with the inside of a box as the inspiration for the 14,000 boxes which form her latest exhibit, Embankment, on display at Tate Modern, London, until the end of April.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Köln Concert Part 1 by Keith Jarrett Book: A reference book on the natural history of the island Luxury: Ink, pen, paper and correction fluid

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the screen writer Frederic Raphael. For 50 years Frederic Raphael has written witty scripts for television and the silver screen. He won an Oscar for his film Darling, which starred Julie Christie, and became a household name with his television series The Glittering Prizes. He was born in Chicago but came to England as a boy - where, his father advised him, he could grow up to be 'an English gentleman' rather than 'an American Jew'. While his parents did not want to disown their faith, nor did they want to be defined by it and they were very cautious about the way Jews were perceived in Britain before the Second World War. He was one of only a handful of Jewish boys at boarding school and was isolated and miserable there. But his loneliness led him to the solitary pursuit of writing - an occupation where he could right the wrongs he had suffered. A bright pupil, his own glittering prize was winning a scholarship to Cambridge - after that, he said, no other success in his life could compare. For the past 50 years he has split his time between London, France and Greece - accompanied all the time by his wife, Sylvia-Betty.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Vorka Sto Yialo by Manos Tacticos & his Bouzoukis Book: Oxford Latin Dictionary Luxury: Mont Blanc pen, nibs and spiral squared notebooks

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the author Karen Armstrong. She writes books about the world's religions, trying to explain that their strength lies not in dogma but profound and enduring truths. Since 9/11 her books on Islam in particular have become best-sellers - although she has also written on Judaism, Buddhism, the Crusades and Christianity. She was brought up in Birmingham, but at the age of 17 she left her family to become a nun. She had hoped to become enriched by the contemplative life - but it left her feeling a failure, shamed by her inability to pray as the other nuns did. After seven years she turned her back on the convent and became a teacher. Then a chance opportunity to work in television led to her studying the world's religions - and becoming fascinated by the similarities between them. Now she is in great demand as a public speaker - and when she isn't touring the world she says she leads a nun-like life; living alone, contemplating God and thinking about the nature of faith and understanding.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: 3rd movement of String Quartet in A minor by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Complete Works by John Milton Luxury: Continuous supply of very cold & dry white wine

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actor Jeremy Irons.He made his name playing Charles Ryder in Brideshead Revisited in 1981 and became known for his quintessentially English roles. It was an image he later sought to discard and he certainly did so in the film Lolita, where his portrayal of Humbert Humbert reopened the controversy about the desires of a middle-aged man for a 14-year old girl. In the film The Mission he played a gentle Jesuit missionary and went on to act as his own stuntman, climbing a perilous waterfall. It was his performance in Reversal of Fortune that won him an Oscar for Best Actor as the real-life character Claus Von Bulow, accused and acquitted of the attempted murder of his wife. Later this month, he returns to the West End stage after almost 20 years to star in the play Embers, a story of friendship and betrayal. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: One step at a Time by Clifton Chenier Book: Ashley Books of Knots by Clifford Ashley Luxury: Rizla liquorice papers

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the politician Baroness Williams of Crosby. Shirley Williams has spent her life immersed in politics. Her father was a Labour Party activist and her mother the writer and pacifist Vera Brittain. Their home was always filled with topical conversation, from the rise of Hitler to the Spanish Civil War. She became a Labour Party member when still a teenager and, after a chance encounter in an air-raid shelter, formed a friendship with the then Home Secretary Herbert Morrison. She enjoyed a career within the Labour Party but, dismayed by its drift to the left, she abandoned it to become one of the Gang of Four who set up the Social Democratic Party in 1981 and later supported its merger with the Liberal Party. Now, as the Liberal Democrats are in the midst of leadership elections, she reflects on the difficulties the party has faced in recent months, and what it must do to regain public support.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: How Beautiful are the Feet by George Frideric Handel Book: Collection by W H Auden Luxury: PC linked to the internet

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the writer and academic John Sutherland. He is the recently retired Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature at University College, London, a past Chairman of the Booker Prize panel and the author of one of the standard texts on Victorian fiction. But his route into academia was a curious one - and his life inside the ivory towers far from smooth. His father was killed in the war and he was brought up by his extended family in a peripatetic childhood. He joined the army but, with no war to fight, left his commission and went to university instead. He worked in Scotland and America but as his reputation grew, so did his dependence on alcohol. He finally hit rock bottom while in America and stopped drinking 23 years ago. Today he is a pre-eminent literary figure - combining erudition and historical research with a taste for the modern and the new.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Piano has been Drinking (Not Me) by Tom Waits Book: Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray Luxury: iPod

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the jockey Frankie Dettori. Over the past two decades he's won more than 2,000 races including most of the classics at home and abroad and has been Champion Jockey three times. The son of a famous Italian jockey, he was brought up in Italy but sent by his father to train at Newmarket when he was 14 years old - 18 months later he was winning races. In 1996 he won seven races out of seven in a single day at Ascot - a feat that has not been achieved before or since.But in 2000 he thought his luck had run out when he and fellow jockey Ray Cochrane left Newmarket in a light aircraft - only for it to plunge to the ground moments after take-off. He thought he was about to die and on coming round in the wreckage was not sure whether he was alive or dead. The event left him undecided as to what to do next. He was a hugely popular team captain on BBC TV's A Question of Sport for two years, but a chance remark from one of the contestants who thought he had retired made him realise he had to focus on being a jockey. He returned to the sport with a renewed vigour and became Champion jockey once again. Now a father of five, Frankie plans to retire at 45 and hopes that by then he will have won the Epsom Derby - the only major title that has so far eluded him.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Amazing Grace by Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Book: The History of the Derby Luxury: Lifetime's supply of Pinot Grigio

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is one of this country's leading character actors - Richard Griffiths. Most recently, he won three Best Actor awards for playing the English master in Alan Bennett's play 'The History Boys' but he has cross-generational appeal - perpetual adolescents revere his performance as gay Uncle Monty in the film Withnail and I while the younger generation know him as beastly Uncle Vernon from the Harry Potter films. He's had to work hard for his achievements: both his parents were profoundly deaf and, from a young age, he was their ears and their translator. He studied drama against his father's wishes - he had hoped his son would go to art college. However, he says his father was an expert in reading body language and he learned from him how people's physical behaviour reveals their inner thoughts. He is currently in the West End in Tom Stoppard's play Heroes; he's working on a film version of The History Boys, directed by Nicholas Hytner and is preparing to tour with The History Boys around the world.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Träumerei by Vladimir Horowitz Book: Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray Luxury: Velasquez's Las Meninas

Sue Lawley's castaway is the athlete Dame Kelly Holmes. Kelly Holmes was the heroine of the Athens Olympics. She achieved her lifetime's ambition when, at the age of 34, she won gold medals in the 800 and 1500 metres.As a teenager she witnessed Sebastian Coe's Olympic success in 1984 and that was the inspiration behind her own career in athletics. Early on her trainers recognised she had the natural talent - and determination - to succeed. But her career has been blighted by injury - she bowed out of the 1996 Olympics due to injury; won a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics despite considerable physical pain; and several times had appeared close to the end of her career as a result of a series of health problems.Now retired from athletics, she says she wants to inspire other schoolchildren to take up sport - and make sure that the whole of Britain feels the Olympic spirit by the time it comes to host the games in 2012.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: If I Ain't Got You by Alicia Keys Book: A Set of Encyclopaedias Luxury: Large supply of chocolate

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the composer John Rutter. He is the most celebrated and successful composer of carols alive today and this Christmas his music will be heard in concerts and churches all over the world. He is drawn to the simplicity of Christmas carols and says he loves being able to compose 'a hummable tune'. Inspired and encouraged by his school education, he became Director of Music at Clare College, Cambridge, and then with a string of winning commissions already behind him, moved into full time composition. But his relationship with composition is a difficult one - it's a process he finds isolating and says that although it does not make him happy - he feels compelled to do it. However, once he has finished a work he says nothing in the world compares with the feeling he experiences when he conducts it for the first time. He says: "I write music that people will enjoy singing. I'm not ashamed of that".[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Gloria in Excelsis Deo from B Minor Mass by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Teach yourself mathematics illustrated by voluptuous women Luxury: Viola

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the artist Maggi Hambling. Above all else, she is known as a painter of people. Over the past 30 years she has painted George Melly, Stephen Fry and Michael Gambon among many others. But in the early years, her subjects were not well known; instead they were characters she saw on the streets or in the bars of South London. People whose faces she would commit to memory so that she could draw them when she returned to her studio. She was the first artist to be given a residency at the National Gallery and in 1995 won the Jerwood Prize. But although she remains in great demand as a portrait painter, her work provokes controversy too - her tribute to Benjamin Britten, an enormous scallop shell standing on the shore at Aldeburgh, continues to divide opinion in the town.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Runnin' Wild by Marilyn Monroe Book: The Complete Works of Just William by Richmal Crompton Luxury: A wine cellar from All Soul's, Oxford

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the former Archbishop of York, David Hope. For a decade he was the second most important prelate in the Church of England but, earlier this year, he handed in his notice to return to life as a parish priest. As a young boy growing up in Wakefield, it was his cousin Muriel who would take him along to the town's cathedral to worship - he was captivated by the ritual and atmosphere of the place and 35 years later he returned as its Bishop. A traditionalist himself, he opposed the ordination of women and believes the church should resist pressure to ordain practising homosexuals, but he fears that both issues will continue to divide Anglicans across the world for the rest of his lifetime. He says he has never been happier than he is as a parish priest - and that throughout his ministry, he has been someone who preferred people to paper.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Vespers by Sergei Rachmaninov Book: Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens Luxury: A case of selected malt whiskies

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actor Colin Firth. He created an iconic moment in British television history when, as Jane Austen's hero Mr Darcy, he emerged wet-shirted from his stately lake. To his surprise, he became a sex symbol, was dubbed the 'male Ursula Andress' and was voted Britain's Most Popular Actor in a BBC poll. He went on to send up the role on the big screen - as the ironically-named Mark Darcy, the brooding boyfriend of Bridget Jones.He always knew he wanted to act - from the moment when, as a five year old boy, he took on the role of Jack Frost at a school panto. He studied at the Drama Centre in London's Chalk Farm - where one of his teachers, Christopher Fettes, said he was by nature a poet and compared his acting to that of Paul Schofield. Married to an Italian woman and with two young sons, he now divides his time between life in London and in Italy.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Opening of the Kyrie from Mass in C Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Stories by Woody Allen Luxury: His guitar

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost - the only British television presenter to have interviewed seven American presidents and six British Prime Ministers who has, over the past five decades, become a broadcasting institution. The presenter once known as a scourge of the Establishment has become something of an establishment figure himself, noted for his formidable contacts book, his star-studded parties, and for his gentle but revealing interviewing style. Born in 1939, the youngest son of a Methodist minister and his wife, David was football and cricket-mad from an early age but with a burning ambition to go to Cambridge University. He arrived there in 1958, and threw himself into it, joining Footlights and editing Varsity and Granta. After Cambridge, Ned Sherrin saw him performing a comedy act in a Mayfair bar and hired him up to present the iconic satirical programme That Was The Week That Was. Other successful programmes followed including Frost Over Britain and The Frost Report. Breakfast with Frost ran for twelve years until early 2005. David is not retiring though and is due to present a new interview programme for Al-Jazeera International which will begin next Spring, and will also conduct occasional interviews for the BBC.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: The Dam Busters by Eric Coates Book: London A-Z Luxury: Sunday papers

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the philosopher Mary Midgley. For the last 30 years Mary Midgley has been one of Britain's leading moral philosophers. She has been called "the most frightening philosopher in the country" as a result of her ideas and the acuity with which she defends them. Her work is chiefly concerned with the role of science in our lives; whether human nature exists, and if so, what it tells us about ourselves; the concept of wickedness; and the part that art and religion have to play in telling us about human behaviour and experience. Mary was born in 1919 in Greenford, the youngest of Cannon Scrutton and his wife Lesley's two children. She was educated at Sommerville College, Oxford and after university began working as a lecturer in the philosophy department at Reading University before moving to the University of Newcastle. She married Geoffrey Midgley, also a philosopher in 1950 and they went on to have three children. Her first philosophical book Beast and Man was published in 1979 when she was 50. Since then she has continued to publish books on a diverse range of issues. Now 86, Mary continues to live in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in the home she shared with her husband Geoffrey, who died in 1997.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams Book: The Variety of Religious Experiences by William James Luxury: A solar hot water system

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the soprano Renée Fleming. Renée Fleming is one of the greatest sopranos on the world's stages today. She has won critical acclaim for her interpretations of Mozart and Strauss and has made a series of operatic roles her own - including the Countess in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Dvorak's ill-fated water-nymph Rusalka. However, she says her route into classical music was far from straightforward. She grew up in upstate New York, the daughter of two music teachers. Although the family used to sing together, Renée says she was not a natural performer and was very anxious about appearing in public and then, while at college, her musical love was jazz rather than opera. Her musical break-through came at the age of 29, when she was asked to stand in as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro at the last minute. Since then she's appeared in all the great opera houses. As well as the standard repertoire, she is a champion of new music and Andre Previn is one of many who have written especially for her. She has won numerous accolades for her singing including two Grammies and two Classical Brit awards.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: River by Renée Fleming Book: The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis Luxury: Coffee

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the broadcaster Chris Evans. He is one of the most creative and influential broadcasters of his generation. He has been hailed as the saviour of more than one radio station and made a name for himself on television too - first of all on The Big Breakfast, but also with his own formats, including Don't Forget Your Toothbrush and TFI Friday. He's won a clutch of awards and, by taking over Virgin radio, made himself a millionaire many times over. But he also gained a reputation for being brash and bullying; he walked out on more than one job and his drinking binges were splashed across the tabloids.Since those days he's married and divorced, lived in America and, more recently, pursued a more peaceful existence - keeping chickens and growing vegetables at his cottage in the English countryside.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Here, There and Everywhere by The Beatles Book: Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Luxury: A pair of swimming goggles with prescription lenses

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the politician and journalist Boris Johnson. He is one of the most popular and unpredictable MPs on the Conservative party benches and, under his editorship, the weekly magazine The Spectator sells more copies than ever before. After Eton and Oxford he made his name as a journalist working for the Daily Telegraph in Brussels. His incisive reports about the future of Europe caused a furore at home and abroad - he claims one of his articles changed the course of European history - and, on returning to London, he hoovered up a number of awards, including columnist of the year and political commentator of the year. But it has not always been plain sailing. His critics say he cannot answer to two masters - and he must choose between politics and journalism - Boris doesn't necessarily agree![Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Finale of Variations on a theme by Johannes Brahms Book: Homer - an Indian paper edition (to translate) Luxury: Large pot of French mustard

Sue Lawley's castaway is one of the world's most successful fashion photographers, Mario Testino. Kate Moss, Catherine Zeta Jones and Madonna are among the women who have posed for him and, most famously, he became Princess Diana's favourite photographer. But his route into photography was circuitous. He began studying law and then economics in his native Peru but finished neither course. He had a short spell in America before arriving in London and he says he immediately loved it here. But the early years were tough; he struggled to convince anyone at the glossy magazines to look at his work. Half the trouble, he says, was that he was ringing people from call boxes - and they would hang up before he'd had time to put in any money. But years of building contacts within the industry - and building trust among his models - have paid off and he is now as much as a celebrity as the women he photographs. His most famous pictures are those he took of Princess Diana looking confident, relaxed and happy, just months before she died. They have now been reprinted for a two-year long exhibition and he says that when he saw them again in the lab, it brought "a knot in his throat". Mario Testino's photographs of Diana, Princess of Wales, are being exhibited in the State Apartments at Kensington Palace from 24 November 2005. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Fina Estampa by Caetano Veloso Book: Demian by Hermann Hesse Luxury: Own pillow