Desert Island Discs

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is Radio 1 disc jockey John Peel. For over 20 years the guru of pop fans, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his life at public school, his work as a DJ in the States in the early 1960s, his family, his passion for Liverpool Football Club and, of course, his lifelong passion for pop music.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Teenage Kicks by The Undertones Book: Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell Luxury: Football

This week's castaway is Dennis Skinner MP. Recently described as the backbenchers' backbencher, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about Parliament and politics and choosing eight records to accompany him on his solitary island adventure.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Daddy, What Did You Do in the Strike? by Peggy Seeger Book: Let's Face the Music by Benny Green Luxury: Bike

In this week's edition of Desert Island Discs the castaway is film actor and writer Dirk Bogarde. Among many other things, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about why life as a national heart-throb has never really suited him, about his many years living in Provence and about the film of which he himself is most proud - Visconti's Death in Venice.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: 5th Symphony 4th Movement by Gustav Mahler Book: Akenfield by Ronald Blythe Luxury: Distillery

The castaway in this week's edition of Desert Island Discs is Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent. After a lifelong devotion to music, she will be whittling down her choice of eight records with great difficulty. Now Patron of the Leeds Piano Competition and the Yehudi Menuhin School, as well as President of the Royal Northern College of Music, the Duchess of Kent studied music herself until she was twenty-five. Her Royal Highness will be talking to Sue Lawley about her love of music, her Yorkshire childhood and her prolific work for charity.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Ave Verum Corpus by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: A do-it-yourself manual Luxury: Lamp with solar batteries

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is actress Pauline Collins. As someone who has been entertaining television audiences for over twenty years in popular series like Emergency Ward 10 and Upstairs, Downstairs, she has simultaneously pursued a theatrical career which recently burgeoned into huge success with her portrayal of Shirley Valentine - the trapped Liverpool housewife who finds escape on a Greek island. It's a part which has won her great acclaim both on the stage and in the recent film version. Pauline Collins will be talking to Sue Lawley about the international star status Shirley Valentine has brought her and recalling milestones and memories of her career.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy Book: Teach yourself physics Luxury: Papers, pencils, paints

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his boyhood and his memories of university life, as well as his subsequent journalistic and political experiences, including the more recent upheavals in his political career.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Clarinet Quintet In A Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The collected works by John Donne Luxury: Radio receiver

This episode of Desert Island Discs exists for reference, as part of the most complete possible archive resource of programmes from the long-running series, and was broadcast in 1989. The castaway is Diana Mosley, a Mitford girl who married Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists. During the interview with Sue Lawley, Lady Mosley discusses her contentious continued denial of the Holocaust and admiration for Adolf Hitler, along with her and her husband’s imprisonment during most of the war years and her close friendship with the neighbours who shared her subsequent exile in France, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. [Programme information updated February 2022]Favourite track: Die Walküre by Richard Wagner Book: Books by Marcel Proust Luxury: Soft pillow

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is Seamus Heaney, a Catholic Ulsterman who has been acclaimed by many as the best Irish poet since Yeats. He was recently elected Oxford Professor of Poetry, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his idyllic rural childhood as the eldest of nine children, his transition to university life and the sources of his poetic inspiration.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Quartet No 13 in B Flat Major by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Ulysses by James Joyce Luxury: Doc Marten boots

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is theatrical producer Michael Codron. During the 30 years he has been in the business, some of Britain's most eminent modern playwrights - John Mortimer, Alan Ayckbourn and Tom Stoppard for example - started their writing careers under his patronage. He's also turned his hand to popular entertainment in the form of hit plays like Crown Matrimonial and There's a Girl in my Soup. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his successes as well as his failures, and the risky but compulsive character of show business life.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Symphony No 1 in C by Georges Bizet Book: Caroline and Charlotte by Alison Plowman Luxury: Jigsaw puzzles

If you were told that this week's Desert Island Discs castaway took ballet lessons as a child, was a moderately angelic choirboy and now plays golf, badminton and cricket, as well as walking long distances for charity, the name of Ian Botham might well not spring immediately to mind. But it will indeed be Mr Ian Botham who'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his exploits on and off the cricket field, as well as discussing his ambition to captain the England team again.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: I'm Still Standing by Elton John Book: Encyclopaedia of species of fish of the world Luxury: Fishing rod

The castaway on this week's Desert Island Discs is novelist and travel writer Colin Thubron. Author of books on the Middle East, China and Russia, he will be divulging to Sue Lawley some of the delights and dangers of his many experiences, as well as sharing his passion for music.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Love Duet (from Creation) by Franz Joseph Haydn Book: A Year of Grace by Victor Gollancz Luxury: Scuba-diving equipment

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is playwright Alan Plater. He has been writing plays for radio, television, theatre and cinema since the early 1960s, having served his apprenticeship on Z-Cars in the days of live television drama. Since then, he has been associated with major television adaptions like The Barchester Chronicles and Fortunes of War. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his work, as well as recalling his childhood in the north of England in the 1930s and 1940s - an idyllic time for him despite the inconveniences of the Depression and the Blitz.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Fine & Mellow by Billie Holiday Book: Smell of Sunday Dinner by Sid Chaplin Luxury: Writing materials

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is veteran actor Jack Lemmon. With nearly 50 films to his name, including comedy classics like The Odd Couple and Some Like It Hot, as well as more serious films like Missing and The China Syndrome, he's also an accomplished jazz pianist, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his passion for music and the vital part it has played in his life.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin Book: A Play in the Fields of our Lord by Peter Matheson Luxury: Piano

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is a woman of many passions - passions for places, people and the past. She is photographer Lucinda Lambton, and she'll be sharing her love of the unusual and the beautiful with Sue Lawley.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Quartet (from Act 2 of Fidelio) by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Dictionary of National Biography Luxury: Word processor

This week's Desert Island Discs will be a form of tribute to the pianist John Ogdon, who died last month.In the programme, you can hear about his early musical life and his enormous success on the international music scene - a success which was cut short by a devastating nervous breakdown which brought his career to a halt. During his conversation with Sue Lawley, he talked about that illness, his eventual recovery and subsequent return to the concert platform and recording studios.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Symphony No 1 in B Minor 1st Movement by William Walton Book: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Luxury: Steinway piano

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is one of Britain's leading writers, Penelope Lively. Author of eight novels, two of which were shortlisted for the Booker Prize and one which won her the prize in 1987, Moon Tiger, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her early childhood in Egypt, her philistine English boarding school and the sources of inspiration for her characters and books.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Ruhe Sanft, Mein Holdes Leben (from Zaide) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Moby Dick by Herman Melville Luxury: Binoculars

The castaway on this week's Desert Island Discs is one of the legendary figures of the British rock music scene - guitarist Eric Clapton. Once known, blasphemously, as 'God', with prolific graffiti announcing 'Eric Clapton is God', he played with, among others, the Yardbirds, Cream and Blind Faith. Dealing successfully with years of alcohol and drug-related problems, he's still one of rock's superstars, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his passion for music and his life of turmoil.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Purple Rain by Prince Book: Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens Luxury: Guitar

As part of Radio 4's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, the castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs will be Dame Vera Lynn.She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her own wartime experiences - as the now-legendary 'forces sweetheart' she performed in front of servicemen as far away as Burma, and as close to home as London's Regent's Park, and since then she has been constantly in demand all over the world for her singing and her songs, reviving as they do wartime memories both happy and sad.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Room 504 by Vera Lynn Book: A book of edible fruits and vegetables Luxury: Watercolour paints, brushes and paper

This week's castaway is Sir Thomas Armstrong, formerly Principal of the Royal Academy of Music, and now 91 years old. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his many years of teaching and performing music, judging music competitions and carrying out the almost impossible task of choosing just eight records to take to the mythical island from a lifetime filled with music from an early age.Favourite track: Brigg Fair by Frederick Delius Luxury: Clavichord

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is something of a show business all-rounder - the moving spirit behind BBC TV's That Was the Week That Was, director of the musical Side by Side by Sondheim and currently presenter of Radio 4's Loose Ends. He is, of course, Ned Sherrin, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his idyllic childhood as a Somerset farmer's son, and the many different turns his life has subsequently taken.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: As Time Goes By by Elisabeth Welch Book: No Bed For Bacon by Caryl Brahms Luxury: Seed potatoes

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is the man who, as well as transforming Wimbledon into a multi-million pound industry, manages the professional lives of some of the biggest Wimbledon names - Ivan Lendl and Martina Navratilova, for example. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his formidable business and management skills and how he is now applying them to the world of classical music, taking on clients like Kiri Te Kanawa and Itzhak Perlman.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Drive All Night by Bruce Springsteen Book: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo Luxury: Suntan lotion

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is someone who, over the last seven years, has become a superstar of the small screen, playing the venomous Alexis Carrington in the television soap opera Dynasty. She is, of course, Joan Collins, and she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about Alexis, as well as her many other roles, working with such great names as Jack Hawkins, Bette Davis, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. That's Joan Collins, discussing Hollywood, husbands and the pursuit of happiness.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Intermezzo (from Manon Lescaut) by Giacomo Puccini Book: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Luxury: Large bottle of sun tan oil and moisturiser

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is actress Maria Aitken, who will be talking to Sue Lawley about her current reputation as the finest exponent of Noel Coward's leading ladies and her film roles; among them John Cleese's wife in A Fish Called Wanda. She'll also be discussing her many other careers as writer, chatshow hostess and journalist.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Duet (from La Traviata) by Giuseppe Verdi Book: Fun in a Chinese Laundry by Josef von Sternberg Luxury: Amazonian rain maker

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is Director of Friends of the Earth Jonathon Porritt. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his passionate commitment to the preservation of the planet, and also confessing that, even though he is seen by many as the guru of self-sufficiency and all things green, he would be totally at a loss when it came to surviving island life.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Humpback Whale Music by Humpback Whales Book: Bleak House by Charles Dickens Luxury: Fountain pen

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is ideally suited to speculate on the pleasures and perils of island life, owning, as he does, his own island. He's Richard Branson, tycoon and entrepreneur, who made his first million while still in his teens, having left school at 15. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his family, his business philosophy and also his daredevil exploits with power boats and hot air balloons.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins Book: Teach yourself Japanese phrase book Luxury: Notebooks and pens

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is one of the country's leading former diplomats, Sir Nicholas Henderson. He has served in Britain's embassies all over the world - including Poland, West Germany and Paris, but was most prominent as our man in Washington during the Falklands War. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the pleasures and pitfalls of this somewhat nomadic, but nevertheless glamorous existence, and choosing eight records to accompany him on this, his final posting.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Concerto No 19 In F Major Third Movement by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Short Stories by Guy de Maupassant Luxury: Sculpture from The Louvre and a box of different seeds

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is one of Britain's most successful fashion designers - Katharine Hamnett.She started in the business 10 years ago with a £500 loan, and now runs a company with a £10 million turnover. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the connection between politics and fashion, and also about her famous baggy white t-shirts, which bear political and ecological slogans, and the memorable occasion when she wore one of them on a visit to 10 Downing Street.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Big Head by Max Bygraves Book: The I Ching Luxury: Aircraft carrier (to decorate)

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is one of Britain's greatest and best-loved character actresses, Thora Hird. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her lifelong involvement with the theatre - she first appeared on the stage at eight weeks old - and discussing more recent roles, such as Doris in Alan Bennett's play A Cream Cracker Under the Settee; a part which this year won her the BAFTA award for best television actress.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Onward Christian Soldiers by The Harry Simeone Chorale Book: Scene & Hird by Thora Hird Luxury: Cleansing milk

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is one of Britain's most popular comedians, Lenny Henry. His talent emerged at the age of 16, when he was one of the star turns on New Faces, and he has since gone from strength to strength - appearing in television programmes like TISWAS and Three of a Kind, doing unforgettable imitations as well as creating his own characters. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] He'll be giving Sue Lawley glimpses of these characters as well as talking about his time with the Black and White Minstrels, and his most recent role, as one of the moving forces behind Comic Relief, when he and fellow comedians banded together to raise millions of pounds for the people of Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.Favourite track: I Just Called To Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder Book: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller Luxury: Graphic novels (Comics)

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is someone who now sits at the head of one of this country's most famous theatrical dynasties - the remarkable Redgraves. But Lady Redgrave, as Rachel Kempson, is also a highly-regarded actress in her own right - still treading the boards at the age of 78 - and she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her long career on the stage, her marriage to Sir Michael Redgrave and the pitfalls and pleasures of a family which now encompasses three generations of acting talent.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: If The Heart Of A Man by Michael Redgrave Book: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Luxury: Case of champagne

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is biologist and conservationist Miriam Rothschild. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her lifelong fascination with all forms of natural life, including her passion for fleas, worms and butterflies, and also how she welcomes the prospect of exile to the mythical island as an opportunity to discover and investigate unlimited flora and fauna. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Cello Suite No 5 - Prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica Luxury: Bag of wild flower seed

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is Lord Jenkins of Hillhead - formerly Roy Jenkins.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his long and varied political career, which has encompassed periods as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and this country's first President of the European Commission. He'll also be looking back on his Welsh origins and the early days of the Social Democratic Party, of which he was a founding member, as well as challenging his popular image as a claret-drinking intellectual.Favourite track: Theme (from Enigma Variations) by Edward Elgar Book: Who Was Who Luxury: Case of Bordeaux wine

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is an actor who rose to fame on the nation's television screens as the landlord in the BBC television series Eastenders - the volatile and villainous Dirty Den. He's Leslie Grantham, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about life after Dirty Den now that he has left the series, and also his time in prison when he served an 11-year sentence for a crime he committed as a teenage soldier.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Test Pilot Sketch (from Hancock's Half Hour) by Galton & Simpson Book: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Luxury: Metal detector

In this week's Desert Island Discs, one of the most eminent English poets of this century, Sir Stephen Spender, talks to Sue Lawley about his radical and often flamboyant past, and his friendships with such notable literary figures as Christopher Isherwood, WH Auden and Virginia Woolfe.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: String Quartet in A Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust Luxury: Painting or sculpture & photograph of daughter

Sue Lawley's castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the satirical cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. Renowned for his grotesquely exaggerated portrayals of political figures and issues, he will be talking about his isolated childhood, which was dominated by chronic asthma, and how, with no formal art training, he has now become one of the most eminent artists of our time, branching out from drawing his instantly-recognisable caricatures into the world of theatre, rock and opera.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: A title by Capability Brown Luxury: River painting by Turner

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is Dame Josephine Barnes, who, ten years ago, was the first woman to become President of the British Medical Association. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her long and brilliant career in a traditionally male-dominated world, and her battles to improve the care of women in pregnancy and childbirth, both before and after the advent of the National Health Service.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: I Was Glad by Hubert Parry Book: The scores of all music chosen in a bound volume Luxury: Solar-powered word processer

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is the playwright and theatre director David Hare - a man who has made his name with plays like Pravda, Plenty, Lickin' Hitler and, most recently, The Secret Rapture. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the impact of the theatre on post-war Britain and his own role as one of the leading writers of left-wing intellectual drama.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Young and Foolish by Mabel Mercer Book: Larousse Gastronomique Luxury: Cricket bat & bowling machine

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is the Rt Hon Enoch Powell - politician, poet and classical scholar. He'll be looking back on some of the incidents and issues which have made him one of the most controversial politicians in post-war Britain - among them, his so-called Rivers of Blood speech on immigration policy, and his exhortation to the electorate to vote Labour after his resignation over Britain's entry into the EEC.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: The Renunciation of Siegfried (from Götterdämmerung) by Richard Wagner Book: Old Testament In Hebrew & Greek Luxury: Smoking device to smoke fish

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is Jeffrey Tate, principal conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Opera House, and chief guest conductor of the Geneva Opera. Until the age of 27, his chosen profession was medicine, but once a fully-qualified doctor, he switched his career to become one of the most sought-after conductors of his time - both in Britain and abroad. This is an achievement impressive enough in itself, but doubly so given that since childhood he has suffered from a condition which has resulted in curvature of the spine and a paralysed left leg, which means that, for the most part, he conducts sitting on a high stool.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Sue Lawley will be talking to Jeffrey Tate about his transition from medicine to a stunning musical career and the problems he has overcome to achieve such extraordinary success.Favourite track: I'll Be Seeing You by Billie Holiday Book: The collected works by Jane Austen Luxury: Nativity painting from the National Gallery

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the chief executive of Britain's largest hotel and catering chain, an empire which extends from motorway cafes to the grandest hotels in London and Paris. He is Rocco Forte, and he'll be talking about the famed Forte dynasty, his renown as a one-time playboy and his company's continuing battle for ownership of the elusive Savoy hotel.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Dies Irae by Giuseppe Verdi Book: Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri Luxury: Snooker table

This week's castaway on the mythical desert island is someone who welcomes the isolation her exile can offer - she is singer and songwriter Joan Armatrading. An intensely shy and private person, renowned for her powerfully emotional songs, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her first impressions of England when she arrived here as a small girl 31 years ago from the Caribbean. She'll also be discussing her music, and the fame which it has brought - something she still finds surprising, and often quite overwhelming.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Madame George by Van Morrison Book: Why Didn't They Ask Evans? by Agatha Christie Luxury: Guitar

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is someone who has experienced the delights of international stardom and acclaim, and the misery of failure when his fame turned sour and his popularity plummeted. The flamboyant Boy George will be talking to Sue Lawley about the ups and downs of his professional and private life.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: It Must Be Love by Madness Book: Photograph album Luxury: Radio receiver

Sue Lawley's castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is the Rt Hon Tony Benn MP. He'll be discussing his long and turbulent career as one of this country's most eloquent socialists - he served in every Labour government of the 1960s and 1970s. He'll also be talking about the many stories that have always surrounded him: is it true, for example, that he is 'wired for sound' and records every conversation he has? And has he really drunk enough cups of tea in his lifetime to displace the QE2?[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Madrigal by Stephen Benn Book: Das Kapital by Karl Marx Luxury: Kettle and teabags

Sue Lawley's castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is someone who's face graced the covers of fashion magazines the world over more than 20 years ago when she was still a teenager.The name 'Twiggy' was synonymous with *the* look of the 1960s - waif-like and doe-eyed. Today, she has matured into a successful actress, singer and dancer, and she'll be talking about those early, heady days, and how she managed to survive the media hype that surrounded her wherever she went.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Yesterday by The Beatles Book: Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Luxury: Cold cream

The first castaway of 1989 in this week's Desert Island Discs is one of Britain's most senior church leaders - the Most Reverend Robert Runcie, the 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his Liverpool childhood and his war years when, as a tank commander, he won the military cross.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: The Sanctus Book: The Odyssey by Homer Luxury: Rocking chair

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is a man who has, at times, endured a different isolation from that imposed by the mythical island. But along with his frequently turbulent political career, he has also enjoyed the close companionship of his fellow crew members when captaining his yacht to resounding victories, as well as conducting some of the greatest orchestras in the world. Former Prime Minister the Rt Hon Edward Heath will be discussing his many achievements - political, nautical and musical - as well as his plans for the future in Desert Island Discs.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Prisoners' Chorus by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Volume of the works of the Impressionist painters Luxury: Suntan lotion

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is actor Charles Dance. A man once termed "the thinking woman's crumpet", it's a description he doesn't take too seriously. But he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his matinee idol image, his early days as an aspiring actor and the role which turned him into an international star - the dashing Guy Perron in the widely-acclaimed TV series The Jewel in the Crown.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: La Bottega Dei Miracoli by Nicola Poivanni Book: A Dream in the Luxembourg by Richard Aldington Luxury: Guitar

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is a philosopher, academic and mistress of Girton College, Cambridge; but Lady Mary Warnock is perhaps best known for her work in the public arena, on committees looking at a wide range of ethically-controversial subjects, including embryo research and animal experimentation.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about these difficult areas and also her early days as an academic when she was also bringing up five children. Throughout her life, music has also been a dominant theme and she'll be carrying out the difficult task of choosing eight records to accompany her to the desert island.Favourite track: My Beloved Spake by Henry Purcell Book: The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope Luxury: Pen and paper

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is a man who prefers to shun any sort of label, but has already attracted quite a number of them - writer, actor, raconteur, wit - but it is as a so-called 'alternative comedian' that Stephen Fry has been most remarkable, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his somewhat chequered past and his highly successful present.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: The Magic Fire Music (Die Walkure) by Richard Wagner Book: The Jeeves Omnibus by P G Wodehouse Luxury: Suicide pill

Sue Lawley's castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is jockey Bob Champion - a man who, against all the odds, fought back after he was diagnosed as having cancer to win one of the most coveted prizes in his field - in 1981 he rode Aldaniti to a stunning victory in the Grand National. He'll be talking about his passion for riding, his fight against his illness and the two children who, contrary to all medical predictions, he has since fathered.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel Book: Fraser's Horse Book by Alistair Fraser Luxury: A bronze statue of the racehorse Aldaniti