Desert Island Discs BBC Radio 4
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- Society & Culture
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Eight tracks, a book and a luxury: what would you take to a desert island? Guests share the soundtrack of their lives.
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Sandy Powell, costume designer
Sandy Powell won her first Academy Award for dressing Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love, and has since won two more Oscars - along with a further dozen nominations - and three BAFTAs. Her credits range from Gangs of New York for Martin Scorsese to Mary Poppins Returns for Disney, and she's worked with many of the biggest current screen stars, including Leonardo di Caprio, Cate Blanchett and Al Pacino.
Sandy was born in south London and completed an art foundation course at St Martin’s School of Art. In 1981 she got her first job designing costumes for the choreographer Lindsay Kemp’s show Nijinsky at La Scala in Milan. She later worked for the director Derek Jarman on his film Caravaggio and continued to collaborate with him until his death in 1994. She has also enjoyed long working relationships with Martin Scorsese and Todd Haynes.
Sandy has won acclaim for her designs on films with historical settings, including The Wings of the Dove, The Young Victoria and The Favourite starring Olivia Colman, as well as the flamboyant glam rock world of Velvet Goldmine and the fairy-tale fantasy of Cinderella, starring Lily James.
In 2011 she was awarded an OBE for services for the film industry and in 2023 she became the first costume designer to receive a BAFTA Fellowship.
DISC ONE: Jeepster - T Rex
DISC TWO: Adagietto, Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor. Composed by Gustav Mahler and performed by Orchestre de l'Académie de Santa Cécilia and conducted by Franco Mannino
DISC THREE: Life on Mars? - David Bowie
DISC FOUR: La Vie en Rose - Alan Dunn
DISC FIVE: I’ll Never Fall in Love Again - Bobbi Gentry
DISC SIX: Satellite of Love - Lou Reed
DISC SEVEN: Where Love Lives (Come On In) - Alison Limerick
DISC EIGHT: I Left My Heart in San Francisco - Tony Bennett
BOOK CHOICE: Josef Koudelka: Gypsies
LUXURY ITEM: A lemon tree
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Life on Mars? - David Bowie
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley -
Clive Oppenheimer, volcanologist
Clive Oppenheimer is a volcanologist, filmmaker and Professor of Volcanology at the University of Cambridge. His research has taken him on expeditions across the world, from Antarctica, where he discovered the camp of Captain Scott’s attempt to reach the South Pole, to Ethiopia where he was held at gunpoint by rebels.
Clive was born in London, and fell in love with rocks and the stories they tell on visits to what is now the Natural History Museum. His mother survived the Blitz in London and his father escaped persecution by the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s. On a gap year trip to Indonesia, Clive saw his first volcanoes and realised both their natural power and their significance in human lives. He studied at the University of Cambridge, and completed a PhD at the Open University.
He has taken part in and led expeditions to volcanoes all over the world, including Indonesia, Italy and Ethiopia. He is one of few Westerners to have worked in North Korea, where he was invited by the government to study volcanic activity at the culturally significant Mount Baekdu.
He has also made three documentaries with filmmaker Werner Herzog about volcanoes and their scientific, cultural and spiritual significance.
DISC ONE: Blue Rondo a la Turk - Dave Brubeck Quartet
DISC TWO: Love Hangover - Diana Ross
DISC THREE: Autobahn - Kraftwerk
DISC FOUR: Lava - The B-52's
DISC FIVE: Debaser - Pixies
DISC SIX: Turangalîla-symphonie, Part VI Jardin du sommeil d’amour. Composed by Olivier Messiaen and performed by the Orchestre de l’Opéra Bastille, cond Myung-Whun Chung, with Yvonne Loriod (piano) and Jeanne Loriod (ondes martenot)
DISC SEVEN: T’zeta - Bezawork Asfew
DISC EIGHT: Hymn for the Dormition of the Mother of God - The Sixteen and Harry Christophers
BOOK CHOICE: The Vivisector by Patrick White
LUXURY ITEM: A seismometer
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Debaser – Pixies
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producers Sarah Taylor and Tim Bano -
Cillian Murphy, actor
Cillian Murphy has received global acclaim for his performance in the title role of Christopher Nolan’s epic film Oppenheimer. He has been nominated for an Oscar, which follows the best actor award he picked up at this year’s Golden Globes. On the small screen he played the Birmingham gangster Thomas Shelby for a decade in the BAFTA-winning Peaky Blinders, which made him a household name.
Cillian was born in Cork in 1976 and initially music was his creative outlet. His band Sons of Mr Green Genes, which he formed with his younger brother, was offered a five album record deal, but the boys’ parents thought his brother was too young and vetoed a career in music.
Cillian changed tack and in 1996 was cast as Pig in Enda Walsh’s play Disco Pigs, reprising the role in a film version in 2001. His breakthrough film role came playing Jim the bicycle courier in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later in 2002 which he followed up with a starring role in Ken Loach’s the Wind that Shakes the Barley.
In 2005 he played Dr Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow - in Christopher Nolan’s film Batman Begins, which was the start of their continuing creative collaboration.
Cillian lives in Ireland with his wife, the artist Yvonne McGuinness, and their two sons.
DISC ONE: The Boy in the Bubble - Paul Simon
DISC TWO: The Wandering Minstrel - Séamus Ennis
DISC THREE: Walter’s Trip - The Frank and Walters
DISC FOUR: Bullet the Blue Sky - U2
DISC FIVE: Somebody to Love - Queen
DISC SIX: Everything in its Right Place - Radiohead
DISC SEVEN: We Can Work it Out - The Beatles
DISC EIGHT: If I Was A Painter - Lisa O’Neill
BOOK CHOICE: Samuel Beckett: The Complete Dramatic Works
LUXURY ITEM: An acoustic guitar and strings
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: We Can Work it Out - The Beatles
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley -
Val Wilmer, writer and photographer
Val Wilmer has photographed and interviewed many of the most significant musicians of the post-war years, including Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and many more.
Val grew up in Streatham in South London, where a local record shop helped to nurture her love of music, especially jazz. Her lifelong passion for jazz and photography began at an early age: when she was just 14 years old, she persuaded her mother to take her to London Airport to see off the jazz legend Louis Armstrong who had been playing in the UK. She asked him for an autograph, then took a picture of him as he broke into a huge smile. The image was the first of many classic shots.
Alongside her work as a photographer, Val has written extensively about music, as a journalist for numerous publications and as an author: her book As Serious As Your Life, examining the evolution of free jazz within the wider context of racial and sexual politics, has been widely acclaimed as a classic text.
In 1983 she co-founded Format, the first all-female photographic agency, which aimed to champion women photographers and to widen the range of images available to newspapers and magazines.
Her photographs are held in the collections of the V&A and the National Portrait Gallery.
DISC ONE: Potato Head Blues - Louis Armstrong & His Hot Seven
DISC TWO: Black, Brown And White - Big Bill Broonzy
DISC THREE: Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8_1. By Kodaly, First movement performed by Janos Starker
DISC FOUR: The Weary Blues – Langston Hughes
DISC FIVE: My Lovely Elizabeth - S.E. Rogie
DISC SIX: Criss Cross - Thelonious Monk
DISC SEVEN: Dogon A D - Julius Hemphill
DISC EIGHT: Love and Affection - Joan Armatrading
BOOK CHOICE: The Collective Works of Langston Hughes
LUXURY ITEM: Nail scissors
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Criss Cross - Thelonious Monk
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producers Tim Bano and Sarah Taylor -
Jamie Dornan, actor
Jamie Dornan is an actor who first came to the attention of television audiences in 2013 when he played serial killer Paul Spector in the BBC series the Fall. Two years later he starred alongside Dakota Johnson in the film Fifty Shades of Grey and went on to play the same part in the rest of the trilogy. In 2022 he was the lead in the BBC drama the Tourist which was watched by millions of viewers and recently returned for its second season.
Jamie was born in Holywood in County Down. At 10 he played Widow Twankey in the school pantomime - a defining moment for him when he experienced the thrill of playing to a live audience.
After dropping out of university Jamie became a model and worked on big campaigns for some leading fashion brands before landing his first acting part in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette in 2006. His role in the Fall was his big break and the Fifty Shades films catapulted him to movie star status.
In 2021 he played Pa in the film Belfast which was written and directed by Kenneth Branagh about his own childhood, growing up at the beginning of the Troubles.
Jamie is married to the musician and composer Amelia Warner and they have three children.
DISC ONE: Caravan - Van Morrison
DISC TWO: Violin Concerto No. 1: II. Composed by Philip Glass and performed by Adele Anthony (violin) and Ulster Orchestra, conducted by Takuo Yuasa
DISC THREE: Hoppípolla - Sigur Rós
DISC FOUR: Bridge over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
DISC FIVE: Metarie - Brendan Benson
DISC SIX: Forever – The Beach Boys
DISC SEVEN: Something - The Beatles
DISC EIGHT: The Whole of the Moon – The Waterboys
BOOK CHOICE: Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
LUXURY ITEM: A golf club and balls
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Forever – The Beach Boys
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley -
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cellist
Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a cellist who came to international attention when he performed at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. Still only 24, he has performed at a series of high profile locations including the Hollywood Bowl and Downing Street. Last year he was a soloist at the Last Night of the Proms.
Sheku was brought up in Nottingham along with his six siblings who are also extremely talented musicians. At six-years-old he went to a concert by the Nottingham Youth Orchestra where he was transfixed by the cello section. He started having lessons not long afterwards and by the age of nine he’d completed all of his music grades – receiving the highest marks in the country. At 17 he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition.
He went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music and made his debut at the BBC Proms as a soloist with the Chineke! Orchestra in 2017.
In 2020 he was appointed an MBE for services to music and two years later became the Royal Academy of Music’s first Menuhin Visiting Professor of Performance Mentoring.
DISC ONE: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op.85 - 1st movement: Adagio – Moderato. Composed by Edward Elgar and performed by Jacqueline du Pré, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
DISC TWO: Rivers of Babylon -The Melodians
DISC THREE: Dat - Pluto Shervington
DISC FOUR: String Quartet in C major, Op 20 No. 2, Capriccio: Adagio. Composed by Joseph Haydn and performed by The London Haydn Quartet
DISC FIVE: Chances Are - Bob Marley
DISC SIX: Requiem in D minor, K. 626 , Introitus 1 – Requiem. Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and performed by the Monteverdi Choir
DISC SEVEN: Symphony No.11 'The Year 1905' - II. The 9th January; Adagio. Composed by Dmitri Shostakovich and performed by The Moscow Philharmonic, conducted by Kirill Kondrashin
DISC EIGHT: Largo from Organ Sonata No.5 in C major, BWV 529. Composed by Johan Sebastian Bach and performed by Samuel Feinberg
Book: The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard Feynman
Luxury: A cello and strings
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Requiem in D minor, K. 626 , Introitus 1 – Requiem. Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and performed by the Monteverdi Choir
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
Customer Reviews
Always insightful and inspiring
Love this show, and loved the Cillian Murphy interview - a wonderful and humble Irish artist.
I just love this show!!
I have rediscovered this show living in perth Western Australia and It brings me so much joy. Thank you
T d webster. Not available
It would be great to find this one. Love the show and love all the spy /spy storie etc. Thankyou. Sydney, Australa