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Desert Island Discs

Eight tracks, a book and a luxury: what would you take to a desert island? Guests share the soundtrack of their lives.

society & culture personal journals

All Episodes

2:58

Ade Adepitan on his first day at school

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/09/30

Before his career in broadcasting, Ade was an international wheelchair basketball player who won a gold medal at the 2005 Paralympic World Cup.He spoke to Kirsty about a fashion faux pas he made on his first day at school.You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

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3:37

Ruth Jones on her start in acting

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/09/29

Ruth is perhaps best known as Nessa from Gavin and Stacey, the show she co-created with James Corden.She told Lauren about her early career struggles and how she got her foot on the acting ladder.You can listen to the full interview on BBC Sounds.

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5:35

Tom Hanks on loneliness

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/09/26

The Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks was cast away by Kirsty Young in 2016.Tom’s parents split up when he was five, and he went to live with his father. By the age of 10 he'd lived in 10 different houses in five different cities.Tom spoke to Kirsty about his complicated childhood, his parents’ divorce and how he managed his overwhelming feelings of loneliness.You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

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4:00

Val McDermid on her childhood love of libraries

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/09/25

In 2013 the Scottish writer Val McDermid was cast away by Kirsty Young.Crime fiction is Val's chosen genre, and the millions of novels she sells examine and dissect the darkest recesses of human behaviour. Val spoke to Kirsty about her childhood love of libraries.You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

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4:33

Malala on campaigning for equal access to education

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/09/24

The activist Malala Yousafzai was cast away by Lauren Laverne in 2021.Malala was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize when she was 17, becoming the youngest winner in its history. She spoke to Lauren about why equal access to education for girls matters so much to her and her family.You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

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3:12

Jilly Cooper on the secret to a successful marriage

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/09/23

In 2016 the novelist Jilly Cooper was cast away by Kirsty Young.Jilly is perhaps best known as the author of Rivals but her writing career also spans newspaper columns, non-fiction books on class, marriage and animals in war, and novels that sell in their millions. Jilly told Kirsty Young about her theory on what makes a successful marriage.You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

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5:54

Ian Wright on his inspirational teacher

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/09/22

The former footballer and pundit Ian Wright was cast away by Lauren Laverne in 2020.Born to Jamaican parents in south-east London, Ian grew up with his mother and stepfather. His biological father had left the family before Ian was two years old. Things at home were difficult, and Ian spent as much time as possible outside playing football. Ian spoke to Lauren about his childhood love of football and how one inspirational teacher, Mr. Pigden, changed everything.You can listen to the full episode on

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49:21

Maggie Alphonsi, broadcaster and former rugby player

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/09/14

Maggie Alphonsi is a broadcaster and former rugby player. She was part of the England team which took home the 2014 Women’s Rugby World Cup and by the time she retired she’d won 74 caps for her country.Maggie was brought up in north London and when she was 14 her PE teacher suggested she give the sport of rugby union a try. Maggie joined her local amateur club Saracens and relished the freedom she felt at being able to capitalise on her power and strength on the pitch.Her first chance to play for

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50:20

Professor Dame Carol Robinson, scientist

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/09/07

Professor Dame Carol Robinson is a scientist who was the first female professor of Chemistry at both Cambridge and Oxford Universities. She has been awarded scientific prizes from all over the world for her pioneering work studying complex macromolecules using an instrument called the mass spectrometer.Carol was drawn to science as a child growing up in Folkstone where she started collecting flowers and shells before moving on to breeding mice because she was fascinated by their genetic makeup. She

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50:48

Harry Hill, comedian

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/08/31

Harry Hill is a comedian, writer and broadcaster best known for presenting popular television shows including You’ve Been Framed, Junior Bake Off and the multi award-winning TV Burp.He was born Matthew Hall in Surrey and brought up in Kent. He became a Cub Scout and got a taste for performing when he was nine after playing Widow Twankey in the Christmas pantomime.In 1983 he started studying medicine at St George’s Medical School in London and began work as a trainee doctor in 1988. He wrote and

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50:58

Monica Dolan, actor

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/08/23

Monica Dolan is a BAFTA and Olivier award winning actor. She is equally at home playing a wrongfully accused postmistress in Mr Bates Vs the Post Office as she is playing the serial killer Rosemary West. Alongside her many roles in TV, stage and screen, Monica has also written and performed in her award winning one woman play B*easts.Born in 1969, Monica was the youngest of four children and was brought up in Woking. Her parents were Irish and had studied science and came to the UK in the

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51:19

Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/08/16

Gustavo Dudamel is a Venezuelan conductor, violinist and composer. He is known for bringing humour and joy to the podium. He is currently director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra and in 2026 will take up the post of music director of the New York Philharmonic, following in the footsteps of Gustav Mahler and Leonard Bernstein. Gustavo was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela in 1981, the son of a trombonist who played in a salsa band, and his mother who was

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50:03

Ash Atalla, producer

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/08/10

Ash Atalla is a television producer whose first hit was the BBC sitcom The Office, starring Ricky Gervais. He followed it up with the IT Crowd, People Just Do Nothing, Big Boys and Stath Lets Flats. His haul of awards from these programmes include six BAFTAs, four Royal Television Society awards, a Golden Globe and an Emmy. Ash was born in Cairo and when he was six months old he contracted polio. He has been a wheelchair user all his life and believes the challenges he faced in his early life

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50:47

Carol Klein, gardener

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/08/02

Carol Klein is a gardener, broadcaster and longtime contributor to BBC Gardeners’ World. She is a six time Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winner, a certified RHS Horticultural Hero and was awarded the RHS Victoria Medal of Honour. Born in 1945 in Lancashire, Carol was the eldest of three children and her love of gardening was evident when she used to bring soil in from the outside as a toddler, and make a garden on the lino floor of her mum’s kitchen. She began her career as an art teacher,

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53:01

Sir Gregory Doran, director

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/07/26

Sir Gregory Doran is the former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He spent a total of thirty five years with the RSC directing fifty productions in the UK and abroad. He’s been called “one of the great Shakespeareans of his age” and has won multiple awards for his work.Born in 1958, Greg was brought up near Preston and played a number of female Shakespeare roles when he was a young pupil attending an all-boys secondary school. He went on to study English and Drama at Bristol

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51:06

Norma Percy, film-maker

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/07/20

Norma Percy is a documentary film-maker. She has been making programmes for over three decades and her productions have featured a range of political leaders from Tony Blair and Bill Clinton to Mikhail Gorbachev and Slobodan Milošević. Her film-making method, which she developed alongside her colleague Brian Lapping, tells the stories of our times by taking viewers into the room where the big decisions were made, with the people who made them.Norma was born in New York City and majored in

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52:38

Lord Alf Dubs, politician and campaigner

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/07/13

Lord Alf Dubs is a Labour peer and former MP. He came to the UK from Prague in 1939 on one of the Kindertransport trains organised by Sir Nicholas Winton which rescued mostly Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.Alf was born in Prague in 1932. His father was from a Jewish background and was brought up in what was then Northern Bohemia while his mother came from Austria. His father left Prague for London as soon as the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in March 1939. In June, when he was

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51:36

Professor Lucy Easthope, emergency planner

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/07/05

Professor Lucy Easthope is an adviser on disaster recovery and planning. She’s an expert in planning for and reacting to major incidents: natural disaster, terrorist attacks, pandemics and fires, and is the visiting Professor of Mass Fatalities and Pandemics at the University of Bath.Born in Merseyside in 1978, Lucy cites the impact of watching the Hillsborough football disaster on TV as a child as one of the driving reasons of her decision to pursue a career in disaster management. Her work has

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50:23

Romesh Ranganathan, comedian and broadcaster

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/06/29

Romesh Ranganathan is a comedian and BAFTA-winning broadcaster who has been a fixture on British television screens for the past decade. In addition to his TV shows and stand-up tours he presents the Weakest Link on BBC One, Radio Two’s Saturday morning show and another weekly Radio Two programme in which he shares his passion for hip hop music. Romesh was born in Crawley in West Sussex where he still lives. His parents came to the UK from Sri Lanka in 1975. His father Ranga was an accountant who

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51:17

Abdulrazak Gurnah, writer

Desert Island Discs ·

2025/06/22

Abdulrazak Gurnah is emeritus Professor of Post-Colonial Literatures at the University of Kent and the 2021 Nobel Prize winner in Literature. Born in Zanzibar in 1948, the second of six children, Abdulrazak grew up in the dying days of the island’s status as a British protectorate before independence was declared in 1963. The revolution which followed made Zanzibar an undesirable and unsafe place to live in for young men of Arab heritage. In 1967, he left to seek opportunities in Britain.He

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