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BBC Radio 4


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


Desert Island Discs

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 grew to love chemistry in particular and pored over the periodic table in her bedroom.

She left school at 16 and joined Pfizer, the pharmaceutical and biomedical company, as a laboratory technician. At Pfizer she began working with the mass spectrometer which measures the mass of all the atoms in a particular sample. She studied for an ONC and HNC in Chemistry in the evenings and at weekends and later gained a PHD in Chemistry from Cambridge University.

She was appointed DBE in 2013 for services to science and industry. In 2021 she founded the Kavli Institute for NanoScience Discovery, an interdisciplinary science institute dedicated to studying structures and materials at an ultra-small scale.

Carol has three children from her first marriage and lives in Oxfordshire with her second husband David. 

DISC ONE: Girl on Fire - Alicia Keys 
DISC TWO: She’s Leaving Home - The Beatles 
DISC THREE: Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet Suite No. 2, Op. 64b: I. Montagues and Capulets - Dance of the Knights. Performed by London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Claudio Abbado 
DISC FOUR: Sonnet - The Verve 
DISC FIVE: Wild Horses - The Rolling Stones 
DISC SIX: Golden Brown - The Stranglers 
DISC SEVEN: Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin 
DISC EIGHT: The Scientist - Coldplay 

BOOK CHOICE: The Herbal Apothecary: 100 Medicinal Herbs and How to Use Them by JJ Pursell
LUXURY ITEM: A portable mass spectrometer 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Professor Dame Carol Robinson, scientist

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 performed in medical revues during this time and comedy became his true passion. In 1990 he made the decision to follow his heart and leave medicine to try his luck as a stand-up.

In 1993 Harry got his first show on BBC Radio 4 – Harry Hill’s Fruit Corner. Four years later he starred in his own television series on Channel 4 which allowed him to channel his off-the-wall humour in a series of wildly unpredictable comedy sketches.

In 2001 he started writing and presenting Harry Hill’s TV Burp on ITV which looked back at the week’s television output in a series of comedy sketches and inventive parodies. The show won three BAFTAs, three Royal Television Society awards, a Rose d’Or and Seven British Comedy Awards.

Harry lives in London with his wife Magda. They have three children. 

DISC ONE: Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West) - Benny Hill 
DISC TWO: Have I The Right - The Honeycombs 
DISC THREE: Grandad’s Flannelette Nightshirt - George Formby 
DISC FOUR: Gay Bar - Electric Six 
DISC FIVE: Life During Wartime - Talking Heads 
DISC SIX: Hey Bulldog - The Beatles 
DISC SEVEN: Never Give Up on Love - Steve Brown 
DISC EIGHT: Life Is The Name Of The Game - Bruce Forsyth 
 
BOOK CHOICE: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
LUXURY ITEM: A bucket and spade
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Never Give Up on Love - Steve Brown 

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Harry Hill, comedian

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 early sixties. It was a very academic family and Monica found her passion for drama when she joined a teenage acting group. She went on to study drama at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. 

Since leaving drama school, she has had a very successful career and is known for her ability to master different accents and dialects. When she played the press officer, Tracy Pritchard in the comedyW1A, her Welsh accent was so convincing viewers thought she really was Welsh. 

Her critically acclaimed career on TV stage and screen has seen her portray the fictional evil Anne Branson in BBC 1’s Sherwood, which earned her another BAFTA nomination. During the COVID pandemic, she gave a mesmeric performance as a grieving widow in The Shrine by Alan Bennett and because of restrictions at the time was her own makeup artist and costume designer. 

Monica lives in London with her beloved husky, Velma. 

DISC ONE: The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) - The Banana Splits 
DISC TWO: That's Entertainment - The Jam 
DISC THREE: Nothing - Priscilla Lopez (as Diana Morales), A Chorus Line Orchestra, conducted by Don Pippin 
DISC FOUR: Love and Affection - Joan Armatrading 
DISC FIVE: MacArthur Park - Richard Harris 
DISC SIX: The Night - Diane Chorley 
DISC SEVEN: Us Amazonians - Kirsty MacColl 
DISC EIGHT: South American Getaway (From "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid") - Burt Bacharach 
 
BOOK CHOICE: Encyclopedia of Flora and Fauna 
LUXURY ITEM: A walk-in wardrobe 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Love and Affection - Joan Armatrading 

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

Monica Dolan, actor

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 a singing teacher. Growing up in a musical household, young Gustavo used to gather his toys together and put them on the floor in the shape of an orchestra, put a record on and conduct.

His parents enrolled five year old Gustavo in the El Sistema music programme and he learned the violin. After showing a flair for conducting he eventually became the conductor of the Venezuelan National Youth Orchestra. 

After winning the Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Germany in 2004, his talent was spotted on a global stage. He was appointed the director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2008.
 
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

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 ignited his drive and ambition.

Ash graduated from the University of Bath with a degree in Business Administration and became a stockbroker for an investment bank. It was a fleeting career as he soon realised he wasn’t a natural when it came to numbers. His next stop was the BBC where he eventually joined the comedy department.

Ash produced both series of The Office and, after leaving the BBC, moved on to the award-winning Channel 4 comedy series the IT Crowd and later the BBC’s People Just Do Nothing, the sitcom about a London pirate radio station. 

He co-founded the production company Roughcut TV in 2007 and recently produced the six-part drama series Little Disasters, starring Jo Joyner and Diane Kruger.

Ash lives in London.

DISC ONE: Everything She Wants - Wham! 
DISC TWO: Enta Omri (“You Are My Life”) - Umm Kulthum 
DISC THREE: At Night - Shakedown
DISC FOUR: Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) - Phil Collins
DISC FIVE: My Ever Changing Moods - The Style Council
DISC SIX: Handbags and Gladrags – Rod Stewart
DISC SEVEN: The Universal - Blur 
DISC EIGHT: The Girl is Mine - Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney

BOOK CHOICE: Rewire Your Anxious Brain: Stop Overthinking, Find Calm, and Be Present by Nick Trenton 
LUXURY ITEM: An Indian restaurant
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Girl is Mine - Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Ash Atalla, producer

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, working for many years in London schools. After meeting her husband, Neil, they eventually moved to Devon to buy a house and create a garden. They have lived in Glebe Cottage for forty seven years and it’s been the base for Carol’s former plant business as well as the location for some of her TV programmes. 

Carol never intended to be a professional gardener. She followed that path after becoming a parent and deciding not to return to her teaching career. After first growing plants successfully for local markets, she then started entering professional garden shows up and down the country winning six Chelsea gold medals in the process. 

Carol lives in Devon with her husband Neil.

DISC ONE: Feeling Good - Nina Simone
DISC TWO: Not Fade Away - Buddy Holly 
DISC THREE: Corrina, Corrina - Bob Dylan 
DISC FOUR: Let’s Stay Together - Al Green 
DISC FIVE: Perfect Day - Lou Reed 
DISC SIX: Tutti Frutti - Little Richard
DISC SEVEN: Skylark (Alauda Arvensis)
DISC EIGHT: Radio, Radio - Elvis Costello & The Attractions

BOOK CHOICE: Flora Britannica by Richard Mabey
LUXURY ITEM: A bottle of perfume
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Skylark (Alauda Arvensis) 

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor

Carol Klein, gardener

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 University followed by a stint studying classical acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. 

After a few bit parts in TV sitcoms and a spell at Nottingham Playhouse, Sir Greg decided that he would prefer to carve out a career as a director. He went on to stage some of the most critically acclaimed theatre productions – including an all-black cast of Julius Caesar and took Titus Andronicus to South Africa.

More recently, he has been touring the globe on his Shakespeare’s First Folio tour to look at as many different copies of the texts as possible. 

He survives his husband, the actor Sir Anthony Sher whom he met in 1987 whilst they were both part of a production of the Merchant of Venice at the RSC in Stratford. Sir Greg lives in London.

DISC ONE: Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17, Act 1: Duetto. "Son nata a lagrimar" (Cornelia, Sesto) Composed by Georg Friedrich Händel and performed by Nathalie Stutzmann (contralto) Philippe Jaroussky (counter tenor) Oreo 55 (Orchestra) 
DISC TWO: Sicut cervus – The Choir of Preston Catholic College
DISC THREE: Born Free - Matt Monro 
DISC FOUR: It’s Raining Men - The Weather Girls 
DISC FIVE: Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes - Paul Simon 
DISC SIX: J.S. Bach: Cantata \"Ich habe genug\" BWV 82: I. \"Ich habe genug, ich habe den Heiland\". Performed by Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone), Berliner Barock Solisten, conducted by Rainer Kussmaul
DISC SEVEN: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K.414: 2. Andante. Composed by Mozart and performed by Alfred Brendel (piano) and Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner
DISC EIGHT: Where the Bee Sucks - Paul Englishby, Royal Shakespeare Company 
 
BOOK CHOICE: A 1609 copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnets
LUXURY ITEM: A shelf of photo albums
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K.414: 2. Andante. Composed by Mozart and performed by Alfred Brendel (piano) and Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor

Sir Gregory Doran, director

From Paul McCartney to Wham! 

Comedian Sarah Millican shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. 

Her every woman yet no-holds-barred style of comedy has brought her sell-out tours and several of her own highly successful TV series. Revelling in normality and drawing on the difficult, intimate and ofter extruciating moments of being human, she dares to say what most of us are thinking, only she's much funnier.

A Geordie, born in South Shields, her dad was an engineer down the mines and her mum was a hairdresser. They encouraged their daughter in her storytelling and performing even though her childhood shyness meant she'd recite her poetry from behind the living room curtains. 

Later it was pain that first propelled her onto the stage when a broken early marriage provided the catalyst she needed to find the courage to confront the glaring judgement of the audience's gaze. Her rise was then rapid. Within four years she was awarded the Best Newcomer prize at the Edinburgh Fringe.

She says, "People come along and think, 'oh she's being too rude'. They don't realise I'm just like this at home. People think I'm prim and proper at home but I'm not - I'm just me transplanted onto the stage".

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 December 2014.

Sarah Millican

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 Government at Oberlin College in Ohio. In 1963 she moved to London where she studied at the London School of Economics, before finding a job in the House of Commons as a researcher for the MP John Mackintosh.

In 1972 she became a researcher for Brian Lapping, working on the Granada series State of the Nation. Later she produced The Second Russian Revolution and the award-winning Watergate – a five-part BBC series about the Watergate scandal.

Her programmes have won an Emmy, two BAFTAs and four Royal Television Awards. Norma lives in London with her husband, the geneticist Professor Steve Jones. 

DISC ONE: Be Prepared - Tom Lehrer 
DISC TWO: Waltz in C sharp-minor, Op.64 No. 2. Composed by Frederic Chopin and performed by Khatia Buniatishvili 
DISC THREE: Well, Did You Evah? - Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra
DISC FOUR: Hard Day’s Night - The Beatles 
DISC FIVE: Never Say No - The Fantasticks New Off-Broadway Cast 
DISC SIX: Swan Lake, Op. 20, TH.12 / Act 3: The Black Swan. Composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and performed by Erich Gruenberg (violin), London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Bonynge 
DISC SEVEN: It Ain’t Me Babe - Joan Baez 
DISC EIGHT: Political Science - Randy Newman 

BOOK CHOICE: In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust 
LUXURY ITEM: A hot shower
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: It Ain’t Me Babe - Joan Baez 

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Norma Percy, film-maker

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 six-years-old, Alf was put on a Kindertransport train, arriving at Liverpool Street station two days later where he was met by his father. His mother eventually joined them in London the day before war broke out. 

Alf studied Politics and Economics at the London School of Economics and was elected as the Member of Parliament for Battersea South in May 1979. He lost his seat in 1987 and the following year he was appointed director of the Refugee Council, becoming the first refugee to head up the charity.

In March 2016 Alf tabled an amendment to the 2016 Immigration Act (known as the Dubs Amendment) which asked the Government to accept 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children into the UK. The amendment passed but the Government closed the scheme the following year after accepting 480 children.

In 2016 Alf received the Humanist of the Year award by Humanists UK of which he is also a patron. In 2021 his Czech citizenship was restored making him the first Czech-British member of the House of Lords.

DISC ONE: It's Easy To Remember (Take 4) - John Coltrane Quartet 
DISC TWO: Smetana: Má Vlast, JB1:112: 2. Vltava. Performed by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek 
DISC THREE: She's Leaving Home - The Beatles 
DISC FOUR: Bandiera Rossa - Canzoniere del Lame
DISC FIVE: Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 1 in D Major, K. 412: I. Allegro. Performed by Barry Tuckwell (French horn), Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, conducted by Neville Marriner 
DISC SIX: Danny Boy - Daniel O'Donnell 
DISC SEVEN: Take This Waltz - Leonard Cohen
DISC EIGHT: Ode to Joy. Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven and performed by Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, conducted by Herbert Blomstedt

BOOK CHOICE: Germinal by Émile Zola 
LUXURY ITEM: Walking boots 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: It's Easy To Remember (Take 4) - John Coltrane Quartet 

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Lord Alf Dubs, politician and campaigner

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is the American actor Alan Alda. The son of a vaudeville artist, he shot to fame portraying the wise-cracking, womanising Hawkeye in the television series M.A.S.H. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the part that transformed his life and his initial reluctance to accept it, his childhood years in the burlesque houses of America, and explaining why, despite being a millionaire, he continues to work.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] 

Favourite track: Weekend In The Country by Stephen Sondheim
Book: Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Luxury: Italian pasta

Alan Alda

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