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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

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is television cook Keith Floyd. Renowned for his garrulous charm as much as for his culinary expertise, he'll be describing the chronicle of failure that dogged him through spells in the Army, as a cub reporter, as an antiques dealer and as a restaurateur. He'll also be talking to Sue Lawley about his passion for good food, music and the elusive nature of romantic happiness.

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

Favourite track: Hey Jude by The Beatles
Book: Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
Luxury: Pair of handmade blue suede shoes

Keith Floyd

Kirsty Young's guest on Desert Island Discs this week is the actress Miriam Margolyes. Her rich career has seen her work with directors such as Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann and she's won awards and acclaim for her film work, her theatre performances and her book readings. She made the leap from the Cambridge Footlights to become one of our most successful and popular character actresses. Yet, despite having one of the most sought after voices in the business, she says she hasn't had the career that she aspired to. She yearned to be taken more seriously and given meatier roles but, she jokes, Joan Plowright always stood in her way. On stage she seems to have the confidence and chutzpah of someone who is beyond embarrassment - but in reality, she says, for most of her life she has simply been a 'frightened little muffin'.

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

Favourite track: The opening of the Fourth movement of the Trout Quintet by Franz Schubert
Book: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Luxury: A flush toilet.

Miriam Margolyes

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Sandi Toksvig.

Host of BBC Radio 4's News Quiz until June 2015, she is also a writer and comedian and recently entered the world of politics, helping to found the Women's Equality Party.

Her parents were both broadcasters: her mother worked as a studio manager and announcer before she married, her Danish father's job as a foreign correspondent took the family around the world. Sandi and her siblings spent much of their childhood in the United States and when she was "asked to leave" yet another American school, her parents sent her to boarding school in England. She soon decided to lose her strong American accent and went on to Cambridge, where she performed in the Footlights.

In addition to writing, her most recent acting role was in Call the Midwife and she continues to appear regularly on TV and radio shows as a panelist: she is to start as the next host of QI, taking over from Stephen Fry. She's also Chancellor of Portsmouth University.

Sandi Toksvig

Sophia Loren is the first performer to win the Best Actress Academy Award for a role in a foreign language film. She won in 1962 for her performance in Vittorio De Sica’s film Two Women in which she played a mother trying to protect her 12-year-old daughter in war-torn Italy. In 1991, she picked up a second Oscar when the Academy presented her with an Honorary Award for her contribution to world cinema.

Born Sofia Villani Scicolone in a hospital ward for unmarried mothers, she was brought up by a single mother in Pozzuoli near Naples during the war years. After success in her first beauty pageant at the age of 15 and starring in photo romance stories for popular magazines, she first came to wider attention in 1953 when she played the title role in the Italian film Aida.

She played a pizza seller in De Sica’s The Gold of Naples which is regarded as her breakthrough performance and led to her working on Hollywood movies with a who’s who of co-stars including Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Gregory Peck and Paul Newman. Her most enduring on-screen partnership was with the Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni.

In 1966 she married the film producer Carlo Ponti and went on to have two children. In her most recent film The Life Ahead, directed by her son Edoardo Ponti, she plays a holocaust survivor and ex-prostitute who cares for the children of local sex workers.

DISC ONE: I’ve Got You Under My Skin by Ella Fitzgerald
DISC TWO: Debussy: Suite bergamasque, L.75 - 3. Clair de lune composed by Claude Debussy, performed by Tamás Vásáry 
DISC THREE: Lara Says Goodbye to Yuri by Maurice Jarre
DISC FOUR: Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) by Frank Sinatra with The Count Basie Orchestra, directed by Quincy Jones
DISC FIVE: Oggi Sono Io by Mina 
DISC SIX: The Marketplace at Limoges composed by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, performed by Russian National Orchestra, conducted by Carlo Ponti 
DISC SEVEN: Io Sì by Laura Pausini 
DISC EIGHT: Caruso by Lucio Dalla 
 
BOOK CHOICE: Letters from a Young Father by Edoardo Ponti 
LUXURY ITEM: A pizza oven 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Caruso by Lucio Dalla 

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Sophia Loren

Deborah Levy is a writer whose novels Swimming Home and Hot Milk were both shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Last year she published the final instalment of her ‘living autobiography’ trilogy of memoirs, and her earlier work includes plays for the RSC as well as short story collections and poetry.

Deborah was born in South Africa in 1959, the eldest child of anti-apartheid activists Norman and Philippa Levy. Her father was arrested when she was five and was imprisoned for four years. During this time, Deborah became an almost silent child, but was encouraged by a teacher to write down her thoughts, sparking her love of creative writing. After her father’s release, the family relocated to the UK and first lived above a menswear shop in London. As a teenager Deborah worked as a cinema usher, and a chance encounter with the film-maker Derek Jarman inspired her to change her plans to take a degree in literature, and instead she headed to Dartington College of Arts, where she studied writing for the stage and performance. 

Her first play, Pax, was commissioned in 1984, and was followed by more than a dozen dramas. Deborah then turned to writing novels in the late 1980s and 1990s. Swimming Home was shortlisted for the 2012 Booker Prize, although it initially struggled to find a publisher. Her trilogy of autobiographies, beginning in 2013 with Things I Don't Want to Know, have enjoyed considerable critical acclaim. 

DISC ONE: Nkosi Sikelel I’Afrika by Sol Plaatje
DISC TWO: Starman by David Bowie 
DISC THREE: Opening by Phillip Glass
DISC FOUR: Moritat Vom Mackie Messer (German version of Mack the Knife) by Lotte Lenya 
DISC FIVE: Black is the Color of my True Love’s Hair by Nina Simone 
DISC SIX: Soothing by Laura Marling 
DISC SEVEN: Diamonds and Rust by Joan Baez 
DISC EIGHT: Because the Night by Patti Smith 

BOOK CHOICE: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (Collected Works of C. G. Jung)
LUXURY ITEM: A silk sheet 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Because the Night by Patti Smith 

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

Deborah Levy, writer

Lauren Laverne talks to Ian Wright in an episode first broadcast in 2020.

Ian Wright is a former professional footballer and now a football pundit on TV and radio. He began his career at Crystal Palace before moving to Arsenal where he became their highest goal scorer of all time, a record only surpassed eight years later by Thierry Henry.

Born to a Jamaican couple in south-east London, Ian grew up with his mother and step-father. His biological father had left the family when Ian was under two years old. Things at home were difficult and Ian spent as much time as possible outside playing football.

At his primary school a teacher, Mr Pigden, took him under his wing and Ian would later credit him with changing his life. He left his secondary school at the age of 14 to get a job. Although he took part in trials for many professional football clubs as a teenager, he was never selected. He continued to play for amateur sides. By the age of 21, he had three children to provide for, so when Crystal Palace came calling in 1985, he turned them down three times before accepting a two-week trial, followed by a three-month contract. His football career had finally begun.

After impressing as a forward at Palace, he was bought by Arsenal for a record fee in 1991. He was called up to the England squad the same year and would go on to collect 33 caps. He spent his last couple of years in professional football at a number of clubs around the country and in total, he played 581 league games, scoring 387 goals for seven clubs in England and Scotland. Since his retirement from football in 2000, he has had a career as a pundit on both TV and radio.

He has eight children and has been happily married to his second wife, Nancy, since 2011.

DISC ONE: The Marriage of Figaro: Duettino - Sull'aria by Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, composed by Lorenzo Da Ponte and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
DISC TWO: Looking For You by Kirk Franklin
DISC THREE: River Deep Mountain High by Ike and Tina Turner
DISC FOUR: Redemption Song by Bob Marley & The Wailers
DISC FIVE: Mysteries of the World by MSFB
DISC SIX: Endlessly by Randy Crawford
DISC SEVEN: Crown by Stormzy
DISC EIGHT: Just Fine by Mary J Blige

BOOK CHOICE: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon
LUXURY ITEM: A seven iron golf club and golf balls
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Endlessly by Randy Crawford

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Classic Desert Island Discs - Ian Wright

Mark Steel is a writer, comedian and radio presenter. 

His performing career began as a poet in the alternative comedy scene in the early eighties at the Comedy Store. A regular presenter on Radio 4, he began his award winning series, Mark Steel’s in Town in 2009. 

Alongside his performing career, he’s been a regular newspaper columnist writing for the Guardian and Independent Newspapers.
 
Mark was born in 1960 and adopted at ten days old by Doreen and Ernie. He grew up in Swanley, Kent and left home at 18 to live in a squat in Crystal Palace. 
After his own son was born, Mark spent many years tracing his birth parents and eventually met up with his genetic father who had been a professional gambler and a friend of Lord Lucan.
Mark has two children and lives in London.

DISC ONE: My Boy Lollipop - Millie Small 
DISC TWO: Janie Jones - The Clash 
DISC THREE: San Quentin (Live at San Quentin State Prison, San Quentin, CA - February 1969) - Johnny Cash 
DISC FOUR: Killing in the Name - Rage Against The Machine
DISC FIVE: Trøllabundin - Eivør Pálsdóttir 
DISC SIX: Love Me or Leave Me - Nina Simone
DISC SEVEN: Into My Arms - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
DISC EIGHT: 1977 - Ana Tijoux
 
BOOK CHOICE: Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
LUXURY ITEM: A piano 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Love Me or Leave Me - Nina Simone

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

Mark Steel, comedian

Former cricketer Ebony Rainford-Brent is the first Black woman to play for England and she was part of the team which won the Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2009. Today she is a broadcaster and cricket commentator for Channel 4, Sky Sports and the BBC’s Test Match Special.

Ebony was born in south London and as a child it was football that caught her attention, especially Liverpool FC and her hero Robbie Fowler. At primary school she was encouraged to have a go at cricket through a charity called Cricket For Change which was set up to encourage more state school children into the sport. Holding a bat in her hands for the first time, she hit the ball as hard as she could and, as she watched it soar through the air, she was hooked.

Ebony started out playing for Surrey Cricket Club’s Under 11’s team as a bowler. In 2003 a serious back injury forced her to stop playing and she thought her sporting career was over. She was determined to prove the medics wrong so she retrained as a batswoman as batting was easier on her back.

In 2007 she made her debut for England and two years later was part of the World Cup-winning team. In 2020 Ebony joined forces with Surrey Cricket Club and founded the African-Caribbean Engagement Programme (ACE) to build grassroots cricket programmes for young people in black communities across the UK. In 2021 she was awarded an MBE for her services to cricket and charity.

DISC ONE: Cold Sweat - James Brown 
DISC TWO: Girlie Girlie - Sophia George 
DISC THREE: Pass Me Over - Anthony Hamilton 
DISC FOUR: A Long Walk - Jill Scott 
DISC FIVE: Rock Steady - Aretha Franklin 
DISC SIX: Never Forget - Take That 
DISC SEVEN: Superheroes - Stormzy 
DISC EIGHT: Work To Do - The Isley Brothers 
 
BOOK CHOICE: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
LUXURY ITEM: A drum kit 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: A Long Walk - Jill Scott 

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Ebony Rainford-Brent, former England cricketer

Cher has been a global star for over six decades. Her career has spanned music, television and film and throughout that time her outfits have made flamboyant fashion statements. 

She was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, California and had a peripatetic childhood. Her mother married six times and with each new husband the family moved house.

In 1962, when she was 16, Cher met Sonny Bono in a coffee shop. She moved in with Sonny as his housekeeper and personal assistant and began singing backing vocals for his boss, the music producer Phil Spector. In 1965 Sonny and Cher released I Got You Babe which reached number one in the US and UK charts – knocking the Beatles off the top of the chart.

Cher is an award-winning actor who has starred in films including Silkwood, Mask and Moonstruck. In October 1998 she released her 22nd studio album Believe – the title track remains the biggest-selling number one by a solo female artist in British chart history.

DISC ONE: Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum 
DISC TWO: Love Me Tender - Elvis Presley 
DISC THREE: A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes - Ilene Woods 
DISC FOUR: Evil - Stevie Wonder 
DISC FIVE: You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ - The Righteous Brothers 
DISC SIX: I Can’t Make You Love Me - Bonnie Raitt 
DISC SEVEN: Minute By Minute - The Doobie Brothers
DISC EIGHT: A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke 
 
BOOK CHOICE: The Saracen Blade by Frank Yerby 
LUXURY ITEM: An eyelash curler 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke 

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Cher, singer and actor

Gareth Southgate OBE is the most successful England men’s football manger in the modern game. 

He holds the record as the man who has represented England in more games than anyone else, with 102 games as men's senior team manager, 57 caps as a player and 37 as men's under-21 head coach, leading to a total of 196 games in which he has been involved as a player or coach.

It’s a remarkable career and one which shows his resilience and determination. Ever since he joined a football team as a schoolboy, he dreamed of being a footballer and perhaps one day, wearing the England shirt. He was rejected by Southampton as a teenager and was determined to come back and succeed. He managed to do that, playing for Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough as a defender and midfielder. After his playing career ended he went into management eventually becoming one of the England national team’s most successful managers. Along the way, his different approach to leadership in sport, together with his quest to understand what is Englishness makes him one of the most impressive football managers in England’s history. 

Southgate is an Ambassador for The Prince's Trust and Help for Heroes.

DISC ONE: The Way It Is - Bruce Hornsby and the Range 
DISC TWO: Rainy Days and Mondays - Carpenters 
DISC THREE: Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Tears for Fears 
DISC FOUR: The Whole of the Moon - Waterboys 
DISC FIVE: One - Mary J. Blige, U2
DISC SIX: Shape of You (Stormzy Remix) - Ed Sheeran 
DISC SEVEN: Someone Like You - Adele 
DISC EIGHT: Experience - Ludovico Einaudi 
 
BOOK CHOICE: The Chimp Paradox by Dr Steve Peters 
LUXURY ITEM: Coffee 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Experience - Ludovico Einaudi 

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

Gareth Southgate OBE, football manager

Kirsty Young's guest this week is the garden designer, Dan Pearson.

His style is governed by a desire to create a sense of place and he is drawn to wild plants and gardens. Aged just five he discovered this passion, while building roof gardens for his collection of trolls and spent the summer watching the plant and animal life in a pond created by his father.

He gave up A' levels in favour of apprenticeships at RHS Wisley and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and then spent several years working abroad, studying plants in their natural environment. His first large-scale project was creating a garden for Frances Mossman, a colleague of his mother's, who asked him to design the garden at her Northamptonshire plot. He won more clients through word of mouth and set up his own garden design company in the late 1980s. His work has since taken him all over the world and he has designed five award-winning gardens for the Chelsea Flower Show. Amongst his current projects he is creating a design for London's proposed Garden Bridge.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

Dan Pearson

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