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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

Lee Child is a writer who is best known for his series of bestselling novels featuring Jack Reacher. Reacher is an enigmatic 6ft 5in, 17-stone ex-military police major who rights wrongs before disappearing off into the sunset. The books have sold in their millions around the world and have inspired two films starring Tom Cruise and a television series.

Lee Child was born James - Jim - Grant in 1954 and grew up in Birmingham. He studied Law at the University of Sheffield and then joined the presentation department at Granada Television where he was a shop steward and became a thorn in the side of the management. 

At 40 he was made redundant and sat down to write his first Reacher novel Killing Floor. He found himself an agent and the novel was published in March 1997 - the franchise was up and running. In the UK Lee outsells both Stephen King and John Grisham and worldwide he sells between 12 and 15 million copies a year.

In 2020 Lee announced that he was handing over the Reacher franchise to his younger brother Andrew Grant. The two brothers have worked on several novels since then and the thirtieth Reacher title features both brothers’ names on the cover.

Lee Child was appointed CBE in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours. 

He lives in the Lake District with his wife Jane. They have one daughter.

DISC ONE: She Loves You - The Beatles 
DISC TWO: (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones 
DISC THREE: So What - Miles Davis 
DISC FOUR: Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23: I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso – Allegro con spirito. Performed by Stephen Hough (piano) and Minnesota Orchestra, conducted by Osmo Vänskä
DISC FIVE: Joe’s Blues - Joe Pass 
DISC SIX: The Lemon Song - Led Zeppelin 
DISC SEVEN: Für Elise (Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor) Composed by Ludwig Beethoven and performed by Lang Lang 
DISC EIGHT: Delibes: Lakmé / Act 1: \"Sous le dôme épais\" (Flower Duet) Performed by Renée Fleming (soprano), Susan Graham (mezzo soprano), Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Sebastian Lang-Lessing 

BOOK CHOICE: Killing Floor by Lee Child
LUXURY ITEM: A mechanical wind-up watch 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: So What - Miles Davis 

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley

Lee Child, writer

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian writer. She has published more than sixty books spanning novels, poetry, short stories, non-fiction, children’s literature, and graphic novels, and has been called “one of the sharpest and most imaginative novelists writing in English”. She is one of only four writers to have won the Booker Prize twice: for The Blind Assassin in 2000 and for her 2019 follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments.

Margaret was born in Ottawa in November 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the second of three children to Carl Atwood, an entomologist. During her early life, she would spend the warmer months in the remote forests of northern Quebec and Ontario where her father tracked insect infestations, and the winters in the city (first Ottawa, later Toronto). She didn’t attend school for a full year until the age of twelve.

Her childhood scribblings – a “novel” about an ant called Annie, a volume of rhyming poems about cats, and a play about a giant – turned into a more serious ambition to become a writer when Margaret was sixteen. 

After studying English at the University of Toronto, where she began publishing poems in the college magazine, her first novel, The Edible Woman, came out in 1969, following five collections of poetry. 

Her most famous work, The Handmaid’s Tale, was published in 1985 and depicted a dystopian vision of the United States as a patriarchal and totalitarian place called Gilead. Although it was written during the Reagan era, it has become eerily relevant again in the wake of the election of Donald Trump. 

Margaret lost her life partner, the writer Graeme Gibson, in 2019. She lives in Toronto.

DISC ONE: Anchors Aweigh - US Navy Band 
DISC TWO: Hearts of Stone - The Charms 
DISC THREE: Offenbach: Les contes d'Hoffmann, Giulietta Act: Barcarolle. Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour. Performed by Joan Sutherland (soprano) Huguette Tourangeau (soprano), Plácido Domingo (tenor), Andre Neury (bass), Pro Arte Choir, Lausanne, Choeur Du Brassus, Choeur de la Radio Suisse Romande, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, conducted by Richard Bonynge 
DISC FOUR: Four Strong Winds - Ian & Sylvia 
DISC FIVE: Barrett’s Privateers - Stan Rogers 
DISC SIX: The Handmaid's Tale, Act I Scene 6: The Doctor. Composed by Poul Ruders and performed by Marianne Rorholm, Hanne Fischer (Mezzo-sopranos), Royal Danish Opera Chorus and Royal Danish Orchestra, conducted by Michael Schønwandt 
DISC SEVEN: We Praise the Tiny Perfect Moles - Orville Stoeber 
DISC EIGHT: Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68 "Pastoral": II. Scene am Bach. Andante molto moto. Composed by Beethoven and performed by Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Otto Klemperer 

BOOK CHOICE: How to Survive on a Desert Island by Samantha Bell
LUXURY ITEM: A knife and matchbox 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Hearts of Stone - The Charms 

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor

Margaret Atwood, writer

Gordon Buchanan is a wildlife cameraman and TV presenter. He is best known for the Animal Family & Me series of BBC documentaries in which he gets up close to wild bears, Arctic wolves, elephants and reindeer among other species.

Gordon was brought up in Tobermory on the Isle of Mull where he spent his days exploring the island and developed his lifelong love of the outdoors. In 1988, when he was 17, he met the charismatic wildlife cameraman Nick Gordon who invited him to become his assistant for a project to film primates on the island of Tiwai in Sierra Leone. 

Gordon spent 18 months in Sierra Leone working with Nick and after that the two of them worked in West Africa and South America. At 22 Gordon set up on his own – his first job was a year-long assignment to make three half-hour programmes for a 14-part wildlife series called Wild Islands. 

In 2001 he made his debut as a presenter on the BBC’s Natural World strand. He was appointed an MBE for services to conservation and wildlife filmmaking in 2020. 

Gordon lives in Glasgow with his wife Wendy. They have two children. 

DISC ONE: Take Me Home, Country Roads - John Denver 
DISC TWO: Brandy in the Airidh - Peat & Diesel 
DISC THREE: Purple Haze – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
DISC FOUR: Heart-Shaped Box - Nirvana
DISC FIVE: High and Dry - Radiohead
DISC SIX: Last Nite - The Strokes
DISC SEVEN: Electrical Storm - U2 
DISC EIGHT: Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) - Beyoncé 

BOOK CHOICE: Teach Yourself Tap Dancing by Derek Hartley
LUXURY ITEM: A mask, snorkel and fins
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: High and Dry - Radiohead

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley

Desert Island Discs has cast many wildlife experts and broadcasters away including Dr George McGavin, Professor Carl Jones, Sir David Attenborough and Dr Jane Goodall. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.

Gordon Buchanan, cameraman and presenter

Sir Salman Rushdie is a writer who has written over 20 books, seven of which have been nominated for the Booker Prize. In 1981 he won with his novel Midnight’s Children which also topped the polls for the 25th and 40th anniversaries of the prize, making it the most lauded novel in Booker history.

He was born in Bombay in 1947 and educated at Rugby School in Warwickshire. After studying history at the University of Cambridge he worked as a copywriter at various advertising agencies before publishing his first novel Grimus in 1975. His breakthrough came with Midnight’s Children and he was one of 20 writers named on Granta magazine’s inaugural list of Best Young British novelists alongside writers including Martin Amis and AN Wilson.

He attracted considerable controversy with his fourth novel the Satanic Verses which won the Whitbread Award and was shortlisted for the Booker. Some Muslims considered the subject matter blasphemous and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the death of Salman and the publishers of the book. Salman spent the following decade in hiding under police protection.

In 2022 he was stabbed multiple times while on stage at the Chautauqua Institution in upstate New York. He had been invited there to talk about keeping writers safe from harm. He survived devasting injuries – including the loss of his right eye – and wrote about the attack and its aftermath in his memoir Knife.

That same year he was awarded a Companion of Honour for services to literature.

Salman is married to the poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths and they live in New York. He has two grown up sons and two grandchildren.

DISC ONE: Walk on the Wild Side - Lou Reed 
DISC TWO: Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan - Mohammed Rafi and Geeta Dutt 
DISC THREE: Blowin’ in the Wind - Bob Dylan 
DISC FOUR: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones 
DISC FIVE: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) - Whitney Houston
DISC SIX: Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard - Paul Simon 
DISC SEVEN: Isn’t She Lovely – Stevie Wonder
DISC EIGHT: For the Love of You, Pts. 1 & 2 - The Isley Brothers 

BOOK CHOICE: Homer’s Odyssey (Translated by Emily Wilson)
LUXURY ITEM: A bed with a mosquito net 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: For the Love of You, Pts. 1 & 2 - The Isley Brothers 

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Sir Salman Rushdie, writer

Sir Tim Berners-Lee is a computer scientist and the inventor of the World Wide Web. 
He was born in 1955, a golden year for technology innovators. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were also born in the same year. 
A curious child, he learned about electronics from his train set and spent his pocket money on transistors. His first significant connecting invention was building an intercom as a teenager for the family home before moving on to build his first computer. 
His parents were both mathematicians and coders who met whilst building one of the first commercially available computers in the early nineteen fifties. 
Sir Tim came up with the idea of the World Wide Web whilst working at CERN and insisted that the technology be released to the world without commercial reward so that it would be free for everyone to use. 
He was knighted for his world changing invention and also appointed to the Order of Merit. In 2016 he was given the Turing Award.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee divides his time between the US, the UK and Canada with his wife Rosemary, who is also a technology entrepreneur.

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

Desert Island Discs has cast many computer scientists away over the years including Dame Wendy Hall and Sir Demis Hassibis. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Computer Scientist

Sally Mann is a photographer and a New York Times bestselling writer. She is best known for making large-format black and white photographs of the people and places in her immediate surroundings: her children, her husband, and the rural landscape of her home state and the American South.
Sally was born in Lexington, Virginia, the youngest of three children to Robert and Elizabeth Munger. Her father was a doctor and gave Sally his old Leica camera to play with. 
After university, she wanted to be a poet but she spent more than a decade as a commercial photographer while starting a family of her own and exhibiting her work on a small scale. She published her first book of photographs in 1984. That same year, she began taking pictures of her three children for a series called Immediate Family, which brought her both renown as well as infamy for touching on ordinary moments in their daily lives – playing, sleeping, and eating, sometimes while naked – but also speaking to larger themes such as death and cultural perceptions of childhood, rendering familiar subjects “both sublime and disquieting”. 
In the mid-1990s, she began to move away from the family pictures in favour of photographing the landscape around her. 
Much of Sally’s body of work comes from observing what is closest at hand because, she says, “The things that are close to you are the things that you can photograph the best.”
She has explored the identity of the American South, and her relationship with her place of origin, as well as mortality and decay, and the effects of muscular dystrophy on her husband. In her latest book, Art Work, she considers the challenges and pleasures of the creative process.
Sally continues to live on the 800-acre family farm near Lexington with her husband Larry and a number of dogs. 

DISC ONE: Köln, January 24, 1975, Part I - Keith Jarrett 
DISC TWO: Take This Hammer - Odetta 
DISC THREE: Trustful Hands - The Dø 
DISC FOUR: O Holy Night. Composed by Adolphe Adam and performed by Concert Choir of St Andrew’s School, Delaware and Virginia Mann (Soprano)
DISC FIVE: Moby Dick (an extract of Chapter 3) Written by Herman Melville and narrated by Frank Muller 
DISC SIX: County Seat - Emmett Mann
DISC SEVEN: Vivaldi: Oboe Concerto in C major, RV 452: 2. Adagio. Performed by Heinz Holliger (Oboe), I Musici (Ensemble)
DISC EIGHT: You Are My Friend (Live) - Sylvester 

BOOK CHOICE: In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
LUXURY ITEM: Paper and a pencil
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: You Are My Friend (Live) - Sylvester 

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

Desert Island Discs has cast many photographers away over the years including Eve Arnold, Val Wilmer and Vanley Burke. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.

Sally Mann, photographer and writer

Lorraine Kelly is a journalist and broadcaster who has been a mainstay of daytime television for over 40 years. She has hosted her own show Lorraine since its launch in 2010 and she was awarded a lifetime achievement BAFTA in 2024.

Lorraine was born in Glasgow and later moved with her family to the new town of East Kilbride. She became a junior reporter at the East Kilbride News when she was in her teens and in 1983 joined the BBC as a researcher. 

In 1984 she started at TV-am as a reporter covering Scottish news. During her time there she reported on some of the biggest stories in the UK including the Piper Alpha disaster and the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie. 

In January 1990 she became a co-presenter of Good Morning Britain on TV-am alongside Mike Morris. In 1996 Lorraine and Eamonn Holmes reported for GMTV on the Dunblane school shooting in which sixteen pupils and their teacher were killed. The tragedy left a lasting impact on Lorraine, who formed a lasting bond with several affected families. She returned to Dunblane in 2021 to mark the 25th anniversary with a commemorative documentary.

Lorraine lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband Steve.

DISC ONE: Starman - Davie Bowie
DISC TWO: Mama Said - Dusty Springfield
DISC THREE: Careful - Horse
DISC FOUR: Rock the Casbah - The Clash
DISC FIVE: Truth - Hue & Cry 
DISC SIX: Warm Leatherette - Grace Jones
DISC SEVEN: Love is All Around - Wet Wet Wet
DISC EIGHT: That’s When He Told Her - The Proclaimers

BOOK CHOICE: South: The Last Antarctic Expedition of Shackleton and the Endurance by Sir Ernest Shackleton 
LUXURY ITEM: A solar-powered digital photo album 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Careful - Horse 

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley

There are more than 2000 programmes in our archive available for you to listen to. We have cast away other journalists and presenters including Sir Terry Wogan, Christiane Amanpour, Lindsey Hilsum and Clive Myrie. You can find their episodes on BBC Sounds or on our Desert Island Discs website.

Lorraine Kelly, broadcaster

Lennie James is a British actor and writer. In 2025, he received the BAFTA for Leading Actor for his portrayal of Barrington Walker in the TV adaptation of Bernadine Evaristo’s novel Mr. Loverman.

This award adds to his collection, which also includes accolades for writing. At seventeen, he wrote Trial and Error and won the National Youth Theatre–Texaco Playwriting Competition, earning the title of Most Prominent Playwright Under 21.

For a decade, Lennie played Morgan Jones in The Walking Dead and its spin-off Fear the Walking Dead, gaining such global recognition that he was even recognised by Vatican guards.

He also created and starred in the critically acclaimed Sky Atlantic drama Save Me, which premiered in 2018. Its second season, Save Me Too, won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Drama Series in 2021.

Raised by his mother Phyllis, who emigrated from Trinidad to work as a nurse, Lennie faced hardship after her death when he was eleven. He and his brother Kestor were placed in a children’s home, and later Lennie moved into foster care after the home was sold by Wandsworth Council.

Encouraged by a youth theatre group, Lennie pursued acting and later trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

He met his wife, Giselle, at seventeen in the same youth theatre group. They have three daughters and divide their time between the US and the UK.

DISC ONE: Touch The Hem Of His Garment - Gene Martin 
DISC TWO: I Found Lovin’ - Fatback Band 
DISC THREE: Doesn't Make It Alright - The Specials 
DISC FOUR: Living For The City - Stevie Wonder 
DISC FIVE: Any Old Time - Artie Shaw and his Orchestra with Billie Holiday 
DISC SIX: For me... Formidable - Charles Aznavour 
DISC SEVEN: Champagne Supernova - Oasis 
DISC EIGHT: Try a Little Tenderness - Otis Redding 

BOOK CHOICE: The Collected Novels of Toni Morrison
LUXURY ITEM: A guitar
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: For me... Formidable - Charles Aznavour 

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor

Desert Island Discs has cast many actors and writers away including the author of Mr. Loverman, Booker Prize winner Bernadine Evaristo and the creator of Line of Duty, Jed Mercurio. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.

Lennie James, actor

Mary Greenwell is a makeup artist who has worked with some of the most famous faces in the world including Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, David Bowie and Cate Blanchett. Her less-is-more approach has won her plaudits in the beauty industry and she became Princess Diana’s makeup artist of choice.

Mary was born in Sussex and left school at 16. By the mid-1970s she was living in Los Angeles where she started out on the door at the legendary Joe Allen restaurant, escorting the likes of Paul Newman and Jack Lemmon to their tables. She received her one and only makeup lesson from the award-winning Ilana Harkavi and shortly afterwards created a look for 12-year-old actor Brooke Shields.

Mary’s big break came when she moved to Paris in 1984 and began working with the original supermodels; Christy Turlingon, Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Tatiana Patitz. In 1990 she met Princess Diana on a Vogue photo shoot and became her go-to makeup artist and friend.

In 2025 Mary was appointed an MBE for services to the beauty and fashion industries and her charity work.

Mary lives in London. 

DISC ONE: Lay Lady Lay - Bob Dylan 
DISC TWO: I Am Enough - Tallulah Rendall 
DISC THREE: Suzanne - Leonard Cohen 
DISC FOUR: Walk on the Wild Side - Lou Reed 
DISC FIVE: Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd 
DISC SIX: Cold Little Heart - Michael Kiwanuka 
DISC SEVEN: Diamonds - Rihanna 
DISC EIGHT: Heroes - David Bowie 
 
BOOK CHOICE: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima
LUXURY ITEM: A bed
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Am Enough - Tallulah Rendall 

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley

There are more than 2000 programmes in our archive available for you to listen to. We’ve cast away other hair and beauty experts including the makeup artist Pat McGrath, and hairdressers Vidal Sassoon and Trevor Sorbie. Cate Blanchett, one of Mary’s clients, is in our archive too. You can find their episodes on BBC Sounds or on our Desert Island Discs website.

Mary Greenwell, makeup artist

Ronnie Wood is a musician and artist who has been a major player on the UK music scene for over 60 years. In 1975 Ronnie became a member of the Rolling Stones, one of the most influential and enduring bands of the rock era.

Ronnie’s parents were born and worked on barges moving cargo up and down the canals between Manchester, Stratford-upon-Avon and London. Ronnie and his two older brothers were the first in the family to be born on dry land.

Ronnie’s brothers, Ted and Art, were accomplished musicians and played in highly respected bands. Ronnie made his debut at nine-years-old when he played the washboard in Ted’s band during a performance at their local cinema. Ronnie formed his first band, The Birds, with some friends. In 1967 he joined the Jeff Beck Group with his lifelong friend Rod Stewart. Two years later they formed the Faces with the remaining members of the Small Faces. 

Ronnie joined the Rolling Stones in 1975, replacing the band’s previous guitarist Mick Taylor. Ronnie’s love of art developed in childhood and he studied at Ealing College of Art. His work has been shown in exhibitions around the world.

Ronnie lives in Hertfordshire with his wife Sally and their two children.

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley

DISC ONE: Guitar Shuffle - Big Bill Broonzy 
DISC TWO: Shame, Shame, Shame - Jimmy Reed 
DISC THREE: Smokestack Lightnin' - Howlin' Wolf 
DISC FOUR: You Need Love - Muddy Waters 
DISC FIVE: Adelaide - Frank Sinatra 
DISC SIX: Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467: II. Andante \"Elvira Madigan\". Performed by Géza Anda (piano) and Camerata Salzburg (Orchestra)
DISC SEVEN: Roll Over Beethoven – Chuck Berry
DISC EIGHT: Maybe I'm Amazed - Paul McCartney 
 
BOOK CHOICE: Just for Today: Daily Meditations for Recovering Addicts by Narcotics Anonymous
LUXURY ITEM: A chest containing art materials and a carpet
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Smokestack Lightnin' - Howlin' Wolf 

There are more than 2000 programmes in our archive available for you to listen to. We have cast away other musicians and songwriters including Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper. Ronnie’s fellow Stones, Keith Richards and Charlie Watts, are in our archive too along with Ronnie’s friend Paul McCartney. You can find their episodes on BBC Sounds or on our Desert Island Discs website.

Ronnie Wood, musician

Roy Plomley's castaway is dancer Sir Robert Helpmann.

Favourite track: Bailero by Victoria De Los Angeles
Book: Volume on boat building for beginners
Luxury: Toothbrush and toothpaste

Sir Robert Helpmann

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