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.
Episodes
As a singer and songwriter, George sold more than 100 million records, won two Grammy awards and notched up countless number one hits.
He told Kirsty about how an accident played a pivotal role in his love for music.
You can listen to the full interview on BBC Sounds.
Davina is best known as the host of popular TV shows such as Big Brother, Long Lost Family and Streetmate.
She spoke to Kirsty about how she struggled with drugs in her teenage years.
You can find the full episode on BBC Sounds.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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...
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 pare...
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 so...
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 al...
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 floo...
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 s...
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...
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 t...
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 he...
Popular Podcasts
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.