Desert Island Discs: Archive: 2016-2018

Alan Carr, comedian

23 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Alan Carr, comedian and chat show host, is known for his love of silliness, dressing up and camp daftness. His stand-up shows have filled arenas, and ...

Hella Pick, journalist

19 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

As one of the Guardian’s first female foreign correspondents, Hella Pick reported on events that shaped the world in the second half of the 20th cen...

Mariana Mazzucato, economist

16 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Mariana Mazzucato is an economist, who focuses on value and innovation. Born in Italy, Mariana moved to America as a child, when her father...

Gary Barlow, singer-songwriter

09 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Gary Barlow, musician and Take That lead singer, has written more than a dozen chart-topping songs, and has received six Ivor Novello awards including...

Tom Kerridge, chef

02 Dec 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Kerridge is a chef, restaurateur and TV presenter. Tom made his name with his Buckinghamshire pub The Hand and Flowers, which he opened with his w...

Kate Atkinson, novelist

25 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Atkinson won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award for her 1995 debut novel Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and has won the Costa Novel Award twi...

Tracey Thorn, musican and writer

18 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tracey Thorn, musician and writer, is best known as one half of the duo Everything but the Girl. Brought up in Brookmans Park, Hertfordshire, she boug...

Vanley Burke, photographer

04 Nov 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Vanley Burke is a Jamaican-born photographer often described as the Godfather of Black British Photography. His body of work is regarded as the greate...

Venki Ramakrishnan

21 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Venki Ramakrishnan is a Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist. He is most renowned for his research into the atomic structure of the ribosome - a co...

Nile Rodgers

14 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Nile Rodgers is a Grammy-winning composer, musician, and producer. With his own band, Chic, he's been enticing people on to the dance floor since the ...

Thea Musgrave

07 Oct 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Composer Thea Musgrave celebrated her 90th birthday this year, an event marked by celebrations and concerts around the world, including the BBC Proms ...

Tom Daley

30 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Daley started diving aged seven and by the age of 14 was representing Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. He has won six British Champi...

Henry Marsh

23 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Henry Marsh is a neurosurgeon, who pioneered a technique of operating on the brain while the patient is under local anaesthetic. The procedure is now ...

Danielle de Niese

16 Sep 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Danielle de Niese is a soprano who has taken starring roles with leading opera companies around the world. She was born in Melbourne, Australia, to S...

Pam Ayres

05 Aug 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Pam Ayres is a poet and broadcaster.Pam was born in the Vale of the White Horse and retains her characteristic Berkshire burr. She is the youngest of ...

Marianne Elliott

29 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Marianne Elliott is the first woman to win two Tony awards for theatre direction: the first for War Horse and the second for The Curious Incident of t...

Baroness Newlove

22 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Baroness Newlove is the Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales. She became a campaigner after her husband, Garry Newlove, was murdered by several...

Billie Jean King

15 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Billie Jean King won 39 Grand Slams and a total of 20 Wimbledon titles and is regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Born in Cali...

Philip Treacy

08 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Philip Treacy is one of the most prolific and acclaimed hat designers working in the UK. His work was very much in evidence at this year's Royal Weddi...

Guy Singh-Watson

01 Jul 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Guy Singh-Watson is an organic farmer and founder of Riverford, a major British supplier of organic vegetables through a box delivery scheme. Born in ...

Martina Cole

24 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Martina Cole is a British crime writer, known to her fans as the Queen of Crime. Martina has written 24 novels, 15 of which have topped the original f...

John Motson

17 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

John Walker Motson, OBE, also known as Motty, has been commentating on football since 1971. He covered more than 2000 games on television and radio, i...

Professor Carlos Frenk

10 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Carlos Frenk is a cosmologist and one of the originators of the Cold Dark Matter theory for the formation of galaxies and the structure of t...

Gillian Reynolds

03 Jun 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Gillian Reynolds spent 42 years as the radio critic of the Daily Telegraph before she was headhunted by the Sunday Times at the age of 82. Born into a...

David Baddiel

27 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

David Baddiel is a comedian and writer. Known both for his solo work and for his comedic collaborations with, among others, Rob Newman and Frank Skinn...

Dr Sue Black

20 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Sue Black is a computer scientist, academic and social entrepreneur. She was instrumental in saving Bletchley Park, the home of vital codebreaking...

Sir Peter Lampl

13 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Peter Lampl is a philanthropist who has given over £50 million and worked for 20 years to combat educational inequality. In 1997 he founded the S...

Abi Morgan

06 May 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Abi Morgan is a screenwriter and playwright best known for TV dramas The Hour, River and The Split and the films Shame, Suffragette and The Iron Lady....

Anne-Marie Duff

25 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Anne-Marie Duff is a stage and screen actor.Born in 1970 to Irish parents, she grew up in a working class household in west London. A shy child and a ...

David Byrne

18 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

David Byrne was a founding member of the band Talking Heads. Born in Dumbarton, Scotland, he emigrated first to Canada and then to the USA before the ...

John Gray

11 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

John Gray is a philosopher. His academic career included professorships at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, and visiting professo...

Matt Smith

04 Mar 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Smith is best known as the eleventh Timelord in the BBC One series, Doctor Who. At 26, he became the youngest actor to take the part. His future ...

Dame Minouche Shafik

25 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Dame Minouche Shafik is the director of the London School of Economics and a former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England. She was born in Egypt but ...

Christopher Nolan

18 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Christopher Nolan is best known for reviving the Batman film franchise and for directing the blockbusters Inception and Dunkirk. His films have taken ...

Chi-chi Nwanoku

11 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Chi-chi Nwanoku is a double bass player and founder of Europe's first professional majority black and minority ethnic orchestra, Chineke!.Chi-chi is t...

Jack Whitehall

04 Feb 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Jack Whitehall, stand-up comedian, actor, sit-com writer and producer is Kirsty Young's castaway.He co-wrote and starred in the sitcoms Fresh Meat and...

Garry Kasparov

28 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Garry Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, who became the youngest ever world champion at the age of 22. He is also a writer and a political activ...

Christina Lamb

22 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Christina Lamb is chief foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times and travels the world reporting from war zones and hot spots, speaking not just to ...

Angela Hartnett

14 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Angela Hartnett is a chef, TV presenter and cookery writer. She holds a Michelin star and runs her own restaurants. Angela was born in 1968 to an Ital...

Charlie Brooker

07 Jan 2018

Contributed by Lukas

Charlie Brooker is a satirist, broadcaster and writer. He created the Emmy-award winning series, Black Mirror, and presents Screenwipe and Newswipe wh...

75 Years of Desert Island Discs

31 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

75 Years of Desert Island Discs - Kirsty Young ends the programme's anniversary year with some gems from the archive, including the creator of the for...

Bruno Tonioli

24 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Bruno Tonioli, dancer, choreographer and a judge on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing, is Kirsty's guest. He was brought up in Ferrara, Northern Italy,...

Christine McVie

17 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Christine McVie enjoyed huge success with Fleetwood Mac, penning many of their signature songs including You Make Loving Fun, Oh Daddy, Little Lies, E...

Kelsey Grammer

10 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kelsey Grammer is best known for his two-decade-long portrayal of psychiatrist Dr Frasier Crane which began on the NBC sitcom Cheers. He continued the...

Tim Martin

03 Dec 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Martin is the chairman and founder of the pub company JD Wetherspoon. He opened his first pub, Martin's Free House, in 1979 in North London. Now t...

Naomi Klein

26 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The writer and activist Naomi Klein reached an international audience with her first book, the best-selling No Logo, a rallying cry against the power ...

Micky Flanagan

19 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Micky Flanagan found mainstream success as a comedian in 2007 with his autobiographical 'What Chance Change?' show at the Edinburgh fringe, where he w...

Anna Pavord

12 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Pavord, writer & gardener, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island DiscsProducer: Cathy Drysdale.

Professor Phil Scraton

05 Nov 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Phil Scraton is Professor Emeritus at the School of Law at Queen's University Belfast. A criminologist and author, he's director of the Chil...

Kay Mellor

29 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kay Mellor, OBE, is an English screenwriter and director best known for TV drama series including Band of Gold, Playing the Field, Fat Friends and The...

Edna Adan Ismail

22 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Edna Adan Ismail is a midwife and campaigner. As a 12 year old growing up in British Somaliland, her dream was to build her own hospital. It took her ...

Jane Gardam

15 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Gardam is best known for her trilogy of novels about an ex-colonial QC nicknamed Old Filth. A writer for both adults and children, she has won tw...

Sir James MacMillan

08 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Sir James MacMillan is a Scottish composer and conductor. He's one of Britain's most successful living classical composers, with his percussion concer...

Siddhartha Mukherjee

01 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Siddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer specialist. His biography of the disease, The Emperor of All Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2010. A haematologis...

Professor Dame Jane Francis

24 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Dame Jane Francis is the Director of the British Antarctic Survey. She is no stranger to surviving in extreme conditions, because for much o...

Paul Greengrass

17 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Greengrass has directed three Jason Bourne films, starring Matt Damon, Captain Phillips with Tom Hanks in the title role, and the 9/11 film Unite...

Dr Kevin Fong

06 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is Dr. Kevin Fong. He is a consultant anaesthetist at University College Hospital London, and an expert on space medicine. He ...

Sheryl Sandberg

30 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, is Kirsty Young's castaway. She worked for Google at the beginning of the tech boom before joini...

Jayne-Anne Gadhia

23 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Chief Executive of Virgin Money. She is currently the government's Women in Finance Champion. She worked...

John McEnroe

16 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the tennis player and commentator, John McEnroe. He won three singles and five doubles Wimbledon titles, four singles and f...

Sue Perkins

09 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the comedian and TV presenter Sue Perkins. She and her friend Mel Giedroyc first appeared as a comedy duo at the Edinburgh ...

Professor Carlo Rovelli

02 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the theoretical physicist, Professor Carlo Rovelli. His book 'Seven Brief Lessons on Physics' became one of the fastest-sel...

Stella McCartney

25 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the fashion designer Stella McCartney.Born the middle child of Paul and Linda McCartney, Stella's early years wer...

Jed Mercurio

18 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is Jed Mercurio. Creator of Line of Duty, and an award-winning TV writer, producer, director and novelist, he is one of the fe...

Rick Wakeman

11 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Rick Wakeman, musician and composer, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island DiscsProducer: Paula McGinley.

Sonia Friedman

04 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the theatre producer, Sonia Friedman. Acclaimed as the most influential producer in British theatre today, she has produced...

Elif Shafak

28 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the Turkish writer Elif Shafak. Elif Shafak has published ten novels and several volumes of non-fiction and her w...

Demis Hassabis

21 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is Dr Demis Hassabis. An artificial intelligence researcher and co-founder and CEO of DeepMind, he is also a neuroscientist, a...

Liz Lochhead

14 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the writer and poet Liz Lochhead. She was the Makar, the Scottish national poet, between 2011 and 2016.Liz was bo...

Ed Sheeran

07 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Ed Sheeran. His songs have brought him two Grammys, four Brit awards and global success. Shortly after the releas...

Arundhati Roy

26 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer, Arundhati Roy. She won the Booker Prize for her first novel, The God Of Small Things, which has been translated...

Amanda Levete

19 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the architect Amanda Levete. She won the Stirling prize in 1998 for the Media Centre at Lord's Cricket Ground whi...

Marian Keyes

12 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer Marian Keyes. Her twelve novels to date have sold 35 million copies and are published in 33 languages. Some of h...

Jimmy Carr

05 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the comedian and television presenter Jimmy Carr. He is the son of Irish immigrant parents and grew up in Berkshire. Despit...

Dame Katherine Grainger

26 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the Olympian and rower, Dame Katherine Grainger. A six-time rowing World Champion across a variety of classes, her silver m...

Sir Antony Beevor

19 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is military historian, Sir Antony Beevor. His books about some of the key battles of the Second World War are best-sellers and...

June Brown

12 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

June Brown is best known today for her role as the long-suffering chain-smoking Dot Cotton (now Dot Branning) in the BBC TV soap EastEnders. She arriv...

Nigel Owens

05 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the rugby union referee Nigel Owens.His steely authority and quick wit on the field have won him worldwide praise...

David Beckham

29 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

David Beckham is Kirsty Young's guest as Desert Island Discs celebrates its 75th Anniversary. As a professional footballer he's the only Englishman to...

Caitlin Moran

22 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the writer Caitlin Moran.A columnist for The Times newspaper for 25 years, she's published five books and co-wrot...

Wayne McGregor

15 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the choreographer Wayne McGregor. Despite his background in contemporary dance, he has been resident choreographer at the R...

Pinky Lilani

08 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Pinky Lilani, who was awarded a CBE in 2015 for services to women in business, is the founder of the annual Asian Women of Achievement Awards and the ...

Sir Kenneth Grange

01 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Kenneth Grange is a designer. He's been designing elements of our everyday lives for the past six decades. Born in London in 1929, he went to Will...

Gareth Malone

25 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Gareth Malone is a choirmaster who has coaxed and cajoled people from nervous adults to reluctant teenagers to open their mouths and sing for the pure...

Bruce Springsteen

18 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Bruce Springsteen. His career has brought him 20 Grammys, two Golden Globes, an Academy Award and his albums sell...

Sir Philip Craven

14 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Philip Craven is the President of the International Paralympic Committee and a former wheelchair basketball athlete.Craven represented Great Brita...

Davina McCall

11 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Davina McCall is an English television presenter. She began her career on MTV before moving to Channel 4 with the cult hit Streetmate.She was the pres...

Emma Bridgewater

27 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Emma Bridgewater is a British ceramic designer and businesswoman. She set up her pottery business in 1985 in Stoke-on-Trent, when many other manufactu...

Nicola Adams

20 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is Nicola Adams. She made history when she won the first ever Olympic gold medal in women's boxing at London 2012, retaining i...

Yotam Ottolenghi

18 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the cookery writer and restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi. His food mixes the flavours of the Middle East and the Mediterranean ...

Ali Smith

06 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Ali Smith is a Scottish writer. Born in Inverness in 1962, the youngest of five children by seven years, she says, "I grew up completely alone but wit...

Michael Bublé

01 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the singer, Michael Bublé. Born in Burnaby, British Columbia, as a young boy he spent hours listening to his grandfather's...

Jackie Kay

23 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the poet and writer Jackie Kay. Born in Edinburgh in 1961 to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father, she was adopted as a ...

Dr Robert Langer

16 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the scientist Dr Robert Langer. Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he is the most cited engi...

Stephen Hough

09 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the concert pianist and composer Stephen Hough. He discovered he liked playing the piano when he went to visit his aunt's h...

Christiane Amanpour

02 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the journalist and broadcaster Christiane Amanpour. Her career as a reporter was forged in some of the world's most hostile...

Joyce DiDonato

25 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato. Winner of two Grammy Awards, she is best known for her interpretations of Handel, Mozart ...

Nadiya Hussain

14 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the baker and winner of The Great British Bake Off in 2015, Nadiya Hussain. One of six children born to Bangladeshi parents...

Michael Heath

07 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young's castaway is the cartoonist Michael Heath.He's been working for newspapers and magazines for sixty years and sold his first drawing to t...

Jilly Cooper

31 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsty Young’s castaway is the writer Jilly Cooper.Her long writing career spans newspaper columns for the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday, non-...