Chris Boardman, cyclist
25 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Boardman is an Olympic cyclist, businessman and the Cycling and Walking Commissioner for Great...
Professor Averil Mansfield, retired surgeon
18 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Averil Mansfield is a retired vascular surgeon and was the first female Professor of Surgery in the ...
Baroness Floella Benjamin, DBE
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Baroness Floella Benjamin DBE is a Trinidadian-British broadcaster, writer and politician. She becam...
Samantha Morton, actor
04 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Samantha Morton is an actor and director. She has appeared in films directed by Woody Allen and Stev...
Yusuf Cat Stevens, musician
27 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Yusuf Cat Stevens is a singer-songwriter who first enjoyed success more than 50 years ago. He was b...
Bernardine Evaristo, writer
20 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Bernardine Evaristo won the Booker Prize in 2019 for her novel, Girl, Woman, Other. She is Professor...
Your Desert Island Discs
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Listeners choose the music that has been special to them during the weeks of lockdown. With Jane Mo...
Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate
10 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Maria Balshaw is the Director of Tate, overseeing four major art galleries: Tate Britain, Tate Liver...
Steve Backshall, explorer
02 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Steve Backshall is an explorer, naturalist and broadcaster. His BAFTA-winning programmes bring vie...
Sharon Horgan, writer, actor, producer
26 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sharon Horgan is a writer, actor and producer best known for co-writing and co-starring in the Chann...
Annie Nightingale, DJ
19 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Annie Nightingale was BBC Radio 1’s first female presenter and is its longest-serving DJ, celebrat...
Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO
12 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jens Stoltenberg is the Secretary General of NATO and a former Prime Minister of Norway. Although he...
Helen Fielding, author
05 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Fielding, writer and journalist, is best known for creating Bridget Jones, who first appeared ...
Helen McCrory, actress
28 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Helen McCrory shares the eight tracks, book and luxury she would want to take with her if cast away ...
Mark Johnston, racehorse trainer
21 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Racehorse trainer Mark Johnston is a lynchpin of British flat racing. In August 2018 - when 20-1 sh...
Joe Wicks, fitness trainer and author
14 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Wicks, professionally known as The Body Coach, is a fitness and nutrition coach. Since the lockd...
Martin Lewis, financial campaigner
07 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Martin Lewis is a financial journalist, campaigner and broadcaster. His high-profile campaigns on ba...
Professor Dame Elizabeth Anionwu, former nurse
31 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Elizabeth Anionwu is a retired nurse, campaigner and Emeritus Professor of Nursing at the University...
Charles Hazlewood, conductor
24 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Charles Hazlewood is a conductor and the founder of Paraorchestra, the world's first professional en...
Sinead Burke, disability rights activist and teacher
17 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sinead Burke is a disability rights activist and teacher. She has combined her love of education and...
Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate
10 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Simon Armitage was appointed Poet Laureate in 2019. His poems celebrate the everyday and the ordina...
Brian Cox, actor
29 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Cox CBE is a Scottish actor whose career spans almost 60 years, from his early days sweeping t...
Dame Helena Morrissey, financier and campaigner
22 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dame Helena Morrissey is a former City fund manager and chief executive of a major investment compan...
Daniel Radcliffe, actor
15 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Radcliffe reached a global audience in the title role of the hugely successful Harry Potter f...
Chris Riddell, illustrator, author and political cartoonist
08 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Riddell is an illustrator, author of children’s books and a political cartoonist. From 2015 ...
Dorothy Byrne, journalist
01 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dorothy Byrne is the head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4, and has worked in journalism for...
Melanie C
23 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Melanie Chisholm - known as Melanie C - is a singer and songwriter who found global fame as one fift...
Ian Wright, former footballer and broadcaster
16 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ian Wright is a former professional footballer and now a football pundit on TV and radio. He began h...
Zoe Ball, broadcaster
09 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Zoe Ball is a radio and television presenter. She became the first woman to present the BBC Radio 1 ...
Sonita Alleyne, Master of Jesus College, Cambridge
02 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sonita Alleyne is the Master of Jesus College, Cambridge, the first woman to hold the post and - mor...
Anne Enright, writer
26 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Enright won the Booker Prize for her fourth novel, The Gathering, in 2007, and was appointed th...
Dame Sue Campbell, Director Women's Football at the FA
19 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Dame Sue Campbell is the Director of Women’s Football at the Football Association. The women’s ...
Michael Lewis, writer
12 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Lewis is a best-selling non-fiction writer and journalist. He initially worked for an invest...
Rupert Everett, actor
09 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rupert Everett is an actor, writer and director whose breakthrough came in 1981 when he was cast as ...
Stephen Merchant, writer, comedian and actor
22 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Merchant first came to fame with the TV sitcom The Office, which he co-wrote and co-directed...
Heidi Thomas, screenwriter
15 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Heidi Thomas is a screenwriter and playwright best known for Call the Midwife. The BBC TV series, w...
Professor Russell Foster, professor of circadian neuroscience
08 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Russell Foster is head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University...
Asif Kapadia, film director
01 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Asif Kapadia is an Academy Award-winning film director, renowned for his documentaries about the mus...
Isabella Tree, writer and conservationist
24 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Isabella Tree is a conservationist and writer of the award-winning book Wilding: the Return of Natur...
Stephen Graham, actor
17 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Graham is an actor, whose credits include key roles in films including This is England and T...
Lauren Laverne picks some of her favourite episodes
13 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hear stories & track choices from castaways including Len Goodman, Maya Angelou and Stephen Hawk...
Kimberley Motley, lawyer
10 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Kimberley Motley is an American attorney and the first foreign lawyer to practise in Afghanistan.Bor...
Russell T Davies, screenwriter
03 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Russell T Davies is one of the U.K.’s most successful television writers. He spent his teenage ye...
Wendell Pierce, actor
27 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Wendell Pierce is an American actor best known for his role as Bunk Moreland in the television serie...
Dame Glenys Stacey, former Chief Inspector of Probation
20 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Dame Glenys Stacey has spent 40 years in public service, including high profile work as a regulator ...
Baroness Arminka Helić
14 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Baroness Arminka Helić is credited with persuading William Hague, the former foreign secretary, and...
Lin-Manuel Miranda, composer & lyricist
06 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Lin-Manuel Miranda is best known as the composer, lyricist and original star of the multi-award-winn...
Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, firefighter
29 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Sabrina Cohen-Hatton is the Chief Fire Officer for West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. She is o...
Thom Yorke, musician
22 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Thom Yorke has been the front man of Radiohead, one of Britain’s most successful British bands, fo...
Jo Fairley, businesswoman
11 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jo Fairley is a businesswoman and writer. She co-founded the Green & Black’s chocolate company...
Sir Tim Waterstone, businessman
04 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sir Tim Waterstone is the founder of the bookshop chain that bears his name. Born in May 1939, he wa...
Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer, England
28 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Dame Sally Davies is the outgoing Chief Medical Officer for England. She will take up her next post ...
John Cooper Clarke, poet
21 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
John Cooper Clarke first achieved fame with his poetry during the punk rock era of the late 1970s. B...
Marcus Wareing, chef
14 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Marcus Wareing is a prize-winning chef, restaurateur, TV presenter and cookery book writer, who gain...
Sue Biggs, DG Royal Horticultural Society
07 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Sue Biggs is the Director General of the Royal Horticultural Society. She’s been at the helm of t...
Jared Diamond, academic and author
30 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Jared Diamond is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, although his i...
Emily Eavis
23 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Emily Eavis is co-organiser of the Glastonbury Festival. Together with her husband and her father, s...
Nitin Sawhney, musician, producer, composer
16 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Nitin Sawhney is a composer, musician and producer working in the worlds of music, film, video games...
Professor Monica McWilliams, social scientist
09 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Monica McWilliams is an academic, peace campaigner and former politician. In 1996, she was...
Lubaina Himid, artist
02 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Lubaina Himid is a Turner Prize-winning artist, curator and Professor of Contemporary Art at the Uni...
Derren Brown, illusionist
26 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Derren Brown, illusionist and mentalist, chooses the eight tracks, book and luxury he want to take w...
Pat McGrath, makeup artist
19 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Pat McGrath is a renowned make-up artist. She works with the world’s top designers, photographers,...
Louis Theroux
12 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Louis Theroux is a television documentary maker. He has received two BAFTAs and a Royal Television S...
Martin Freeman, actor
31 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Martin Freeman is a multi-award winning actor, best known for his roles as the lovable Tim in BBC Tw...
Jacqueline de Rojas, President of techUK
24 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Lauren Laverne’s castaway this week is Jacqueline de Rojas, the President of techUK, the body that...
Marlon James, writer
17 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Marlon James is a writer who won the Man Booker Prize in 2015 for A Brief History of Seven Killings,...
Dame Esther Rantzen, broadcaster and campaigner
10 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Dame Esther Rantzen is best known as the presenter of the long-running TV series That’s Life, whic...
Trevor Sorbie, hairdresser
03 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Trevor Sorbie is known as an innovative hairdresser and is the founder of the charity, MyNewHair. Bo...
Margaret MacMillan, historian
24 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Margaret MacMillan is a Canadian historian, author and broadcaster. In 2018 she delivered...
Ann Cleeves, writer
17 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ann Cleeves is a crime writer best known for two series of novels, both of which have been adapted f...
Cressida Dick, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
10 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Cressida Dick is Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.She was born in 1960, the youngest child of...
Bob Mortimer, comedian
03 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Bob Mortimer is a comedian best known for his work with his comedy partner Vic Reeves. For 30 years,...
Wendy Cope, poet
27 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Wendy Cope is one of England’s most popular and widely-read contemporary poets. Wendy was born in ...
James Rebanks, shepherd and writer
20 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
James Rebanks is a shepherd and the best-selling author of The Shepherd’s Life. Born in Cumbria in...
Ruth Jones, actor and writer
13 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ruth Jones is an actor and writer. She co-created and starred in the award-winning TV comedy series...
Jeremy Deller, artist
06 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller is perhaps best known for We’re Here Because We’re...
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 daf...
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 s...
Mariana Mazzucato, economist
16 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Mariana Mazzucato is an economist, who focuses on value and innovation. Born in Italy, Ma...
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, ...
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 pu...
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...
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. Bro...
Vanley Burke, photographer
04 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Vanley Burke is a Jamaican-born photographer often described as the Godfather of Black British Photo...
Jacqueline Gold
28 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Jacqueline Gold is the CEO of the retail brands Ann Summers and Knickerbox. She joined the business...
Venki Ramakrishnan
21 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Venki Ramakrishnan is a Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist. He is most renowned for his researc...
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 bee...
Thea Musgrave
07 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Composer Thea Musgrave celebrated her 90th birthday this year, an event marked by celebrations and c...
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 ...
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...
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 ...
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 char...
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 ...
Baroness Newlove
22 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Baroness Newlove is the Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales. She became a campaigner after h...
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...
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 wa...
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 ...
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...
John Motson
17 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
John Walker Motson, OBE, also known as Motty, has been commentating on football since 1971. He cover...
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 fo...