Episodes
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Sandie Shaw
Kirsty Young's castaway is the singer Sandie Shaw. With her melodic, velvety voice, bare feet and Sassoon bob she was the epitome of everything that was swinging about the '60s. She was just 17 when she first topped the charts with Always Something There to Remind Me and went on to become…
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Nick Park
Kirsty Young's castaway is the Oscar-winning animator Nick Park. His most famous creations are Wallace and Gromit: Gromit the silent but wise dog; Wallace, his well meaning owner with notably less brain-power. They now hold the same place in the nation's heart at Christmas that Morcambe and Wise...
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Sir Torquil Norman
Kirsty Young's castaway week is the aviator, inventor and arts patron, Sir Torquil Norman. He comes from a family where derring-do is in the DNA - his grandfather was a pioneering airman, his grandmother an adventurer and his father also a keen pilot. Torquil ended up in the toy trade where the...
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Frances Wood
Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer and historian Frances Wood. As head of the Chinese collection at the British Library she is the gatekeeper to some of the rarest printed texts in the world. Her life has been immersed in the language and culture of the Far East and, along the way, she's spent...
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Robert Harris
Kirsty Young's castaway is the best-selling writer Robert Harris. He was, apparently, a political junkie from a young age; he was just six when he wrote the essay: 'Why me and my dad don't like Sir Alec Douglas Home' and he also had an early realisation that he wanted to grow up to be a writer.…
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Alice Cooper
Kirsty Young's castaway is the rock musician Alice Cooper. As a teenager he says it was British music that he tuned in to - listening to The Beatles, The Yardbirds and The Who. He realised that while rock music had many heroes, there were few villains - that was the territory he marked out for...
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Anna Del Conte
Kirsty Young's castaway is the cookery writer Anna Del Conte. Born to a wealthy Milanese family, she arrived in Britain in 1949 where her Italian ingenuity with food was sorely needed in a nation still facing rationing and no olive oil. Her books, starting with Portrait of Pasta in 1976, helped…
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Ian McMillan
Kirsty Young's castaway is the poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan. Thirty years ago he was working in a factory gluing together tennis ball halves. Then he got a grant, chucked in his job and devoted himself to writing and performing. These days he's known as the Bard of Barnsley and his appeal...
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Nick Clegg
Kirsty Young's castaway is the Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg. Of his career, he says: "Joining the Liberal Party was a no brainer for me - when you're a young man, you don't get a calculator out saying 'Am I going to get to power?' you get propelled forward by...
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Michael Mansfield
Kirsty Young's castaway is the barrister Michael Mansfield. He is one of Britain's leading QCs - the Birmingham six, the Marchioness disaster, the Stephen Lawrence trial and the death of Jean Charles de Menezes are only a handful of the high profile cases he's been involved in. He describes…
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Sarah Doukas
Kirsty Young's castaway is the founder of Storm model agency, Sarah Doukas. She has never, she says, had a normal career - after running away from school, she ran bric-a-brac stalls in London and Paris and then lived in America before returning to Britain. She enjoyed a stint as a model herself...
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Johnny Vegas
Kirsty Young's castaway is the entertainer Johnny Vegas. As a stand-up comic he made his name as one of the most brilliant and unpredictable acts on the circuit. His stage persona was a belligerent drunk who would heckle his own audience. But the more successful he became, the more the…
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Sir Tom Jones
Kirsty Young's castaway is the singer Sir Tom Jones. In a career spanning fifty years he's sold 150 million albums and his hits have included It's Not Unusual, What's New Pussycat? and Delilah. As a child it was assumed he'd follow in his father's footsteps and become a miner. But he developed TB...
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Kathy Burke
From Lady Gaga to The Specials. Actor and director Kathy Burke shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young. She became a household name for her comedy performances, working with Harry Enfield to create the characters Kevin and Perry. She won critical acclaim for serious roles and picked up the...
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Lord David Cobbold
Kirsty Young's castaway on Desert Island Discs is Lord David Cobbold. He was just 32 years old when he took over the ancestral pile Knebworth House and he succeeded in turning a crumbling corner of the establishment into one of the best rock concert venues in the world. Over the past forty years,...
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Jimmy Mulville
Kirsty Young's castaway is Jimmy Mulville. He began his life in comedy as a performer and writer but success in front of the camera clearly wasn't enough - he set up the production company Hat Trick and has turned out a huge number of hits, including "Have I Got News for You", "Father Ted" "Room...
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Lynn Barber
Kirsty Young's castaway is the interviewer Lynn Barber. A master of the profile interview, her razor-sharp observations have earned her the nickname the Demon Barber and won her a stack of awards. Although critics say her articles are hatchet jobs, she disagrees: "I think that people are well...
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Tim Robbins
Kirsty Young's castaway is the Oscar-winning actor, writer and director Tim Robbins. His film credits include The Shawshank Redemption, Dead Man Walking, The Hudsucker Proxy and Mystic River. Brought up in an artistic and creative household in New York's Greenwich Village, he was always…
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Dr Gwen Adshead
Kirsty Young's castaway is the forensic psychotherapist Dr Gwen Adshead. A consultant at Broadmoor Hospital, it is her job to try to understand the behaviour of some of the most vilified people in our society. The Victorian institution in Berkshire is home to more than two hundred men; all people...
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Dame Fanny Waterman
Kirsty Young's castaway is Dame Fanny Waterman. It was during a sleepless night, more than forty years ago, that she came up with the idea of launching a piano competition in Leeds. Since then it's become a world renowned event and been a springboard for many of our most celebrated pianists...
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Tony Adams
Kirsty Young's castaway is the footballer Tony Adams. He's one of the few people who know at first hand the pressures and joys of captaining the England team. And, after signing as a schoolboy for Arsenal, he is the only man ever to have led a championship winning team across three decades. The...
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Lewis Gilbert
Kirsty Young's castaway is the film director Lewis Gilbert. His career started in the 1920s when he was a child actor in silent movies. Over the next seven decades, he went on to direct Hollywood blockbusters as well as landmark British films. His directing credits include Reach for the Skies,...
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Frank Skinner
Kirsty Young's castaway is the comedian Frank Skinner. As a football-obsessed comic whose stand-up routines were peppered with details of his personal life, he became the poster-boy for the 'Loaded' generation. Beneath the surface, though, he seems to be full of contradictions. He was expelled…
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Gyorgy Pauk
Kirsty Young's castaway is the violinist Gyorgy Pauk. In a career spanning fifty years, he has played with all the best orchestras and continues to teach masterclasses around the world. He grew up in Hungary and, after both his parents were taken to labour camps, he was brought up by his...
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Dame Stephanie Shirley
Entrepreneur Dame Stephanie Shirley joins Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs. As a child, she escaped Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport - travelling across Europe for two days in a train with a thousand children and just two adults. She went on to set up a computer programming company which…
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Rob Brydon
The comedian and actor Rob Brydon joins Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs. Growing up in Port Talbot, South Wales, he discovered performing when he was a teenager and says he came alive when he was on stage: so much so that he left school with only a couple of O Levels. For years, he made a...
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Fay Weldon
The writer Fay Weldon joins Kirsty Young to choose her Desert Island Discs. The author of dozens of novels, essays and radio and TV dramas, she says she spends so much time inventing characters and storylines that the distinction between fact and fiction has become blurred. As a child, Fay Weldon...
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Emma Thompson
Kirsty Young's castaway is Emma Thompson. Sense and Sensibility, The Remains of the Day, Much Ado About Nothing and Howards End are just a handful of her notable screen credits in a dazzling career that has seen her pick up Oscars for both acting and writing. She appears to have pulled off that...
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Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer Frank Cottrell Boyce. His film credits include Hilary and Jackie, Welcome to Sarajevo and 24 Hour Party People. He's also written TV soaps, radio and stage plays and children's novels. These days children are his main audience and, as a father of seven…
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Duncan Bannatyne
Kirsty Young's castaway is entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne. He made his name appearing on the TV show Dragons' Den as a no-nonsense investor with an eye for the bottom line. He made his fortune in nursing homes, health clubs and hotels. Quite something, given that aged 30 he was a deck chair...
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Maggie Aderin-Pocock
Kirsty Young's castaway is space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock. She has, she says, a special relationship with the moon, one that started when she first saw The Clangers as a small child. As a teenager she made her own telescope so she could study the moon more closely. Now she makes highly...
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June Spencer
Kirsty Young's castaway is actress June Spencer. She is one of the best-loved matriarchs in broadcasting. As Peggy Woolley in The Archers, she's the only original member of the cast still in the show. It's 60 years this spring since the pilot episodes were first broadcast and, although she is now...
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Sir Clive Woodward
Kirsty Young's castaway is the former England rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward. He took England to World Cup glory in 2003, becoming the first ever northern hemisphere side to win the trophy. He well understands the pressure and the glory of top-flight sport, which is just as well, as he's now...
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Professor Jim Al-Khalili
Kirsty Young's castaway is the physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili. He's spent his adult life studying sub-atomic particles - and trying to explain them to the rest of us. He fell in love with physics when he was a teenager growing up in Iraq. With an Iraqi father and English mother, the Baghdad…
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Gok Wan
Kirsty Young's castaway is the stylist Gok Wan. Dispensing fashion advice and hugs in equal measure, he aims, he says, to 'make women feel like women, not like turkeys'. Yet although he made his name as a stylist, his special talent isn't for fashion, but for gaining people's trust. He…
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Mary Beard
Kirsty Young's castaway is the classicist Mary Beard. A professor at Cambridge, she's that rare thing: a university academic who writes for the masses. Her popular books, blog, articles and reviews have led to her being called 'Britain's best-known classicist'. But while her research is steeped…
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Frank Warren
Kirsty Young's castaway is the boxing promoter Frank Warren. He has managed and promoted some of the biggest names in the sport, including Joe Calzaghe, Prince Naseem Hamed, Ricky Hatton and the Olympic medal winner Amir Khan. Over the past three decades he has lost fortunes and remade them,...
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James Ellroy
Kirsty Young's castaway is American crime writer James Ellroy. His books have been translated into 30 languages and, according to the New York Times, he is the author of some of the most powerful crime novels ever written. But the case that has dominated his life and much of his writing was the...
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Mary Portas
Kirsty Young's castaway is Mary Portas. She's made an art-form out of turning heads, and her galleries have been the enormous plate-glass windows of Harrods, Topshop and Harvey Nichols. These days she brings retail therapy to small traders, helping them to hold their own against the high street's...
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John Copley
Kirsty Young's castaway is the opera director John Copley. Throughout his sixty year career he's worked with all the greats at the major opera houses of the world. He introduced Luciano Pavarotti to a London audience, charmed Georg Solti with his piano playing and was even called upon to stand in...
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David Tennant
Kirsty Young's castaway is the actor David Tennant. He has been voted the best Dr Who ever and has redefined the Time Lord for a generation of parents and children. As a child he was a huge fan of the programme; he reckons he only ever missed one episode, wore a long stripy scarf and queued up to...
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Sir Michael Caine
Kirsty Young's castaway this Christmas is Sir Michael Caine. In a film career that has spanned more than four decades he has won two Oscars; his credits include Alfie, The Italian Job, Hannah and Her Sisters and Educating Rita. As well as discussing his remarkable life in films, he describes how...
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Lord Coe
Kirsty Young's castaway is Sebastian Coe. It is more than a quarter of a century since his rivalry with fellow middle-distance runner Steve Ovett enraptured the nation. After retiring from the racetrack, he enjoyed a career in politics. Now, though, his focus is on the Olympics once again - not…
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Baroness Scotland
Kirsty Young's castaway is the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland. She is the government's chief law officer, a position as significant as it is isolated. She was on course to be the first female High Court judge before a life in politics intervened and she joined the government. Before she took...
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Morrissey
Kirsty Young's castaway is Morrissey. As the lead singer of The Smiths he captivated a generation of angst-ridden teenagers and, a quarter of a century later, he remains the outsider's outsider. As a child, he was enthralled by the emotion and beauty in pop music. He discovered the joy of public...
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Sir Stuart Rose
Kirsty Young's castaway is Sir Stuart Rose. As the boss of Marks and Spencer, he has held a national institution - and the nation's knickers - in his hands. After seeing off a hostile takeover bid and revamping its tired image, he is regarded by many as the store's saviour. Now, after five years…
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Julia Donaldson
Kirsty Young's castaway is the children's author Julia Donaldson. The Gruffalo is her best known creation. Published 10 years ago, it's become a modern classic; it has sold more than four million copies, won an armful of awards and been turned into a film. But Julia nearly gave up when she was…
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Anthony Julius
Kirsty Young's castaway is the lawyer and writer Anthony Julius. He was already renowned in legal circles when, in 1996, he moved into the public arena, representing Princess Diana in her divorce. He became her confidante and, after her death, one of the founders of her memorial fund. Of the high...
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Jerry Springer
Kirsty Young's castaway is the talk show host Jerry Springer. His life has been split between serving the public and outraging them. His first career was in politics where, as a life-long Democrat, one of his early jobs was working with Bobby Kennedy. Then he found global fame with his...
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Professor Colin Pillinger
Kirsty Young's castaway is the scientist Professor Colin Pillinger. A world-class planetary scientist, his first job was for NASA, analysing the lunar samples brought back by Apollo 11. He is best known, though, for being the public face of Beagle 2, the daring mission to search for life on Mars....