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Desert Island Discs

BBC Radio 4
Desert Island Discs
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  • Carol Klein, gardener
    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 floor of her mum’s kitchen. She began her career as an art teacher, working for many years in London schools. After meeting her husband, Neil, they eventually moved to Devon to buy a house and create a garden. They have lived in Glebe Cottage for forty seven years and it’s been the base for Carol’s former plant business as well as the location for some of her TV programmes. Carol never intended to be a professional gardener. She followed that path after becoming a parent and deciding not to return to her teaching career. After first growing plants successfully for local markets, she then started entering professional garden shows up and down the country winning six Chelsea gold medals in the process. Carol lives in Devon with her husband Neil.DISC ONE: Feeling Good - Nina Simone DISC TWO: Not Fade Away - Buddy Holly DISC THREE: Corrina, Corrina - Bob Dylan DISC FOUR: Let’s Stay Together - Al Green DISC FIVE: Perfect Day - Lou Reed DISC SIX: Tutti Frutti - Little Richard DISC SEVEN: Skylark (Alauda Arvensis) DISC EIGHT: Radio, Radio - Elvis Costello & The AttractionsBOOK CHOICE: Flora Britannica by Richard Mabey LUXURY ITEM: A bottle of perfume CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Skylark (Alauda Arvensis) Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor
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  • Sir Gregory Doran, director
    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 secondary school. He went on to study English and Drama at Bristol University followed by a stint studying classical acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. After a few bit parts in TV sitcoms and a spell at Nottingham Playhouse, Sir Greg decided that he would prefer to carve out a career as a director. He went on to stage some of the most critically acclaimed theatre productions – including an all-black cast of Julius Caesar and took Titus Andronicus to South Africa.More recently, he has been touring the globe on his Shakespeare’s First Folio tour to look at as many different copies of the texts as possible. He survives his husband, the actor Sir Anthony Sher whom he met in 1987 whilst they were both part of a production of the Merchant of Venice at the RSC in Stratford. Sir Greg lives in London.DISC ONE: Giulio Cesare in Egitto, HWV 17, Act 1: Duetto. "Son nata a lagrimar" (Cornelia, Sesto) Composed by Georg Friedrich Händel and performed by Nathalie Stutzmann (contralto) Philippe Jaroussky (counter tenor) Oreo 55 (Orchestra) DISC TWO: Sicut cervus – The Choir of Preston Catholic College DISC THREE: Born Free - Matt Monro DISC FOUR: It’s Raining Men - The Weather Girls DISC FIVE: Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes - Paul Simon DISC SIX: J.S. Bach: Cantata \"Ich habe genug\" BWV 82: I. \"Ich habe genug, ich habe den Heiland\". Performed by Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone), Berliner Barock Solisten, conducted by Rainer Kussmaul DISC SEVEN: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K.414: 2. Andante. Composed by Mozart and performed by Alfred Brendel (piano) and Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner DISC EIGHT: Where the Bee Sucks - Paul Englishby, Royal Shakespeare Company BOOK CHOICE: A 1609 copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnets LUXURY ITEM: A shelf of photo albums CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K.414: 2. Andante. Composed by Mozart and performed by Alfred Brendel (piano) and Academy of St Martin in the Fields, conducted by Sir Neville MarrinerPresenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor
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  • Norma Percy, film-maker
    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 who made them.Norma was born in New York City and majored in Government at Oberlin College in Ohio. In 1963 she moved to London where she studied at the London School of Economics, before finding a job in the House of Commons as a researcher for the MP John Mackintosh.In 1972 she became a researcher for Brian Lapping, working on the Granada series State of the Nation. Later she produced The Second Russian Revolution and the award-winning Watergate – a five-part BBC series about the Watergate scandal.Her programmes have won an Emmy, two BAFTAs and four Royal Television Awards. Norma lives in London with her husband, the geneticist Professor Steve Jones. DISC ONE: Be Prepared - Tom Lehrer DISC TWO: Waltz in C sharp-minor, Op.64 No. 2. Composed by Frederic Chopin and performed by Khatia Buniatishvili DISC THREE: Well, Did You Evah? - Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra DISC FOUR: Hard Day’s Night - The Beatles DISC FIVE: Never Say No - The Fantasticks New Off-Broadway Cast DISC SIX: Swan Lake, Op. 20, TH.12 / Act 3: The Black Swan. Composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and performed by Erich Gruenberg (violin), London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Bonynge DISC SEVEN: It Ain’t Me Babe - Joan Baez DISC EIGHT: Political Science - Randy Newman BOOK CHOICE: In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust LUXURY ITEM: A hot shower CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: It Ain’t Me Babe - Joan Baez Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley
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  • Lord Alf Dubs, politician and campaigner
    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 the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia in March 1939. In June, when he was six-years-old, Alf was put on a Kindertransport train, arriving at Liverpool Street station two days later where he was met by his father. His mother eventually joined them in London the day before war broke out. Alf studied Politics and Economics at the London School of Economics and was elected as the Member of Parliament for Battersea South in May 1979. He lost his seat in 1987 and the following year he was appointed director of the Refugee Council, becoming the first refugee to head up the charity.In March 2016 Alf tabled an amendment to the 2016 Immigration Act (known as the Dubs Amendment) which asked the Government to accept 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children into the UK. The amendment passed but the Government closed the scheme the following year after accepting 480 children.In 2016 Alf received the Humanist of the Year award by Humanists UK of which he is also a patron. In 2021 his Czech citizenship was restored making him the first Czech-British member of the House of Lords.DISC ONE: It's Easy To Remember (Take 4) - John Coltrane Quartet DISC TWO: Smetana: Má Vlast, JB1:112: 2. Vltava. Performed by Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek DISC THREE: She's Leaving Home - The Beatles DISC FOUR: Bandiera Rossa - Canzoniere del Lame DISC FIVE: Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 1 in D Major, K. 412: I. Allegro. Performed by Barry Tuckwell (French horn), Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, conducted by Neville Marriner DISC SIX: Danny Boy - Daniel O'Donnell DISC SEVEN: Take This Waltz - Leonard Cohen DISC EIGHT: Ode to Joy. Composed by Ludwig van Beethoven and performed by Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, conducted by Herbert BlomstedtBOOK CHOICE: Germinal by Émile Zola LUXURY ITEM: Walking boots CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: It's Easy To Remember (Take 4) - John Coltrane Quartet Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley
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  • Professor Lucy Easthope, emergency planner
    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 her decision to pursue a career in disaster management. Her work has involved working in mortuaries, attending fatal accidents and training teams to react to emergencies. Alongside her career, Lucy has written two books about emergency planning and disaster recovery. Lucy lives in Shropshire with her husband and two children.DISC ONE: Lose Yourself - Eminem DISC TWO: Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy. Performed by Matthew Steynor (organ) and The Choir of Queens' College Cambridge, conducted by James Weeks DISC THREE: Overture And A Prisoner Of The Crusades (From Chains To Freedom) Composed by Michael Kamen and performed by Greater Los Angeles Orchestra, conducted by Patti Fidelibus DISC FOUR: Tender - Blur DISC FIVE: Trustfall - Pink DISC SIX: Fast Car - Tracy Chapman DISC SEVEN: Something’s Missing - Come From Away Company DISC EIGHT: Thunderstruck - AC/DC BOOK CHOICE: The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden LUXURY ITEM: A solar-powered torch CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Tender - Blur Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor
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About 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.
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