Lindsey Hilsum is a multi-award-winning journalist who has been a foreign correspondent for the past four decades. She has been Channel 4’s international editor for the past 22 years and has reported on every continent except Antarctica. After studying French and Spanish at University, she worked as an aid worker in Mexico and Kenya before becoming the East Africa stringer for the BBC World Service. After realising her calling was journalism she devoted her career to covering events around the world including the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the 2003/4 war in Iraq.She also spent two years in Beijing as the China correspondent for Channel 4 News.Among her many awards for her work, she has been named Amnesty International Journalist of the Year, RTS Specialist Journalist of the Year and has received the Charles Wheeler Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to broadcast journalism. She is also the author of three books. When she is not abroad reporting, Lindsey lives in London.Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor
.DISC ONE: Dancing in the Dark - Bruce Springsteen
DISC TWO: Carey - Joni Mitchell
DISC THREE: Shauri Yako - Orchestra Super Mazembe
DISC FOUR: Summertime - Billie Holiday and her Orchestra
DISC FIVE: Hurricane - Bob Dylan
DISC SIX: The Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto (Arr. for Violin & Chinese Orchestra): Andante cantabile "Transformation" Composed by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang and performed by Lü Siqing and the Taipei Orchestra, conducted by Yiu-kwong Chung
DISC SEVEN: Piece of My Heart - Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis Joplin
DISC EIGHT: Who Knows Where the Time Goes - Fairport ConventionBOOK CHOICE: Collected Poems by W H Auden
LUXURY ITEM: A Tang Dynasty horse
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Carey - Joni Mitchell
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50:59
Donna Ockenden, midwife
Donna Ockenden is a former clinical midwife who led the Ockenden Review which revealed, at the time, the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history. Published in 2022, the review highlighted serious failings in maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust which contributed to the deaths of more than 200 babies and nine mothers.Donna grew up in the village of Aberaman in the Welsh Valleys. She experienced a complicated childhood which included a period living in a homeless shelter along with her mother and four siblings. She is also a survivor of sexual abuse and believes her background helped her develop a tenacity and determination which she went on to apply to her work.She completed her nursing training in Swansea and Neath and trained as a midwife at the Portsmouth School of Midwifery. In 2015 she became Senior Midwifery Adviser to the Chief Executive of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). In May 2022 she was appointed chair of the independent review into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust which will be published next year. It is already the largest investigation into a single service in the NHS, hearing evidence from over 2,000 families so far.Donna lives in Chichester with her two cats.Details of organisations offering information and support with child sexual abuse or child bereavement are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.DISC ONE: We’ve Only Just Begun - The Carpenters
DISC TWO: Bye Bye Baby - Bay City Rollers
DISC THREE: Ukulele Lady - Ethel Merman
DISC FOUR: Isn’t It Amazing - Hothouse Flowers
DISC FIVE: If Only - Hazel O’Connor
DISC SIX: I Can See Clearly Now - Hothouse Flowers
DISC SEVEN: We’ll Keep a Welcome - Harry Secombe
DISC EIGHT: Francesca - Hozier BOOK CHOICE: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
LUXURY ITEM: Red lipstick
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Can See Clearly Now - Hothouse FlowersPresenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
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50:58
Professor Carl Jones, conservation biologist
Professor Carl Jones is a conservation biologist who is best known for saving the Mauritius kestrel from extinction. He is the scientific director of Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, chief scientist at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and an honorary professor in ecology and conservation biology at the University of East Anglia.He was born in Carmarthen in Wales and was fascinated with animals from an early age, rearing rescued common kestrels, owls and hawks in his back garden. He studied biology at North-East London Polytechnic and, after learning about the plight of the Mauritius kestrel, he was determined to go out to the country to try to save the bird.He arrived in Mauritius in 1979 when there were only two known breeding pairs left in the wild. By the time he left in 1999 he’d established a captive breeding programme and today hundreds of Mauritius kestrels fly over the islands where he spent decades pioneering his, sometimes controversial, methods. Today the Mauritius kestrel is the national bird. He is also responsible for saving from extinction three species of reptiles, a fruit bat and several plants.He was appointed an MBE for his work in 2004 and in 2016 he won the prestigious Indianapolis Prize – the world’s leading award for animal conservation.Carl lives in Carmarthen with his wife and two children and assorted animals including two Andean condors called Carlos and Baby. DISC ONE: Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf Opus 67 - The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult
DISC TWO: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. Narrated by Richard Burton and performed by Meredith Edwards, Gwenllian Owen and Gwenyth Petty
DISC THREE: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll - Ian Dury
DISC FOUR: La Rivière Noire - John Kenneth Nelson
DISC FIVE: Asimbonanga - Johnny Clegg & Savuka
DISC SIX: Sega lakordeon – Rene oule bwar mwa - La Troupe de l’Union
DISC SEVEN: Londonderry Air - Beatrice Harrison
DISC EIGHT: Clear Sky - Catrin FinchBOOK CHOICE: The Collected Works of Dylan Thomas
LUXURY ITEM: Binoculars
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Asimbonanga - Johnny Clegg & Savuka Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
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52:52
Cyndi Lauper, singer-songwriter
Cyndi Lauper is a multi-award winning singer and songwriter. She has sold more than fifty million records, won an Emmy for acting and her musical Kinky Boots earned her a Tony and an Oliver award. Born in 1953, Cyndi grew up in a blue collar neighbourhood in New York. Her mother loved music and art and took her children to free exhibitions in New York which inspired Cyndi. As a very young girl, Cyndi listened to her mother’s extensive record collection and mimicked the voices she heard from musicals and operas.After a difficult family home life due to her mother’s turbulent marriages, Cyndi found solace in music and began writing songs when she was ten. She left home at seventeen determined to make it in the music industry. She started out as a singer in bands, whilst supporting herself doing a series of jobs. Early in her career, she lost her voice for almost a year after trying to make herself heard over amps which were too loud. Success eventually came when she released her debut solo album She’s So Unusual in 1983 – the first album by a female artist to spawn four consecutive US Top 5 singles.Cyndi lives in New York with her husband, David who is an actor. They met on a set of a film and rock legend Little Richard officiated their wedding.DISC ONE: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Composed by Claude Debussy and performed by The Orchestre National de Lyon
DISC TWO: All That Meat and No Potatoes - Louis Armstrong And His All-Stars
DISC THREE: Puccini, “Un bel di, vedremo” (“One fine day, we shall see”) from Act II of Madame Butterfly. Performed by Maria Callas with Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, conducted by Herbert von Karajan
DISC FOUR: Getting to Know You - Marni Nixon
DISC FIVE: I Want Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
DISC SIX: A Sailboat in the Moonlight - Billie Holiday And Her Orchestra
DISC SEVEN: One Way or Another - Blondie
DISC EIGHT: Hound Dog - Big Mama ThorntonBOOK CHOICE: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
LUXURY ITEM: A luxury hotel
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Puccini, “Un bel di, vedremo” (“One fine day, we shall see”) from Act II of Madame Butterfly. Performed by Maria Callas with Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, conducted by Herbert von KarajanPresenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor
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49:15
William Boyd, writer
William Boyd is the author of eighteen novels, five short story collections and numerous screenplays. His first published novel, A Good Man in Africa, was inspired by his childhood in West Africa. He is well known for writing ‘whole life’ novels including Any Human Heart which he adapted as a BAFTA-winning television series. He was born in Accra in Ghana where his Scottish father worked as a doctor, specialising in tropical medicine. In 1964 the family moved to Ibadan, Nigeria where he witnessed the Nigerian Civil War – the Biafran War – which had a profound effect on him both personally and professionally.He read English Literature and Philosophy at the University of Glasgow and became a lecturer in English at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. During this period he wrote novels and short stories on the side until his breakthrough novel, A Good Man in Africa, was published in 1981. In 2005 he was appointed CBE for services to literature.William lives in London with his wife Susan and over 10,000 books.DISC ONE: Sunday - Mandy Patinkin (George), Sunday in the Park with George Original Broadway Cast Ensemble and Orchestra
DISC TWO: Sorry Sorry - Femi Kuti
DISC THREE: Away Down the River - Alison Krauss
DISC FOUR: Que reste-t-il de nos amours - Charles Trenet
DISC FIVE: Daniel - Elton John
DISC SIX: Britten: Violin Concerto, Op. 15: 1. Moderato con moto. Performed by Janine Jansen (violin) London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Järvi
DISC SEVEN: Brahms: Horn Trio In E Flat, Op. 40 - 1. Andante - Poco più animato. Performed by György Sebök (piano) Arthur Grumiaux (violin), Francis Orval (horn)
DISC EIGHT: Al Otro Lado del Río - Jorge DrexlerBOOK CHOICE: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
LUXURY ITEM: A piano
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Daniel - Elton JohnPresenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
UK