Marooned without Kirsty

SAD to hear that Kirsty Young is taking time off presenting Desert Island Discs due to a chronic illness.

I’ve worked with Kirsty (right) and she is the consummate pro — clever, with a voice spun from pure silk. It’s typical of the BBC that her stand-in will be Lauren Laverne, who once called the Spice Girls ‘Tory scum’. The Beeb’s obsession with Lefties is as irritating as sharing a desert island with, well, Ms Laverne.