The queen of the castaways sets sail
After Kirsty Young departs as host of Desert Island Discs, Rosamund Urwin recaps her greatest hits…
When Kirsty young stepped down permanently from Desert Island Discs last week, fans felt bereft. Some – myself included – even became teary-eyed.
Kirsty, 50, had been away from the BBC Radio 4 role since last August after she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a condition characterised by pain all over the body and often fatigue. Happily, she said that she was ‘well on the way to feeling much better’, but that her enforced absence from the programme – in which a guest picks the music that they would want on a desert island, while discussing their lives – had made her want to pursue new challenges.
The broadcaster was the queen of interviewers, quizzing ‘castaways’ from David Beckham to Zadie Smith over her 12 years at the helm. She was warm, occasionally tough; sympathetic, but remembered that her responsibility lay with the listener. You were never left shouting at the radio about what she should have asked.
I interviewed Kirsty in 2015, likening it at the time to being the Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton’s chauffeur: you know that they’re the pro, you’re just the pretender. She was charming and far more open – about her marriage, her daughters and stepchildren, about feminism – than most stars. She named Ricky Gervais as a favourite interviewee (‘the most affable, down-to-earth guy’) and admitted that quizzing Yoko Ono was one of her tougher gigs.
While the baton has been passed to Lauren Laverne for ‘the foreseeable future’, we still have Kirsty’s archive online – with all the joy, tears and life lessons it holds. Here are some of her best episodes:
Lily ALLEN The singer opened up about the fears she endured when she became a mother, the pain of stillbirth and her battles with both drug dependence and an eating disorder. She told Kirsty, ‘Everything seemed to be extremes. I just wanted to be a mum.’
emma thompson The actress laid bare her battle with depression and her sense of inadequacy, proving that even Oscar-winners struggle with self-belief. After her divorce from Kenneth Branagh, Emma said she should have sought professional help: ‘Divorce. Ghastly, painful business.’
tom hanks The actor – who starred in the 2000 survival drama Cast Away – ended up mulling over what it would be like to be stranded. A tear-jerker, with Tom revealing the loneliness he endured in his childhood: ‘There’s a difference between loneliness and solitude. Loneliness is to be avoided.’
DAVID nott Kirsty may have interviewed many A-listers, but the world’s more undersung heroes often made the best listening. Nott is a surgeon who has worked in war zones. He told how, as he operated in Gaza in 2014, he defied a warning the hospital was about to be blown up to save a young girl’s life.
Conrad Anker In 2013, the mountaineer revealed how he had discovered the body of British climber George Mallory on Everest 14 years earlier and buried him. Mallory died close to the summit in 1924.