A novel idea...
It’s 80 years since Desert Island Discs began. As well as songs, famous faces get to pick one book. MARION McMULLEN looks at some celebrity sunshine reading
IMAGINE being stuck on a desert island with sun, sand ... and a good story to read.
BBC Radio Show Desert Island Discs began 80 years ago with a simple format of asking famous people what records they would take with them if they were marooned on a desert island.
They were allowed a luxury item on later programmes and were also given the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare to read.
They were allowed to take only one other book so what page-turners ended up being packed?
Rebecca and Jamaica Inn writer Dame Daphne Du Maurier asked for the collected works by Jane Austen when she appeared in 1977... and some whisky and ginger ale.
Presenter Roy Plomley interviewed popular romantic novelist Dame Catherine Cookson in 1984 and she asked if she could take along her own autobiography.
New York playwright Neil Simon, who wrote The Odd Couple and Barefoot In The Park, was practical and asked for a book on how to swim back in 1995 while Sir Terry Wogan asked for a copy of War And Peace and a fully stocked bar when he was a castaway. Blondie’s Debbie Harry also chose Tolstoy’s epic novel.
Roy both devised and presented Desert Island Discs and the idea came to him while he was at home and in his pyjamas. He quickly submitted a letter pitching the idea saying guests could include band leaders, actors, members of the Brains Trust, film stars, writers, child prodigies, ballet dancers and “all sorts of people”.
The show was first broadcast on the Forces Programme at 8pm on January 29, 1942. Comedian and music hall star Vic Oliver featured on the broadcast, which had been recorded two days earlier in the bomb-damaged Maida Vale Studios.
The early programmes were all scripted to comply with wartime censorship.
Mathematician and biologist Dr Jacob Bronowksi was also a chess
expert and his book and luxury options in 1974 both reflected his passion for the game with him choosing a book on championship chess moves and an antique chess set.
Turner prize winner Antony Gormley appeared in 1998, not long after the unveiling of his Angel Of The North sculpture in Gateshead, and he asked for Principle Of Hope by Ernst Bloch and a luxury
item of a snorkel and mask.
Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss, best known for Jaws and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, picked A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens when he appeared in 1999, but then also asked for a constant supply of new books to the island as his luxury item.
Funnywoman Victoria Wood also asked for a Charles Dickens compilation and a bumper Sudoku compendium.
Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, of A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd fame, asked for the collected works of American writer E B White, whose popular books for children included Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little. He also asked for a piano on his desert island as did comedy actor and chat show host James Corden, who also requested a book on how to play the piano.
The Fast Show’s Paul Whitehouse was another celebrity who asked for a piano as well as chord book full of songs and arias. Comedian Jim Moir, best known by the name of his alter ego Vic Reeves, opted for Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K Jerome when he was on the show.
Frank Skinner was expelled from school, but later gained a Master’s Degree in English Literature. Although he had long enjoyed entertaining his friends, he was 30 before he realised where his future lay.
“I was an unemployed drunk going nowhere,” he told Desert Island Discs in 2010, “and then comedy turned up. Comedy saved my life.”
Frank chose Teach Yourself French for his island book.
TV chef Jamie Oliver only asked for a notebook and pen so that he could write down recipes while comedian John Bishop’s book choice was his own family photo album. Football star David Beckham asked for Francis Mallmann’s On Fire and his luxury item? His collection of England caps.
Meanwhile, Four Weddings And A Funeral and Notting Hill writer Richard Curtis decided the best book for a desert island was the Guinness Book Of Pop.
Roy Plomley presented 1,791 editions of Desert Island Discs before he passed away in 1985 at the age of 71, but his radio legacy continues with Desert Island Discs still a firm favourite on BBC Radio 4.
Past presenters have included Sir Michael Parkinson and Sue Lawley and Lauren Laverne is the current host. Kirsty Young fronted the show for 12 years until 2019 and said: “I am so thankful to Roy Plomley for the brilliance of his format.”