Lulu, 1987

Lulu joined Michael Parkinson in October 1987, and managed to persuade him to let her have a cordless phone as her luxury item.

She recalled her upbringing in a Glasgow tenement, and how she never dreamed of stardom.

“People like to paint a picture of how and where you came from… make it look like you were Cinderella,” she said. “In a sense it’s true but when I was a kid we were lower working class and we didn’t have much. But we didn’t think we were poor - we had everything we needed. It was my whole world and I didn’t ever feel downtrodden or anything.

“I’d never have imagined I’d ever have made it. I never dreamed I’d have a hit record one day. Singing was a way of expressing whatever it was that I felt. Music was in me before I was born I think. As soon as I hear it I just can’t keep still – and I’m still the same.”

At the time, Lulu had moved from just being a singer to acting roles.

“I like to live in the moment,” she said. “For the first 15 years I was always booked up for two years solid but not any more. Now I like to be available for something that might come along and to be more free.

“If I can carry on for the next 23 years the way I’ve been going, I think I’ll be truly blessed.”

She praised the voice of Whitney Houston, picking her version of The Greatest Love Of All as the one track she’d save.

“It’s about being on your own. I believe you come into this world on your own and you go out on your own. You have to find satisfaction inside yourself from yourself, not to rely on it from anything external. That song would remind me of that.”

One Disc: The Greatest Love Of All by Whitney Houston One Book: Where Are You Going? by Swami Muktananda One Luxury: Telephone