Sue Lawley's guest on Desert Island Discs today is the writer Martin Amis. He describes his books as comedies, but, like London Fields and Other People, they are frequently dark and disturbing.

He says that he has no choice as to the subjects of his books. "They come from nowhere and feel like a little gulp in your digestive system". Although he admits that he's sometimes appalled by the characters he creates, writing itself is something he loves.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Yesterdays by Buddy Rich Book: Complete Works by John Milton Luxury: Cable Television

The castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is Absolutely Fabulous! Jennifer Saunders began "doing funny things with props" in the early 1980s. With her stage partner Dawn French, she toured the clubs and comedy venues making people laugh with acts like The Menopause Sisters. As part of the Comic Strip performers, she burst onto our TV screens as one of the famous, if rather manic, five.

Now through her characters Edina and Patsy, she has created a comedy classic. But as she tells Sue Lawley, Absolutely Fabulous came about because, having taken a year off from French and Saunders, the phone was ominously silent, and she had absolutely nothing else to do.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: I Didn't Have The Nerve To Say No by Blondie Book: Traveller's Prelude by Freya Stark Luxury: Tribute Heads By Elisabeth Frink

The ball rolled past the gap between him and Gordon Banks and into the back of the net. The Germans were one goal up.

This week's castaway, Jackie Charlton, recalls the match which was to bring him to his knees in relief and joy as England went on to win the 1966 World Cup. Just one of the crowning moments of a career that could so easily have ended down the pit, except for his talent with the ball. Nicknamed "The Boss" because of his straight talking, Jackie describes his relationship with his brother "Our Kid" Bobby Charlton and his success as manager of Ireland.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: September Song by Frank Sinatra Book: Encyclopaedia of How To Survive Luxury: Fishing rod

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Director of the Promenade Concerts John Drummond. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his years at the BBC, starting as a general trainee, leaving it to become Director of the Edinburgh Festival and returning as Controller of Music and then Controller of Radio Three. He'll be discussing his passionate attachment to fine music and musicianship and his conviction that such music should not just be heard, but must be properly listened to.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Soave Sia Il Vento from Cosi fan Tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Encyclopaedia of the libretti of all the well-known operas Luxury: Small theatre

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the controversial art critic Brian Sewell. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he did not go to school until he was 11, hated it when he got there, but managed, much against the wishes of the school, to teach himself history of art. He'll also be describing how he felt when his friend and mentor, Sir Anthony Blunt, the Keeper of the Queen's Pictures, was denounced as a spy in 1979. Sewell was thrust into the public eye as Blunt's protector. He's been there ever since - attacking what he regards as the excesses of contemporary art, and attracting much criticism himself as a result of his attitudes.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Fidelio Aria - 'Komm Hoffnung' by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Songs from the 1880s with piano accompaniment by Franz Schubert Luxury: Pieta sculpture by Michelangelo

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the actress Zoe Wanamaker. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the roles she has taken on in theatre and television - in Love Hurts, Prime Suspect and, more recently, in the West End hit Dead Funny. She'll also be describing how she has tried to cope with the death of her father - the distinguished actor Sam Wanamaker - at the end of last year.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Requiem Offertorio by Giuseppe Verdi Book: Greek Myths by Robert Graves Luxury: Samson tobacco and liquorice Rizla papers

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Milton Shulman. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he came to Britain from Toronto as an Intelligence Officer during the Second World War, after which he wrote a book called Defeat in the West, which was based on interviews he conducted with defeated German officers. It was this book which brought him to the attention of Lord Beaverbrook, leading to his promotion from humble diarist on the London Evening Standard to its film critic. He then went on to become the paper's chief theatre critic - a job he did for 38 years, during which time he reckons to have been to 5,500 first nights, but, to his mind, no great plays.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Capriccio Italien by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Book: The Cookery Book by Constance Spry Luxury: Tennis racket and ball machine

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the jockey Peter Scudamore. The son of a jockey who had won the Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup - Scu, as he is known throughout the racing fraternity - resisted all attempts to turn him into an estate agent, and followed in his father's footsteps. Having broken nearly every bone in his body, he retired in 1993 after a career which encompassed 1,678 National Hunt victories and the title of Champion Jockey a record eight times. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about jockeys, jumping and his new career, journalism.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Laid by James Book: Book of Verse by Rudyard Kipling Luxury: Snorkeling equipment

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the actress Britt Ekland. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her miraculous transformation from an overweight, buck-toothed ugly duckling with large ears to a beautiful peroxided teenager. She'll also be describing her turbulent marriage to Peter Sellers and her passionate affair with the rock star Rod Stewart.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Mother by John Lennon & Plastic Ono Band Book: Recent editions of magazines, e.g. Vanity Fair; Vogue Luxury: Case of Evian water filled with champagne

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the BBC's Chief News Correspondent Kate Adie. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the pleasures and perils of a job which has taken her to some of the world's most dangerous trouble spots. She'll also be describing how she felt when she was recently reunited with her natural mother after having been happily brought up by her adoptive family in Sunderland.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Symphony No 6 In E Minor by Ralph Vaughan Williams Book: Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer Luxury: Large Victorian bath with claw feet

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a man who has devoted his life to helping those who share his own disability - blindness. Sir John Wilson lost his sight at the age of 12 in an accident in his school chemistry laboratory. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how, undaunted, he went on to win a scholarship to Oxford, and then, at the age of 30, mortgaged his home and set up the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind. Since then, he has travelled an average of 50,000 miles a year, helping to restore or save the sight of millions of people the world over. Last year he was awarded the Albert Schweizer International Award for Medicine.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Mass in B Minor: The Sanctus by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: A chess strategy book (in braille) Luxury: A sonic probe

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the American writer and broadcaster Garrison Keillor. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his childhood in the small town of Anoka in Minnesota, on which his stories in his bestseller, Lake Wobegon Days, were based. One of six children of Protestant fundamentalist parents, he'll be remembering his home life where story-telling was an intrinsic element, and in which alcohol, television, parties and socialising were all forbidden.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Abide With Me Fast Falls The Evertide by Huddersfield Choral Society Book: Thesaurus by Roget Luxury: Set of china (four place settings)

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week has recently topped the polls as the country's most popular newscaster. He is ITN's Trevor McDonald, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about a West Indian childhood which was dominated by English influences, a career which started in Caribbean local radio and television and how he copes with his emotions when having to report on particularly gruelling news stories.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Violin Concerto in D Opus 61 by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Anthology of Poetry Luxury: Box of paints, brushes, paper

Always an outsider, she seems to have gone against all the mores of her time; from opening a dancing school in Calcutta to living alone with her children in Kashmir. On Desert Island Discs this week, the writer Rumer Godden describes how her rich life in India (under the Raj) and in Britain has influenced her novels.

She says she can't remember a time when she didn't write. Now in her late 80s, and after publishing more than 50 books, including Black Narcissus and The River, she's just added another to her list.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Kinderscenen Traumerei by Robert Schumann Book: The Atlantic book of British and American Poetry by Edith Sitwell Luxury: A widow's cruse filled with whisky

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a musician who started his professional career as a clarinettist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

However, when he was 26, Alan Hacker was permanently disabled by a thrombosis on his spinal column. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how, since then, although confined to a wheelchair, he has been determined to prove his disability is not a handicap but just a nuisance. He'll be describing how he has carved out a niche for himself as a conductor, teacher and pioneer in the study of early music and is now a leading guest conductor of the Stuttgart Opera.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: London Symphony by Franz Joseph Haydn Book: Middlemarch by George Eliot Luxury: Hovercraft wheelchair with capuccino machine

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the poet Roger McGough. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his boyhood in Liverpool where he showed little aptitude for literature - it wasn't until he went to Hull University that he discovered his true vocation. It was one that was to take him, via a best-selling number one record, Lily the Pink, with the group The Scaffold, to become one of the country's most enduringly successful poets.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Foghorns On The Mersey Book: Times Atlas of the Night Sky Luxury: Black cab

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Over the last 23 years, he has navigated the White Nile in a hovercraft, travelled around the world through both poles, discovered a lost city and, most recently, he nearly perished in Antarctica. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his unhappy schooldays at Eton, his thwarted ambition to emulate his father's military career and the problems he has had with his companions on expeditions.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Love Changes Everything by Michael Ball Book: Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake Luxury: Antisan for insect bites

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week owns the Daily Telegraph and The Spectator - amongst two or three hundred other newspapers and magazines the world over. He is Canadian-born tycoon Conrad Black, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the notorious misbehaviour of his school days, the tuition his father gave him in the ways of corporate finance and how he views his powerful position in the British establishment.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Emperor Concerto in E Flat Major Opus 73 by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Oxford Book of Verse, especially 'Apologia' (Newman) Luxury: Model of HMS Hood

The castaway in Desert Island Discs is the explorer Christina Dodwell. Born in West Africa, she spent her early years running wild in the Bush. When her family returned to Camberley and the restriction of English boarding schools, Christina reacted by being expelled from a large number of them. She later ran away from the restrictions of London life in search of adventure on the African subcontinent, and she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her subsequent travels, the exhilaration of the lone voyager, the joy and the fear.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: One Of These Days by Pink Floyd Book: The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran Luxury: Pen and paper

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is as old as this century and is said to be the last survivor of the much written-about Bloomsbury set. She is Frances Partridge and she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her colourful life, unconventional beliefs and friendships with such influential writers and philosophers of her time as Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, EM Forster, Lytton Strachey and Maynard Keynes.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Sinfonia Concertante In E Flat For Volin & Viola by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Memoirs by Duc de Saint-Simon Luxury: Flower press

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Chancellor of the Exchequer Kenneth Clarke. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his reputation as something of a bruiser, his childhood as the son of a Northamptonshire miner and about his aspirations to the top job in politics - a job which would crown a career which has encompassed six senior Cabinet posts in under 10 years.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Night In Tunisia by Charlie Parker Book: The Life of Lord Melbourne by Lord David Cecil Luxury: Tenor sax

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the gardener Rosemary Verey. Passionate about planting and growing flowers and herbs as a child in the 1930s, it wasn't until the 1950s, with her four children away at school, that she began a serious study of horticulture. Completely self-taught, she has gone on to develop a career designing some of Britain's most beautiful gardens and numbers Prince Charles and Elton John amongst her clients.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Papillons by Robert Schumann Book: A Celebration of Gardens by Sir Roy Strong Luxury: Waterproof pens, paper and folders

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Douglas Adams, creator of the anarchic world conjured up by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how, as a child, he found it difficult to communicate with the adult world, and didn't speak until he was four years old. But as his confidence grew, he set his sights on being a nuclear physicist - an ambition later replaced by a burning desire to be John Cleese in Monty Python's Flying Circus. In fact, he has become a hugely-successful author, a passionate amateur naturalist and a rock star manque.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Book: Omnibus of Golfing Stories by P G Wodehouse Luxury: Martin D28 left-handed guitar

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the founder of the Hospice Movement Dame Cicely Saunders. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her schooldays at Roedean, how she trained as a nurse and much later, as a doctor. When she was 29 she fell in love with a young patient dying of cancer, who bequeathed her a legacy of £500. Starting with that bequest, she raised enough money for a new kind of hospice dedicated to care for the dying. There are now 190 similar hospices throughout the country.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Symphony No 7 in A Major by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Luxury: Pen and paper

The castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is Professor Lewis Wolpert. As Chairman of the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science, he is a passionate advocate of the value of science and the increasing need for the recognition and promotion of its importance. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his early life in South Africa, his recent struggle with clinical depression and his passion for the views of the 18th-century philosopher David Hume - particularly on the existence of God.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and The Principles of Morals by David Hume Luxury: Bicycle

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the playwright Willy Russell. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the route his career has taken - from hairdressing, via teaching in Toxteth to a living as one of the country's most successful dramatists. He'll also be talking about his play about the Beatles, John, Paul, George, Ringo & Bert, which, 20 years ago, transferred to the West End and became a huge hit and how, since then, Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine and Blood Brothers have all brought him success and acclaim.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: I Get Along Without You Very Well by Hoagy Carmichael Book: A Latin Primer Luxury: English meadow with an oak tree

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the internationally-acclaimed composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his childhood in Lancashire, the solitude he craves when he writes his music and how he copes with the difficulties audiences encounter with some of his compositions.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Sherry by Frankie Valli Book: A Latin Primer Luxury: Chainsaw

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Ian Hislop. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the seven turbulent years of his editorship of Private Eye, as well as his early attempts at stand-up comedy before he became somewhat more successful at sit-down comedy as team captain of BBC TV's Have I Got News For You?

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: The Marriage Of Figaro Se Vuol Ballare, Signor Contino by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Civilisation by Kenneth Clarke Luxury: Frosties

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Dr Oliver Sacks. Now a distinguished Professor of Neurology, he was immortalised by Robin Williams in the film Awakenings. Inspired by Dr Sacks' book of the same name, it tells the story of the summer of 1969, when the catatonic patients he was treating at the time responded to an apparent miracle drug and came alive. He'll be talking about the excitements and disappointments of that summer and also about some of the 100s of extraordinary case histories which have formed the basis of his many other books.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Chu Chin Chow Here Be Oysters by Martin Lawrence Book: Dictionary of Musical Themes Luxury: Scuba diving kit

Twenty-six years ago, the then Labour MP Jack Ashley entered a world of silence - a minor operation on his ears went disastrously wrong and he lost his hearing completely. But, thanks to a complex operation, Jack Ashley, now Lord Ashley, can hear the voices of his grandchildren for the first time.

In Desert Island Discs this week he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the struggles of his early poverty-stricken years, the misery of losing his hearing, and the dogged determination which has earned him the reputation as one of Britain's best-known and best-loved campaigners for the disabled and disadvantaged.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Messiah: Hallelujah Chorus by George Frideric Handel Book: A Book About Warfare Luxury: Smoked salmon and wine

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the rock star Phil Collins. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his rise to fame as the lead singer of the group Genesis and his subsequent transition to a dazzling solo career. As someone who has sold over 35 million records worldwide, his success has brought him riches, and, apparently, happiness. He'll be discussing how the Mr Nice Guy of the rock world manages money, marriage and making music.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Helpless Heart by Paul Brady Book: Prehistory of the Far Side by Gary Larson Luxury: Piano

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is proud to describe himself as a playboy - he is Taki Theodoracopulos - the millionaire journalist who pens the Spectator's High Life column every week. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his boyhood in Greece, where his father was a self-made shipping magnate, his subsequent life of tennis and nightclubs with the international jet-set and the abrupt end to this existence when he spent two months in Pentonville Prison after being found in possession of cocaine at Heathrow Airport.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Lilli Marlene by German Soldiers Book: Essential Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway Luxury: Boxing punchbag

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week has been described by some critics as Britain's greatest living writer. Doris Lessing will be talking to Sue Lawley about her early life in Southern Rhodesia, from where she was eventually exiled because of what the authorities called her 'subversive activities'.

She'll also be describing the bleak London where she arrived in 1950, clutching her small son, with 40 pounds in her pocket and the manuscript of her first novel, The Grass is Singing.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Tea For Two by Louis Armstrong & The All Stars Book: A Thousand and One Nights Luxury: Magic carpet

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the actress Shirley-Anne Field. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her Dickensian upbringing in different children's homes in the North of England and her extraordinary success as an actress in the 1960s, when she starred in The Entertainer and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. She'll also be reminiscing about her friendship with John F Kennedy and an ill-fated date with Frank Sinatra.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Piano Concerto 1 in C by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Reader's Digest Luxury: Large Chippendale mirror

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week has just produced her first novel in her 80th year. Sybil Marshall will be talking to Sue Lawley about this achievement, about her life in her beloved Fenlands of East Anglia, and about the village school she ran which revolutionised primary-school teaching methods.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Exsultate Jubilate Hallelujah Chorus by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Luxury: Inexhaustible supply of laundered Swiss lawn handkerchiefs

His fourth novel, Popcorn, has been widely-acclaimed by the critics. He's about to begin a nationwide tour with his stand-up comedy routine. And, after the success of his TV series The Young Ones and Blackadder, he's currently writing The Thin Blue Line for BBC1. Yet despite all that, Ben Elton, this week's castaway, says he's more of an enthusiastic 'farty' than a "smug git in a shiny suit".

He muses as to whether his scatter-gun delivery (so mocked by the tabloids) is the result of his fear of the audience, or of a self-righteous belief in his own opinion, and when stranded on a desert island, he will reveal himself as a serious satirist or just a maverick motormouth.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: And Your Bird Can Sing by The Beatles Book: His wedding photo album Luxury: The British Museum

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, Judge Stephen Tumim. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about many of the controversial issues surrounding the prison service today, as well as about his own private passions for books and painting.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Jerusalem by Blake/Parry Book: Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne Luxury: Marble bust of Laurence Sterne

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the disc jockey Kenny Everett. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his Merseyside childhood, his discovery of classical music and his dependence on radio, all of which led him to an anarchic and erratic career on television and radio. He'll also be discussing his unorthodox life which has encompassed a suicide attempt, drugs and the break-up of his 12-year marriage after he came out as a homosexual.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Symphonic Prelude by Giacomo Puccini Book: Eagle annual Luxury: Bathroom suite

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the present American Ambassador in London, Raymond Seitz. The first career diplomat ever to be appointed to the job, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about how he also scored a first by surviving the transition from President Bush to President Clinton earlier this year. He'll also be discussing the role of the American Ambassador in a shifting political climate and describing life in the Ambassador's residence, Winfield House in Regent's Park.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Clarinet Quintet In A Major K581 Second Movement by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The Oxford Anthology of Modern Poetry Luxury: Big box full of family albums

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the opera singer Lesley Garrett. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her musical Yorkshire family - both her grandfathers were musical entertainers - and how she learnt to read music before she could read books. Having won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, she moved straight into performing and was snapped up by the English National Opera. She'll be discussing her favourite roles and her passionate belief that opera should lose its elitist image.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Broadway Babe Book: Photograph album Luxury: Tightrope

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Secretary of State for Health, Virginia Bottomley. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about the stresses and strains of her job, her public image as a do-gooder and her large extended family with its annual holidays on the Isle of Wight.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Exsultate Jubilate by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Norton's Star Atlas Luxury: Radio 4's Today programme

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Chairman of the Arts Council Lord Palumbo. Property developer and long-time patron of the arts, he will be talking to Sue Lawley about his passion for collecting, which extends from motor cars to houses built by famous 20th century architects, of which he owns four. He will also be discussing his 30-year mission to redevelop the Mansion House site in the City of London.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Symphony No 7 by Jean Sibelius Book: On The Road by Jack Kerouac Luxury: Telescope

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Paul Merton. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his enduring but secret ambition to be a comedian and the feeling he's had throughout his life that he would always make it somehow. He'll be describing his painful beginnings at London's Comedy Store, and his graduation from there to radio and television, where he now has his own series on Channel 4, as well as appearing on Radio Four's Just A Minute and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue and being part of the regular team of BBC2's Have I Got News For You?

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Spreading by Kronos Quartet Book: Buster Keaton Biography by Rudi Blesh Luxury: Bed

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the novelist Isabel Allende. One of the most widely-read Latin American writers, she'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her native Chile, from where she is now voluntarily exiled, and about her childhood home where she lived with her clairvoyant grandmother and on which she based her first book The House of the Spirits.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Carmina Burana Ecce Gratum by Carl Orff Book: All correspondence between her and her mother Luxury: Paper and pencils

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the theatre director Nicholas Hytner. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his string of directorial successes, which include Miss Saigon, Wind in the Willows, Carousel and The Importance of Being Ernest. He'll also be discussing the health of the modern musical today and the problems of directing both drama and opera.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Don Giovanni Ah Taci, Ingiusto Core by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The collected works by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Luxury: Large supply of total block suncream

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the writer Peter Mayle. Renowned for his best-selling books about life as an Englishman in France, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his years in advertising, and how he coined the catchphrase Nice one, Cyril', and also about the recent television adaptation of a Year in Provence, which attracted widespread criticism. Criticism and controversy have been a feature of his life since the massive success of his books and he'll be answering many of the charges levelled against him, amongst them the allegation that he has made fun of the French, presenting them as laughable stereotypes as well as attracting hordes of sightseers to disturb the peace of Provence.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Caruso by Luciano Pavarotti Book: The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa Luxury: The menu from his favourite Parisien restaurant

She has written songs for her friends Barbra Streisand and Bette Davis, and admires Jarvis Cocker and Damon Albarn. This week, the poet and lyricist Fran Landesman chooses her eight records.

Although now in her 60s, retired to her bed and celibate, she is still writing lyrics and performing her poetry and has just published a new collection of her work. From poor little rich girl to a life of bohemian excess, she looks back at her experiences - free love, free speech and mind-expanding drugs - on Desert Island Discs.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Down by Nicki Leighton Thomas Book: Rebel Without Applause and Jay Walking by Jay Landesman Luxury: Cannabis seeds

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Sir Leon Brittan. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about life as one of Britain's European Commissioners in Brussels, where he has been for the last five and a half years, since his resignation over the Westland affair. He'll also be looking back on his glittering early career - winning an Exhibition to Cambridge at 16, a double first in English and Law, and becoming, at 41, the youngest member of the Cabinet.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Sonnet No 116 by William Shakespeare Book: The collected works by Geoffrey Chaucer Luxury: Collection of large-scale Ordnance Survey maps of England

Sue Lawley's castaway is musician and campaigner Joan Baez.

Favourite track: Salut! Demeure Chaste Et Pure by Charles Gounod Book: Diary by Anne Frank Luxury: Personal pouch with a silver lion in it

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is the Speaker of the House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd. She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her Yorkshire childhood, her venture south to join a dance troupe, and her much-vaunted but nevertheless fleeting appearance as a Tiller Girl. She'll also be discussing how she made history last year when she became the first woman to be elected Speaker, and also the first to be elected from the opposition benches since 1835.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Rock-A-Bye by Judy Garland Book: A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth Luxury: Mace of the House of Commons