Mark Knopfler OBE is one of the UK’s most successful rock musicians and composers. He co-founded the band Dire Straits and their album Brothers in Arms is one of the bestselling albums of all time with 30 million copies sold. Alongside the many successes of Dire Straits, Mark has also composed hit songs for other artists like Private Dancer for Tina Turner and many soundtracks including Local Hero which features the perennial favourite Going Home.

He first worked as a journalist on the Yorkshire Evening Post and was briefly an English lecturer in Essex before moving to a flat in Deptford with his brother and John Illsey. Dire Straits was born and became one of the UK’s most successful bands before Mark called time in 1995 and pursued his own solo career.

In recent years, Mark invested some of his money to build one of the UK’s best recording studios to record his own music in alongside being a destination for other artists.

He lives in London with his wife and still visits his studio most days to make music.

DISC ONE: Ol’ Man River - Ray Charles DISC TWO: Red Sails in the Sunset – Dean Martin DISC THREE: Wonderful Land - The Shadows DISC FOUR: Write Me a Few Lines - Mississippi Fred MacDowell DISC FIVE: Duquesne Whistle - Bob Dylan DISC SIX: Deborah’s Theme - Ennio Morricone DISC SEVEN: Cleaning Windows - Van Morrison DISC EIGHT: Jessye ’Lisabeth - Bobbie Gentry

BOOK CHOICE: The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald LUXURY ITEM: A guitar CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Duquesne Whistle - Bob Dylan

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

Sarah Raven is one of Britain’s best known gardeners. Since her debut book, The Cutting Garden in 1996 she has written for national newspapers and magazines and shared her gardening knowledge as a broadcaster.

Sarah’s love for gardening started with her family. Her father John was a Classics scholar at Cambridge and a keen amateur botanist and her mother Faith introduced Sarah to the joys of cutting and arranging flowers.

Following her father’s death when she was just seventeen, Sarah read History at the University of Edinburgh before deciding to pursue a career as a doctor. It was whilst she was on maternity leave from her medical training that Sarah began to cultivate her own garden which led to her first book, The Cutting Garden.

After the success of her first book, Sarah set up her eponymous business which has evolved from a kitchen table start-up to successful global brand. Sarah continues to write, her latest book, A Year Full of Pots was published earlier this year.

Sarah lives in East Sussex with her husband, the writer Adam Nicholson. She has three stepsons and two daughters.

DISC ONE: See My Baby Jive - Wizzard DISC TWO: Dashing White Sergeant - Jimmy Shand DISC THREE: Don’t You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds DISC FOUR: You Can Dance (If You Want To) - Go Go Lorenzo & The Davis Pinckney Project DISC FIVE: September - Earth, Wind and Fire DISC SIX: Can’t Take My Eyes Off You - Andy Williams DISC SEVEN: Rocket Man (I Think It's Going To Be A Long, Long Time) - Elton John DISC EIGHT: Spring 1. Composed by Antonio Vivaldi, recomposed by Max Richter and performed by Daniel Hope (violin) with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, conducted by André de Ridder

Luxury: An ever-cleaning linen sheet bed with a hot (and cold) water bottle Book: The Flowers of Crete by John Fielding & Nicholas Turland Castaway’s Favourite: September - Earth, Wind and Fire

Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Mugabi Turya

The Irish writer John Boyne is best known for his 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which became a literary phenomenon, selling more than 11 million copies around the world. It was translated into 60 languages and adapted into a film, a play, a ballet and an opera. He has written more than two dozen books, including a number of titles for younger readers.

He was born in Dublin in 1971, and had ambitions to become a writer from an early age. He studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin, followed by a Master’s degree in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. From the mid-1990s, he spent seven years working at a bookshop in Dublin, while trying to launch his literary career.

Many of his books have historical settings: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is the story of two boys – one German, one Jewish – during the Holocaust; other books have taken inspiration from the Mutiny on the Bounty and Tsarist Russia. More recently, he’s addressed sexual and physical abuse within the Catholic church in Ireland, drawing in part on his own experiences at school.

He lives in Dublin, not far from where he grew up.

DISC ONE: Bright Eyes - Art Garfunkel DISC TWO: The Sound of Music - Julie Andrews DISC THREE: Elton's Song - Elton John DISC FOUR: Take on Me - A-ha DISC FIVE: Lullaby for Cain (Instrumental) - Sinéad O'Connor DISC SIX: Extract from String Quartet No. 4, composed by Noah Max and performed by The Tippett Quartet DISC SEVEN: Make Your Own Kind of Music - Mama Cass DISC EIGHT: Night of the Swallow - Kate Bush

BOOK CHOICE: The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot LUXURY ITEM: A cinema screen showing The Devil Wears Prada CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Night of the Swallow - Kate Bush

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

Oti Mabuse is a dancer, choreographer and TV talent show judge. She has enjoyed great success on the BBC show Strictly Come Dancing and is one of only two professional dancers to win the glitterball trophy twice.

Oti was born in South Africa in 1990, the year that Nelson Mandela was released from prison, and dance was a central part of her life from a very early age: her mother had set up a dance school so that black children could learn ballroom and Latin dancing. Oti followed in the footsteps of her two older sisters, winning dance competitions in South Africa and taking part in international events. She competed in Blackpool when she was just 11 years old, and retains strong memories of the elegant Tower Ballroom and the poor weather.

Oti's father trained as a lawyer and her mother worked in education, and they felt that their youngest daughter needed the security of a professional qualification, so Oti studied civil engineering at university. Shortly before qualifying, she decided to abandon her degree and become a professional ballroom dancer, joining her sister Motsi in Germany.

She first appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015 and has recently announced her departure from the show. She lives in London with her husband, the dancer Marius Lepure.

DISC ONE: Lose My Breath by Beyoncé (with Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams) DISC TWO: My Afrikan Dream by Vicky Sampson DISC THREE: A Song for Mama by Boyz II Men DISC FOUR: Dance With My Father by Luther Vandross DISC FIVE: Un-break my Heart by Toni Braxton DISC SIX: I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman by Britney Spears DISC SEVEN: It’s My Life by Bon Jovi DISC EIGHT: Survivor by Destiny’s Child BOOK CHOICE: Will by Will Smith LUXURY ITEM: A photo of Oti and her Grandma CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: It’s My Life by Bon Jovi

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

This week, Sue Lawley's castaway on Desert Island Discs is General Sir Charles Guthrie.

Favourite track: The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves by Giuseppe Verdi Book: Vol 1 of biography of the Duke of Wellington - Year of the Sword by Lady Longford Luxury: Surfboard

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the mathematician Sir Roger Penrose. His prize-winning work with Stephen Hawking on the nature of black holes brought his name to public attention in the 1960s. Since then he has made a controversial contribution to the debate over human consciousness and whether or not computers will ever be able to mimic the workings of the human mind.

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

Favourite track: Crucifixion from B Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: The fattest book by Michael Frayne Luxury: 19-note piano

This week, Sue Lawley's castaway on Desert Island Discs is Michael Portillo.

Favourite track: Viene la Sera by Giacomo Puccini Book: Proust: Time Regained by Alain de Botton Luxury: Solar-powered laptop

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Alan Parker. When Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone came out in 1975, it marked the beginning of a very successful and sometimes controversial career. Films like Midnight Express, Fame and The Commitments underline his versatility and have won him countless awards all over the world.

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

Favourite track: Nimrod by Edward Elgar Book: A giant photo album of his four children and grandchildren that goes back over twenty years. Luxury: Watercolour paint box (plus brush and pad)

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the playwright Peter Nichols. His award winning work, including Privates on Parade and A Day in The Death of Joe Egg has left audiences in stitches and sometimes in tears. With the recent revival of Passion Play, his darkly comic tale about adultery, Peter Nichols talks to Sue Lawley about his life and writing, and chooses eight records to take to the mythical desert island.

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

Favourite track: Hostias (from Requiem in D Minor) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: His diary which he has kept since he was 18 - to relive life since 1945 Luxury: Cyanide tablet (if he can't have a tower and telescope or a full-size snooker table)

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Dr Max Perutz. When he left Austria in 1936 to study at Cambridge, his fellow students dismissed his ambition to decipher the structure of the protein haemoglobin as 'mad'. No-one had seriously attempted to map a molecule that was made up of 10,000 atoms. Twenty-two years later he was successful. It was an achievement that earned him and his colleague John Kendrew the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1962 - and has since contributed to the study of blood diseases like sickle cell anaemia and Huntington's disease.

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

Favourite track: Piano Sonata No.30 in E Major by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin Luxury: Skis

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Donald Sutherland. He has acted in 104 films, including such classics as MASH, Don't Look Now and JFK. Tall and lanky as a child, he was called 'Goofus' or 'Dumbo' because of his big ears. However, it was those ears that caught the attention of the director of The Dirty Dozen and thus his film career was launched.

Now appearing on the British stage for the first time in 36 years, he chooses eight records to take to the mythical desert island.

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

Favourite track: Horn Concerto No. 1 in D major 412 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman Luxury: 100 cases of vintage Bordeaux

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Clive James. Author, critic and television personality, he is presently contemplating his fourth autobiography - tracing the journey from his childhood in Australia to the Footlights Review at Cambridge University, and then to becoming the wittiest television critic and presenter in Britain.

During the interview Clive reads extracts from his poem 'Young Australian Rider, P.G. Burman', taken from his book Other Passport Poems 1958-1985.

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

Favourite track: Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley Book: My Method of Singing by Enrico Caruso Luxury: Karaoke piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Professor Geza Vermes . When he wrote Jesus the Jew in the early 1970s, it shocked the Christian world. He continued to examine Jesus through three more books, drawing on his lifetime's study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Born in Hungary in the 1920s, his Jewish parents had converted to Catholicism, but it did not save them from the Nazis. He was ordained a Catholic priest, but returned his Jewish roots and his study of the religion and culture of first-century Palestine.

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

Favourite track: Now from the Sixth Hour by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: The Complete Works by Flavius Josephus Luxury: Comfortable armchair/desk

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is John Bird. As a student, he changed the face of the Cambridge Footlights review by rejecting jokes on bed-makers and punting and writing a political review instead. In the early 1960s he helped found The Establishment Club with Peter Cook. Writing sketches with John Fortune, they found they were unable to find suitable actors to perform their work, and so took to the stage themselves. Satire, he says, died in the late 1960s and he struggled to make a living, until Rory Bremner hired them. As 'The Two Johns', their dialogues featuring an awkward interviewer and slippery politician have won them much recognition and a BAFTA award.

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

Favourite track: Repons by Pierre Boulez Book: The collected works by Wallace Stevens Luxury: 2,000 soft loo rolls

Professor Nick Webborn has chaired the British Paralympic Association since 2017. He is a world-leading expert on Paralympic sports medicine and the most widely-published author on the subject. He has attended 11 Paralympic and one Olympic Games.

He was born in Swansea in 1956, trained as a doctor in London and joined the RAF as a junior medical officer. In 1981 he was playing in an RAF rugby match when a mistimed opposition tackle left him with a severe spinal injury. After many months of treatment and rehabilitation, which he now describes as 'long and tortuous,' he wanted to return to work in medicine, but found that there was a reluctance to employ a doctor with a disability.

He worked as a GP and also pursued an interest in sports medicine, leading to research in this area and an academic role. When he saw the medical support available for Olympic athletes, he felt strongly that para-athletes deserved the same level of specialist help - especially as many also had to deal with underlying problems that their Olympic peers did not face. His pioneering research has made Paralympic sport safer for athletes, and has driven the development of sports medicine in areas such as rehabilitation. He also represented Great Britain in wheelchair tennis in 2005.

Nick is Professor of Sport and Exercise Medicine at the University of Brighton.

DISC ONE: Heroes by David Bowie DISC TWO: Hallelujah, composed by George Frideric Handel, performed by London Musici Chamber Choir and London Musici Orchestra, conducted by Mark Stephenson DISC THREE: Jamaica Farewell by Nina and Frederik DISC FOUR: Will Ye Go Lassie Go by The Corries DISC FIVE: For Crying out Loud by Meat Loaf DISC SIX: This is Me by Keala Settle DISC SEVEN: Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond DISC EIGHT: You’ll Never Walk Alone by Gerry & the Pacemakers BOOK CHOICE: The Complete Works of Charles Dickens LUXURY ITEM: Nick’s adapted Segway, with a built-in espresso machine CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: This is Me by Keala Settle

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Dame Norma Major. In her book on the Prime Minister's residence, Chequers, she revealed how Neville Chamberlain would spend time measuring the girths of his favourite trees, and how Ramsay MacDonald chopped wood every morning dressed in plus-fours. She herself was uncomfortable there, and she remembers the loneliness and stress of being the country's First Lady. She says her love of music, and her work for charity helped her through the tough times.

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

Favourite track: Norma by Bellini Book: Nine Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers Luxury: Solar laptop

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Kathleen Turner. A versatile actress, she's been the femme fatal in films like Body Heat, parodied that role in comedies like Serial Mom, and played the romantic adventurer in Romancing the Stone. But, she says, ''I never play the victim, because I'm not attracted to a woman who doesn't try''. It's an attitude which must have helped her when she developed rheumatoid arthritis which left her severely bloated and in pain. Presently wowing audiences as Mrs Robinson in London's West End production of The Graduate, she chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

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

Favourite track: Piano Concerto No 1 in B flat minor by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Book: Emma by Jane Austen Luxury: Roses

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Sir John Mills. He was only six when he decided he wanted to be an actor. And now after seventy years in show business he is still touring the world with his one man show. It was the war which made him a star and the films he made then eventually led to Hollywood. There he made friends with Laurence Olivier, Rex Harrison and Noel Coward, to whom he says he owes a great debt.

He won an Oscar for his performance in Ryan's Daughter, but one of his favourite films remains Ice Cold in Alex. In it, he got to kiss Sylvia Sims, a scene which was later cut by the censor for showing too much of her cleavage and which had to be reshot with only three buttons undone instead of four.

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

Favourite track: All the Things You Are by Chick Henderson Book: The Warden by Anthony Trollope Luxury: His piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Sir Peter Bonfield. The chief executive of British Telecommunications, it is said that when he left his previous company, its Japanese owner presented him with a samurai sword and helmet to remind him of the warrior qualities he would need at BT. And certainly the challenges facing him in this fast moving industry have tested all his discipline and determination - qualities he says he learnt as a boy at the local convent school.

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

Favourite track: American Pie by Don McLean Book: A book on celestial navigation Luxury: A windsurfer

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is the conductor Leonard Slatkin. An American, he is about to take on the mantle of chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Renouned for his championing of both the American and British cannons, his aim has always been to demystify music of all kinds. He has spun discs on a pirate radio station and played honky tonk piano in a jazz bar. His parents' Hollywood String Quartet was the best known band in town and the Slatkin household was often filled with film stars. From these two influences he developed his love of chamber music and a passion for Doris Day. In conversation with Sue Lawley, he talks about his life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

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

Favourite track: Danny Boy by Percy Grainger Book: Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin Luxury: Wine

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Sir Anthony Caro. Universally regarded as the 'grand old man of British sculpture', in the 1950s he had learnt from his mentor Henry Moore that artistic rules were there to be broken. So he yanked sculpture off it's pedestal and set it on the floor. And he rejected the traditional materials of bronze, marble and wood for girders, nuts and bolts. In fact as he confesses to Sue Lawley, nothing is safe from his magpie eye: parts of ships, cars, even kitchen equipment have all been incorporated into his work.

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

Favourite track: String Quartet in C by Franz Schubert Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: Glue

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Claire Tomalin. A writer and literary editor, she is probably best known for a series of acclaimed biographies of women, including Mary Wollstonecraft, and Jane Austin. She began working in the literary world late in life, after bringing up her family. This, and a series of personal tragedies, including the death of her husband and two of her children, has no doubt made her particularly sympathetic to the lives of literary women in the 19th century.

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

Favourite track: Sull'aria. Che Soave Zeffietto (Act 3) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Complete diaries by Samuel Pepys Luxury: A garden

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Harold Evans. One of the great campaigning journalists of all time, as editor of The Northern Echo in the 1960s he argued the the case for cervical smear tests for women. At The Sunday Times, he highlighted the problems of the Thalidomide children. When Rupert Murdoch bought The Times he was given the job of editor and then sacked. After writing a book which decribed how a newspaper changes when the owner becomes editorially involved, he left for America where he lives a life of apparent glamour, with his wife, magazine editor Tina Brown.

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

Favourite track: Mache Dich Mein Herze Rein by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: History of the American Civil War by Shelby Foote Luxury: Silk pyjamas

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is Adrian Noble. Now the Artistic Director of The Royal Shakespeare Company, he says he learnt a lot about theatre from watching his father, an undertaker, conduct funeral services. He fell in love with the stage when, as a boy, he saw Laurence Olivier play Othello. A stage play, he says, whether Shakespeare or Chekhov, should not simply be good entertainment, but make people ponder on life itself. In conversation with Sue Lawley, he talks about his life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

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

Favourite track: Mir Ist So Wunderbar by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Art of Memory by Frances A Yates Luxury: Wine

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Al Alvarez. In the late 1950s, as the influential poetry critic of the Observer, he favoured a style of writing which reflected the disarray of the times, in the aftermath of the Second World War and the shadow of the nuclear bomb. He befriended and championed poets such as Robert Lowell, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. Later he wrote The Savage God, a study of suicide in which he recalled her death and described his own attempt.

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

Favourite track: Quartet No. 132 by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud Luxury: Laptop computer with poker game software

Anne Tyler is a novelist and short story writer. Her 23 novels include the Accidental Tourist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Breathing Lessons.

Anne was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1941, the oldest of four children. Her parents were Quakers and the family lived in a succession of Quaker communities in the South until they settled in a Quaker commune in Celo, in the mountains of North Carolina in 1948. When she was 11 the family moved to Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, where Anne attended a mainstream school.

Anne majored in Russian literature at Duke University in North Carolina where she enrolled in a creative writing class run by the author Reynolds Price. After completing her studies she worked as a librarian in the university library.

Anne’s first novel, If Morning Ever Comes, was published in 1964 when she was just 22-years-old. Her writing is widely praised for the way it chronicles the lives of middle-class America and celebrates endurance and the complexities of family relationships.

Anne moved to Baltimore with her husband and children in 1967 and the city has been the setting for her books ever since.

DISC ONE: Darby’s Castle by Kris Kristofferson DISC TWO: This is My Father’s World by Cedarmont Kids DISC THREE: Hearts Of Stone by The Charms DISC FOUR: Darling Dareyne by Shusha DISC FIVE: Un Canadien Errant by Ian And Sylvia DISC SIX: Heart of Glass by Blondie DISC SEVEN: While Sheep May Safely Graze, composed by J.S Bach, performed by Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Richard Hayman DISC EIGHT: Baltimore by Nina Simone

BOOK CHOICE: The Golden Apples by Eudora Welty LUXURY ITEM: A supply of pet food

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: While Sheep May Safely Graze, composed by J.S Bach, performed by Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Richard Hayman

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Colin Montgomerie.

One of the biggest earners in the history of golf, he's ranked number three in the world. Despite having a natural talent for the game, he'd never expected to play it professionally. Having applied for a job with a sports management company, his interview took place on the golf course. He played so well that the company persuaded him to become one of their stars.

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

Favourite track: Sailing by Rod Stewart Book: Any book by Michael Crichton

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Robert McCrum. The author of six highly acclaimed novels and literary editor of the Observer, he describes how he woke up one morning, at the age of 42, to a raging headache and partial paralysis. He had suffered a stroke and it was to take him more than a year to recover. Later, he was to write a memoir about that process which became not only a guide to other sufferers, but also a love story dedicated to his wife.

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

Favourite track: Prelude - Cello Suite No 3 by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome Luxury: St John's Wort

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Sheila Hancock. She first became a household name in the 1960s in the BBC sitcom The Rag Trade. Since then she has starred in everything from Carry On films to Chekhov. One of our most versatile actresses, she's been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, sung in West End musicals and directed at the National. Twelve years ago she developed cancer, an experience which naturally made her re-assess her life. Today, she says, she's calmer, more secure and more able to cherish herself.

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

Favourite track: String Quartet No.8 - Opening by Dmitri Shostakovich Book: A title by Marcel Proust Luxury: Grand piano (and music scores)

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Michael Holroyd. A respected biographer, as a boy, he sought refuge from an unhappy home in Maidenhead Public Library. It was there he discovered the work of Hugh Kingsmill who was to become his first biographical subject. And it was then that he "discovered the attraction," as he says, "of stepping from my own life into other people's". Since then he has devoted seven years to writing the life of Augustus John, and 17 to the biography of George Bernard Shaw.

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

Favourite track: Last movement of String Quartet - No16 in F Opus 135 by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The High Hill of the Muses - Anthology by Hugh Kingsmill Luxury: Waterbed

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is Professor Stuart Hall. Nearly 10 years after he came to England from Jamaica in 1951, he helped found the first Centre of Cultural Studies in Birmingham, with the academic Richard Hoggart. It was, he says, a reaction to how fast Britain was changing after the war, including the break up of the class structure and the growing impact of TV and the mass media. Now retired, he's still concerned by the question of British identity. In conversation with Sue Lawley, he talks about his life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

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

Favourite track: I Waited For You by Gil Fuller Book: Portrait of a Lady by Henry James Luxury: Piano

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Simon Callow. He impressed the theatre world when he played Mozart in Amadeus, and won our hearts as the genial Scot, Gareth, in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Like many actors, he learned his trade in rep. It's a good place to make mistakes, he says, recalling how he fell twenty foot through a trap door during 'A Christmas Carol'.

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

Favourite track: String Quintet in C Major - Adagio by Franz Schubert Book: Dictionary Luxury: Nose hair trimmer

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Peter Melchett. The executive director of Greenpeace, he has recently hit the headlines for his active opposition to genetically modified crops. Once a pillar of the establishment, Lord Melchett was a rising politician in Jim Callaghan's Labour government before he became interested in green issues. He did though shock his colleagues in the Northern Ireland office, when he admitted listening to the pop group The Boomtown Rats.

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

Favourite track: Special Live Recording of 'PEACE' by Eurythmics Book: Field guide to his imaginary Island Luxury: Snorkel and mask

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Neil Jordan. As a child he would cycle past Bram Stoker's house on his way to school, one of the reasons, perhaps, that he went on to direct the film Interview with a Vampire. His other movies include Mona Lisa and The Butcher Boy; the story of a little Irish lad who talks to the Virgin Mary which has echoes in his own Irish Catholic childhood.

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

Favourite track: Round Midnight by Thelonious Monk Book: A la Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust Luxury: Typewriter

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is Ian McEwan.

A Booker Prize winner, he was once dubbed 'Ian Macabre' because of the dark nature of his stories. His first novel The Cement Garden told a horrifying tale of family life. Later, The Comfort of Strangers described how a chance encounter can end in murder. He does though admit to his writing becoming gentler in recent years. In conversation with Sue Lawley, he talks about his life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

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

Favourite track: Aria from Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Ulysses by James Joyce Luxury: Italian leather hand-stitched hiking boots

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Dr. Jane Goodall. She had no formal scientific qualifications when she first went to Africa to study the Gombe chimpanzees. But it was this lack of preconceptions which made her so successful as a naturalist. Watching chimps use sticks to extract termites from their mounds she realised that she was about to smash the assumption that only humans used tools. Now, forty years after she first stepped into the bush, she describes how she has halted her patient study of the chimpanzees to fight for their survival.

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

Favourite track: Under the Milk Wood by Richard Burton Book: The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien Luxury: Pencil and paper

Leslie Caron is an award-winning actress and dancer who starred in some of the most memorable films of Hollywood’s golden age including An American in Paris and Gigi. Leslie was first cast away on Desert Island Discs in 1956 when she was 25, and her return, nearly 66 years later, marks the greatest gap between appearances in the programme's 80-year history.

She was born in Paris in 1931 and started ballet lessons at 11 to please her mother, a dancer herself who had performed on Broadway. Her early childhood was marred by the war and growing up in occupied Paris, but when she was 16 she joined Roland Petit’s Ballets des Champs-Elysées which opened up a new world of possibility. A year later she was spotted during a performance by a member of the audience - Gene Kelly. He lobbied MGM to cast her as his leading lady in An American in Paris, which launched her Hollywood career.

Leslie played the tile role in Gigi both on stage in London in a production directed by Peter Hall, who she married, and in the feature film directed by Vincente Minelli. The film won all nine of its nominations at the 1959 Academy Awards – a record at the time.

Leslie went on to star in the L-Shaped Room and later played roles in the films Chocolat and Damage. In 2006 she won an Emmy Award for her part in the television series Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. More recently she was on our TV screens playing the Countess Mavrodaki in the drama series The Durrells.

She was awarded the Commandeur de la Légion d’honneur in 2013 and the JF Kennedy Gold Medal in the Arts two years later.

Leslie lives in London and describes herself as “almost retired.”

DISC ONE: L’Accordeoniste by Édith Piaf DISC TWO: Sì, Mimì chiamano Mimi, composed by Giacomo Puccini, performed by Maria Callas and Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Tullio Serafin DISC THREE: Ne me quite pas by Jacques Brel DISC FOUR: Miss Otis Regrets by Ella Fitzgerald DISC FIVE: One for My Baby (from The Sky’s The Limit) by Fred Astaire DISC SIX: Requiem in D minor (Introitus: Requiem) Composed by Mozart, performed by Vienna Philharmonic and Vienna Singverein, conducted by Herbert Von Karajan DISC SEVEN: Burn On by Randy Newman DISC EIGHT: Les Feuilles Mortes by Yves Montand

BOOK CHOICE: The Sixth Sense of Animals by Maurice Burton LUXURY ITEM: A cutlass CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Sì, Mimì chiamano Mimi, composed by Giacomo Puccini, performed by Maria Callas and Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Tullio Serafin

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. His musicals dominate London's West End, including Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Starlight Express. He traces a career which began more than 30 years ago when he teamed up with Tim Rice to write Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

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

Favourite track: Some Enchanted Evening by Rossano Brazzi Book: England's Thousand Best Churches by Simon Jenkins Luxury: Herb garden

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Michael Crawford. Renowned for his attention to detail, he has always performed his own stunts - whether roller-skating under moving lorries in Some Mothers Do Have 'Em, or walking the tightrope in the musical Barnum. A consumate professional, he admits to escaping from his hospital bed, where he was recovering from exhaustion, so the show could go on!

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

Favourite track: Gloria from Mass in B Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: The complete book of self-sufficiency by John Seymour Luxury: Pen and paper

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Michael Nyman. Said to be the best-selling classical composer in Britain, as a child visiting the opera or concert hall his imagination would be caught by a particularly pleasing sequence of notes. Later, he was to use these as inspiration for his own compositions. A Purcell manuscript inspired his music for the The Draughtsman's Contract. Scottish folk songs the soundtrack to The Piano.

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

Favourite track: Farewell (Das Lied von der Erde (the song of the Earth)) by Gustav Mahler Book: Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne Luxury: A toilet

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Oz Clarke. As a wine expert, he has sipped, slurped and spat his way through thousands of vintages from around the world. Renowned for his enthusiasm for trying new flavours and varieties, his earliest memory is of drinking his mother's damson wine when he was just three years old. And it didn't put him off.

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

Favourite track: Thanks for the Memory by The Mitford Girls Original London Stage Cast Book: French Provincial Cookery by Elizabeth David Luxury: His memory

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Sir Richard Sykes. The chairman of Glaxo Welcome, as a boy he was not a natural scholar, until he went to work at the pathology laboratory of his local hospital. Understanding the application of science led him to become a research scientist at Glaxo Welcome. He describes how later the Board Room lured him away from the lab, and how he came to mastermind one of the most audacious take-overs in the city.

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

Favourite track: Second Movement from Cello Concerto in B Minor by Antonin Dvořák Book: The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin Luxury: Telescope

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Warren Mitchell. Arthur Miller praised his portrayal of Willie Loman in Death of a Salesman. His King Lear and Shylock won critical acclaim. But he will always be remembered for Alf Garnett, the bigoted, bully from Till Death Us Do Part. He chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

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

Favourite track: Marie Theres I Made A Vow from Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss Book: Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brien Luxury: Organ (from the Royal Albert Hall)

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Clarissa Dickson Wright.

Born into a home where caviar was more common than fish paste, she has always been surrounded by fine food. Yet she came to cooking as a profession late in life, having first practised as a barrister. Finding success on television, she has recently had to come to terms with the death of her co host Jennifer Paterson and being just One Fat Lady.

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

Favourite track: Rasputin by Boney M Book: Complete Works by Saki Luxury: Wind-up radio

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is William Gibson. Long before the existence of the Internet, he wrote about 'cyberspace', a boundless world reached only through computers. External space travel, to the Moon and Mars, had become old hat. By creating internal space, he breathed new life into science fiction. In conversation with Sue Lawley, he talks about his life and work and chooses eight records to take to the mythical island.

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

Favourite track: (Are You) The One That I've Been Waiting For? by Nick Cave Book: Complete Works by Jorge Luis Borges Luxury: Junk yard

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Willard White.

Teased as a child for his deep bass voice, it has made him one of the most popular opera stars today. Happy to sing Wagner or Gershwin, he's renowned for his ability to get under the skin of his roles, and audiences still remember how, as Porgy, he wept real tears at the loss of Bess.

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

Favourite track: Piano Concerto No 21 in C Major- Andante by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale Luxury: Seeds

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Ralph Fiennes. His first Hollywood film role was as the Nazi concentration camp leader in Schindler's List, a part which, he says, had a profoundly disturbing effect on him. His latest project, playing the jaded hero Onegin, is the culmination of a long held desire to bring Pushkin's novel to the big screen.

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

Favourite track: Mir Ist So Wunderbar by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: A la Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust Luxury: Pen and limited supplies of ink and paper

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter specialises in medical statistics. He is the Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at Cambridge University, and one of the most frequently cited experts in his field. During the Covid 19 pandemic, he has made regular appearances as a broadcaster and newspaper commentator, analysing and explaining complex data for a general audience.

David was born in Barnstable, the youngest of three children. After studying maths at Oxford University and University College London, he spent a year teaching at the University of Berkeley, California before returning to the UK. He has also worked in the field of computer-aided diagnosis. His expertise was called upon in the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry and the Harold Shipman Inquiry.

He was knighted in 2014 for his services to medical statistics.

DISC ONE: Everybody Knows by Leonard Cohen DISC TWO: Dragostea Din Tei by O-Zone DISC THREE: Oh Well Part 1 by Fleetwood Mac DISC FOUR: A Vaca de Fogo by Madredeus DISC FIVE: If I Should Fall From Grace With God by The Pogues DISC SIX: Four Last Songs: Beim Schlafengehen, composed by Richard Strauss and sung by Jessye Norman DISC SEVEN: St Matthew Passion: Erbarme dich, mein Gott! Composed by Bach, sung by Németh, with Hungarian State Orchestra, conducted by Geza Oberfrank DISC EIGHT: When Father Papered The Parlour by Billy Williams BOOK CHOICE: Ultimate Survival Handbook by Bear Grylls LUXURY ITEM: An unlimited supply of printed Killer Sudoku CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Dragostea Din Tei by O-Zone Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Rolf Harris. He's the presenter of one of the most popular television programmes, Animal Hospital, but he's an artist and a musician too. He shot to the top of the charts on many occasions with musical hits as varied as Tie Me Kangaroo Down and Stairway to Heaven. Both of which featured his own unique invention, the wobble board.

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

Favourite track: Gendarmes Quartet by Rolf Harris Book: The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay Luxury: Chisel for sculpting

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the poet Rita Dove. The first African-American to become the US Poet Laureate, Rita Dove was brought up to believe that education was the key to the Great American Dream. As a child she would lose herself in the local library, but she learned the art of story-telling from her aunts as they swapped tales about the Great Depression, civil rights, and, of course, motherhood.

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

Favourite track: Koln Concert by Keith Jarrett Book: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Luxury: Ballroom and robotic dance instructor