Desert Island Discs: Archive 1996-2000 – Details, episodes & analysis

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Desert Island Discs: Archive 1996-2000

BBC Radio 4

Society & Culture

Frequency: 1 episode/9d. Total Eps: 124

Guests are invited to choose the eight records they would take to a desert island

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🇬🇧 Great Britain - personalJournals
19/08/2026
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🇬🇧 Great Britain - personalJournals
17/08/2026
#72
🇬🇧 Great Britain - personalJournals
16/08/2026
#61

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Score global : 28%

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Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber

Friday, December 31, 1999 • Duration 36:27

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

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Michael Crawford

Friday, December 24, 1999 • Duration 36:46

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

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Ursula Owen

Sunday, September 14, 1997 • Duration 36:26

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the editor and publisher, Ursula Owen. Twenty-five years ago she helped create Virago - the feminist publishing house which promotes women writers. A huge success, it became the focus of much attention when she and her colleague, Carmen Callil, fell out in what became a very public row. Recently, she has revamped the magazine Index on Censorship, which debates the issues surrounding freedom of speech and publishes the work of persecuted writers. The daughter of a Jewish family who fled to Britain from Nazi Germany, she was a quiet, reserved and conformist child. Her friends, she says, still wonder how she grew up to be such an outspoken, strong-minded and opinionated woman.

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

Favourite track: Der Rosenkavalier The Trio From Act Three by Richard Strauss Book: The collected works by Anton Chekhov Luxury: Family photo album

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Sir Frank Kermode

Sunday, September 7, 1997 • Duration 36:20

The castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is the literary critic, Sir Frank Kermode. One of the most influential teachers of his age, he is credited with bringing the new literary theory of Structuralism to this country. Something, as he admits to Sue Lawley, he now profoundly regrets. He traces his life, "lived like tumbleweed in the wind", from a short-sighted, studious boy growing up on the Isle of Man to King Edward Professor of English Literature at Cambridge University.

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

Favourite track: Cantata BWV 106 The Actus Tragicus by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon Luxury: Samuel Palmer's painting Moonlit Landscape

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Cleo Laine

Sunday, August 31, 1997 • Duration 34:32

The castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is the jazz singer Cleo Laine. Although driven by a great desire to be a performer, and travelling from one audition to another, she confesses to Sue Lawley that when her big break came, it wasn't jazz which attracted her, so much as the leader of the band - John Dankworth. Whether he spotted a cheap singer for the night, or recognised a great talent in the making, it was to be the start of a hugely successful partnership both professionally and personally.

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

Favourite track: Don't Look Back by Jacqueline Dankworth Book: The Jazz Revolution by John Dankworth Luxury: Perfume

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Iain Banks

Sunday, August 24, 1997 • Duration 33:44

This week's castaway is an author. In his book The Wasp Factory, the teenage protagonist tortures insects, experiments with bombs and kills a brother and a cousin. But, says Iain Banks, that was "just a phase he was going through". He tells Sue Lawley how, as a writer, he has not developed the filters that most adults do and so views the world with childlike eyes, describing what he sees. And this world, he feels, is very often a violent and terrifying one.

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

Favourite track: Mohammed's Radio by Warren Zevon Book: The Complete Monty Python Television Scripts by Monty Python Luxury: Front Seat Of A Porsche

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Eric Sykes

Sunday, June 22, 1997 • Duration 37:14

Sue Lawley's castaway is comedian Eric Sykes.

Favourite track: Messiah Hallelujah by George Frideric Handel Book: Ripley's Believe It Or Not by Ripley Luxury: A sand wedge golf club and a crate of golf balls

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Christina Noble

Sunday, June 15, 1997 • Duration 35:05

Sue Lawley's castaway is campaigner Christina Noble.

Favourite track: This Is My Life by Shirley Bassey Book: The Book of Kells Luxury: Photo of an Irish cottage

Benjamin Zephaniah

Sunday, June 8, 1997 • Duration 35:08

Sue Lawley's castaway on this week's Desert Island Discs is dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah. As well as talking about his work as a performance poet often working in prisons or schools, Benjamin recalls a time when he was illiterate. He also remembers Nelson Mandela's request to meet him at seven o'clock in the morning to brief him on Margaret Thatcher.

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

Favourite track: Take Five by The Dave Brubeck Quartet Book: Poetical Works of Shelley by Percy Shelley Luxury: Law of the land (so he could break it)

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Joanna MacGregor

Sunday, June 1, 1997 • Duration 35:55

Sue Lawley's castaway on this week's Desert Island Discs is concert pianist Joanna MacGregor. As well as talking about her work as a champion of New Music, Joanna remembers her childhood playing piano for gospel choirs and how she had to bribe her way onto the college Steinway with packets of cigarettes. In conversation with Sue Lawley, she talks about her 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: The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives Book: The Sleep Walkers by Arthur Koestler Luxury: Sampler to record the noises of the island

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Desert Island Discs: Archive 1996-2000 – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

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Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

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Desert Island Discs: Archive 1996-2000 – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify