Desert Island Discs: Archive 2000-2005 – Details, episodes & analysis

Sue Lawley's castaway is the actress Kim Cattrall. Kim Cattrall became a household name in her forties as a result of playing man-eater, defiant singleton and PR mogul Samantha Jones in Sex and the City. She is about to star in the play Whose Life is it Anyway? in the West End of London.

She was born in Liverpool but grew up in Canada and decided to be an actress at a young age. She says a formative experience was appearing in a school play Piffle It's Only a Sniffle when she took the role of a cold germ which had to infect the other children by tickling them with a feather until they sneezed. She spent time in drama schools in Canada, Liverpool and New York and says now that her first love is theatre - and her film roles allow her to feed her theatre habit.

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

Favourite track: My Favourite Things by John Coltrane Book: An English Dictionary Luxury: Fragrant body cream

Sue Lawley's castaway is the singer Engelbert Humperdinck. Engelbert Humperdinck is one of Britain's most successful entertainers. He is known as the King of Romance and has been at the top of the showbusiness ladder for nearly 40 years - selling more than 130 million records including sixty-four gold and 23 platinum albums. He was born Arnold George (Gerry) Dorsey in 1936 in India and was one of 10 children. At the age of 10, his family returned to the UK and Leicester. At 17 he began performing in clubs and pubs. In 1965 his manager changed his name to Engelbert Humperdinck but it was still two years before his chance arrived. His big break came in April 1967 when Dickie Valentine was ill and Engelbert took his slot on the show Sunday Night at the London Palladium. His single Release Me flew off the shelves staying in the charts for 56 weeks. He went off to conquer America and there he shared the bill with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra while he counted Elvis Presley as a close friend. He starts a new UK tour in February next year and his autobiography Engelbert - What's in a Name? was published this year.

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

Favourite track: Return to Me by Dean Martin Book: What's in a Name? by Engelbert Humperdinck Luxury: A saxophone

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the Liberal Democrat politician Sir Menzies Campbell. Born in Glasgow, he excelled at both academia and sports making it to the University in Glasgow and then Stanford in California where he studied law but all the while dividing his time between this and his other great love - athletics. He became the fastest man in Britain holding and re-breaking the record for the 100 metres between 1967 and 1974 and competed in the 1964 Olympic and 1966 Commonwealth games.

As a lawyer he was called to the Scottish Bar in 1968 and was made QC in 1982. His political career began 30 years ago when he stood for his first parliamentary seat in 1974, fighting three more elections before winning North East Fife in 1987. He quickly became a fast-rising star and is now Deputy Leader of the party and spokesman on Foreign Affairs. He was awarded a CBE in 1987, became a privy councillor in 1999 and was knighted earlier this year in the New Year's Honours list.

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

Favourite track: The Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner Book: Treasure Island & Kidnapped as one volume by Robert Louis Stevenson Luxury: Set of golf clubs

Elizabeth Harman was born in London in 1906. Her parents were both doctors, her mother was the niece of Joseph Chamberlain and cousin of Neville Chamberlain, the future Prime Minister. She was one of only a few girls at that time to attend Oxford University. Joining the social set that included John Betjemen, Evelyn Waugh and Maurice Bowra, she became one of the first female Isis idols and was proposed to numerous times before she accepted Frank Pakenham, who was later to succeed to the Longford earldom. Ever since the occasion she was read Homer's Illiad as a child and felt sympathy for the Trojans, Elizabeth had developed a sympathy for the underdog. And when she began teaching at Oxford in a summer school for the working classes from the Potteries, this sympathy was consolidated. She became interested in politics and a Labour supporter and was to become a Labour party candidate twice, in 1935 and 1950, but never elected to parliament.

Elizabeth married Frank Pakenham in 1931 and they had eight children by 1947. Her experience and expertise with a large family came to the notice of The Daily Express, and she was soon to be writing a column. This led to her first book, Points for Parents, which was published in 1954. It was the start of her writing career. Her next subject, Queen Victoria, was more ambitious: she felt the Queen had been misrepresented in the past and by looking at her and Prince Albert as human beings she adopted a different approach. Elizabeth had access to the Royal archives at Windsor and spent many days in the library there imagining how the Queen would have lived. As well as her book on Victoria, Lady Longford wrote books about Wellington; The House of Windsor; Byron; The Queen Mother; and Queen Elizabeth, as well as her own autobiography. She remains an experienced authority on families and marriage: her own lasted almost seventy years until she was widowed last year.

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

Favourite track: I Vow To Thee My Country by Westminster Abbey Choir Book: Diplomacy and Murder in Tehran - Alexander Griboyedov and Imperial Russia's Mission to the Shah of Persia by Lawrence Kelly Luxury: An orange tree

Sue Lawley's castaway is writer Jan Morris.

Leonard Rosoman's career saw him travel the world as an Official War Artist in the Second World War. He is also a member of the Royal Academy, an illustrator and teacher. The young Leonard dodged the family business by getting a scholarship to the Edward VII School of Art in Durham and went on to paint and teach. When war broke out Leonard was drafted into the Auxiliary Fire Service in London but he didn't stop painting, and he used his experiences to create some of his finest work. This drew him to the attention of the Home Office, and Sir Kenneth Clarke asked him if he would be an Official War Artist. He agreed and was appointed an official war artist to the Admiralty and was posted to the British Pacific Fleet. In April 1945 was posted to Sydney and from there he joined HMS Formidable.

After the war Leonard went back to teaching, first in London then to Edinburgh College of Art in 1948, and later on to the Royal College of Art where he met his most memorable student - David Hockney: "I didn't find him at all difficult, but it was a little bit scary because if anybody ever had something written on his forehead, he had. Every single member of that staff pretty well guaranteed that when David left, he would be a success of some kind. He was a very rare bird - he had a quality of understatement - rare and important in its way."

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

Favourite track: I Got A Gal in Kalamazoo by Glenn Miller & his Orchestra Book: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce Luxury: A sloping lawn

Sue Johnston has rarely been out of work since she made her name in Brookside. Her versatility is clear, with credits including such varied programmes as acclaimed drama Goodbye Cruel World; the 1950s feel-good nostalgia series Sex, Chips and Rock 'n' Roll; cult comedy The Royle Family and, most recently, psychological thriller Waking the Dead. Her early career was with the Pilkington Glass Factory, where she got a job in the pensions department specifically so she could join their amateur dramatics group. After rebelling against her parents wishes and attending drama school in London, Sue acted in repertory theatre until her mid-30s.

Having a son brought new responsibilities and, realising the bonus of a regular income and regular hours, she auditioned for Channel 4's Brookside. She became a household name and recognised as Sheila Grant wherever she went. She left after eight years and never looked back: her first role was as a motor neurone sufferer in Goodbye Cruel World, for which she was Bafta nominated and she has been in demand ever since. She was also Bafta nominated for her role as lovable put-upon mum Barbara in The Royle Family, which in 1998 and 2000 won British Comedy Awards.

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

Favourite track: You'll Never Walk Alone by Gerry and the Pacemakers Book: Dickens by Peter Ackroyd Luxury: BBC Radio 5 Live

Suggs made his name as front man of 80s pop phenomenon Madness and impressed a whole generation with his unique style of singing, silly dancing and fondness for making the mundane the subject of his songs, such as Baggy Trousers, inspired by memories of school. Although his cockney accent is part of his singing style, he was actually born in Hastings and moved to London as a child. His singer mother was perhaps a subconscious inspiration, but Suggs didn't have any particular ambitions in his teens. He dropped out of school and did what a lot of teenage boys do - formed a band with his friends.

Madness, a seven-piece gang of friends, became a huge success. Their first single 'The Prince' went to number 16 in 1979 and three years later they had a number one with House of Fun. In seven years they had 20 singles in the top twenty UK chart and travelled the world playing to large audiences. Now Madness occasionally meet up and play their hits list, and Suggs has launched a successful solo career and is also working in TV, hosting Night Fever on Channel 5 and captaining a team on BBC1's A Question of Pop.

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

Favourite track: Is That All There Is? by Peggy Lee Book: A concise book of Italian verbs Luxury: A nucleus of bees

Sir Aaron Klug grew up in Durban, South Africa on the edge of the Bush, which provided him with enough snakes and monkeys to satisfy his curiosity. A bright child, he read anything that was available and enjoyed an idyllic childhood. He started studying medicine at university level in Johannesburg at the age of fifteen, but soon switched to chemistry, physics and mathematics, which provided more stimulus for his enquiring mind.

He began to research at Cape Town University and later Cambridge, where he joined the world-famous Cavendish Laboratory and later the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. His work led to him winning the Nobel prize for Chemistry in 1982 for his work on cell structure.

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

Favourite track: The Ode to Joy (Symphony No 9) by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: A set of books on Roman Republican and Imperial coinage Luxury: A set of mixed Greek and Roman coinage

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is the theatre director Jude Kelly. Currently based at the West Yorkshire Playhouse - which under her creative directorship has become The National Theatre of the North, Kelly is known for her enthusiasm to bring the arts to everyone, and embracing new ideas in the creative arts.

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: In A Landscape by John Cage Book: A specially commissioned complete history of art book, with sections by John Berger, David Hockney and Jeanette Winterson among others Luxury: A notebook and pencil