Alle afleveringen
2.000 afleveringen, van nieuw naar oud
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Mary Berry
29 juli 2012 · 37 min
Beluister deze afleveringMary Berry is one of the UK's best-known and respected cookery writers. More than six million copies of her books have now been sold - not bad for a girl who failed her school certificate in English.
On television, it is her role as a judge on The Great British Bake-off that has brought her to the attention of a new generation.
It was in domestic science lessons that she discovered her love of cooking and she is in no doubt of the importance of teaching cookery in school "When everybody leaves school, whether they are a boy or a girl, what do they have to do in the home? They have to produce a meal. They haven't been taught to do it. I think it should be essential." Lees meerProducer: Leanne Buckle.
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Akram Khan
22 juli 2012 · 37 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the dancer and choreographer Akram Khan. Lees meer
A child of Bengali immigrants, he started learning Indian dance almost as soon as he could walk. Talent-spotted in his teens, he went on to spend two years touring the world with Peter Brook's Mahabharata. A keen collaborator, he's worked with everyone from prima ballerina Sylvie Guillem to disco queen Kylie Minogue.
He says he was a shy boy and dance allowed him to communicate properly for the first time: "It was like being allowed to speak - and people taking notice of that and that's another problem because then you want people's attention all the time, so, every dinner party we went to, I said, Mum, are they going to ask me to dance? It became an addiction."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Simon McBurney
15 juli 2012 · 37 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the actor, writer and director Simon McBurney. Lees meer
It's 30 years since he set up the ground-breaking theatre company Complicite. It brought extraordinary physical deftness to the stage and its productions won every plaudit going - from an armful of Olivier awards to the Perrier prize for comedy.
His mainstream credits range from TV roles in the Vicar of Dibley and Rev, to screen credits for The Last King of Scotland and Harry Potter. On stage, he's directed Katie Holmes and Al Pacino to critical acclaim in New York.
Of his unconventional directing style, he admits: "Some people have said, it's a bit like going into the jungle with some mad explorer - who everybody knows doesn't have any idea where he's going - but somehow he gives people some sort of confidence to keep on going."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Martina Navratilova
8 juli 2012 · 38 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the legendary tennis player, Martina Navratilova. Lees meer
In an extraordinary career she's won 59 Grand Slam titles - her last just a few weeks short of her fiftieth birthday. Her life off the court has been equally eventful - she grew up in communist Czechoslovakia and, as a teenager, threw rocks as Soviet tanks rolled in; tennis offered a way to see the world and she defected to the US when she was 18 years old. After thirty years at the top of her profession she retired - and says she finally found time for the rest of her life: "Tennis really was a total commitment, you didn't have much time for anything else. So, when I quit, I was going through something emotionally that most people go through when they're 18, 20 years old. Really having the time for personal relationships, developing friendships and taking the time with everybody. I think I've caught up by now."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Charles Jencks
1 juli 2012 · 39 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the architectural critic and writer Charles Jencks. Lees meer
Born in America, for the past four decades he has lived and worked in Britain - where his designs are as likely to be found in sculptural landscapes as buildings. Perhaps his most significant legacy, though, is the work he did with his late wife, Maggie Keswick. They worked together to design Maggie's Centres - a series of practical and beautifully-designed buildings to give information and support to people with cancer.
He says: "When you have cancer, there's many things which you have to do aside from the struggle - it's not just a medical problem, it's a social problem - of how you tell the children, how you tell your boss - and above all, as Maggie said, it's not to lose the joy of living."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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John Bishop
24 juni 2012 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the comedian John Bishop. Lees meer
Growing up on a Merseyside council estate, his early ambition was to play football for Liverpool - otherwise, he thought he might find a way out by winning the Pools or joining a band. The youngest of four children, his family were, he says, the kind that filled factory floors rather than lecture halls. Now a hugely popular stand-up comedian, it was a failing marriage and a sense of desperation that led him, one night, to a comedy bar. He decided to give it a try - it turned his life, and marriage, around.
"There was a time where the stand-up was the thing that I think kept me sane - it was like therapy and if I stopped doing it, I would go backwards."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Ahdaf Soueif
17 juni 2012 · 37 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the Egyptian writer and commentator Ahdaf Soueif. Lees meer
She was the first Muslim woman to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize and, from an early age, her life has been divided between Egypt and Britain. She was among the crowds in Tahrir Square last year, witnessing the uprising at first hand, and describing events for the world's media.
She says: "Every once in a while there would be a surge of a few meters forward, as your friends, who were being killed at the front, gained you those three metres and your job, as the masses, was to move forward and hold the three metres."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Doreen Lawrence
10 juni 2012 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the campaigner Doreen Lawrence. Lees meer
The life she thought was hers ended when her son Stephen was murdered by a group of young white men on a street in London in 1993. In the years since, her campaigning has resulted in a shift in public attitudes, laws being changed and policing methods overhauled. She set up a charity in her son's memory and has been awarded an OBE for services to community relations.
She says: "My son was special and I think, what happened to him, I just wanted everyone to know and learn about him - but all the other things, the OBE, I'd swap all of that just to have my son back. When your children are young you take them for granted, because you think they're going to be there forever."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Margaret Rhodes
3 juni 2012 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is Margaret Rhodes. Lees meer
As the first cousin to the Queen, she has a unique insight into the life of the royal family. She used to spend her summer holidays at Balmoral with the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret while, during the war, she worked for MI6 and lodged at Buckingham Palace. She attended the Queen's wedding and coronation and, in later life, worked as an assistant to the Queen Mother.
Remembering the Queen's coronation, she says: "We had only just recovered from six or seven years of deprivation and blackouts and rationing - it was like the sun suddenly coming out behind a lot of very dark clouds and I think everybody felt that with a new young Queen, a whole new era was opening up. It was somehow exciting."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Denise Robertson
27 mei 2012 · 35 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the agony aunt and writer Denise Robertson. Lees meer
She is, she says, one of life's survivors -- yet she seems to have had more than her fair share of tragedy; she's been widowed twice, dealt with financial hardship and lost a child to cancer. She's written dozens of novels and for more than forty years been an agony aunt on local radio, papers and television.
She says: "There have been times when I've thought, just as I get things right, fate steps in and kicks the steps from under me. But then you pick yourself up again. When I started out, there used to be a joke, that one day I'd open a letter without saying, 'Oh I remember when that happened to me'."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Peter Ackroyd
20 mei 2012 · 40 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the novelist, historian and biographer, Peter Ackroyd. Lees meer
As a child he used to walk the streets of London with his grandmother - an experience that, he believes, fostered his own love for the city. He was appointed literary editor of The Spectator when he was just 23 and has gone on to write dozens of books since. He has written a biography of London, as well as books about people he calls 'cockney visionaries' such as Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins and, now, Charlie Chaplin. Yet, of the work he's produced so far, he says: "Every book for me is a chapter in the long book which will finally be closed on the day of my death. So that final book is the one which gives me a sense of achievement."
Producer: Christine Pawlowsky.
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Baroness Hollins
13 mei 2012 · 41 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is Baroness Sheila Hollins. Lees meer
An Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, she has specialised in the health and welfare of people with learning disabilities; advising on policy and influencing attitudes. She started off as a GP, turning to psychiatry after finding a huge proportion of her patients were suffering from emotional and social problems. One of her four children has a learning disability and that has brought a focus to her professional ambitions. She says: "In many ways, I've always thought that our children are going to be different to any expectation we had of them and really the joy of parenthood is discovering who your children really are."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Tim Minchin
6 mei 2012 · 35 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the composer and performer Tim Minchin. Lees meer
As a comic and musician he has sold out London's O2 Arena and won legions of fans. He wrote the songs for the Royal Shakespeare Company's musical Matilda - the production of Roald Dahl's children's story has been a smash hit on the West End, won seven Olivier awards and is due to transfer to Broadway next year.
He says: "I'm not a magical thinker - I don't think I need my special undies on or my special pencil - I'm not superstitious about the process. I just took my childhood of reading Dahl and said, 'I know what this is' and wrote some songs."
Producer: Isabel Sargent.
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Jamie Cullum
25 maart 2012 · 32 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the jazz pianist and singer Jamie Cullum. Lees meer
His interview was recorded in front of an audience at St George's in Bristol and launched Radio 4's More Than Words Festival. Despite failing his grade four piano exam and, by his own admission, barely being able to read music, Jamie Cullum has become hugely popular. He is particularly celebrated for his live shows and in this very special recording, he performed three of his musical choices.
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Anna Ford
18 maart 2012 · 38 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the broadcaster Anna Ford. Lees meer
One of the first high profile women in news, she worked for Granada, ITV and the BBC before retiring after more than thirty years on our screens. One of her professional pairings was presenting the News at 10 with Reginald Bosanquet, she remembers how he would try to unsettle her during broadcasts: "I adored Reggie, he would land either obscene poems or love poems on my script just before I was to about to read it to camera and I would catch just a sight of this and it was almost impossible not to laugh."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Jackie Mason
11 maart 2012 · 34 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the American comedian Jackie Mason. Lees meer
His one-man shows have been pulling in audiences for more than fifty years. Like his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him, he trained initially as a rabbi - and quickly acquired a reputation for being very funny.
"The people who heard my sermons kept saying to me; 'Rabbi, why aren't you a comedian?' I said to myself, maybe I should take the hint."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Patsy Rodenburg
4 maart 2012 · 38 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the renowned voice coach Patsy Rodenburg. Lees meer
Her work at the National Theatre and the RSC has spanned decades and her students include Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen, Dame Maggie Smith and Daniel Day Lewis. But her work takes her away from the stage too - she has coached politicians and helped offenders in prison. She says: "I did some work on Hamlet in a top security prison and the guy playing Claudius was a murderer and he spoke, 'Oh my offence is rank, it smells to heaven', and he just broke."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Brian Moore
26 februari 2012 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the former rugby player and commentator Brian Moore. Lees meer
As a player he was ferociously competitive, he says his approach to the game was almost pathological and it earned him the nickname 'the pitbull'.
By the time he retired, he'd earned dozens of England caps and played in three grand slams. But he discovered the obsessive determination he'd shown as a player was not so useful off the pitch.
"In sport, the 'I won't give up', 'carry on training' and 'going again and again and again', that's rewarded because people say isn't that fantastic - but when it comes to normal life, you can't solve everything like that."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Lord Prescott
19 februari 2012 · 38 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. Lees meer
In this frank interview, he describes life in the highly political home where he grew up, the impact that failing the school 11+ exam had on him and the gradual kindling of his own ambitions. He speaks of his debt to his wife Pauline and how for many years of their marriage he underestimated her. He describes, too, the inferiority complex which dogged him for much of his adult life:
"All the attacks on me because of my grammar and kind of background, aggressive style - it used to ruff up a few feathers and whilst I would never let it show, certainly deep inside me I felt a bit inferior."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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James Corden
12 februari 2012 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringJames Corden, actor and writer of Gavin & Stacey, is Kirsty Young's castaway is the actor and writer . Lees meer
As a child he longed to act - he found early success in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys and became a household name for the TV show he devised and co-wrote, Gavin and Stacey. These days he's starring in the West End in the comedy One Man, Two Guvnors. It is due to transfer to Broadway in the spring and he says: "I'm well aware that this could well be the best part that I ever play on stage - it's a gift for any actor who has any interest in comedy. It feels like all my dreams come true."
Record: Days Like this - Van Morrison
Book: A book to learn the piano
Luxury: A pianoProducer: Leanne Buckle.
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Denise Lewis
5 februari 2012 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringDenise Lewis, Olympic gold medallist, is Kirsty Young's castaway. Lees meer
Her discipline was the heptathlon and it was at the 2000 Sydney Olympics that she leapt, threw, sprinted and hurdled her way on to the winner's podium. An only child of a single mother, she says her mum had always had ambition for her - and was there to witness her success. She said: "Her face said it all, there were tears in her eyes and for me it felt like, yes mum, we've done it together".
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Sir David Attenborough
29 januari 2012 · 40 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway for the 70th anniversary edition of Desert Island Discs is Sir David Attenborough. Lees meer
He has seen more of the world than anyone else who has ever lived - he's visited the north and south poles and witnessed most of the life in-between - from the birds in the canopies of tropical rainforests to giant earthworms in Australia.
But despite his extraordinary travels, there is one part of the globe that's eluded him. As a young man and a keen rock-climber, he yearned to conquer the highest peak in the world. "I won't make it now - I won't make it to base camp now - but as a teenager, I thought that the only thing a red-blooded Englishman really should do was to climb Everest."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Vikram Seth
22 januari 2012 · 38 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the author Vikram Seth. Lees meer
His novel A Suitable Boy was nearly a decade in the writing, but it was a huge and immediate hit and won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. He is now working on a follow-up novel called A Suitable Girl. He's due to finish work on it in 2013 - 20 years after the original work was published. The pace of work, he admits, is slow: "The sound of deadlines pushing past is one of the sounds that authors are most familiar with - it's very much in the gestational period."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Paul Johnson
15 januari 2012 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the writer and historian Paul Johnson. Lees meer
He writes, he says, out of a desire to 'put things right' and more than fifty books and thousands of articles have flowed from his pen. His opinions have provoked, offended and enraged plenty of people over the years and sweeping works about modernity, morality, art and philosophy, sit alongside fiercely opinionated biographies and essays. He says: "I like to be, in general, in agreement with what most people think, but I also like to be a little bit independent and individual and, thank God, I've been allowed to do that all my writing life."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Dame Monica Mason
8 januari 2012 · 37 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the director of the Royal Ballet, Dame Monica Mason. Lees meer
Her working life has been dedicated to dance. When she joined the Royal Ballet at fifteen she was the youngest dancer to be admitted to the company and, during her career, its legendary choreographer Kenneth MacMillan created five roles for her. She became director ten years ago and is due to step down this summer. She says: "I couldn't bear it if I thought that, behind closed doors, somebody was saying 'she's here again, you know', so I shall keep my distance and only go in when asked."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Sir Terry Wogan
1 januari 2012 · 37 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the broadcaster Sir Terry Wogan. Lees meer
His career has spanned more than five decades and includes the chat show Wogan, the Eurovision Song Contest, the quiz Blankety Blank and for many years being the host of Radio 2's breakfast show.
He says: "You have to create a kind of little club - you are not talking to an audience, you are talking to one person - and they are only half listening anyway. It's a mistake to think that everyone is clinging to your every word."
Producer: Corinna Jones.
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Professor Brian Cox
30 december 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the scientist Professor Brian Cox. Lees meer
In the press he's been called 'the pin-up professor' and his enormously popular TV series have been credited with creating the 'Brian Cox effect' - a surge in the number of would-be scientists applying to university. As a teenager he decided he wanted to be a rock star; he toured the world as a member of the band Dare and performed on Top of the Pops with his second group D:Ream.
He says:"I hope, we're beginning to treat ideas almost like we treated rock and roll - I hope so, it would be wonderful, wouldn't it, if ideas were the new rock and roll?"
Producer: Corinna Jones.
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Julian Fellowes
18 december 2011 · 37 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the creator of Downton Abbey, Julian Fellowes. Lees meer
He won an Oscar for his screenplay for Gosford Park and went on to write other feature films including The Young Victoria and Vanity Fair. Downton Abbey, which he created and writes, has been an enormous TV success with a huge audience. "Of course" he says, "if I had a clear understanding of why it had done so well, I would continue to write shows that attracted record viewers for the rest of my life."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Eve Pollard
11 december 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the journalist and former editor Eve Pollard. Lees meer
She was groomed for success by Rupert Murdoch, but made an editor by Robert Maxwell. Her career has spanned glossy magazines and tabloid journalism, breakfast television, biographies and novels. When she first worked on Fleet Street, she says, women were such a rarity that the male reporters didn't know what to make of her. "Any woman who has a high flying job, they don't know who to compare you to - you're not their mum, you're not their sister, you're not their wife - so they make you a sort of monster-nanny figure."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Sir Martin Sorrell
4 december 2011 · 38 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the businessman Sir Martin Sorrell. Lees meer
He's been called "the world's most influential ad man," and is the founder and chief executive of the world's biggest advertising agency, WPP.
He was 40 when he left Saatchi and Saatchi to be his own boss, he says: "When I started off, what I wanted to do was to build a company and manage it - I wanted to be an entrepreneur and be a manager."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Bear Grylls
27 november 2011 · 37 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the adventurer Bear Grylls. Lees meer
His first career was with the SAS, but he was forced to leave after a parachute jump went wrong and he broke his back in three places. As he recuperated, he rekindled his childhood ambition of climbing Mount Everest - he went on to become the youngest Briton to reach its summit. His TV series, Born Survivor, has a global audience of more than a billion people who regularly watch him eating the apparently indigestible and risking his life by pitting himself against nature. Married with three young sons, he says: "The unresolved struggle in my life is the fact that I have a job that has an element of danger to it and at the same time I have a gorgeous family - three young boys that are the pride of my life."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Robert Hardy
20 november 2011 · 39 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the actor Robert Hardy. Lees meer
He became a household name as the vet Siegfried Farnon in the hit TV series All Creatures Great and Small and, to a younger generation, he is the Minister of Magic in the Harry Potter films. But the role he is best known for is Winston Churchill - he won a Bafta for his performance in Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years. He believes actors are born rather than made and his own ambitions crystallised when, as a very young boy, he was a page boy at a wedding: "I walked down the aisle with my head held high and as I went, every eye was turned towards me and something inside me said, "That's it, get every eye on you".
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Anna Scher
18 november 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the drama teacher Anna Scher. Lees meer
It's more than forty years since she set up her theatre school and it has launched the careers of Kathy Burke, Martin Kemp, Pauline Quirke and Patsy Palmer to name just a few. It started out as a lunchtime drama club - and very quickly grew. Anna Scher says: "There were enormous classes - about seventy in a class - and a lot of those pupils were non-readers and so I fell into improvisation by chance. I found that it was a very effective way of character training."
Producer: Leanne Buckle
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Francesca Simon
6 november 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the children's author Francesca Simon. Lees meer
Educated at Yale and Oxford she initially thought she'd pursue an academic life - but within weeks of her son's birth, found that ideas for children's stories started flowing. She's now written twenty books featuring her creation Horrid Henry and they sell in their millions.
She sees Horrid Henry as sitting within the long tradition of anarchic characters in children's literature. She says: "Everyone responds to Henry because I think everyone feels - however conventional they seem on the outside - that they are rebellious and unconventional, and Henry really taps into that."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Lord Victor Adebowale
30 oktober 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the crossbench peer and social entrepreneur Lord Victor Adebowale. Lees meer
For the past decade, when not in the House of Lords, he has devoted his time to overseeing services for people who are homeless, suffer from drug or alcohol addiction and have mental health issues or learning disabilities. To many, they are the most disadvantaged people in society, but he says that's not a term he finds useful: "I find it very difficult when people use words like 'bottom of the pile' and 'disadvantaged' - you'd be amazed that the veneer that separates people who don't think they're at the bottom of the pile from people who are is quite thin."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Mark Gatiss
23 oktober 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the writer and actor Mark Gatiss. Lees meer
His childhood passions have fuelled his adult creative life. As a boy he says he was drawn towards the macabre and gothic - while his teachers remarked that his school essays resembled scripts for Hammer horror films. He has written for - and acted in - Dr Who, was one of the creators of The League of Gentlemen and his re-imagining of Sherlock Holmes for a contemporary TV audience was a huge success.
He says: "When I was a kid, anything supernatural drew me, I would try and find it in anything - Gardeners' Question Time - I would look for something."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Michael Johnson
16 oktober 2011 · 35 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the athlete Michael Johnson. Lees meer
He is the only person ever to hold world records in the 200 and 400 metres at the same time and, by the time he hung up his legendary gold trainers, his haul of medals included five Olympic golds.
His upright running style earned him the nickname 'the duck'. He says: "They called me a really fast duck! I was ranked number one in the world - I'm so far ahead of the other people, why am I the one that's wrong?"
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Vidal Sassoon
9 oktober 2011 · 37 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the veteran hairdresser Vidal Sassoon. Lees meer
He developed the architecturally precise bobs and cropped styles that were a defining look of the 1960s. Mary Quant, Mia Farrow and Twiggy were among the glamorous clients who came to his salons in London and Beverly Hills.
His scissors and ambition lifted him out of the grinding poverty of his childhood - he spent six years in an orphanage because his mother could not afford to keep him at home. Now aged 83, he says:" I've had the best adventure you could possible have, for a kid that started from nowhere."
Record: Mahler's 8th Symphony
Book: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Luxury: A dozen bottles of Vidal Sassoon hair shampooProducer: Isabel Sargent.
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Anne Wood
2 oktober 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the children's TV producer Anne Wood. Lees meer
Her creations - which include Teletubbies, Rosie and Jim and In the Night Garden - have delighted millions of children around the world. She says she is driven by her fascination with children's creative development - and was horrified by the critical response when Teletubbies was first screened. "I wanted to make a programme that had love in it," she says, "You'd have thought I'd started World War Three the response that happened - it's innocent fun, that's all it is."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Arthur Edwards
25 september 2011 · 37 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the royal photographer Arthur Edwards. Lees meer
He is a Fleet Street legend and, for more than thirty years, has captured the most memorable moments of the House of Windsor - from the first tentative pictures of a teenage Lady Diana Spencer to the balcony kiss at the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
He's travelled the world, met the Pope and seen inside the Oval Office and the Kremlin - it's a life far removed from his early life in the East End of London where money was very tight and his mother saved up her wages as a cleaner to buy him his first camera.
Record: Panis Angelicus
Book: A photographic album with pictures of his family
Luxury: An inexhaustible supply of tea and a kettleProducer: Leanne Buckle.
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Martin Clunes
18 september 2011 · 35 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the actor Martin Clunes. Lees meer
He became a household name in the 1990s in the comedy "Men Behaving Badly" and, in the years since, has performed at The National Theatre, presented a number of natural history documentaries and become the gruff GP in the comedy drama "Doc Martin."
His prominent ears are among his trademarks and he reveals that early in his career he turned down an opportunity to have them pinned back. He said: "I just didn't fancy it - maybe I hadn't noticed them".
Record: Sailing - Rod Stewart
Book: Puckoon by Spike Milligan
Luxury: An electric guitarProducer: Leanne Buckle.
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Danny Baker
31 juli 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the broadcaster and writer Danny Baker. Lees meer
He is a Sony Gold award winning broadcaster with one of the most recognisable voices on our airwaves and his numerous radio and TV shows have brought him legions of fans. As a writer, he has put words in the mouths of Jeremy Clarkson, Ricky Gervais, Chris Evans and even the legendary George Burns.
Despite the successes, he says he's never plotted his next career move: "No plan - certainly no plan - you've only got to look at the incredible way this is all botched together and yet I don't feel that's somehow lucky when you look around at some of the half-wits and boss-eyed bozos who people this business - and they're running departments. All of this is an ant-hill that somebody's kicked over, and I happen to be one of the more bumptious ants."
Record: I've Grown Accustomed to her Face
Book: The Most of S J Perelman
Luxury: My blue suede shoesProducer: Leanne Buckle.
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Heather Rabbatts
24 juli 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the businesswoman Heather Rabbatts. Lees meer
Born in Jamaica and raised in Britain, her early years were unpromising and she left school with just a few O levels. But after evening classes, she studied law and became a barrister before making her name as the youngest council chief in the country.
She's at home in the toughest business environments - from Millwall Football Club to the Royal Opera House - and says: "I definitely like being in charge and I've always felt that I can gather everyone's spirits and energies to take that jump into the unknown together."
Record: Que Sera Sera by Corinne Bailey Rae
Book: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Luxury: A solar powered digital photo albumProducer: Isabel Sargent.
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Michael McIntyre
17 juli 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringMichael McIntyre interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs. Lees meer
In less than five years he's gone from being an unknown stand-up with debts of more than £30,000 to become one of the most successful comedians in the business - with awards, chart topping DVDs and sell-out arena shows under his belt.
He says: "I was on the circuit for years, I did get more and more in debt - it really did drag on and I just couldn't get a break. But when my chance came, I'd envisaged it so many times, I wasn't even nervous. I knew I could do it."
Record: Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - Ella Fitzgerald
Book: The Complete Prose of Woody Allen.
Luxury: A penProducer: Leanne Buckle.
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John Graham
10 juli 2011 · 37 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the crossword compiler John Graham. Lees meer
Now aged 90, he works under the name Araucaria and, for more than fifty years, has infuriated, intrigued and entertained with fiendish clues and mind-twisting anagrams.
Like his father and grandfather he became a vicar but, when divorce forced him to leave the church, crosswords provided an unlikely source of revenue.
Of the skills needed to dream up cryptic clues, he says: "So much of it is something that goes on unconsciously. You see the word, you play with it in your mind, you don't actually think about the punters at all at that stage, you try and do it for yourself. I hope that it equips one for life in the sense that it makes one think more clearly and that can only be good."
Record: Haydn - The Heavens are Telling
Book: The complete works of Saki.
Luxury: A telescopeProducer: Leanne Buckle.
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Tony Robinson
3 juli 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the actor and broadcaster Tony Robinson. Lees meer
His Baldrick to Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder turned idiocy into an art form and the series went on to become one of our best-loved comedies. The role changed his life but, he says, when he first saw the script he didn't think much of it: "It was only about eight lines of dialogue and none of them were funny - but it was with these incredible people. On the one hand, I thought what a lousy part and on the other hand I thought, I'd love to work with these people".
Record: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down - The Band
Book: Middlemarch - George Eliot
Luxury: A luxury bed and mattress.Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Dame Harriet Walter
26 juni 2011 · 41 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the actress Dame Harriet Walter. Lees meer
She has been a stalwart of the stage for more than three decades - winning great acclaim for her work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Performing ran in the family - her uncle is the actor Christopher Lee and she remembers how, as a child, he would make her shriek by putting on his famous 'Mummy' walk to scare her. She turned down a place at Oxford because she knew she wanted to act - only to find that the drama schools weren't keen on her... she was turned down five times before securing a place.
She says she has never thought about making clever career choices, but, in the year in which she has been made a dame, turned sixty and married for the first time, she says it has all turned out better than she ever expected.
Record: My Baby Just Cares for Me - Nina Simone.
Book: The complete works of Isabella Bird.
Luxury: A fluteProducer: Leanne Buckle.
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Len Goodman
19 juni 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the international dance judge, Len Goodman. Lees meer
He became a star of Strictly Come Dancing and the US show Dancing with the Stars, after a forty year career as a ballroom dancer and judge. Born in London's east end, as a kid he was a barrow-boy, selling fruit and veg on his grandfather's stall. He went on to work on the docks as a welder. But come Saturday night he would don his best threads and head for the Embassy ballroom in Welling.
He was in his sixties when he found international fame and it was, he says, perfect timing. "If it had happened when I was thirty, I'd have been one these people that would be seen rolling out of nightclubs drunk, with a couple of dolly-birds on my arm. The pilot was on my sixtieth birthday and I think it was the perfect age because I was sensible by then, my feet were planted firmly on the ground."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
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Andrea Levy
12 juni 2011 · 37 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the writer Andrea Levy. Lees meer
Born in London to Jamaican parents, she has spent much of her career describing the experiences of Caribbean immigrants and cementing the role they have played in British life. Her books have found both a large and appreciative audience as well as critical success - Small Island was named Whitbread Book of the Year, while Long Song, was shortlisted for the Man-Booker Prize. Her achievements are all the more extraordinary because she says she didn't read her first novel until she was 23 years old. She says: "The reason I write is because I am exploring my heritage - and there's still a lot of that story untold."
Producer: Isabel Sargent.
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Alfie Boe
5 juni 2011 · 36 min
Beluister deze afleveringKirsty Young's castaway is the singer Alfie Boe. Lees meer
He is one of our most popular tenors and, highly unusually, is a sell-out success in both opera houses and musical theatre. The youngest of nine children, he left school to work as a mechanic - before being plucked off the shop-floor for stardom. However, while he's at home on the stage, you won't necessarily find him in the stalls: "I like good singers, I don't necessarily like one genre of music, I just like good singers, good voices and good songs," he says, adding: "I never go to the opera.... it's just not my world."
Producer: Leanne Buckle.