Desert Island Discs archive online

[Fellwanderer]

BBC News - Desert Island Discs archive to go online

[Sgt Sunshine]

BBC News - Desert Island Discs archive to go online

Cheers for that Fell......
I wonder if "yours truly" has ever been on the prog.....?
I'd also like to hear the Paul McCartney prog of a few years ago (as I missed it) to hear what he picked.....
Cheers
Sgt S

[jimw1]

Cheers for that Fell......
I wonder if "yours truly" has ever been on the prog.....?
I'd also like to hear the Paul McCartney prog of a few years ago (as I missed it) to hear what he picked.....
Cheers
Sgt S

Spotted this clip a while ago Sgt...Part of an Arena Documentary......

[Sgt Sunshine]

Many thanks for that clip Jim................I know I've said it before.....YOUR A STAR...

[Fellwanderer]

Cheers for that Fell......
I wonder if "yours truly" has ever been on the prog.....?

Cheers
Sgt S

Of course - why do you think I was interested

Desert Island Discs: Jenny Agutter

It's actually Jenny's earliest radio recording we have listed on her website - though I'll have to see if she recalls any before that.

[jimw1]

Of course - why do you think I was interested

Desert Island Discs: Jenny Agutter

It's actually Jenny's earliest radio recording we have listed on her website - though I'll have to see if she recalls any before that.

She Picked “Bourée” Jethro Tull.........She Obviously has good taste

[Sgt Sunshine]

Definitely sounds like my kind of girl......curling up on that Oriental Rug listening to Dylan, Jethro Tull & The Beatles..........and on a desert island too

[Rowdon]

I seem to remember Billy Connolly once chose "Imagine" as one of his eight. However big a fan you are of John Lennon - or even that song itself - surely its dirge-like repetition would get to you after, say, Thursday of the first week?

[Steve Crook]

I seem to remember Billy Connolly once chose "Imagine" as one of his eight. However big a fan you are of John Lennon - or even that song itself - surely its dirge-like repetition would get to you after, say, Thursday of the first week?

Dirge like? It's a hymn, a poem, it's joyous

Steve

[Edward G]

Jim W, Fellwanderer and Sgt Sunshine,
Interesting choice by Jenny Agutter - the lady can do no wrong.
I am thrilled that the legendary Jethro Tull are coming to Mayo (Castlebar) on 20th March - a mere hour down the road from Achill.
I will be hoping to get Ian Anderson to sign my vinyl copy of their debut album, "This Was".
Can't wait for the gig...

She Picked “Bourée” Jethro Tull.........She Obviously has good taste

[zettel45]

Dirge like? It's a hymn, a poem, it's joyous

Awful song. Sentimental, banal, preachy, trite and creepy all at the same time. I suppose that's some kind of achievement....

[Sgt Sunshine]

I seem to remember Billy Connolly once chose "Imagine" as one of his eight. However big a fan you are of John Lennon - or even that song itself - surely its dirge-like repetition would get to you after, say, Thursday of the first week?

I might be wrong but I believe at the end of the prog you have to pick one of the eight songs to take with you.....maybe Billy would have gone for another choice....

[Steve Crook]

I might be wrong but I believe at the end of the prog you have to pick one of the eight songs to take with you.....maybe Billy would have gone for another choice....

You take all 8 to the island with you, but you are asked which one you would rescue if the others are all washed away in a tropical storm - which one you regard most highly

Steve

[HUGHJAMPTON]

One of Anton Walbrook's choices,. A quick look over at the posts on YT will give his other choices that were broadcast on Feb. 3rd 1955.

[Sgt Sunshine]

You take all 8 to the island with you, but you are asked which one you would rescue if the others are all washed away in a tropical storm - which one you regard most highly

Steve

Thanks Steve.......I knew you had to pick one for some reason........

[didi-5]

Over on Mausoleum they are saying that this archive will include nothing pre-Sue Lawley days, which is a shame as there are some really interesting older editions.

[HUGHJAMPTON]

Over on Mausoleum they are saying that this archive will include nothing pre-Sue Lawley days, which is a shame as there are some really interesting older editions.

That's a shame. It's not just the choice of records, but the interview side of things.

Here's a Parky one.

[theuofc]

New BBC digital station offers 69 years of 'Desert Island Discs'

By Ian Burrell, Media Editor
Wednesday, 2 March 2011

BBC
Kirsty Young will introduce classic editions of 'Desert Island Discs' when they are aired on Radio 4 Extra

If you want David Cameron singing Benny Hill's "Ernie" on your iPod, or a download of Johnny Vegas talking about how his dad skinned his pet rabbit, or even Kathy Burke requesting a life-size laminated photograph of business guru James Caan to use for bodysurfing, then your time has come.

The BBC is to give public access to the archive of the classic Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs, allowing downloads of the past 500 editions and listing the choices made by every guest since the programme began in 1942. The archive will become live with the launch of the re-branded digital network Radio 4 Extra, which replaces Radio 7 next month. The new station will broadcast classic editions from the past decade, introduced and contextualised by the host Kirsty Young.

Announcing details of the network at Broadcasting House in London yesterday, the head of BBC Radio, Tim Davie, said Radio 4 Extra was not intended to draw listeners away from Radio 4 or other BBC analogue stations but to provide added content that would encourage use of digital radio.
Radio 4 Extra will also feature a series of family-based plays, starting with Ian Fleming's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car, read by Imogen Stubbs, followed by the children's classic The Silver Sword written by Ian Serraillier. The comedian Arthur Smith has been hired to host the station's comedy club.

Mr Davie said Radio 4 Extra would also provide extended versions of Desert Island Discs shows already broadcast on Radio 4 in the past year. These hour-long broadcasts would contain up to 15 minutes more conversation with the guest.

Online searches of the past selections of the guests of presenters Roy Plomley, Michael Parkinson, Sue Lawley and Ms Young during the past 69 years will reveal many gems. Actor Sir Norman Wisdom requested as his luxury item a pot of stew with two dumplings. Publisher Felix Dennis desired a stainless steel shaft so he might attempt to entice Mermaid pole-dancers. Former chat show host Russell Harty wanted a Union flag and a pole to claim the island for Britain.

The BBC wants to encourage digital listening, which accounts for only 25 per cent of the British radio audience. Just 3 per cent listen via the internet, which Mr Davie believes is a missed opportunity.

Mr Davie said the reception for Digital Audio Broadcasting (DA radios was "like a Swiss cheese" in London and that the radio industry was searching for the highest possible building on which to base a transmitter.

Classic Episodes
Norman Mailer The American author declared he would choose "a stick of the finest marijuana" as his luxury item. The request was politely refused by the programme's creator, Roy Plomley.
Kathy Burke The comedian defended her dislike of relationships and spoke about her alcoholic father. She wanted a life-size picture of businessman James Caan, from Dragons' Den, on which to surf.
Johnny Vegas In a moving episode, the comic discussed the year he spent at a Catholic seminary where other children were abused: "When I left, I felt very guilty. I wanted to take everybody else with me."
Tony Adams Interviews with footballers are rarely as insightful as this one, in which the former England captain opened up about the alcohol addiction that almost wrecked his career.
Oliver Reed The late actor and reveller put in a characteristically rousing performance, nominating a blow-up doll as the luxury item he would take to the island.
Gordon Brown Appearing in 1996 with rumours circulating about his sexuality owing to his bachelor status, the soon-to-be Chancellor said he was straight but that a relationship "just hasn't happened".

[theuofc]

The Independent

Easy Listening
Wednesday, 2 March 2011

What honour could be more satisfying than an appearance on Desert
Island Discs? To be invited proves that you are a person of significance. And it panders to the strange hankering that has lurked in the British subconscious at least since the time of Daniel Defoe to get away from urban civilisation and to live alone in a tropical paradise. Plus it invites you to choose and hear your eight favourite tracks.

Not many of us would be as egotistic as the great diva Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, who back in 1958 selected seven of her own recordings.

Nor would we necessarily expect the level of politeness shown to Diana Mosley who, after she had denied that six million Jews died in the Holocaust, was asked: "Tell us about your fifth record, Lady Mosley."

But we would hope for a more charming welcome than Gordon Brown's when he was told by Sue Lawley: "People want to know whether you're gay or whether there's some flaw in your personality."

Hundreds upon hundreds of establishment figures have had their moments of self-revelation on this programme, which has been around in its unchanging format for longer than most of us have been alive. Now the BBC is allowing public access to the Desert Island Discs archive. Listen and enjoy.

[HUGHJAMPTON]

We may as well have the link. Programmes available appear to start from 1999

BBC - Desert Island Discs - Find a castaway