Desert Island Discs: Archive 1996-2000

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

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

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the conductor Sir Roger Norrington. Known for conducting music at a cracking pace, he argues that it's the way the great composers would have played it. Music should be fun, he says, it should entertain - and never, ever, be pompous. 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: Brandenburg Concerto No.6 by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Complete Works by Thomas Hardy Luxury: Chocolate

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is Patricia Routledge. Once voted the nation's favourite actress for her television roles as Hyacinth Bucket and Hetty Wainthrop, she has also been successful in the theatre, in musicals, and of course in Alan Bennett's monologues Talking Heads. 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: String Quintet in C Major - Adagio by Franz Schubert Book: The collected works by John Donne Luxury: Tea service with tea

The castaway on this week's Desert Island Discs is Rick Stein.

When the police closed his discotheque down because of too many fights on a Saturday night, all he had left was his restaurant licence. Living by the sea, he took the obvious option and opened a fish restaurant. Today he is Britain's best sea food chef and a passionate advocate for the pleasures of cooking and eating fish. 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: Concerto for Flute, Harp & Orchestra in C Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: Thai fish sauce

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Rod Steiger. He talks about The Method, Marlon Brando and the depression which dogged him for nearly a decade. And he confesses why he couldn't go to the desert island without Frank Sinatra.

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

Favourite track: Send in the Clowns by Sarah Vaughn Book: Complete book of poetry by e e cummings Luxury: Self-contained external electric fan

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Martin Pipe. He has turned horse training into a science. His animals have the choice of a swimming pool, indoor canter and walking machine, while the on-site laboratory monitors their temperature, blood and weight throughout the day. Yet he retains his love for the horses themselves - a passion which has made him one of the most successful trainers in Britain.

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

Favourite track: Oh Carol by Neil Sedaka Book: Horse Management by R S Timmis Luxury: Winning post from Cheltenham race course

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Paddy Moloney. As the founder of the Chieftains he has taken Irish folk music around the world. No purist, some of his most popular pieces are influenced by other countries folk songs, most notably China, Spain and South America. He's collaborated with popular musicians too, sharing a stage with Mick Jagger, Elvis Costello and The Corrs.

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

Favourite track: Coast of Malabar by The Chieftains with Ry Cooder Book: The Book of Lempster (old Irish textbook currently in the Hague) Luxury: Tin whistle

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Profesor Igor Aleksander. He has been researching artificial conciousness for over 30 years. His first machine, Wisard, could recognise faces. His latest, Magnus, can think. He predicts that soon our computors will be so intelligent we won't be able to switch them off at the end of the day without feeling guilty.

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

Favourite track: Agnus Dei from Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi Book: Companions to the Mind by Richard Gregory Luxury: A virtual reality London Symphony Orchestra so he can conduct it

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe. Since the last election she has used her free time to write a novel, but has no plans to become a full time author since politics remains her passion. Some two years after she spiked Michael Howard's bid to become leader of the Conservative Party, she is herself being talked about as a possible Tory Leader.

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

Favourite track: How Great Thou Are by Aled Jones Book: Collected Poems by Thomas Gray Luxury: (Hot) shower

Sue Lawley's guest this week is James Dyson. Today he's one of the richest men in Britain, but he began with an idea, a piece of cardboard and some sticky-backed plastic. Five years and more than 5,000 prototypes later, he was confident that he had invented a new type of vacuum cleaner. But that was to prove only the beginning of a long, drawn-out battle to get it licensed.

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

Favourite track: Slowdown by Wax On Wax Off Book: Olives: The Life and Love of a Noble Fruit by Mort Rosenslum Luxury: Olive Oil

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the film composer John Barry. The Pope is said to adore his soundtrack to Dances with Wolves. Although he's probably best known for the theme tunes he wrote for the Bond movies; including Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever. In all, he's won five Oscars - not bad for a Yorkshire lad who happened to hit London just as it began to swing.

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

Favourite track: Symphony No.9 - Adagio by Gustav Mahler Book: Eternal Echoes by John O'Donohue Luxury: Grand piano

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Chris Bonington. In a climbing career spanning 48 years he has stood astride British mountaineering 'like a hairy colossus', climbing and leading expeditions as well as photographing and writing about them. Along the way he has seen many friends perish on the mountains and more than once narrowly escaped death himself.

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

Favourite track: Once I Had A Sweetheart by Joan Baez Book: History of the English-Speaking Peoples by Sir Winston Churchill Luxury: Power Book G3 (laptop computer)

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the journalist Anthony Howard. He's worked on The New Statesman, The Observer and The Sunday Times, where as Obituaries Editor, he turned a previously dead-end job into a highly competitive art form. A regular television commentator, he probably inherited his gift for oratory from his father, a parson who gave stirring sermons.

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

Favourite track: The Toasting Song (from La Traviata - Act One) by Giuseppe Verdi Book: Dictionary of National Biography Luxury: Camp bed

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the artistic director of the Rambert Dance Company Christopher Bruce. As a child he was sent to dance lessons to strengthen his legs after polio had left them severely weakened. Ten years later he was the star of Ballet Rambert. Not content with being dubbed 'the Nureyev of contemporary dance' he went on to become one of the great choreographers, working all over the world before returning to the company as Director in 1994.

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

Favourite track: Piano Concerto No.2 by Sergei Rachmaninov Book: Teach yourself French Luxury: Suncream

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is Michael Green. As Chairman of Carlton Communications he is one of the most powerful men in British television and the driving force behind digital TV. 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: Jersualem by Vangelis Book: The Complete Works by Sigmund Freud Luxury: Digital TV

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Richard Dreyfuss. He was already the youngest actor ever to win an Oscar when he starred in the phenomenally successful Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Too many drugs and too much drink threatened his career until in 1982 he had a terrible car smash which brought him to his senses. Today, with a dozen more hit films under his belt he's fulfilling a lifelong ambition to appear on the London stage.

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

Favourite track: 4th Movement of the Thunderstorm by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Luxury: Books delivered to the island on a regular basis

Sue Lawley's guest this week is Helen Bamber. In 1945, at the age of 20, she travelled to Belsen with the Jewish Relief agency. There she learnt how important it is to listen to those who have suffered. It was a lesson she continued to practice in her work with Amnesty International, and later with the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture which she set up in 1985.

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

Favourite track: Song of the Birds by Cant Del Ocells Book: Poet for Poet by Richard McCain Luxury: Radio to listen to the World Service

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the jazz musician Stan Tracey. He's been at the heart of the British Jazz scene since the 1960s when he was resident pianist at Ronnie Scotts. It was at that time he wrote what has been called the greatest of all British jazz albums - his Under Milk Wood suite.

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

Favourite track: Mood Indigo by Duke Ellington and His Orchestra Book: Crazy Like A Fox by S J Perelman Luxury: Film: Oh Mister Porter

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the film director Ken Loach. Probably best known for his film Kes, his recent film, My Name Is Joe has just won the award for best actor at Cannes. He learnt his craft in television in the 1960s, quickly attracting attention with Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home, which prompted the setting up of the homeless charity Shelter.

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

Favourite track: Opening of the 4th Movement by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics by Francis Palgrave Luxury: Radio (for football results)

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is the flamenco guitarist Paco Peña. Celebrated thoughout the world for his authentic performances, he was born into a poor family in Southern Spain where music, singing and dancing was part of everyday life. Today, he is regarded as one of the world's foremost traditional Flamenco players. 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: Portro de Rabia y Miel by Camaron de la Isla Book: An Anthology of Poetry - 'Las Mil Mejores Poesia' Dela Lengua Castellana by Jose Bergua Luxury: Virtual reality module

"Sue Lawley's guest this week is the jockey Richard Dunwoody. He's been champion jockey three times and has won the Grand National twice. Now he's hot on the heels of Peter Scudamore's record for the most wins ever. 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: Clare Island by The Saw Doctors Book: The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien Luxury: An endless supply of ice-cream

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the actress Luise Rainer who recently appeared in the film The Gambler. In 1936 she won the first of two Oscars for her telephone scene in the film The Great Zeigfeld. Despite her success, she felt uncomfortable in Hollywood and made her friends among the European expatriate community, including Schoenburg, Einstein and Thomas Mann.

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

Favourite track: The Creation by Franz Joseph Haydn Book: The Proper Study of Mankind by Isaiah Berlin Luxury: To be missed by the people she loves

Sue Lawley's castaway is Northern Ireland secretary Mo Mowlam.

Favourite track: Chicago by Frank Sinatra Book: The collected works by Seamus Heaney Luxury: A globe

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the award-winning restaurant critic Fay Maschler. Twenty-seven years after she won a competition to write a column for the Evening Standard, she is still eating out three times a week, comparing caramel crackling and moue of mousse, on our behalf. 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: Goldberg Variations Nos. 1 and 2 by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons Luxury: A huge supply of ouzo

Sue Lawley's castaway is scriptwriter & Comic Relief founder Richard Curtis.

Favourite track: And I Love Her by The Beatles Book: Guinness Book of Pop Luxury: Pizza Express in Notting Hill

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is the opera singer Maria Ewing. Renowned for her acting ability as much as her voice - she portrayed Carmen as witty, clever and very very dangerous. Her Sheherazade was sexy. While as Salome she brought the audience to the edge of their seats as the last of the seven veils revealed her naked beneath. 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: Opening of Prelude a L'apres-midi d'un Faune by Claude Debussy Book: Collected Poems by John Donne Luxury: Piano

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the Romanian poet Nina Cassian. She was forbidden to return home, after a visit to New York, because of her outspoken critisism the Ceaucescu regime. The loneliness of the unwilling exile is often reflected in her work, but so is love, passion and her wicked sense of humour.

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

Favourite track: Ach Golgatha by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne Luxury: Cigarettes and whisky

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the pianist Andras Schiff. Born in Hungary, Bartok was the first composer he fell in love with and his music is still a regular part of his repertoire; despite making his fingers bleed. He compares learning a new composition to maturing wine - you can taste it almost immediately but it takes many years to become a vintage performance.

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

Favourite track: String Quintet in C - Second Movement by Franz Schubert Book: Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri Luxury: Piano

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the American travel writer Bill Bryson. His inspiration was his father; a great traveller who never quite made it to his intended destination. His best-selling books, Notes from a Small Island and The Lost Continent, chronicle his experiences of facing up to fearsome British landladies and American motels which make the Bates hotel in Psycho look inviting.

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

Favourite track: (Sittin' On) The Dock of The Bay by Otis Redding Book: The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson Luxury: Basket ball and hoop, and a little hard standing

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the writer Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Born in Germany, she came to England as a refugee and moved to India as a young bride where she wrote her first film screenplay in 1961 - in eight days. Since then, she has written over 30 screenplays, all bar one in collaboration with the Merchant-Ivory partnership, including Heat and Dust, A Room with a View and The Remains of the Day.

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

Favourite track: Sanctus from B Minor Mass by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Luxury: A chaise longue by a window

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the wildlife artist David Shepherd.

Rejected from the Slade Art School on the grounds of having 'no talent whatsoever' he was taught to paint by a man he met at a cocktail party who told him "you're going to be painting for the Inland Revenue, the Gas Board and the school fees." Famed now for his paintings of elephants, he is one of the best-selling artists in the world.

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

Favourite track: Symphony No. 8 by Gustav Mahler Book: Collection by Beatrix Potter Luxury: Wind-up video player

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the war correspondent Clare Hollingworth. In a career spanning 60 years, her scoops have included identifying Kim Philby as 'the third man' and being the first to spot the massing of German tanks on the Polish border in 1939. 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: Symphony No.8, the 'Unfinished Symphony' by Franz Schubert Book: History of England by G M Trevelyan Luxury: Paper and pens (with thick nibs)

This week the castaway on Desert Island Discs is the jazz pianist Dave Brubeck. One of the most successful musicians of our time, it's nearly 40 years since he famously encouraged us to Take Five, and so changed the sound of jazz forever. 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: The Ode To Joy (Symphony No 9) by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Spear in the Sand by Raoul C Faure Luxury: Grand piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is Sir David Attenborough. He brought the blue-footed booby into our sitting rooms, and revealed the secret lives of plants. But we remember him best caught in the embrace of a female gorilla.

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

Favourite track: Adagio from String Quintet in C Major by Franz Schubert Book: Shifts and Expedients of Camp Life by W B Lord Luxury: Guitar

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the comedian and television host Bob Monkhouse. He began his career as a schoolboy writing jokes for established comedians. Later he became a gag writer for radio. But it was television which made his name. From the Golden Shot to Bob's Full House, he reckons he's hosted more than 27 different shows.

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

Favourite track: Adagio for Strings, Opus 11 by Samuel Barber Book: The Adventures of Alice by Lewis Carroll Luxury: Clarinet

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the novelist Dick Francis. In what he calls "the best years of my life" as a professional jockey, he broke his nose, his collarbone, his wrist and his skull but also won 345 of the 2,305 races he ran. Now a best-selling author of 37 novels, 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: Chatanooga Choo Choo by Glenn Miller Orchestra Book: Men and Horses I Have Known by George Lampton Luxury: Waterbed

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the military historian John Keegan. As a boy, he would listen to his father's tales of war on the Western Front. Disabled because of a childhood illness, he was unable to become a soldier himself, and so chose to document their history instead.

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

Favourite track: An die Musik by Franz Schubert Book: The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan Luxury: French-speaking man robot

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the actress Eileen Atkins. From dancing in working men's clubs as a child to portraying Virginia Woolf on Broadway and the snobbish Celia for Alan Bennett's Talking Heads monologue, she traces her life as performer and writer.

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

Favourite track: Get off of My Cloud by The Rolling Stones Book: Moments of Being by Virginia Woolf Luxury: An Atkinson Grimshaw painting

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' union, Bill Morris. As a small boy growing up in Jamacia, he bunked off school to play his favourite sport - cricket. His ultimate dream was to become one of the West Indies team. So how did he become leader of one of the biggest unions in the country?

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

Favourite track: Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler Book: Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela Luxury: Cricket bat signed by 'the three Ws' - Sir Frank Warrel, Everton Weeks and Clive Walcot

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the actress Nicole Kidman. Fresh from her West End triumph in The Blue Room, she traces her life from her suburban Australian upbringing to the heart of Hollywood and beyond. 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: What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong Book: Collection of Poems by Emily Dickinson Luxury: Sun block

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the nuclear physicist and Nobel Peace Laureate, Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat. During World War II he quit the notorious Manhattan Project to develop the atom bomb when he realised that 'nothing good can come out of evil'. Fifty years later he is still committed to multilateral disarmament and the pursuit of peace.

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

Favourite track: A Rill will be a Stream, a Stream will be a Flood by Swedish Physicians in Concert for the Prevention of Nuclear War Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica on CD-Rom Luxury: Solar-powered laptop

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the conductor Paul Daniel. Within weeks of becoming Music Director of the English National Opera his boss had resigned and there was talk of its merging with Covent Garden. He recalls how he won the war for the ENO's survival and the musical experiences which led him there.

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

Favourite track: Irrlicht from Winterreise. by Franz Schubert Book: Beautifully bound blank book Luxury: Cello and music for Bach's cello suites

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the television script writer Lucy Gannon. Her life informs much of her work. When she created Soldier Soldier she used her experience of the military police. In The Gift she drew on her grief when her mother died. And Trip Trap reflected the violence of her first marriage. She started writing by chance when she entered a competition and won first prize - writer in residence at the RSC.

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

Favourite track: The Best by Tina Turner Book: The Faber Book of Reportage by John Carey Luxury: Jaguar XK8

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the stage designer Ralph Koltai. He says his work is not about art, but about ideas. His stage sets are a metaphor for the whole play. Thus he thrilled Ken Russell by building him four stages each resembling different parts of a woman's body. His aim? To represent the degradation of women in the 18th century.

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

Favourite track: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor by Max Bruch Book: French dictionary Luxury: Cigars

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the Australian poet Les Murray. He began writing when he realised that poetry didn't have to be about daffodils in a far off English field but could reflect the world around him; from the sheep and cows on the family farm, to the wallabies in the outback. His most powerful subject though, is his own depression which has dogged him for more than 50 years.

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

Favourite track: La Valse a Mille Temps by Jacques Brel Book: Blank, lined book Luxury: Marble four-poster bed

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the explorer David Hempleman Adams. This year he completed the Adventurer's Grand Slam. It took 18 years. When he reached the North Pole this April he had conquered the four main poles, and climbed the highest peaks in each of the seven continents. He was quite literally on top of the world.

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

Favourite track: Manha de Carnaval by Stan Getz Book: Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach Luxury: Saxophone

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the political cartoonist Ralph Steadman. His career was launched in 1961 with a five-pound cheque from the satirical magazine Private Eye. Later he collaborated with Hunter S Thompson and illustrated his Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas. More recently he's begun to write and illustrate his own books - on Freud, Leonardo da Vinci and God.

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

Favourite track: Wish You Were Here by Theo Steadman Book: (The New) La Rousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology Luxury: Chisels

Sue Lawley's castaway this morning is the singer-songwriter Chris de Burgh. Best known for his ballad Lady in Red, he began his career playing to guests in the crumbling Irish castle which his family ran as a hotel. 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: Kyrie from the Misa Criolla by Ariel Ramirez Book: Moonfleet by J Meade Falkner Luxury: Snorkel

Sue Lawley's castaway is the playwright Howard Brenton. In the 1960s he was part of a movement called the New Jacobeans. They took drama out of the drawing room and on to a bigger stage. Often controversial, in Romans in Britain he drew parallels with Northern Ireland and earned the wrath of Mary Whitehouse for what she described as "procuring the cast to commit immoral acts".

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

Favourite track: Weichet nur, Betrube Schatten, from the Wedding Cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer Luxury: Champagne

Sue Lawley's castaway is Home Secretary Jack Straw.

Favourite track: Soave Sia il Vento by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The Franco Prussian War - the German Invasion of France 1870-1871 by Michael Howard Luxury: Saxophone

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the writer Sybille Bedford. Born the daughter of a German baron in 1911, her childhood brought her into contact with the great literary figures of her age - Aldous Huxley, Virginia Woolf and T S Eliot. She has received critical acclaim as a novelist, journalist and law reporter, covering the Lady Chatterley trial, the Auschwitz trial and the trial of Jack Ruby.

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

Favourite track: Slow Movement of 'Double' Violin Concerto in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: A La Recherche de Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust Luxury: A French restaurant in full working order

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the playwright Jack Rosenthal. Bar Mitzvah Boy, and The Evacuees are among his many successes. His work often reflects his own life. He poured the grief he felt when his children left home into Eskimo Day, and touched a raw nerve with many parents who felt they had been left behind.

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

Favourite track: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor by Max Bruch Book: Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce Luxury: Clay for making sculpture

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Big Issue, John Bird. From a childhood in orphanages and approved schools, he has gone on to run the most successful street magazine in the world, with a circulation of over 250,000 a week in Britain and an overall turnover of some £24 million. With Big Issues in major cities all over Britain, Europe and the USA, he is returning his attention to his birthplace this time with his eye on becoming Mayor of London.

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

Favourite track: Caravan by Duke Ellington Book: Encyclopaedia of London by Ben Weinreb Luxury: Mont Blanc pen, notebook and ink

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the theatre producer Bill Kenwright. His West End successes include Shirley Valentine, Medea and Stepping Out. A gambler at heart, he continued to run Blood Brothers on Broadway despite a panning by the New York critics and it became a huge box office hit. An actor himself - most famously as Gordon Glegg in Coronation Street - he started producing in the provinces. There he lured audiences into the theatre by putting TV stars such as Pat Phoenix on stage - although sometimes he had to remind them that she wasn't Elsie Tanner.

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

Favourite track: Call To Arms (Everton FC and Z Cars Theme Tune) by Blueknowz Book: Everton - The Complete Record by Steve Johnson Luxury: Guitar"

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the gardener and broadcaster Geoffrey Smith. He learnt his craft at his father's knee growing fruit and vegetables for the stately home where he worked. Later he learnt the science of horticulture at college and achieved top marks. He's always maintained the promise he made to himself as a boy: to spend his life outdoors. Except, of course, when he enters a studio for Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time.

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

Favourite track: Dawn Chorus Book: History of viticulture, with instructions on how to make wine Luxury: Bundle of prunings from a good vineyard so he can plant his own vines

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the most-recorded saxophonist in the world. Inspired by Duke Ellington and encouraged by Jack Brymer, John Harle is equally at home playing jazz or classical music. He once marched with the Coldstream Guards, but left to test himself against other musicians at the Royal College of Music, gaining 100% in his final exam. As a composer he has collaborated with among others, Paul McCartney and Harrison Birtwistle, and his first opera is premiered this week.

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

Favourite track: Hunting Song by Pentangle Book: The Aesthetics of Music by Roger Scruton Luxury: Lute and strings

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is 'England's choir master', Sir David Willcocks. For some 38 years he trained the Bach Choir - the most popular amateur choir in Britain. His retirement in 1998 he describes as ""like the end of an affair"". As the Director of Music at Kings College Cambridge, he tranformed small boys with dirty knees into an angelic choir. His gift is a mix of natural talent and experience. At the age of eight he joined the choir school at Westminster Abbey, where he was conducted by Elgar. Later, he worked closely with Vaughan Williams whose humility and humour he remembers, produced some masterful performances.

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

Favourite track: Oh Sacred Head by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Book on astronomy Luxury: King's College Chapel

"Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the sculptor Antony Gormley.

His Angel of the North towers over the A1 just outside Gateshead. Elsewhere, his figures stand buried in sand at the mouth of an estuary, or hang from the ceiling of an American jailhouse. In 1994 he won the Turner Prize for his works called Field - thousands of small clay creatures, crafted by people from around the world. Another sculpture, Bed, he created from a mattress made from thousands of slices of bread - and then ATE his own body shape over several weeks.

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

Favourite track: Raga Jaijaiwanti by Hariprasad Chaurasia and Dilshad Khan Book: Principle of Hope by Ernst Bloch Luxury: Snorkel and mask

Sue Lawley's castaway this week says changing her mind was one of the most difficult things she's ever had to do. After an out-of-body experience, psychologist Susan Blackmore set out to study and prove the existence of the paranormal. Twenty years on, she's a convinced sceptic.

She continues, however, to be fascinated by the question of consciousness. In particular, the new theory of memes which examines how habits and beliefs are passed on from one person to another. At their worst, she says, they're evident in fascism or religious fundamentalism. At their best, they're responsible for our co-operation and kindness.

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

Favourite track: Not Fade Away by Grateful Dead Book: Origin of Species by Charles Darwin Luxury: A handful of cannabis seeds

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the businessman Sir Ernest Hall.

His life is like a fairytale. From a sickly boy, living in the one room he and his family shared, he became a successful businessman and millionaire - and all because of an inspirational piece of music. Today on the site of an old carpet factory in Halifax, he's brought together his two loves - business and the arts - to form an environment in which plastic-bag manufacturers and building societies draw inspiration from the painters and sculptors who work alongside. At the age of 68 he has also realised his ambition to be a professional pianist.

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

Favourite track: Piano Trio in B Major by Franz Schubert Book: The collected works by William Blake Luxury: Piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the abstract artist Sir Terry Frost.

He first became interested in art as a prisoner of war, when lack of food and freedom enhanced the beauty of a single leaf. On his return to Britain, nature continued to fascinate him and inform his work; bright circles of colour inspired by the Sun and Moon, or patterns of white-on-white remembered from a snowy landscape. Now 83, he's never been so busy. A good thing, he says, because it keeps the aches and pains away.

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

Favourite track: Tea For Two by Max Bygraves Book: Blank sheets to write his thoughts on imagination and memory Luxury: Mirror (for company)

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actress Dame Judi Dench.

She's been delighting audiences for some 40 years, on film, television and the stage. It's partly this versatility that makes her so special. Nominated for an Oscar for the film Mrs Brown, in which she played an ageing Queen Victoria, she says the difference between film and the theatre is that on stage she can make an audience believe that she's a tall, willowy blond, when in reality she is five foot nothing.

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

Favourite track: Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh Book: Ordnance Survey map of the world Luxury: The Man with a Glove painting by Titian

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the experimental composer Gavin Bryars. One of his best-known works, The Sinking of the Titanic, pays tribute to the band which continued to play as the ship went down. It poses the question what if they hadn't stop playing; how would their music have sounded under water? His most popular composition, Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, features a tramp singing the same verse again and again, building up layer upon layer of emotion.

Composing is a craft he learnt as an assistant to John Cage, after hearing his work Four minutes, thirty-three seconds - of silence. Today he is both established and establishment - the ENO are soon to stage his latest opera and if you look closely at the orchestra, you'll spot him on the bass!

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

Favourite track: My Foolish Heart by Bill Evans Trio Book: Science and Civilisation in China by Joseph Needham Luxury: Gravity chair

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the novelist Alice Thomas Ellis.

A devout and traditional Catholic, she didn't begin writing until she was 42. The Sin Eater, that first novel, was her reaction to the changes in the Catholic Church after Vatican Two and channelled her anger at what she saw as the excesses of the 1960s. She's a woman of apparent contradictions. She wanted to be a nun, but fell in love and became a mother of seven instead. She's deeply religious but believes in ghosts and the supernatural and although her books are often triggered by anger, they are frequently tender and full of humour.

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

Favourite track: Rorate Caeli Desuper by Monks & Choirboys or Downside Abbey Book: Come Hither - An Anthology by Walter de la Mare Luxury: A very comfortable sofa

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the poet Andrew Motion.

He describes his writing as a "biological thing" - like developing a headache or the flu - but much, much more pleasurable. Also a biographer, his first, controversial work was about his friend and fellow poet Philip Larkin. While researching for it, he collected together his own personal writings and burnt them. Dominant in his work is the figure of his mother; injured in an accident which left her severely ill and from which she eventually died. His poems, he says, are his way of bringing her back to life.

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

Favourite track: Cello Suite No. 6 in D by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Prelude - Penguin edition by William Wordsworth Luxury: Pencils and paper

Sue Lawley's castaway this week believes he has the answer to "life, the universe and everything". According to mathematician Ian Stewart, it's 137-and-a-half degrees.

He calls it "the golden angle", and says it can be found everywhere in nature - whether in the pattern of seeds on a sunflower head or in the spiral of a snail's shell. Mathematics, he says, has nothing to do with arithmetic and everything to do with being able to pack the luggage into the boot of the car. But for a broken collarbone which meant he stayed at home working out puzzles with his mum, he would have remained bottom of the class and never discovered how much fun maths could be.

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

Favourite track: Scarborough Fair by Simon and Garfunkel Book: Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter Luxury: Mrs Thatcher pickled in a Damien Hurst sculpture

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet, Sir Anthony Dowell. His future was determined as a child when he stood before Dame Ninette de Valois with his trousers rolled to the knee. It took only a short glance at his legs for her to accept him into the Royal Ballet School. As he grew and developed as a dancer, his talent was spotted and soon the great choreographers Kenneth Macmillan and Frederick Ashton began creating roles for him.

His outstanding technique and dramatic sense inspired generations of dancers. But now, as Director of the Royal Ballet, he fights to keep dance at the top of the arts agenda in the face of much criticism and controversy.

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

Favourite track: Eight English Dances by London Philharmonic Orchestra Book: Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame Luxury: Sketch pad and paints

Sue Lawley's castaway this week has turned around a failing supermarket chain by introducing his staff to 'black-bin Mondays' and 'dress-down Fridays'. As the Executive Director, Archie Norman made ASDA one of the top three grocers on the high street.

In the process, he's answered every one of the 40,000 suggestions from his staff - personally. And he's learnt how to keep his colleagues on their toes - he's removed their chairs from the meeting rooms. Now as a new MP and Vice Chairman of the party, can he do the same for the Conservatives?

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

Favourite track: Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The Complete Angler by Isaac Walton Luxury: Jar of Marmite

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the opera producer David Pountney. Alongside Mark Elder and Peter Jonas at the ENO, he tried to make opera more attractive to a wider audience. The opera stage, he says, shouldn't be treated like a mantle shelf filled with fragile objects. It's a versatile and robust art form which needn't be stuck in the past. So he staged Carmen in an automobile graveyard, with a pink Cadillac and a giant billboard, while his Hansel and Gretel was set in a 1950s housing project.

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

Favourite track: String Quartet No 2 'Intimate Letters' by Leos Janáček Book: Anthology: The English Year by Geoffrey Grigson Luxury: Croquet lawn

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the man who broke the British land speed records, Richard Noble. His thirst for speed began when he was six years old and saw John Cobb's jet boat Crusader. Then, in the 1970s, he built his own jet-propelled car in his garage at home. He called it Thrust One, and wrote it off at over 200 miles per hour. Nine years later, he broke the land speed record with Thrust Two, reaching speeds greater than a Boeing 747. Last year he watched as his team, with Andy Green behind the wheel, broke the sound barrier.

Now firmly established alongside other champions of speed like John Cobb and Malcolm and Donald Campbell, Richard Noble chooses his Desert Island Discs.

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

Favourite track: The Dambusters March by The Central Band of the RAF Book: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Luxury: Guitar

Sue Lawley's castaway this week has murdered 75 people, and although he wants to retire, his fans are begging him for just one more. He's the creator of Inspector Morse, Colin Dexter. A Classics teacher before he began to write, it was a profession he immensely enjoyed until deafness forced him to quit. His other great loves are shared by his fictional hero, Morse. Both live for Wagner, crosswords and beer.

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

Favourite track: Immolation Scene from Act 5 of Gotterdammerung by Richard Wagner Book: The collected works by A E Houseman Luxury: Manicure set

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the QC Helena Kennedy. In 1992 she published a book which drew attention to the way English law discriminates against women. She called it Eve was Framed. It began a debate into how we view defendants and victims and how our judges are trained. Born into a working-class family living on the south side of Glasgow, she recently entered the House of Lords. She says her father, a newspaper packer and an active trade unionist, would have been 'amused but proud'.

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

Favourite track: Cello Suite No 1 in G Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Aeneid by Virgil Luxury: Goose down duvet

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the British bass John Tomlinson. He is most famous as Wotan - ruler of the gods in Wagner's Ring Cycle. In fact, it's a role he has made so much his own that the composer's grandson says it could almost have been written with him in mind. Growing up in a Methodist family music was a natural part of life, yet he studied to be an engineer until the urge to sing became too powerful to ignore.

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

Favourite track: Concerto For Violin And Strings In D Minor Largo by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Flora and Fauna of a Tropical Desert Island Luxury: A box of lenses

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the artist and illustrator Paul Hogarth. He has portrayed A Year in Provence for Peter Mayle, depicted Doris Lessing's Africa and captured Majorca with Robert Graves.

Born into a working-class family, his parents disapproved of his two great loves - travel and drawing. In the face of their opposition, he won a scholarship to art school where he was drawn into radical politics, becoming a communist and abandoning both art and family to fight in Spain. A popular figure with writers, he could match Brendan Behan drink for drink, and survived a 30-year working relationship with Graham Greene. Now 80, he says he still has the urge to travel, and continues to draw on his rich and varied life.

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

Favourite track: Far Horizons by Glyn Boyd Harte Book: Times Atlas of World History Luxury: Solar-powered Apple Mac

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the scientist Professor Heinz Wolff. He came to public attention when he presented the television programme The Great Egg Race, in which he challenged people to conquer engineering problems with a rubber band, a pencil and a pickled onion. In the 1970s while designing aids for disabled people, he devised the phrase 'Tools for Living' to describe his work. After all, as he points out, we all use tools to cope with our environment, whether as an astronaut, a diver or an elderly person.

It was his father who encouraged his enthusiasm for invention, sharing his Sunday afternoons experimenting with his chemistry set, or organising talks from physicists who had to hide their surprise at assessing the ideas of a six-year-old child. In the 80s he founded the Institute for Bioengineering at Brunel University. There he continued his inventions devising for example, a box for experimenting in outer space, a voice machine for people who can't speak and a safety system for deep-sea divers.

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

Favourite track: The Man I Love by Joan Wolff Book: Collection of Landscape Pictures (with book) Luxury: A Collection Of Landscape Pictures

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the politician and Transport Minister Glenda Jackson. Politics is her third job. At 16, she left school to work in Boots. But it was as an actor that she reached the pinnacle of her profession, becoming an international star and winning Oscars for her roles in Women in Love and A Touch of Class. On television, she was the formidable Elizabeth R, but won our hearts as Cleopatra in Morecambe & Wise. Despite her vast acting experience, she admits that when she came to make her maiden speech in the House of Commons she had the worst attack of stage fright in her long career.

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

Favourite track: War Requiem Libera Me by Benjamin Britten Book: The History and Creation of a Japanese Sand Garden Luxury: A bath

This is an archive edition of Desert Island Discs. What follows is what was said about the programme at the time:

Sue Lawley's castaway this week has celebrated more than 50 years as a professional performer - he's the comedian and singer Harry Secombe.

At 76, he can still hit the cruel Cs, although these days he turns puce with the effort. He can still make an audience laugh itself silly and numbers Prince Charles among his many fans. He's most definitely the best raspberry-blower in the business. Today he recalls the early days of The Goon Show with Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine. He remembers the nights spent in review alongside those Windmill girls dressed only in beads - "and most of those were sweat". And he describes how presenting Highway and Songs of Praise has left him feeling humble.

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

Favourite track: Fantasia On Greensleeves by Ralph Vaughan Williams Book: The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens Luxury: Guitar

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the Chairman of Northern Foods, Chris Haskins. Until recently he was something of a curiosity - a big businessman who was also a lifelong supporter of Labour and enthusiastically pro-Europe. It was the Aldermaston marches in the late 1950s which influenced his political beliefs. Sent to report on them for the Irish Times, he was soon swept along by the protesters' enthusiasm and sense of purpose.

It was then too he learnt his organisational skills. When put in charge of sorting out accommodation for thousands of extra marchers, he fled to the pub. By the time he returned they had gone. Problem solved. He joined Northern Foods after falling in love with the owners' daughter. At that time, it was a small company providing milk for doorstep deliveries. Today, it's one of Britain's biggest food companies.

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

Favourite track: Symphony No 9 In D Minor Adagio by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The collected works by Sean O'Casey Luxury: Pen and paper

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the artist Paula Rego. Born in Portugal, she was an only child, and spent her days sitting with the maids as they told tales around the kitchen table. Now she makes up stories about the people she knows and weaves them into her pictures. Like those early fairytales, her portraits always have a touch of danger about them. If you look the devil in the face, she says, face your fears and paint them - then they lose the power to scare you.

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

Favourite track: Da Me O Braco Anda Dai by Blanc/Barbosa Book: Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald Luxury: Pencil and paper

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the television presenter Loyd Grossman. His career has allowed him to peer through the keyholes of the rich and famous and comment on their homes. He once described Tony Blackburn's house as like that of a maiden aunt in Eastbourne. It's a formula which has lasted 14 years. Although he was well into his 20s before he learnt to cook, some 20 million viewers watch him as he deliberates, cogitates and digests the culinary efforts of his would-be masterchefs. As a boy his dream was to be a rock star or a historian. In the end, he gave up both, forsaking his study of the gin-drinking experiences of 18th-century Londoners and forgoing his evenings spent dodging beer cans thrown on stage. He turned instead to journalism and Harpers & Queen. It was by accident that he was picked out to present for the new fledgling television station, TVAM, but by the time they realised their mistake his TV career was launched.

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

Favourite track: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper Book: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Luxury: Fishing rod

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the theatre producer Thelma Holt. Famed for introducing some of the best international productions to this country, she persuaded Dustin Hoffman to London's West End, brought Ingmar Bergman's Hamlet to the South Bank and premiered the work of the Japanese director Ninagawa in Britain.

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

Favourite track: Lazy Bones by Paul Robeson Book: Utopia by Thomas Moore Luxury: Rosary beads

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the playwright and film director Anthony Minghella. He grew up on the Isle of Wight in a close-knit family of Italian descent, and says that he has never felt truly English. It is not surprising therefore that his most successful film explores questions of identity and nationality. That film, The English Patient, won nine Oscars. It is, he admits, unashamedly moving, since for him the purpose of fiction is to "exercise the emotional muscle". Music, too, plays an important part in his life. He listens to music as he writes and the structure of many of his plays and film scripts are influenced by it.

[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: Collected Piano Works by Bach Luxury: Piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the broadcaster and popular historian, John Julius Norwich. Closely associated with Venice, he talks about his love for the city and his battle to protect it from the rising waters of the Mediterranean. It's a passion he learnt from his parents - the diplomat and politician Duff Cooper and the beautiful socialite Lady Diana. As a boy he grew up surrounded by his mother's friends - artists and writers like Jean Cocteau and Noel Coward. Evelyn Waugh, too, frequently visited. But he was someone who his mother adored and his father barely tolerated.

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

Favourite track: Bassoon Concerto in B by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon Luxury: Laptop Computer

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the naturalist and writer Richard Mabey. A romantic at heart, he regrets that so much written about nature these days concentrates on the scientific. Unlike past writers like WH Hudson or Gilbert White, he says we rarely confess our feelings and emotions about the countryside. What interests him is our relationship with nature; how we name our streets and houses after flowers, why children still whack conkers, and the reasons we bring holly and mistletoe into our homes at Christmas. He himself has a special relationship with the nightingale - he describes how, in times of distress and depression, he can always find comfort in its song.

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

Favourite track: La Delaissado (The Abandoned) by Joseph Canteloube Book: The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame Luxury: Guitar

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the composer and performer Richard Rodney Bennett. A versatile musician, he is equally at home playing jazz, writing film scores or composing for the concert hall. He wants to give performers music which they want to play, so he has written percussion pieces for Evelyn Glennie and saxophone sonatas for John Harle and Stan Getz. "Nobody," he says, "needs another violin concerto from anybody". His film scores include Murder on the Orient Express, Far From the Madding Crowd and Four Weddings and a Funeral, but he confesses to having most fun when he's just singing jazz.

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

Favourite track: Violin Concerto by William Walton Book: The Atlantic book of British and American Poetry by Edith Sitwell Luxury: 6mm 36 inch circular knitting needle with a point at each end

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the novelist Rose Tremain. She began writing as a child soon after her father left home. It became a kind of therapy for her and she explains it's something she still turns to, especially in moments of crisis. Recognised for her ability to get right inside the minds of her characters, she offers the reader a view of the world through their eyes. In her book Sacred Country, we become a little girl who believes she's really a boy. In Restoration, we live the life of a 17th-century man. As a writer, she wants her work to feel dangerous, and so after extensive research she likes to forget it; keeping some facts and making others up. It's like playing a game with the reader, she says, a challenge to guess which is fact and which is merely fiction.

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

Favourite track: Dance Me To The End Of Love by Leonard Cohen Book: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking Luxury: Word processor

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the musician and presenter Jools Holland. He first shot into the public eye when he made what he still calls "a bit of a verbal slip", and used a four-letter word on the teenage music show The Tube. These days he hosts a late night television programme, where he plays alongside such musical greats as Eric Clapton, Oasis and Tony Bennett. His own musical performance has evolved and expanded from the days when he and a mate would tour the pubs for a few pounds, a drink and a lot of adoration. In the 1970s he found success with his punk group, Squeeze. And he now fronts his own, 12-man rhythm and blues orchestra. A long way from where he began as a small boy, playing boogie woogie on his grandmother's pianola.

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

Favourite track: (We're Gonna) Jump For Joy by Big Joe Turner Book: Four Books of Architecture by Andrea Palladio Luxury: Piano

Sue Lawley's castaway this week has been the voice of racing for half a century. Due to retire in November 1997, Peter O'Sullevan calculates that he has commentated on some 14,000 races.

After calling his last Grand National earlier this year he perhaps breathed a sigh of relief, because even after 50 broadcasts he admits to still finding the responsibility nerve-wracking. Horses have always been his life. He owns them, bets on them, writes about them and campaigns for their welfare, with the same enthusiasm that he had as a young boy riding with his grandparents' groom, Truelove.

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

Favourite track: Piano Concerto 5 in E Flat Major by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Ends and Means by Aldous Huxley Luxury: Bottle Of Calvados

The castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is the filmmaker and director Mike Leigh. He first came to public attention on a dark and stormy evening when 16 million people tuned to BBC1 to watch his film Abigail's Party. It was also the night that ITV was blacked out by a strike, there was a highbrow documentary on BBC2, and Channel 4 didn't exist. His recent films Secrets and Lies and Naked won top awards at Cannes, building on the recognition he received for his earlier, more gentle portrait of working-class life - Life is Sweet. He explains to Sue Lawley how his early films were inspired by the work of Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett and Francois Truffaut.

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

Favourite track: Clarinet Concerto in A Clarinet Concerto in A Major K622 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Luxury: Lavatory and lavatory paper