Desert Island Discs

This week's castaway is Dennis Skinner MP. Recently described as the backbenchers' backbencher, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about Parliament and politics and choosing eight records to accompany him on his solitary island adventure.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Daddy, What Did You Do in the Strike? by Peggy Seeger Book: Let's Face the Music by Benny Green Luxury: Bike

In this week's edition of Desert Island Discs the castaway is film actor and writer Dirk Bogarde. Among many other things, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about why life as a national heart-throb has never really suited him, about his many years living in Provence and about the film of which he himself is most proud - Visconti's Death in Venice.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: 5th Symphony 4th Movement by Gustav Mahler Book: Akenfield by Ronald Blythe Luxury: Distillery

The castaway in this week's edition of Desert Island Discs is Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent. After a lifelong devotion to music, she will be whittling down her choice of eight records with great difficulty. Now Patron of the Leeds Piano Competition and the Yehudi Menuhin School, as well as President of the Royal Northern College of Music, the Duchess of Kent studied music herself until she was twenty-five. Her Royal Highness will be talking to Sue Lawley about her love of music, her Yorkshire childhood and her prolific work for charity.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Ave Verum Corpus by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: A do-it-yourself manual Luxury: Lamp with solar batteries

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is actress Pauline Collins. As someone who has been entertaining television audiences for over twenty years in popular series like Emergency Ward 10 and Upstairs, Downstairs, she has simultaneously pursued a theatrical career which recently burgeoned into huge success with her portrayal of Shirley Valentine - the trapped Liverpool housewife who finds escape on a Greek island. It's a part which has won her great acclaim both on the stage and in the recent film version. Pauline Collins will be talking to Sue Lawley about the international star status Shirley Valentine has brought her and recalling milestones and memories of her career.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy Book: Teach yourself physics Luxury: Papers, pencils, paints

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his boyhood and his memories of university life, as well as his subsequent journalistic and political experiences, including the more recent upheavals in his political career.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Clarinet Quintet In A Major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The collected works by John Donne Luxury: Radio receiver

This episode of Desert Island Discs exists for reference, as part of the most complete possible archive resource of programmes from the long-running series, and was broadcast in 1989. The castaway is Diana Mosley, a Mitford girl who married Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists. During the interview with Sue Lawley, Lady Mosley discusses her contentious continued denial of the Holocaust and admiration for Adolf Hitler, along with her and her husband’s imprisonment during most of the war years and her close friendship with the neighbours who shared her subsequent exile in France, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. [Programme information updated February 2022]Favourite track: Die Walküre by Richard Wagner Book: Books by Marcel Proust Luxury: Soft pillow

This week's Desert Island Discs castaway is Seamus Heaney, a Catholic Ulsterman who has been acclaimed by many as the best Irish poet since Yeats. He was recently elected Oxford Professor of Poetry, and he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his idyllic rural childhood as the eldest of nine children, his transition to university life and the sources of his poetic inspiration.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Quartet No 13 in B Flat Major by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Ulysses by James Joyce Luxury: Doc Marten boots

The castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs is theatrical producer Michael Codron. During the 30 years he has been in the business, some of Britain's most eminent modern playwrights - John Mortimer, Alan Ayckbourn and Tom Stoppard for example - started their writing careers under his patronage. He's also turned his hand to popular entertainment in the form of hit plays like Crown Matrimonial and There's a Girl in my Soup. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his successes as well as his failures, and the risky but compulsive character of show business life.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Symphony No 1 in C by Georges Bizet Book: Caroline and Charlotte by Alison Plowman Luxury: Jigsaw puzzles

If you were told that this week's Desert Island Discs castaway took ballet lessons as a child, was a moderately angelic choirboy and now plays golf, badminton and cricket, as well as walking long distances for charity, the name of Ian Botham might well not spring immediately to mind. But it will indeed be Mr Ian Botham who'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his exploits on and off the cricket field, as well as discussing his ambition to captain the England team again.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: I'm Still Standing by Elton John Book: Encyclopaedia of species of fish of the world Luxury: Fishing rod

The castaway on this week's Desert Island Discs is novelist and travel writer Colin Thubron. Author of books on the Middle East, China and Russia, he will be divulging to Sue Lawley some of the delights and dangers of his many experiences, as well as sharing his passion for music.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Love Duet (from Creation) by Franz Joseph Haydn Book: A Year of Grace by Victor Gollancz Luxury: Scuba-diving equipment