X-Nico

8 unusual facts about Desert Island Discs


Ben Helfgott

As a guest on the BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs programme on 1 April 2007, he chose to be stranded with a copy of Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy and a bar with two discs for weight training.

Black Boots on Latin Feet

Much is made of the fact that Tony Blair picked track 4, Cancel Today, as one of his Desert Island Discs when he appeared on that show in 1996, as at the time few people had heard of the band.

Floxx

The following week the unveiled that they had created the website www.desertislanddiscs.co.uk (inspired by the BBC radio shown) which allowed users to log on and choose their own Desert Island Discs.

Love Is a Losing Game

George Michael named the song as one of his eight choices on the Radio Four programme Desert Island Discs.

Peter Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth

Not only did he start his tenure by holding an unprecedented press conference, he appeared as a guest on BBC television's Question Time and as a castaway on Desert Island Discs.

Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper—Case Closed

Cornwell has said, including in her Desert Island Discs interview with Sue Lawley, that new evidence has come to light since 2002.

Sweet Gene Vincent

Dury chose Vincent's first single, "Woman Love" as one of his 8 songs when he appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs show.

The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion

In 2002, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, chose "The Hedgehog's Song" for his appearance on the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs.


Charles Causley

He was interviewed by Roy Plomley on Desert Island Discs on 1 December 1979: his music choices included five classical selections and three others while his chosen book was Boswell's Life of Johnson.

LaHost

Airbridge, previously released the single "Words & Pictures", which was chosen on Desert Island Discs by the author Malcolm Bradbury.

Leslie Gilbert Illingworth

In 1963 Illingworth was invited onto the popular BBC Radio 4 entertainment programme Desert Island Discs choosing a track by Wally Fawkes and his Troglodytes, a jazz band lead by a friend and fellow Punch illustrator.

Margaret Hubble

Hubble appeared on Desert Island Discs in September 1945, standing in at short notice for Roy Plomley's invited guest, Valerie Hobson, who had flu.

Sailing By

The lead singer of the Britpop band Pulp, Jarvis Cocker chose "Sailing By" as one of his Desert Island Discs, saying for many years he had used it "as an aid to restful sleep".

The Harpole Report

Frank Muir described The Harpole Report as "the funniest and perhaps the truest story about running a school that I ever have read" and chose it as his book to take to a desert island on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs.


see also

Sleepy Lagoon

"(By the) Sleepy Lagoon", a piece of light orchestral music written in 1940 by Eric Coates, used as the title theme for the BBC Radio series Desert Island Discs and adapted into a song by Jack Lawrence.