It is a grand moment to get Desert Island Discs (DIDs) on the iPlayer. We have always had good relations with the family of the programme's founding father - Roy Plomley - but the programme was conceived in a pre-digital age and so we needed to work out with the family how to make the programme available online as well as for its two transmissions.

We have now sorted it all out and we have plans to make the website an all-singing, all-dancing affair - encouraging people to compare their choices with the choices of castaways, looking at the most selected tracks etc. etc. And we will end up podcasting DIDs too.

For the time being we're off to the races with Barry Manilow - and the programme will be available to listen to on the web site - along with the rest of the Radio 4 schedule.

It is a great programme - doing wonderfully I think with Kirsty Young.

DIDs' moments? Princess Margaret with Roy Plomley (a curio), Sue Lawley and Simon Cowell (not a great meeting of minds), Kirsty and Humphrey Lyttelton, Kirsty and Andrew Neil (moving), Kirsty and Yoko Ono, Sue and Isaiah Berlin and many, many more. It's a treat in my week. I rarely miss it and I now have no excuse.

I still yearn for Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, Madonna, Arsene Wenger etc. etc. Stay tuned. We're trying.

• You'll be able to listen again to Desert Island Discs on the programme's home page, starting with today's Barry Manilow episode.
• The picture shows the programme's inventor and long-time presenter Roy Plomley in 1942, the year the programme was first broadcast. The picture is from the BBC's picture library and the caption reads: "Roy Plomley, script-writer of 'Hurrah for Hollywood', 'Show Souvenirs', 'Lady from Texas' and 'Desert Island Discs' series; actor and compere, 1942." You can see some more Desert Island Discs pictures from the archive here.