Last updated February 2006
Category: Radio 2
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Desmond Carrington presents The Music Goes Round live on BBC Radio 2 every Tuesday between 7.00 and 8.00pm from his own studio in his converted farmhouse in Perthshire, Scotland.
Born on 23 May 1926, Desmond has been an actor since he was 16.
His first professional appearance was at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham in 1942 playing a young Londoner in James Hilton's play Goodbye, Mr Chips.
He then toured Britain with several plays and joined a repertory company performing twice nightly – air raids permitting!
In 1943 he was conscripted into the Royal West Kent regiment and was drafted out to India in 1944. There he was commissioned as an officer.
On a personal application to Lord Louis Mountbatten, he was posted to Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to join Radio SEAC, a British Forces Broadcasting station serving the whole of the Far East.
This launched him upon a radio career which has continued ever since.
As an actor he was a member of the BBC Drama Repertory Company during 1951 and soon afterwards became one of the first British independent producers of radio programmes for the BBC and Radio Luxembourg.
In 1959 the medical soap-opera Emergency Ward 10 - televised live in Britain twice weekly - recruited Desmond to play the young Dr Chris Anderson for three weeks.
He left after six years, having appeared in some 350 episodes.
His other television and radio appearances include presenting the Daz Swap TV commercials, Thank Your Lucky Stars, picking Hit Parade favourites, and the record request series Housewives' Choice.
Desmond has also played many leading roles on stage, his favourite being King Edward the Eighth in Royce Ryton's play Crown Matrimonial.
Desmond has won international awards for his radio scripts and production and in 1991 was voted British Radio Personality of the Year.
He has also piloted several CD recordings by the band of the former Royal Yacht Britannia and was delighted to be invited on board the vessel for interviews with its crew in Hong Kong in 1997 during the historic handover of the colony to China.
Desmond presented All Time Greats on Sunday lunchtimes on Radio 2 from 3 October 1981 until August 2004.
Desmond Carrington with The Music Goes Round - Tuesdays, 7.00 to 8.00pm, Radio 2
