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Fri 29 May 2009 09:00 BBC Radio 4

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Barry Humphries

Duration:: 45 minutes

First broadcast:: Sunday 24 May 2009

Kirsty Young's castaway is the comedian and performer Barry Humphries. For decades he has enjoyed global fame with his grotesque comic creations, the Melbourne housewife Dame Edna Everage and the drunken cultural attache Sir Les Patterson. Off stage, though, his life has been spent immersed in literature, music and the arts, and he says that his time spent on the desert island would allow him to devote himself to painting.

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

Favourite track: Songs of Sunset: They are not long, the weeping & the laughter by Frederick Delius
Book: The Melbourne Street Directory
Luxury: My paints.

Richard Strauss Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren (from Der Rosenkavalier)
Soloist: Anne Sofie Von Otter & Barbara Hendricks
Der Rosenkavalier, EMI
Fred Astaire Things are Looking up
Crazy for Gershwin, Memoir
Josef Suk Love Song
Soloist: Ruggiero Ricci & Noriko Shiozaki
Hidden Treasures, Dynamic
Randolph Sutton On Mother Kelly's Doorstep
On Mother Kelly’s Doorstep, Ace of Clubs
Franz Schubert Der Leiermann (The Organgrinder)( from Winterreise)
Soloist: Peter Anders with Michael Raucheisen
1945 Schubert: Winterreise, DG
Francis Poulenc Flute Sonata - 2nd movement
Soloist: Patrick Gallois
French Flute Music, Naxos
Mischa Spoliansky Auf Wiedersehen
Artist: Felix Joachimson
So Rare 3 Barry Humphries from the Bill Armstrong Collection., Bilarm
Frederick Delius They are not long, the weeping and the laughter (from Songs of Sunset)
Soloist: Nancy Evans, Redvers Llewellyn Choir: BBC Chorus Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Sir Thomas Beecham
Beecham collection: Delius, Somm-Beecham

Archive audio

This episode of Desert Island Discs is from the archive.
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BBC Radio 4Sun 24 May 2009 10:00 BBC Radio 4 LW only
BBC Radio 4Sun 24 May 2009 11:15 BBC Radio 4 FM only
BBC Radio 4Fri 29 May 2009 09:00 BBC Radio 4

Desert Island Disc Fragment Archive 1942-1959

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Desert Island Disc Fragment Archive 1970-1986

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Desert Island Discs Archive: 1951-1955

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Desert Island Discs Archive: 1956-1960

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Desert Island Discs Archive: 1961-1965

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Desert Island Discs Archive: 1966-1970

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Desert Island Discs Archive: 1971-1975

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Desert Island Discs Archive: 1976-1980

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Desert Island Discs Archive: 1981-1985

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Desert Island Discs Archive: 1986-1991

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Desert Island Discs Archive: 1991-1996

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Desert Island Discs Archive: 1996-2000

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Desert Island Discs Archive: 2000-2005

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