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PROGRAMME INFO |
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Desert Island Discs is one of Radio 4's most popular and enduring programmes. Created by Roy Plomley in 1942, the format is simple: each week a guest is invited by Sue Lawley to choose the eight records they would take with them to a desert island.
The discussion of their choice is a device for them to review their life. They also choose a favourite book (excluding the Bible or other religious work and Shakespeare - these already await the "castaway") and a luxury which must be inanimate and have no practical use. |
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LISTEN AGAIN |
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PRESENTER |
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Sue's biography
- Sue's interview
- Quiz about Sue |
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"Lawley's consensual, almost sensual probing, producing an ambiguous bond like that between hostage and hostage-taker, is ... a masterpiece of technique."
The Sunday Times 17 March 1996
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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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Alan Titchmarsh
Alan Titchmarsh was drawn to gardening from an early age in Ilkley, Yorkshire: making his first polythene greenhouse at the age of 12 and deciding he was going to be a gardener when he grew up.
He left school at 15 and became an apprentice gardener in the Parks Department of Ilkley Urban District Council, going on to horticultural college at the age of 18.
His interest in English literature and writing prompted him to apply for a job as assistant editor of gardening books at Hamlyn Publishing and he began to write gardening books of his own, publishing his first in 1976.
Alan experienced his first taste of television when there was a plague of greenfly on the south coast and he was approached to report on it in Margate for Nationwide. He says, "I suddenly tasted blood. It was - Wow!, I like this. I want to do more."
He became a presenter of Daytime Live, a Birmingham-based chat show, interviewing stars like Placido Domingo, Barry Manilow and Julia Roberts. He also presented Songs of Praise but never forgot his gardening, and took to the screens as a gardener with the amazingly successful garden make-over programme, Ground Force, in 1997.
As well as presenting the more "serious" gardening programme, Gardener's World, Alan recently took viewers back to basics with the series How to be a Gardener and, having written a grand total of 37 gardening books, he remains the UK's premier gardener.
1. Lark Ascending
Performer Pinchas Zukerman and the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim
Composer Vaughan Williams
Publisher Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg
CD Title The Sound of England
Band CD 1 track 8
Label Deutsche Grammophon
Rec No 469 275-2 & 276-2
2. Sunset
Performer The Band of the Royal Marines conducted by Lieutenant Colonel Paul Neville and Lieutenant Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn
Composer Green
Publisher EMI
CD Title Sunset Bnad of HM Royal Marines
Label ONE UP
Rec No OU 2096
3. Finale Ultimo from the soundtrack of the film "Camelot"
Performer Richard Burton
Composer Loewe/ Lerner
Publisher Columbia
CD Title Camelot - original cast recording
Label COLUMBIA
Rec No CK 32602
4. 'Remember' from A Little Night Music
Performer Benjamin Rayson, Teri Ralston, Beth Fowler, Gene Varrone and Barbara Lang
Composer Stephen Sondheim
Publisher SONYv
CD Title A little Night Music
Label SONY CLASSICAL
Rec No SK 65284
5. Always and Forever
Performer Pat Metheny with members of the London Orchestra conducted by Jeremy Lubbock
Composer Metheny
Publisher Metheny Group Productions
CD Title Pat Metheny Secret Story
Label GEFFEN
Rec No GED 24468
6. Weep You No More Sad Fountains
Performer Jane Eaglen
Composer Patrick Doyle
Publisher Sonyv
CD Title from the soundtrack of the film Sense and Sensibility
Label SONY CLASSICAL
Rec No SK 62258
7. I was Glad
Performer London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Richard Hickox
Composer Sir Charles Hubert Parry
Publisher Chandos Records Ltd.
CD Title Elgar: Dream of Gerontus / Palmer/ Davie/ Howell/ LSO & Chorus
Band CD2 T9
Label CHANDOS
Rec No CHAN 8641/42
8. The evening song of the blackbird
ACTUALITY FROM RSPB ARCHIVES - NOT COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE
If Alan could take just one record it would be No 1 Lark Ascending.
His book, apart from The Bible and the Complete Works of Shakespeare, would be one of the PG Wodehouse 'Blandings' novels
Her luxury would be a box of watercolours.
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