Damian Lewis stars as Niccolo Machiavelli - in the dock for his most provocative of books. 
1.
Scott Joplin
The Entertainer
Shirley Williams
Broadcast
First broadcast: Sun 29 Jan 2006
President of the Social Democrat Party, Politician - Social Democrat Party
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the politician Baroness Williams of Crosby. Shirley Williams has spent her life immersed in politics. Her father was a Labour Party activist and her mother the writer and pacifist Vera Brittain. Their home was always filled with topical conversation, from the rise of Hitler to the Spanish Civil War.
She became a Labour Party member when still a teenager and, after a chance encounter in an air-raid shelter, formed a friendship with the then Home Secretary Herbert Morrison. She enjoyed a career within the Labour Party but, dismayed by its drift to the left, she abandoned it to become one of the Gang of Four who set up the Social Democratic Party in 1981 and later supported its merger with the Liberal Party. Now, as the Liberal Democrats are in the midst of leadership elections, she reflects on the difficulties the party has faced in recent months, and what it must do to regain public support.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Choices
2.
Antonin Dvorak
Symphony No. 9 in E minor 'From the New World' - 2nd movement
Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Conductor: Klaus Tennstedt
3.
Benjamin Britten
So Abram rose and clave the wood (from War Requiem)
Soloist: Peter Pears and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Benjamin Britten
5.
E.T. Mensah and the Tempos Dance Band
Ghana Freedom
7.
Henry Purcell
The Plaint
Soloist: Anne Grimm Orchestra: The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir Conductor: Bott-Thomas-Schopper
8.
Castaway's favourite
George Frideric Handel
How beautiful are the feet (from Messiah)
Soloist: Felicity Lott
Broadcast
First broadcast: Sun 23 Mar 1986
President of the Social Democratic Party, Politician - Social Democratic Party, Journalist, Writer
The Rt Hon Shirley Williams is President of the Social Democratic Party. In conversation with Michael Parkinson, she talks about her mother Vera Brittain, her life in America during the war as an evacuee, her career; first as a journalist, then as a politician, and her break with the Labour Party to form the SDP.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Choices
1.
Castaway's favourite
Sir Edward Elgar
Introduction and Allegro for Strings
Orchestra: London Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Sir Adrian Boult
6.
Hector Berlioz
Villanelle (from Les nuits d'été)
Soloist: Janet Baker Orchestra: New Philharmonia Orchestra
8.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 4 In G major
Soloist: John Lill Orchestra: Scottish National Orchestra Conductor: Sir Alexander Gibson
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Related episodes
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