Christopher Frayling

This week Sue Lawley's castaway is Professor Sir Christopher Frayling the Rector of the Royal College of Art and a champion of popular culture. He was born into an affluent family living in London. His father, Major Arthur Frayling, was a successful furrier, and his mother was fascinated by the arts and cars - she won the RAC Rally in 1952. At six he was sent to boarding school, which he hated, and it was there that he developed his life long love of film acting and design. He studied history at Cambridge and did a doctorate on Jean Jacques Rosseau and the French Revolution. He fought his father's ambitions for him to enter advertising and chose an academic career path, becoming a lecturer at the Universities of Exeter and Bath in the 1970s. At that time he worked on the programme The World at War and he's since become an accomplished broadcaster known for his work on Radio 4. He won an award at the New York Film and Television Festival for a six-part Channel 4 series about advertising called The Art of Persuasion.

He's published 13 books to date with an eclectic range of titles from spaghetti westerns to The Face of Tutankhamun and Clint Eastwood - a critical biography. As well as being Rector of the Royal College of Art, Sir Christopher is also the longest serving Trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum and is Chairman of the Design Council.

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

Choices

1.

Ian Dury

Reasons To Be Cheerful Part 3

2.

Royal Scots Grey Band

Gypsy Love Selection

Artist: F W Frayling - PRIVATE TAPE

3.

Audrey Hepburn

Moon River

Others who chose this artist

4.

Kurt Weill

Ballad of Mack the Knife (from The Threepenny Opera)

Orchestra: State Opera Orchestra Berlin Conductor: O. Klemperer

Others who chose this artist

5.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

J'ai perdu tout mon bonheur

Soloist: Ana Maria Miranda Orchestra: Orchestra de chambre

Others who chose this artist

6.

Howard Davidson

Title music from The Face of Tutankanum

Others who chose this artist

7.

Castaway's favourite

Ennio Morricone

Il Triello

Orchestra: Orchestra U.M.R. Unione Musicisti di Roma

Others who chose this artist

8.

Gabriel Fauré

Cantique de Jean Racine

Orchestra: Cbso Conductor: Louis Fremaux

Others who chose this artist

Book

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Others who chose this author

Luxury item

V & A Museum

Others who chose a similar luxury