Joanna Lumley

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actress Joanna Lumley. She first found fame as the high-kicking glamour-puss Purdey in the 1970s show The New Avengers, but the role that cemented her in the nation's psyche was Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous. A striking beauty with a cut-glass accent she had, until then, been cast as a certain sort of sexy toff. Yet in AbFab she stole the show as a shallow, free-loading, alcoholic has-been - famous for her towering chignon and withering one-liners.

Along with displaying a formidable comic talent, it was a role that toyed cleverly with her public persona, hinting at her own beginnings as a model at the precise moment in the 1960s when London really started to swing. As she contemplates being marooned, she abandons the make-up and glamour of her on-screen life and embraces island living - collecting firewood, eating from shells and preparing her evening fire before the moon rises and she chooses the eight tracks that she would like to hear during a single island day.

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

Choices

1.

Richard Wagner

Tannhäuser Overture

Orchestra: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Bernard Haitink

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2.

Iestyn Edwards

Tom Bowling

3.

Castaway's favourite

Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 7 in A major

Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Herbert von Karajan

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4.

Wham!

Last Christmas

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5.

Giacomo Puccini

Perchè tarda la luna? (from Turandot)

Orchestra: Orchestra of the Rome Opera House Conductror: Francesco Molinari-Pradelli

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6.

Elvis Presley

Girl Of My Best Friend

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7.

Nat King Cole

Stardust

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8.

Jean Sibelius

Symphony No. 2 in D major

Orchestra: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Sir John Barbirolli

Others who chose this artist

Book

A huge atlas by

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Luxury item

Video camera and film

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"The music of Rossini came into my life very early", says actress Joanna Lumley, "I loved him because his music is so happy". In conversation with Michael Parkinson, she recalls her upbringing in the Far East, a convent education and her subsequent theatrical career. She also chooses the other music to accompany Rossini on her sojourn to the desert island.

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

Choices

1.

Paul Robeson

Mary Had A Baby, Yes Lord

Others who chose this artist

2.

Gioachino Rossini

Semiramide

Soloist: Toscanini

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3.

Fryderyk Chopin

Nocturne in E minor, Op. 72

Soloist: Tamas Vasary

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4.

Eddie Calvert

Midnight

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5.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Symphony No. 39 in E flat major

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6.

Gaetano Donizetti

Lucia di Lammermoor

Soloist: Maria Callas

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7.

Max Bruch

Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor

Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Andre Previn

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8.

Castaway's favourite

Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 3 in E flat major 'Eroica' - 1st movement

Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra Conductor: Sir John Barbirolli

Others who chose this artist

Book

A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell

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Luxury item

Specially-commissioned John Ward painting of family & friends

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