Desert Island Discs, the long-enduring BBC radio program celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. The concept is brilliantly simple: guest–or castaways as they are known–are asked to imagine themselves marooned on a desert island and to select their eight favourite pieces of music, a book and a luxury item. The program is a treasure trove of entertaining conversations with all manner of guests including musicians, artists, writers and actors. The program has over 3000 recordings, most of which can be accessed via the BBC website. The current custodian of the program, Kirsty Young, has an uncanny ability to disarm and extract poignant, sometimes intimate, material from the guests.
Here is a selection of a few of our favourites. —P.
David Beckham
Listen to the full episode here
Bruce Springsteen
Listen to the full episode here
Steve McQueen
Billy Connolly
Phil Collins
Dame Zaha Hadid
Yoko Ono
Paul McCartney
Zadie Smith
Annie Lenox
Keith Richards