Desert Island Discs

Format

Guests are invited to imagine themselves cast away on a desert island, and choose eight audio recordings (originally gramophone records) they would like to take with them; discussion of their choices permits a review of their life. Excerpts from their choices are played or, in the case of short pieces, the whole work. At the end of the programme, they are asked to choose the one piece they regard most highly. Guests are also automatically given the Complete Works of Shakespeare and either the Bible or another appropriate religious or philosophical work, and then prompted to select a third book to accompany them. Popular choices include Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. The actress Judi Dench, who has macular degeneration, was permitted to take an audiobook in place of a printed manuscript.

Guests also choose one luxury, which must be inanimate and of no practical use on or in escaping from the island or allowing communication from outside. Roy Plomley{{cite news|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1787472.stm

After Plomley's death in 1985, the programme was presented by Michael Parkinson from 1986 to 1988, then from 1988 to 2006 by Sue Lawley, and from 2006 to 2018 by Kirsty Young.

The programme was extended from 45 minutes to an hour from spring 2024.

Notable guests

The first castaway was Vic Oliver, and several castaways, including Celia Johnson, Arthur Askey, Trevor Nunn, John Schlesinger, Kenneth Williams, Terry Wogan, Brian Rix, David Attenborough, John Mortimer, Adele Leigh, Delia Smith and Stephen Fry, have been cast away more than once. The most requested piece of music over the first 60 years was "Ode to Joy", the last movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. One of the most remarked broadcasts was Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's 1958 selection of seven of her own recordings. This record was subsequently beaten by the pianist Moura Lympany on her second appearance on the programme on 28 July 1979 when all eight of her selections were of her own recordings.

In the early 1970s the writer Alistair MacLean was chosen as a guest, but the head of the European wing of the Ontario Tourist Bureau, who had the same name, was accidentally invited instead.

In January 1981 Princess Margaret appeared as a castaway on the programme.

Opening theme

Plomley originally wanted the sounds of "surf breaking on a shore and the cries of sea birds" to open and close each programme. However, Leslie Prowne, the head of popular record programmes at the BBC, was concerned that it lacked definition and insisted that music should also be used. Plomley and the series' producer Frederic Piffard selected "By the Sleepy Lagoon", composed by Eric Coates (who appeared on the show in 1951). The tune has been used since the first transmission in 1942. The sound of herring gulls has accompanied the music except for a period of time in 1964 when tropical bird sounds were used.

Copyright status

Until late September 2009, Desert Island Discs could not be heard on the BBC's iPlayer service, which allowed most programmes to be heard up to a week after transmission. The programme's website stated that this was due to rights issues, as explained in The Sunday Times in 2006.

It was announced on 27 September 2009 that an agreement had been reached as a result of which the programme would be available to stream via the iPlayer. The first episode available through the iPlayer was with Barry Manilow. Subsequently, the programme was also made available as a podcast, beginning with the edition broadcast on 29 November 2009, which featured Morrissey. However, due to music clearance issues, the music selections on the podcast versions are reduced to only playing for around 30 seconds or so (and in rare instances are unavailable, as mentioned in an announcement made by the presenter at the appropriate point of the programme).

On 30 March 2011 the BBC placed more than 500 episodes from the show's archive online to listen to via iPlayer. Other episodes have since been added, both new and old.

In the early years of the BBC, programmes were broadcast live and were not usually recorded. This, in addition to the BBC's policy of only retaining a limited number of broadcasts, means very few episodes from the first 20 years of the show are known to exist; the earliest episode still in existence was broadcast on 25 April 1951 and features the actress Margaret Lockwood. Several extracts were preserved for posterity at the request of the guests, such as an extract featuring Alfred Hitchcock where he speaks about his films The Pleasure Garden (1925) and Rebecca (1940), gives his view on the changing landscape of the film industry and briefly discusses his then forthcoming film Psycho (1960).

In 2022 over 90 recordings, previously thought to be lost, were rediscovered by the audio collector Richard Harrison. These recordings date from the period 1952 to 1988 and feature many notable celebrities of the era including Bing Crosby, Margot Fonteyn and James Stewart. These recordings have been made available for streaming via BBC Sounds, the successor to iPlayer for audio content. In 2023 an additional episode, featuring Veronica Wedgwood, from 10 March 1973, was recovered.

List of publications

• Desert Island Discs (1977, by Roy Plomley)
• Plomley's Pick (1982, by Roy Plomley)
• Desert Island Lists (1984, compiled by Roy Plomley and Derek Drescher)
• Sue Lawley's Desert Island Discussions (1990, by Sue Lawley)
• Desert Island Discs: 70 Years of Castaways (2012, by Sean Magee, foreword by Kirsty Young)
• Desert Island Discs: Flotsam & Jetsam (2012, by Mitchell Symons)
• The Definitive Desert Island Discs (2023, by Ian Gittings, foreword by Lauren Laverne)

References

References

1. Midgley, Neil. (29 January 2012). "Desert Island Discs: Britain's longest-running radio show". The Telegraph.
2. "Desert Island Discs – Find a castaway". [[BBC Online]].
3. (July 2019). "Desert Island Discs – Find a castaway". [[BBC Online]].
4. Moss, Stephen. "Desert Island Discs: 75 defining moments from 75 years of castaways". [[The Guardian]].
5. . (12 February 2019). ["Desert Island Discs 'greatest radio show of all time'"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47204636).
6. (9 November 2014). "Desert Island Discs racks up a milestone of delights". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
7. (2015-09-25). "Desert Island Discs, Dame Judi Dench".
8. (1984-02-03). "Desert Island Discs, HRH Princess Michael of Kent".
9. Lister, David. (30 January 2002). "'Desert Island Discs' enjoys luxury of a 60th birthday". [[The Independent]].
10. (10 January 1997). "John Cleese". BBC.
11. "John Stevens".
12. "Shirley Williams".
13. (30 August 2018). "Kirsty Young to take time out from Desert Island Discs".
14. (5 July 2019). "Kirsty Young to stand down from Desert Island Discs".
15. "BBC Radio 4 announces refreshed schedule this Spring and raft of new commissions".
16. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1879322.stm "Beethoven tops island hit list"], ''BBC News'', 18 March 2002
17. Roberts, Laura. (2 March 2011). "Desert Island Discs' most popular requests". The Daily Telegraph.
18. "Elisabeth Schwarzkopf".
19. "Dame Moura Lympany".
20. "HRH Princess Margaret, Desert Island Discs - BBC Radio 4". BBC.
21. Magee, Sean. (13 September 2012). "Desert Island Discs: 70 Years of Castaways". Bantam Press.
22. "Desert Island Discs – Home". BBC.
23. Bremner}}{{dead link, Charles. (2 July 2006). "How a man in his pyjamas invented a radio classic". The Sunday Times.
24. Mark Damazer. (27 September 2009). "BBC – Radio 4 Blog: Desert Island Discs comes to iPlayer". BBC.
25. Plunkett, John. (28 September 2009). "BBC launches Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on iPlayer". The Guardian.
26. "Desert Island Discs – Margaret Lockwood – BBC Sounds". BBC.
27. (13 October 2022). "Lost Desert Island Discs: Collector finds more than 90 missing recordings". BBC News.
28. "A full list of the rescued episodes of Desert Island Discs". BBC.
29. (13 September 2012). "Desert Island Discs: 70 years of castaways". Amazon.
30. (25 October 2012). "Desert Island Discs: Flotsam & Jetsam". Amazon.