By
Richard Barber
Last updated at 8:34 AM on 20th January 2012
The first Desert Island Discs was broadcast on January 29, 1942, with comedian Vic Oliver as the castaway. Britain’s longest-running radio series — 70 years old this month, with an audience of three million — was born. So, asks Richard Barber, as the series approaches its 2,800th episode, just what makes it so special?
THE PRESENTERS
There have been only four main presenters of Desert Island Discs. Its creator Roy Plomley was first and reigned supreme for 43 years, hosting 1,791 shows.
When Princess Margaret appeared with him, she said she liked Herman’s Hermits’s I’m Into Something Good, which she’d heard on the car radio while being chauffeured back to Kensington Palace. ‘Fascinating,’ intoned Plomley, ‘absolutely fascinating.’
Serial guest: Sir David Attenborough returns for a fourth time, with presenter Kirsty Young
Michael Parkinson, a castaway in February 1972, took over as presenter in January 1986. Plomley’s widow is said to have found his style too slick.
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Sir David Attenborough will be DID’s 70th anniversary guest — the fourth time he has been a castaway, equalling the record held by comedian Arthur Askey.
When Attenborough was first on in 1957, his discs included a track by Chris Barber’s Jazz Band and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s All People That On Earth Do Dwell. His luxury was a piano.
In 1979, the disc from which he couldn’t bear to be parted was Mozart, to which he would listen to while using his luxury: a pair of binoculars. In 1998, he chose a guitar.
And this time? ‘I’m not telling you,’ says Sir David.
‘But no, I didn’t try and avoid repeating choices I’d made before because, to be honest, I couldn’t remember my previous selections. I just picked eight discs that I thought I’d enjoy listening to.’
Parky has his own explanation for why the programme has endured. ‘The show has lasted because we all have music in our souls and in our minds,’ he said. He stepped down in March 1988 to be replaced by Sue Lawley.
On taking over, she said: ‘It’s a fantastic format! The minute you ask people about their music, they start remembering things and go back into their past.’
In 1996, Lawley’s was accused of having an ‘obsession with other people’s sex lives’ after she asked the then unmarried Gordon Brown ‘whether you’re gay or whether there’s some flaw in your personality that you haven’t made a relationship’.
To his credit, the then Chancellor maintained his sangfroid. ‘It just hasn’t happened,’ he replied.
Kirsty Young was appointed in October 2006, and her first castaway was the illustrator Quentin Blake.
‘For me, the programme’s strength lies where it always has: in the unique blend of a castaway’s life and their music,’ she said.
TEAM PLAYERS
Occasionally, the programme has played host to more than one castaway. Fanny and Johnnie Cradock appeared together in 1962 and a special edition was recorded with the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire at Chatsworth House in 1982. He chose aftershave as his luxury; she chose new potatoes.
All three Beverley Sisters were cast away together in 1961, while the Amadeus String Quartet were guests in 1978.
The top tune choices.jpg
THE REFUSENIKS
Prince Charles said no, as did Laurence Olivier, John Prescott and Mick Jagger. Ted Hughes also declined, along with actor Albert Finney; and George Bernard Shaw was, he said, ‘far too busy with more important things’.
THAT THEME TUNE
With the possible exception of the music that introduces each edition of The Archers, there is no more iconic theme tune on radio than DID’s By The Sleepy Lagoon, composed by Eric Coates in 1930, inspired by a view of Bognor Regis.
Above the sweeping strings and sounds of a lapping tide, the cries of herring gulls can be distinctly heard. After complaints from ornithologists, the theme tune was re-recorded using the calls of tropical birds — more appropriate for what is assumed to be a sun-drenched Pacific island. But after squawks of protest from listeners, the gulls were reinstated.
AND YOUR LUXURY?
The luxuries chosen by castaways have been as diverse as they have been bizarre — from curling tongs (Dame Vera Lynn) to a pot of stew and two dumplings (Norman Wisdom), a lifetime’s supply of Frosties (Ian Hislop) and sunblock (Nicole Kidman, Annie Lennox, Joan Collins and Sue MacGregor).
John Peel wanted a football and a wall to kick it against; Kristin Scott Thomas, a pair of Christian Louboutin mules; and Cilla Black, a manicure set.
Simon Cowell and Graham Norton each requested a mirror. John Cleese asked for Michael Palin, stuffed.
Dame Edna Everage opted for her sidekick, Madge Allsop. When Roy Plomley protested that the luxury had to be inanimate, she said this wasn’t a problem.
CASTAWAY: 70 Years Of Desert Island Discs, Radio 4, January 28, 8pm. The 70th anniversary edition is on Radio 4, January 29, 11.15am.
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This Sundays show will be edition 2881
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My choice if I was on the island a LARGE bar of Cadburys fruit and nut.
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Quite right. This wonderful programme should be forever. Just, those responsable for choosing the guests, should put a little more imagination into it. More ordinary people, who have done extraordinary things.
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This programme has had its day. The presenter Kirsty Young is a sycophant and is boring. All the guests are typical privileged ‘safe’ middle class bores. If the programme is to continue then it needs a radical shake up.
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My mother has been listening to this since I was very young now I’ve started too as well, it’s a wonderful programme!! As for David Attenborough being on 4 times….I could happily listen to that fascinating and lovely man all day long so that’s fine by me!!
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Have recently rediscovered the joys of listening to this lovely gentle programme at Sundy lunchtime. It’s a wonderful British institution and long may it continue.
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Fab show, but sad to learn that Attenborough has been on 4 times. There are loads of interesting people out there, we don’t need repeats!
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I love this programme, and even though it’s so difficult to hone down all the music I love into just eight choices, I think the best way to do that, is to be absolutely honest about how certain pieces of music or songs had an effect upon certain times of ones life. I love classical music and Opera; but if I were on a ‘Desert Island’ and wanted to remember poignant times of my life, there is so much diversity in the music that makes me smile……Including Frank Ifield’s ,’I Remember You’, and Bob Dylan’s ‘Girl From the North Country’…..and loads more from Gershwin to the Beachboys ; Butterworth’s ‘Banks of Green Willow’ to almost anything by Puccini. So difficult, but I think the best ‘Desert Island’ shows are those wherein the guests choose music that really ‘means’ something to them, as opposed to music they assume might reflect their image. etc,.
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Were I given the opportunity to appear on this most wonderful of radio programmes,my record choices would need some considerable time to mull over.
My luxury item,however,is a no brainer — the company of the very lovely Ms. Young.
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