Over seventy years, Roy Plomley, Sue Lawley and Kirsty Young have interviewed nearly three thousand personalities from all walks of life. The foreword to Desert Island Discs: Seventy Years of Castaways is by Kirsty. She describes how most found it "impossible to choose just eight". Then, "When the former head of MI5, the redoubtable Eliza Manningham-Buller...chooses The White Stripes, it was all I could do not to punch the air and shout "Wowza"."
My castaway this week is...
In his introduction, author and compiler Sean Magee explains how the programme works. Especially what happens if you agree to appear. (Not everyone does.) Here is "a series of snapshots of the times in which they were broadcast ...... from Vic Oliver in January 1942 to the last in this book, Sir David Attenborough, in January 2012, when this book was compiled. The contents section at the beginning contains those individuals included in this book. The index at the end also contains these in bold type. This is preceded by a list of the complete castaways. Apparently, the one luxury and one book were expanded later to one choice of a record if the others were washed away.
THE 1940's
The introduction includes the letter from Monday, 3rd November 1941, that Roy Plomley sent to Lesley Perowne (in charge of light entertainment programmes) with his idea for Desert Island Discs. The rest is history. But first we hear about Roy's background and how his idea was originally dismissed. When at last given a trial run, it was right up to the mid-50s that the programme was prescribed! We hear about the discussion between the two men about the format and about how they chose the theme tune: Eric Coate's By the Sleeping Lagoon. It has remained with this music ever since.
The first castaway on 29th January 1942 was Vic Oliver, the Austrian-born comedian. We hear a lot about the first castaways, which included Arthur Askey and Ivor Novello. After two months of castaways, a second series began. But at the end of the fourth series in January 1946, after sixty-seven programmes, it was shelved.
From the interviews of those castaways included in this book, I have only selected a few. From the six selected for this book from the 1940s, here are
Ivor Novello: 30th April 1942
This is someone who has eight thousand records at home. I had to listen to his choice of Londonderry Air by Lionel Tertis, as it was described as "the loveliest tune in the world". But to us it's just Danny Boy.
Deborah Kerr: 17th November 1945
One of her early films was The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. See post of the 31st October 2025.
THE 1950's
Five years passed between the last episode of the 1940s and the first of the 1950s. It returned on 3rd January 1951 with the actor Eric Portman. From there we have a "steady stream of sporting heroes".
Stirling Moss: 4th June 1956
Interviewed on 4th June 1956, his choice of records was closest to my own particular taste so far. These include Frank Sinatra singing The Tender Trap, but it does not say who with. Mine is with Count Basie. The intro is great.
Alfred Hitchcock: 19th October 1959
Unfortunately all too predictable.
Joan Sutherland: 23rd November 1959
The opera star wasn't. Seven years at Covent Garden. An Australian by birth, her final choice was from Puccini's La Bohème with Donde Lieta Usci.
THE 1960'S
There is a long introduction over twelve pages as Sean Magee describes "a decade of comprehensive upheaval". This was the decade when the programme really took off, with so many personalities wanting to appear. The programme on the 1st April 1960 (note the date!) featured Sr Harry Whitlon whose luxury was a mountain. Then later Shirley Bassey.
Cliff Richard: 31st October 1960
An interesting part about how they came up with his stage name. I remember in either 1959 or 1960 (around when I was fifteen) we were bought two of Cliff's records: Living Doll and Travelin' Light, both on 78 rpm, as our radiogram would only play that speed.
Noel Coward: 28th January 1963
I liked his varied musical tastes, from Bernard Cribins' Hole in the Ground to Verdi and Rachmaninov.
Then two icons together:
Harold Pinter: 14th June 1965
Roy Plomley asks the castaway about his writing. "Four lines of Pinter are unlike four lines of anyone else." His reply is "I think any given person, when he speaks, there is an awful lot he does not say and is not prepared to say and cannot say." This was before his even more successful plays, such as my favourite of all time: No Man's Land from 1975.
Alan Bennett: 28th August 1967
There is a lovely introduction about how he came to be included in Beyond the Fringe with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller. Even taking it to America. This interview was well before his hugely successful plays, but he never returned to the programme as others had done.
Then the final programme of the sixties:
Viscount Montgomery of Alamein: 20th December 1969
Monty was eighty-one when he appeared on the programme. He describes his somewhat turbulent relationship with Prime Minister Winston Churchill during the war, who visited the front on more than one occasion. Monty told him, "You must do what I tell you because we cannot afford for you to take risks. I shall get into awful trouble if you get bumped off by a shell or something."
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