BBC Radio 4 is often dismissed as
stuffy and old-fashioned, holding little relevance in this digital
age, but it has been the home of one of the most enduringly relevant
radio programmes of all time, Desert Island Discs.
Since the man who devised the
programme, Roy Plomley, interviewed the first ever castaway in
January 1942, more than 3000 of the day’s most influential,
controversial and news-worthy faces have talked through the eight
records, one book and single luxury they would take with them to the
mythical desert island.
To celebrate 70 years of Desert Island
Discs, Kirsty Young, sometime Have I Got News For You anchor and
presenter of the radio show since 2006, has brought together over 80
of the most memorable guests to grace the airwaves over the past
seven decades.
The show has only had four presenters,
who have each scored equally impressive coups with their celebrity
bookings.
Plomley, who served as presenter for
over forty years had the pleasure of Alfred Hitchcock and Margaret
Thatcher’s company, as well as the young, now Sir, Cliff Richard,
whom he quizzed about his “frenzied” on-stage dancing.
Plomley’s successors, Michael
Parkinson and Sue Lawley, saw the likes of Elton John, Tony Blair and
HRH Princess Margaret during the 1980s and 1990s, while today’s
presenter, Kirsty Young, has lured similarly impressive guests, from
Morrissey to Johnny Vegas, the latter of whom gave, surprisingly, one
of the most personal and affecting interviews to be captured in the
book.
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