Billie Piper

Presenter0:01

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne, and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast. Every week, I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book, and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. And, for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:42

My castaway today is the actor Billy Piper. She first found fame as a singer. In 1998, the Swindon Teen Next Door became the youngest female solo artist ever to go straight to number one with her single Because We Want To, though she didn't really want to be a singer at all. Still at stage school, she'd taken the singing gig in the hope that it might help her break into acting. Three years later, at the age of just 18, she was burned out and ready to burn her bridges. She walked away from the music industry and found her way back to her first love. By 2005, she was back on the front pages, earning a place in sci-fi history as Rose Tyler in the rebooted Doctor Who. Later, she brought Belle De Jour's secret diary of a call girl to the small screen, but it's her theatre work that has won her greatest acclaim. After starring in a London production of Locas Yama, she became the only actor to collect all six available awards for a single performance, one so powerful it left one critic visibly shaking on the train home. She followed that with a concept of her own, co-creating and starring in the hit black comedy I Hate Susie, about a former child star whose life and career are falling apart. Though with her own career going from strength to strength, her directorial debut is on its way, life is far from imitating art. Billy Piper, welcome to Desert Island Discs. Thank you. So I Hate Susie hit our screens last autumn. One review called it nude, lewd, and joyously off the rails. I don't want to spoil it for anybody who hasn't seen it yet. But is it liberating to play someone who is unravelling so spectacularly?

Presenter2:17

It's massively satisfying and feels very familiar.

Presenter2:21

Re-League?

Presenter2:24

It's obviously quite heightened, but there are moments in the show that perfectly depict things that are happening inside my mind a lot. Yeah, certainly my early 30s, anyway. That decade is such a rich time period to explore, isn't it? It's huge life changes happening for everyone, you know, you included. And I know your co-creator Lucy Preble said about you, what's great about Billy is that she's genuinely interested in the unpretty parts of being human. What did you want to explore with the show? What were you looking at? We wanted to explore those things with real transparency, in a way that fully lifts the lid on what it means and what it costs to be female. And I think actually in my

Billie Piper2:34

Yeah.

Billie Piper2:46

Yeah.

Presenter3:09

Like early thirties, that has been my quest professionally. And actually, it's the most satisfying period of my professional life. And I can't help but connect the drive to be really, really honest with the sort of positive feedback. That seems to be working really well for me. But it it is exposing, and I do want to

Presenter3:36

Pull apart and unpack the uglier sides of being alive, being female, being a mother, being a sexual being, being a lover, a wife, all of those things. But it has to feel real to me. And we both have that sort of bleak sense of humour. It's working quite well for us so far. We've got so much to talk about today, but we have to make some time for the music too. Oh, yeah. We're going to hear your first disc now, Billy. Tell us about this. Why have you chosen it today?

Billie Piper4:01

Oh yeah.

Billie Piper4:03

Yeah.

Presenter4:07

I've chosen Gene Wild of Pure Imagination because I spent a lot of time in my youth watching musicals and theatre and

Presenter4:18

It really inspires me, this this particular piece of music, and I listen to it a lot when I'm sort of at the beginning of a creative process. It has a lot of curiosity and there's something quite creepy about it, and those two things in combination are like a big hit for me.

Speaker 34:35

Hold your breath.

Speaker 34:36

Make a wish.

Speaker 34:37

Count to three.

Speaker 34:40

Come with me.

Speaker 34:41

And you'll be

Speaker 34:43

You know what

Speaker 24:44

World of pure imagination.

Speaker 34:47

Hey Cabo

Speaker 34:49

Yeah.

Speaker 24:49

Uh

Speaker 34:49

And you'll see into your imagination

Billie Piper5:00

We'll begin.

Billie Piper5:03

With a spin

Presenter5:05

Gene Wilder, singing Pure Imagination from the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film soundtrack. So, Billy Piper, in 2016, you starred in an adaptation of Lorca's play Yerma about a woman desperate to become a mother. The reviewers were, as I said in the introduction, ecstatic and you won all six available Best Actress Awards, including an Olivier. It was a career-defining role. When did you realise that it was going to be a hit? Leading up to it, I didn't know which way it was going to go because of the nature of creating it. I'd never worked in that way before, so our director Simon Stone wanted to work in this way whereby he is adapting it, but he's adapting it with a cast, and that process.

Billie Piper5:43

Yeah.

Presenter5:48

is basically a group of people sat around talking about life and their experiences. And you do that for a couple of hours and that sort of informs

Presenter6:00

His work, and he'll go away and write about it. And he may or may not turn up the next day with like five pages or a handful of scenes. And then when we got to tech, we basically went on stage knowing the lines because we'd line run every day. So it was there, but we didn't know what we were going to do physically. So that was a massive leap of faith on preview one. And you were in a glass box on stage. Yeah, almost like in the round. So we had an audience on either side of the glass box. You reprised that role in New York to great acclaim. And one critic said that you peeled off one woman's skin until every nerve-ending is mercilessly exposed.

Presenter6:41

I mean, it's quite the feat to achieve that every night. At that period of time, I felt very emotionally available and so it suited me. And yeah, going to New York, that was like a professional dream come true to do a play in New York and

Presenter6:56

It was a mind-bending experience. It's time to take a break for some music. Disc number two, Billy. I've chosen Talking Heads. This must be the place.

Presenter7:06

I am always very moved by this song, lyrically and also melodically. But strangely, wherever I am, however remote I am, this song comes on. It's it follows me and I find that quite freaky and quite exciting.

Billie Piper7:28

He picked me up and turned me around.

Billie Piper7:33

After long

Billie Piper7:35

On with the record.

Billie Piper7:38

Guess I must be having fun.

Billie Piper7:42

Let's be sad about it, get up

Billie Piper7:46

Making up this butto alone

Presenter7:48

Uh

Presenter7:50

Read on the ground.

Presenter7:52

Head in the sky

Presenter7:55

Talking heads and this must be the place. So, Billy Pabby, were brought up in Swindon. Your dad was a builder and your mum was at home full time and you were the eldest of four children. How would you describe family life? I think my parents

Presenter8:10

Always supported me and everything I wanted to do, which was a lot. Like I had a lot of fire in my belly as a kid about things I wanted to do and things I loved and things I wanted to pursue. My mum, I feel like she was always amazed by that. My dad would champion it all the way. So he would.

Presenter8:32

find money'cause we didn't have loads of money to make these things happen. So I think I was in and out of clubs, not nightclubs, drama club, dance club. Extracurricular activities. Extracurricular

Billie Piper8:42

Yeah.

Presenter8:44

All week long. What was the first performance you remember doing? I played Mary in the Nativity play at school. I had to sing a solo and I was so terrified that I was shaking and I was holding baby Jesus, this doll, and I was just looking down at it as its eyes were rolling because you know they used to have that sort of roly effect. As they would fall asleep as you lay them back.

Speaker 29:09

I wish

Presenter9:12

I always used to wish real babies would do that, but they didn't

Billie Piper9:13

Uh

Presenter9:17

As I was looking down and seeing my solo, the baby was like sort of falling out of my hands and arms and ultimately onto its head in the middle of my solo. And it's really haunted me that and I get that nervous still before I go on stage. Oh, really? How do you deal with it? I go into almost like an out-of-body experience, a sort of blackout, I guess. The description you've used of yourself as a kid is freakishly ambitious. What does that look like in a 10-year-old? A child who was obsessively tidy to the point where I would not let people sit on my bed because I would be scared they'd crease it. Looking back now, it's just like, God. So perfectionism. Yeah, perfectionism, obsessed with getting grades. All this stuff comes up when you have your own kids. You know, it sort of sits dormant for years and you sort of think, I'm this really chilled out person, but actually I'm not.

Billie Piper9:56

Yeah, perfectionism.

Presenter10:13

Let's take a break for some more music. Disc number three, what are we going to hear and why are you taking it with you today? My next track is Fleetwood Mac Sarah. And I love this for different reasons. So it's one of those songs that remind me of my mum and dad when they were together because they separated in my early 20s. But Fleetwood Mac reminds me so much of their relationship. I moved to America for three months when I decided I didn't want to sing anymore and I moved out there and I started going to acting classes again and singing classes, movement classes, all that stuff. And I listened to a lot of Fleetwood Mac out there that just felt right, sort of rolling around the hills trying to drive. And it's got that sort of dreamy Californian feeling that sort of enhanced the experience. So for many reasons, I absolutely love this song.

Speaker 211:13

Never change And don't you ever stop

Presenter11:20

No, no, it doesn't matter anymore.

Presenter11:27

When you build your heart

Presenter11:35

Fleet with Mac and Sarah. So Billy Piper, your drama teacher, I think, encouraged you to apply for a scholarship to Sylvia Young Theatre School. You were twelve. What do you remember about your audition? I remember just really wanting it. I was really nervous, but

Presenter11:53

By that point, I was sort of desperate to get out of Swindon and this sort of small town environment. And I'm more alive to this now, but I wasn't really aware of it at the time. I really didn't like what I saw for women in that place, or certainly sort of family history. I wanted something quite different. What didn't you want? I didn't want to

Presenter12:20

Just l leave all my ambitions and desires at the door to sort of raise kids and serve men and that's how I saw it as a sort of serving and they weren't always particularly that kind so I I think on some level I really was just subconsciously I just wanted out of that. And you must have had the raw talent because of course you got into the school. I did because I auditioned for a scholarship because we couldn't afford that fee and I got the scholarship which meant I moved to London I think age well I was in year I did year seven in Swindon and then I moved to London in year eight. Okay so staying with your great aunt and uncle right? I stayed with my mum's aunt and uncle so my great aunt and uncle and they lived in Barnes and I was suddenly in London travelling across London as a 12 year old with a rape alarm in my pocket and smoking on the train I think. I would smoke on the train when I was going back to my parents in Swindon on a Friday night. I'd sit in the smoking carriage in my uniform.

Presenter13:35

You were at school with some incredibly talented peers. I think Amy Winehouse was part of the intake when you were there. What was the atmosphere like among those young, ambitious, talented kids? Yeah, I'd say it was really competitive. Um, in sort of an unnatural way for that age, I think I'd say there was a fair share of bitchiness and um but

Billie Piper13:42

Uh

Speaker 213:42

Monday

Presenter13:59

But also it was a great laugh. I was only there for a year and a half, I think. But I really loved it. But it definitely was a bit of a blood sport for sure. Because you were competing for work as well. When you joined that school, you joined an agency and you were very aware of children being cast in work. Work that you maybe didn't get from your casting or you weren't even put up for and why weren't you put up for it? And it makes you

Presenter14:29

I was super aware at an age where I'm not sure you should be. And the reason you weren't there very long was because you just got so much work. Your career took off pretty quickly and you moved out into a place of your own incredibly young. How did you cope with that? When I signed my record deal, I lived with my AR woman called Cheryl for a couple of months, or maybe it was longer. I can't remember a great deal about that period of time. Then I lived in a hotel in Maydevale at what 15. No, I think I was younger. I think I was 14 then.

Billie Piper15:04

T

Presenter15:05

Living in a hotel. Yeah. The full partridge.

Billie Piper15:07

At the full

Presenter15:10

So wild. And then I moved into my own flat when I was fifteen in Kilburn on a road called Shoot Up Hill, which my mum was very anxious about. Yeah, I lived there with a boyfriend first and then we broke up. It was rented and then I bought it and I think my mortgage was in my dad's name because I was so young. You're looking back at this period in your life now and that, you know, as a parent you start to reassess. How do you reflect back on it now?

Presenter15:40

At the time, it either felt really exciting and liberating and satisfied me with this sort of quest to be a grown up.

Presenter15:52

It also felt extremely desperate and lonely sometimes. In the end, I moved a lot of girlfriends in with me who happened to be my dancers, and we had a great time. But I was, you know, seeing and experiencing a lot of life at a very young age. Now, when I look back at it, now that I have my own children, it seems unbelievably unsafe and plays in probably unhealthily to my parenting. In what way? Well, I just get very worried and concerned that they'll ever know or experience those feelings, you know.

Billie Piper16:24

You know.

Presenter16:25

How did you manage on a day-to-day level? What was life like? Well, fortunately, I was at work with grown-ups all day long for sometimes 19 hours. I don't think I've ever worked as hard since I was a pop star. So I was at work all the time and I'd come home and I'd make beans on toast because that was all I could make at 15 and drink milk and watch Eastenders and go to bed and then get up at 5.30 or 6 and go to work the next day. Let's have some more music. It's disc number four. What's next? The prodigy out of space. Although a lot of things have happened in my life, I feel like my life is divided into two parts. Some people think it might be divided into more, but for me, it's like pre-fame and post-fame. And out of space reminds me of a time before I became famous. And I reflect back really fondly where I felt like a normal kid and I was able to do normal things. And I was obsessed with rave music as a kid. In fact, I think my ninth birthday party, I had a rave-themed birthday. What did you wear? Those floppy velvet hats. Do you remember those?

Billie Piper17:43

Ah Yes.

Presenter17:44

No, cycling shorts. Cycling shorts and a puffer jacket. Basically what I wear now minus the hat.

Speaker 217:45

No, I can't.

Billie Piper17:47

Uh

Speaker 217:47

But

Speaker 217:48

Basically what I wear now. My

Presenter18:21

The Prodigy and Out of Space Billy Pipers. So that takes you back to your life prefame. Fame happened when you were very young. You first came to national attention because you had a number one at just fifteen with Because We Want To. Astonishing success for your first records.

Presenter18:39

My memories at the beginning are really fond. Missing acting but being on stage and doing live shows. Those sort of thrilling, thrilling time in life, to be honest. But it wasn't as breezy as it might have seemed from the outside because you were working incredibly hard, as you said. The scrutiny that you were under brought that kind of awareness of your appearance with it and you did develop an eating disorder, didn't you? Yeah, probably when I was like 17 is when it got really, really bad.

Billie Piper18:56

Brought back.

Billie Piper19:01

Yeah.

Presenter19:05

I think it was a reaction to the chaos around me and it's a way of controlling things. I didn't stop reading things about me until I was like 19 and Chris Evans taught me to do that. What does it do to you as a teenager when you're reading tabloid articles about yourself, presumably at that point? And it was, it was like 90s tabloid press, so it was at their worst, at their most ruthless, and so often it was just full of lies. I really began to hate it and hate myself and hate my existence. I think fame is my least favourite thing about what I do. I really just find it quite repellent. You described a hangover from that time that lasted for quite a while, a kind of rejection of the treadmill that you were put on, the necessity of being this perfectly manicured little doll that was dressed up and presented a certain way. You rebelled against that and that lasted quite a while. When I got together with Chris Evans. I just call him Chris. I don't call him Chris Evans. I could do that if you like. Yeah. Your ex-husband and friend Chris Evans. Yeah, when I got together with Chris, I.

Speaker 319:21

Yeah.

Billie Piper19:36

Mina.

Billie Piper20:05

The

Billie Piper20:10

F E O

Speaker 220:11

Yeah.

Billie Piper20:11

Uh

Presenter20:14

went around the world with him having a great time. And I think people looked upon that as me rebelling and falling apart because I stopped caring about how I looked and I put on loads of weight and

Presenter20:27

I was in pubs all the time, but actually

Presenter20:32

That wasn't my experience. My experience of that time was I needed that. That felt like my sort of formative uni years where I could just, it wasn't completely normal. It didn't feel scary, and I felt loved and supported. And we had a great time, and I stopped caring. And that was really integral to me sort of healing and getting better and then pursuing acting. We'll find out what happened next in a moment. For now, we're going to take your next disc. Number five, why have you chosen it? Oasis, Champagne Supernova. It's really hard. It's the sound of my childhood, and I am such a huge Oasis fan. It's really hard to choose a song, but.

Presenter21:13

Again, it's got that sort of prefame memory for me, although then I started to appear in the charts with them like a year later or something, which is so surreal. Massive fan. Wish they'd come back together. It means a lot to me, especially the song I Love This.

Speaker 221:31

Someday you will find

Billie Piper21:34

Yeah.

Speaker 221:34

Find me come beneath the landslide

Speaker 221:39

In a champagne supernova in the sky Someday you will find me caught beneath the letters line In a champagne supernova A champagne supernova

Presenter22:02

Oasis and Champagne Supernova. So Billy Piper, after three years of being a pop star, you turned your back on the music industry and you married radio DJ Chris Evans in Las Vegas. You were eighteen. He was sixteen years your senior. Tabloid, of course, had a field day. How much did what they wrote bother you?

Presenter22:21

Well, not at all by that point'cause I wasn't reading any of it. Okay, so Chris taught you to stop. Yeah, he taught me to just ignore it, don't read it, don't play into it. And did it work?

Presenter22:32

It did work for me in many ways. He taught me how to do that and and my life improved because of it. And also it was at a time where people were able to

Presenter22:43

Just write whatever they wanted about you. So it felt particularly ruthless and unfair and would often drill your families and stalk you. Your experience of that, living it from the inside out, was very different from the perception. Yeah, I really needed to not work, to not care about being shiny and successful and being a sort of salesperson for other people's music, which is how it started to feel. And I always felt like a charlatan because I love singing, but I didn't have the strongest voice. I didn't write songs. I didn't play.

Presenter23:19

Or write music. Acting was what I wanted to do first and foremost. And on some level, I was acting my way through it, but it became.

Presenter23:27

too hard to uphold.

Billie Piper23:30

Mm.

Presenter23:30

And so you found your way back to acting full-time. You started acting lessons while living in LA and then back in the UK went on to land a job as Rose in the newly revamped Doctor Who in 2005. The public loved your portrayal so much that you won most popular actress at 2005 and 2006 National Television Awards. I mean it was a phenomenon.

Speaker 323:43

Uh

Presenter23:53

At the time, and a huge compliment to your skill, but obviously a renewed level of fame, so kind of back under the microscope in that sense. What was that time like for you?

Speaker 224:01

Yeah.

Presenter24:03

It was great in many ways because I was doing what I felt like I was born to do on some level. That was a very exciting and satisfying time because it was hard to get an acting job with my history as a first pop star and then this sort of burnt out child star, which is how I think I was painted, certainly through the years I was with Chris. And actually, I've had to do that until quite recently to sort of shift people's perception, which is really annoying and completely unhelpful. But anyway, we're almost there now. 20 years later. We also didn't know that it would be successful, but it made me really famous again in that sort of mainstream fame way that I find really uncomfortable. So, is that why you left after two series? I think that played into it, but also.

Presenter24:53

I was just at the beginning of my acting career. I didn't want to get like as much as I love that show. I love Rose Tyler, Russell T. Davies and all the people that I continue to have a relationship with. I wanted to do different stuff. I didn't like the responsibility of being

Presenter25:09

A sort of role model. There's a generation of roses named after your character. Do you ever encounter them now? Yeah, I encounter them all at conventions and they're now like 15 or they're all smoking cigarettes. It's always a bit like, how old are you? And they're like, I'm 16. And I'm like, oh my god, I'm so old. Let's hear some more music. What's next? The next song is The Streets Turn the Page, which is one of my favourite streets songs. And I saw them play at the first festival I'd ever been to and it just feels so brit and so.

Presenter25:45

Of its time, and I just think it's an absolute banger. I'm obsessed by Mike Skinner.

Speaker 225:54

That's it, turn the page on the day, walk away. Cause there's sense in what I say. I'm 45th generation Roman, but I don't know em or care when I'm spitting. So return to your sitting position and listen, it's fitting. And I'm miles ahead and they chase me. Show your face on TV, then we'll see. You can't do half, my crew laughs at your rhubarb and custard verses. You rain down curses, but I'm waving your hearses driving by. Streets riding high with the beats in the sky. Balls stare, eyes glaze, garage burned down, the fire rage.

Presenter26:25

The streets and turn the page. So Billy Piper, you've written quite a bit and explored quite a bit of interesting territory about life in one's thirties. It is this decade of enormous changes for lots of people and has been for you. You've got three kids now, two with your former husband Lawrence Fox, who divorced in 2016, one with your current partner.

Presenter26:46

You're writing about the kind of highs and lows of that time of life. I wonder what you think about the traditional sort of portrayal of thirty something women on T V. What did you want to explore? What did you think wasn't being covered?

Presenter27:00

I just don't think it was being covered authentically at all. Like your 20s are dramatised. You see that all the time. Even your teens, that sort of coming of age stuff. I don't know that there was something that spoke to the 30-year-old woman. So we jumped in there. And it's such a shame because it feels like such a rude awakening and like something that needs to be really, really... pulled apart, good and bad. You've recently written and directed your first film, Rare Beasts, in which you also star as a single mother. Tell me a little bit more about that and the creative process of being both an actor, writer and directing yourself as well. I started writing it after I had my son Eugene, who is now eight. So I wrote it a long time ago and I was writing it way before I hate Susie and it I was obviously desperately in love with my son but I also saw the world around me was sort of selling me this idea of you know you can have it all which I think is actually really unhelpful messaging to women it's very stressful trying to have it all and often things fall apart it's impossible to strike a balance I just don't think that exists or it certainly doesn't in my world so at a time when everyone was sort of saying you know modern feminism liberation you can have it all you can do it all all I could see around me was the sort of common crisis and I thought I have something to say about this that's where the story started and I just sort of thought I need to direct this I can see every frame in my head which and then I was thinking but this is crazy I've never directed anything in my life like not even a short did you love it I loved it yeah I wish I hadn't starred in it I feel like that was an oversight but there was a sort of it was one less person to worry about I suppose in terms of directing and I was pregnant as well with my daughter when I was filming it so there was there was a lot going on it's time for your penultimate disc Billy what are we gonna hear

Billie Piper28:55

What are we going to hear?

Presenter28:57

Oh, this is Beyonce Halo, which I think is one of the best pop songs ever written. I fell in love with this song particularly when I had my first son, and it felt like it was singing to that experience of my first child. And it resonated

Presenter29:16

With my second and my third, yeah, I feel uh very moved and emotionally drawn to this.

Speaker 329:24

And now I'm surrounded by your embrace. Baby, I can see your halo. You know you're my saving grace. You're everything I need and more. It's written all over your face. Baby, I can feel your halo.

Speaker 329:44

Praying once I hate on your

Presenter29:55

Beyoncé and Halo. Alright then, Billy Piper, we're about to cast you away. You've described yourself as restless and I wonder how you're going to manage? Nothing to do, no distractions. I'm a little bit worried, Billy, I've got to be honest. Oh, I'm so worried for my desert island experience. Whenever I go on holiday, it takes me about two weeks to chill, and then it's time to come home. I'm hoping that I could sort of settle in, but I'm sure I would find things to do, to build, to, I don't know. So you get stuck into building, of course, daughter of a builder. You know, you might have picked up a few skills on the way. Yeah, I've built a few walls, metaphorically and literally. So you'd be practical. You'd be able to kind of knock up a place to sleep. Hopefully, yeah. It just takes a while for me to unwind.

Billie Piper30:42

Meet

Presenter30:45

Well, hopefully that bodes well for the island. But before you go, we're going to let you choose one more disc if you wouldn't mind to take with you. Number eight, what's it going to be and why?

Presenter30:55

I am a massive Biggie Smalls fan. It reminds me of my life in Swindon. I absolutely love hip-hop. It's something that people don't really know about me. And also it's just something people always think slightly like weird. But I always listen to Biggie before I go into any new experience. Before I go on stage or before I go and audition for a new job or before I go and do parent-teacher, whatever it is that I need to sort of build me up, I listen to Biggie. This is one of my favourite tracks, but this is also a slightly more radio friendly one and it's juicy.

Billie Piper31:32

Damn. Yeah, this album is dedicated to all the teachers that told me I never amount to nothing. To all the people that lived above the buildings that I was hustling from that call the police on me when I was just trying to make some money to feed my daughter. Yeah, yeah. And to all my people's in the struggle, you know what I'm saying? It's all good, baby, baby. Shake it, shake it. It was all a dream. I used to read Word Up magazine. Something pepper and heavy D up in the limousine. Hanging pictures on my wall. Every Saturday, rap attack Mr. Magic Molly Maul. I let my tape rock till my tape pop.

Speaker 231:51

Uh

Presenter32:05

Biggie Smalls, The Notorious B.I.G. and Juicy. So Billy Prepper, it's time to cast you away. I'll give you the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare to take with you and you can have a book of your choice too. What would you like? Deborah Levy, The Cost of Living. I read this last year in Lockdown One and I just haven't stopped reading it. It's really short, which I like, but it talks so beautifully about being a woman. It's one of those books like The Belgiard that I just go over it and come back to a number of times. I sort of urge people to read that. You can also have a luxury to make life a bit more comfortable or for sensory stimulation on the island. What would you want to take with you?

Presenter32:50

I thought when I couldn't have tech that I had to imagine a life on this island where I hadn't had kids so I couldn't just pine over them f for all time having no sort of pictures on my phone or access to them. But actually if that's the case I maybe take a drawing or a painting of theirs. So your children's artwork? Children's artwork. Yeah. Yeah I can definitely do that. That sounds perfect. I'll just go home now and ask them to knock it up.

Presenter33:18

They'll be really receptive. You're not going anywhere except to the island. Will you send it on? Okay, fine.

Billie Piper33:20

You're not going in.

Billie Piper33:22

Will you send it?

Presenter33:24

And if the sea was to wash all of your disks away, what's the one that you would rush to save first, before the others?

Presenter33:31

Oh my goodness, that's so hard

Presenter33:34

I'd probably take Oasis, you know, Champagne Supernova, because it sort of changes every time I hear it and it's um it's very giving in that way. And it I have such positive and fond memories sort of burn into me with their music. Billy Piper, thank you very much for letting us hear your desert island disc. Thanks for having me. What a treat to be here.

Billie Piper33:54

Yeah.

Presenter34:09

Hello, I really hope you enjoyed that interview with the actor Billy Piper. We've cast many actors away to the Desert Island, including her Doctor Who co-star David Tennant, along with the writer Russell T. Davies. You can find their episodes in our Desert Island Discs program archive and through BBC Sounds. And if you fancy a bit more talking heads, David Byrne is there too, along with Noel Gallagher from Oasis. Next time, my guest will be the physicist, Professor Brian Green. I do hope you'll join us.

Presenter34:38

And I have a favour to ask. When the footballer Ian Wright shared his Desert Island discs last year, he moved so many people with his recollection of his teacher, Mr Pigton, who really believed in him and encouraged him. That moment is currently up for a special Aria Award, along with many other moving pieces of radio. If you want Ian's clip to win, you can go to the Radio Times website and look for the Aria special moments and click on Ian Wright. Thank you.

Speaker 335:18

Before you go, can I quickly tell you about Tricky, BBC Radio 4's discussion podcast that's back for another series? I'm Miles, one of the producers. We put four people in a room, face to face. There's no social media to hide behind or presenter to get in the way. Tricky is all about honest opinions on subjects that our guests really care about. Like at what age should you be able to vote?

Speaker 335:44

I think if you were to strip the vote from anyone, I'd strip it from older people. Like, forget this stewardship thing.

Presenter35:51

Why do we need to strip it from anyone?

Speaker 335:52

We won't need to strip it from anyone. I never brought that into the conversation. What I'm saying is, but if we were going to strip it from anyone, it wouldn't be people that are under 25. So expect strong feelings in adult subjects. Everything from living with HIV to surviving sexual assault.

Speaker 336:09

Discover more conversations like this by searching for Trick A on BBC Sounds.