460 episodes

• Julie Walters

  03°00′S 172°32′W

  Julie Walters

  How Julie Walters had to enlist her brothers to protect her from her mother

  Castaway · 2 February 1985·Roy Plomley

• Madhur Jaffrey

  14°20′S 001°40′W

  Madhur Jaffrey

  Madhur Jaffrey on being lured into acting by hot chocolate at age five

  Castaway · 26 January 1985·Roy Plomley

• John Harvey-Jones

  01°41′S 010°48′W

  John Harvey-Jones

  John Harvey-Jones on his fifth birthday with a state band playing Happy Birthday out of tune

  Castaway · 19 January 1985·Roy Plomley

• Tom Stoppard

  21°26′S 069°49′W

  Tom Stoppard

  Tom Stoppard on playing the triangle in Darjeeling in 1944

  Castaway · 12 January 1985·Roy Plomley

• Sir Michael Tippett

  10°06′S 060°41′W

  Sir Michael Tippett

  Michael Tippett on serving two months in prison as a conscientious objector

  Castaway · 5 January 1985·Roy Plomley

• Ray Cooney

  11°38′S 126°57′W

  Ray Cooney

  Ray Cooney on his school joke about 'beat roots'

  Castaway · 15 December 1984·Roy Plomley

• Sir John Burgh

  00°18′S 117°49′W

  Sir John Burgh

  John Burgh on the jubilant crowds greeting Hitler in Vienna

  Castaway · 8 December 1984·Roy Plomley

• Miklos Rozsa

  09°19′S 143°13′W

  Miklos Rozsa

  Miklos Rozsa on writing pop songs under the pseudonym Nick Tomei

  Castaway · 1 December 1984·Roy Plomley

• Robert Hanbury-Tenison

  09°59′S 153°06′W

  Robert Hanbury-Tenison

  Castaway · 24 November 1984·Roy Plomley

• Robin Hanbury-Tenison

  22°59′S 134°05′W

  Robin Hanbury-Tenison

  Robin Hanbury-Tenison on spending three months alone in a small boat in the rainforest

  Castaway · 24 November 1984·Roy Plomley

• David Puttnam

  07°00′S 161°29′W

  David Puttnam

  David Puttnam on seeing Chariots of Fire without music

  Castaway · 17 November 1984·Roy Plomley

• Vernon Hadley

  08°13′S 135°32′W

  Vernon Hadley

  Castaway · 10 November 1984·Roy Plomley

• Vernon Handley

  20°40′S 152°21′W

  Vernon Handley

  Vernon Handley on how his walk earned him the nickname Todd

  Castaway · 10 November 1984·Roy Plomley

• Tom Sharpe

  05°42′S 178°45′W

  Tom Sharpe

  Tom Sharpe on losing £36,555 in his first month as a bank clerk

  Castaway · 3 November 1984·Roy Plomley

• David Rendall

  18°21′S 170°37′W

  David Rendall

  David Rendall on the conductor who died in his arms

  Castaway · 27 October 1984·Roy Plomley

• Jonathan Lynn

  00°52′S 115°18′W

  Jonathan Lynn

  How writers failing to deliver a script led Jonathan Lynn to write his first TV episode

  Castaway · 20 October 1984·Roy Plomley

• Michael Ffolkes

  11°13′S 124°26′W

  Michael Ffolkes

  Michael Ffolkes on selling his first cartoon aged ten

  Castaway · 19 October 1984·Roy Plomley

• John Surman

  10°40′S 058°10′W

  John Surman

  John Surman on choosing the baritone sax because it cost the same as an alto

  Castaway · 6 October 1984·Roy Plomley

• John Hurt

  21°01′S 067°18′W

  John Hurt

  John Hurt on first stepping on stage at age nine

  Castaway · 29 September 1984·Roy Plomley

• Alfred Eisenstadt

  12°59′S 041°54′W

  Alfred Eisenstadt

  Alfred Eisenstadt on being hoisted 142 feet into a rainforest tree to photograph from a platform

  Castaway · 22 September 1984·Roy Plomley

• Gerry Cottle

  23°20′S 050°02′W

  Gerry Cottle

  How Gerry Cottle skipped school to catch a train to Newcastle for the circus

  Castaway · 15 September 1984·Roy Plomley

• Catherine Cookson

  14°18′S 023°38′W

  Catherine Cookson

  Catherine Cookson on the schoolyard fall that made her grow up

  Castaway · 8 September 1984·Roy Plomley

• George Abbott

  01°39′S 032°46′W

  George Abbott

  George Abbott on watching a producer chop scenery with an axe

  Castaway · 1 September 1984·Roy Plomley

• Ved Mehta

  16°37′S 006°22′W

  Ved Mehta

  Ved Mehta on the 1,300-mile journey to a school for the blind

  Castaway · 25 August 1984·Roy Plomley

• William Rushton

  11°36′S 009°48′W

  William Rushton

  Castaway · 18 August 1984·Roy Plomley

• Willie Rushton

  03°57′S 014°30′W

  Willie Rushton

  Willie Rushton on writing 'vile' in a biology exam

  Castaway · 18 August 1984·Roy Plomley

• Ron Goodwin

  15°13′S 113°23′W

  Ron Goodwin

  Ron Goodwin on discovering his love of music at a school orchestra

  Castaway · 11 August 1984·Roy Plomley

• Gayatri Devi

  04°53′S 104°15′W

  Gayatri Devi

  Gayatri Devi on writing to Nehru to stop the demolition of Jaipur's walls

  Castaway · 4 August 1984·Roy Plomley

• Sir Alfred Ayer

  09°17′S 166°11′W

  Sir Alfred Ayer

  How saying ‘we’ led Alfred Ayer to resist Hitler

  Castaway · 28 July 1984·Roy Plomley

• Natalia Makarova

  22°56′S 157°03′W

  Natalia Makarova

  Natalia Makarova on deciding to defect in five minutes

  Castaway · 21 July 1984·Roy Plomley

• Vlado Perlemuter

  11°36′S 148°55′W

  Vlado Perlemuter

  Vlado Perlemuter on improvising piano for silent films

  Castaway · 14 July 1984·Roy Plomley

• Lord Rothschild

  00°15′S 139°47′W

  Lord Rothschild

  Rothschild on giving up first-class cricket after a fast bowler hit him

  Castaway · 7 July 1984·Roy Plomley

• Zubin Mehta

  05°39′S 021°43′W

  Zubin Mehta

  Zubin Mehta on a catastrophe at the Met with a glockenspiel player

  Castaway · 30 June 1984·Roy Plomley

• Hugh Johnson

  18°19′S 012°35′W

  Hugh Johnson

  How not finding a book about trees led Hugh Johnson to write one

  Castaway · 12 May 1984·Roy Plomley

• Rosalind Plowright

  07°58′S 003°27′W

  Rosalind Plowright

  Rosalind Plowright on hiding behind a character on the opera stage

  Castaway · 5 May 1984·Roy Plomley

• Leo McKern

  20°38′S 174°19′W

  Leo McKern

  Leo McKern on receiving the Rumpole script out of the blue

  Castaway · 28 April 1984·Roy Plomley

• David Lodge

  10°13′S 075°57′W

  David Lodge

  David Lodge on writing his first novel while in the army

  Castaway · 21 April 1984·Roy Plomley

• Lucy Irvine

  21°33′S 084°05′W

  Lucy Irvine

  Lucy Irvine on being forced to marry her fellow castaway

  Castaway · 14 April 1984·Roy Plomley

• Christopher Reeve

  08°54′S 093°13′W

  Christopher Reeve

  Christopher Reeve on his first stage role as a boy soprano in Gilbert and Sullivan

  Castaway · 7 April 1984·Roy Plomley

• Paul Tortelier

  19°14′S 102°21′W

  Paul Tortelier

  Paul Tortelier on preferring marbles to the cello as a child

  Castaway · 31 March 1984·Roy Plomley

• Ed Mirvish (Honest)

  06°35′S 110°29′W

  'Honest' Ed Mirvish

  Ed Mirvish on buying a theatre 3,000 miles away sight unseen

  Castaway · 24 March 1984·Roy Plomley

• Michael Quinn

  17°56′S 119°37′W

  Michael Quinn

  Michael Quinn on telling Ritz directors they’d have to pay to taste his cooking

  Castaway · 17 March 1984·Roy Plomley

• Don McCullin

  04°16′S 128°45′W

  Don McCullin

  How a dying child's hand in Biafra destroyed Don McCullin

  Castaway · 10 March 1984·Roy Plomley

• Gerald Prisetland

  11°22′S 110°18′W

  Gerald Prisetland

  Castaway · 3 March 1984·Roy Plomley

• Gerald Priestland

  15°37′S 137°53′W

  Gerald Priestland

  Gerald Priestland on being sent away to boarding school at the age of seven

  Castaway · 3 March 1984·Roy Plomley

• Michael York

  02°57′S 146°01′W

  Michael York

  How Michael York made his Desert Island Discs list in a minute

  Castaway · 25 February 1984·Roy Plomley

• Woody Herman

  13°18′S 154°09′W

  Woody Herman

  Woody Herman on Igor Stravinsky writing Ebony Concerto for his band

  Castaway · 18 February 1984·Roy Plomley

• Lord Elwyn-Jones

  17°53′S 089°50′W

  Lord Elwyn-Jones

  Elwyn-Jones on the emotional ordeal of reading the death sentence in court

  Castaway · 11 February 1984·Roy Plomley

• Stubby Kaye

  06°32′S 080°42′W

  Stubby Kaye

  Stubby Kaye on wetting his pants during his first stage performance

  Castaway · 4 February 1984·Roy Plomley

• HRH Princess Michael of Kent

  23°49′S 036°02′W

  HRH Princess Michael of Kent

  Princess Michael of Kent on having a cat in her pocket when she was rescued

  Castaway · 28 January 1984·Roy Plomley