0:00:02 > 0:00:04Could you endure prolonged loneliness?
0:00:04 > 0:00:07What would you be happiest to have got away from?
0:00:07 > 0:00:10Would you try to escape?
0:00:10 > 0:00:12Would you know which way to go?
0:00:12 > 0:00:17If you could take only one disc out of the eight you have chosen, which would it be?
0:00:17 > 0:00:23Would you like to choose one luxury, any one object of no practical use?
0:00:23 > 0:00:27And one book, apart from the Bible and the Complete Works Of Shakespeare.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54In Britain, as the worst winter on record continues, many towns
0:00:54 > 0:00:57in the Southwest are still cut off and without electricity.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01Even in London, roads are blocked and many people are being advised
0:01:01 > 0:01:05to stay at home and not try to make the hazardous journey to the office.
0:01:05 > 0:01:10There is still no sign of the American diplomat's son, Hank Vanderbilt, who disappeared
0:01:10 > 0:01:15in the South Seas three weeks ago attempting to sail his home-made trimaran across the Pacific.
0:01:15 > 0:01:22When last radio contact was made, Mr Vanderbilt reported the seas were calm and the weather fine.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26Experts say he may have run aground on an uninhabited island,
0:01:26 > 0:01:31and it would be possible for him to exist undetected for many months.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33There you go, sir. Broadcasting House.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36BBC radio news.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38Radio 4.
0:01:38 > 0:01:43Now, it's five past nine, and time for Desert Island Discs.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47As usual, the castaway is introduced by Roy Plomley.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56"Most durable programmes, BBC.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59"Most durable broadcast.
0:01:59 > 0:02:07"The longest-running record programme is Desert Island Discs, which began on 29th January 1942,
0:02:07 > 0:02:14"and on which programme only one guest, Arthur Askey CBE, has been stranded a fourth time.
0:02:14 > 0:02:21"The programme has been presented since its inception by Roy Plomley OBE, who devised the idea."
0:02:24 > 0:02:28It was a cold November night in 1941.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31I was living in digs in a Hertfordshire village.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36My coal fire had gone out, I was already in my pyjamas.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41What I needed was an idea strong enough for a series of six programmes.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46I was just about to get into bed and then I had the inspiration.
0:02:46 > 0:02:51# Let's drift away on Dreamer's Bay
0:02:51 > 0:02:55# Let's sail along And sing a song together. #
0:02:55 > 0:02:59Normally I'd have been inclined to leave it until the morning,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03by which time I'd probably have forgotten about it.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07But I felt impelled to go straight to my typewriter.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16Do you play the gramophone a lot?
0:03:16 > 0:03:19Quite a lot. I like playing the gramophone
0:03:19 > 0:03:25but music is so much a part of my dancing that if I'm listening to music, I am, in a way, working.
0:03:25 > 0:03:30I'm not completely relaxed. But what I have always looked forward to most in my life
0:03:30 > 0:03:35would be an old age on a desert island just playing gramophone records all day long.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41HE SINGS
0:03:41 > 0:03:46The useless, luxury things I will take with me...
0:03:46 > 0:03:47It will be a gold bar.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52- ..A big piece of polished gold. - What are you going to do with it?
0:03:52 > 0:03:57When I play this Strauss, I will dance with this blonde in my arm!
0:04:00 > 0:04:01And dance around the sand.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04It's useless but it's beautiful.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09How good a Robinson Crusoe would you be?
0:04:09 > 0:04:11Could you look after yourself on a desert island?
0:04:11 > 0:04:14I couldn't. I can't even put a key in a door, darling.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16I can't do a thing for myself.
0:04:16 > 0:04:22I never stand up if I can sit down and I never sit down if I can lie down, you know.
0:04:22 > 0:04:28My 1,630th castaway is, I'm happy to say, Paul McCartney -
0:04:28 > 0:04:31composer, musician and ex-Beatle.
0:04:33 > 0:04:34How well could you endure loneliness?
0:04:34 > 0:04:39How well could I endure loneliness? I don't really know.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44As a kid, I never used to mind it too much.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48Since then, I haven't been lonely so I haven't tested it.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52But I used to quite like getting away on my own.
0:04:52 > 0:04:56- You mean alone, prolonged, on a desert island?- That's it.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Well, as the joke goes, it's better than the alternative.
0:04:59 > 0:05:00- What's that?- Being dead.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05- Well, yes!- But I wouldn't like it for too long, no.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07The idea doesn't appeal at all.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11I'm not especially gregarious. I can get along
0:05:11 > 0:05:13with my own dismal personality for a while
0:05:13 > 0:05:18but I would hate to endure it for any length of time.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22To know and be uncertain about when you would see anyone else
0:05:22 > 0:05:24would be a problem. Fortunately, football means
0:05:24 > 0:05:29I have a busy life with a lot of friends and I meet a lot of people,
0:05:29 > 0:05:36and I've actually got a strong family background as well. So I think to be isolated like that
0:05:36 > 0:05:38would be a problem,
0:05:38 > 0:05:44unless you knew some little boat was going to come along in a few months' time and rescue you.
0:05:44 > 0:05:46Can't set any term to it.
0:05:46 > 0:05:47That's what I'm worried about.
0:05:51 > 0:05:56The first series was transmitted early in 1942.
0:05:56 > 0:06:01Every Thursday evening, a well-known broadcaster is asked the question, if you were
0:06:01 > 0:06:07cast away alone on a desert island, which eight gramophone records would you choose to have with you,
0:06:07 > 0:06:13assuming of course that you have also a gramophone and an inexhaustible supply of needles.
0:06:13 > 0:06:19Leslie Perowne was the producer in charge of the lighter kinds of record programmes and I wrote to him.
0:06:19 > 0:06:21Stand by, boys.
0:06:21 > 0:06:23Broadcasting was a little different in those days.
0:06:23 > 0:06:29Most programmes went out live but they were carefully scripted.
0:06:31 > 0:06:32Good evening, everyone.
0:06:32 > 0:06:38Tonight we are privileged to have on our desert island a man whose tireless activities...
0:06:38 > 0:06:42I still think we should have used that studio at Tottering Towers.
0:06:42 > 0:06:47Don't keep harping on. Anyway, it was your fault. We came here on your bicycle and you were steering.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Well, I followed the wrong bus.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52You should have turned off at Tottering Court Road.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55I couldn't turn the handle bars, what with you and all that baggage.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58For Pete's sake, what is all that baggage?
0:06:58 > 0:07:00These are my records.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03You asked me to bring eight records, didn't you?
0:07:03 > 0:07:04And what's in that big basket?
0:07:04 > 0:07:06Big basket?
0:07:07 > 0:07:10It's such a simple idea.
0:07:10 > 0:07:11It's a wonder...
0:07:11 > 0:07:13That's part of its success.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17That is the answer - that somebody hadn't beaten you to it, Roy.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20Shall I say that? Me, for instance.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26The reason why people like it so much is curiosity.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28Simply curiosity.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31I think everybody wants to know...
0:07:32 > 0:07:36..the private tastes of public people, put it that way.
0:07:38 > 0:07:40It's a good way of doing it.
0:07:40 > 0:07:44Let's say that the Archbishop of Canterbury,
0:07:44 > 0:07:49he might be one of your castaways - he may have been already -
0:07:49 > 0:07:56to our surprise will choose, let us say, Meade Lux Lewis playing boogie woogie,
0:07:56 > 0:07:58which we didn't expect.
0:07:58 > 0:08:06Similarly, if Mick Jagger was a castaway, you wouldn't perhaps expect him to play
0:08:06 > 0:08:09an aria from Bach's Mass in B minor, but he might.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12- # Get me to the church - Get me to the church
0:08:12 > 0:08:19# Be sure and get me To the church on ti-i-ime! #
0:08:20 > 0:08:24Stanley Holloway - "Get Me To The Church On Time".
0:08:24 > 0:08:27How much does music mean to you, Professor Galbraith?
0:08:27 > 0:08:33Music is something that I'm sorry to say passes me by.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37I do not sit in rapture
0:08:37 > 0:08:40before the...before the BBC,
0:08:40 > 0:08:44listening to its more exotic work.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47Do you like to hum tunes?
0:08:47 > 0:08:54I do when I'm all by myself, but when I'm with anybody else I'm promptly told that I must stop it.
0:08:54 > 0:08:58Because the notes are wrong or because you have a small repertoire?
0:08:58 > 0:09:03Because whatever I do is deeply offensive to someone else's ears.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05I am sorry about that.
0:09:05 > 0:09:11How did you set about choosing just a few, just eight records, to take with you on a desert island?
0:09:11 > 0:09:15I had to listen at some length to my wife,
0:09:15 > 0:09:19because she thought some of my first selections were rather sordid.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22- Did you take her advice?- I always do.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26If I don't take it the first time then she repeats it.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28So this is a family choice?
0:09:28 > 0:09:32It's a family choice, but also, to be serious,
0:09:32 > 0:09:35I picked out things which I've enjoyed
0:09:35 > 0:09:41and which had some meaning for some part of my long past life.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53# What a gorgeous, ah ah ah Situation, oh oh oh
0:09:53 > 0:09:55# Oh, ah ah ah... #
0:09:55 > 0:09:58We've got a prospective date, let's have lunch together.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02- Would you like to have lunch at the Garrick?- 'Who's going to pay, Roy?
0:10:02 > 0:10:04'Who's going to pay?'
0:10:04 > 0:10:06With reasonable luck, the BBC.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08'Don't stutter! Yes or no, who's going to pay?'
0:10:08 > 0:10:09The BBC will pay.
0:10:09 > 0:10:11'All right, then.'
0:10:11 > 0:10:15- We'll swing it on them. - 'Let them pay. All right, then.'
0:10:15 > 0:10:19Then we'll go to Broadcasting House and throw records about
0:10:19 > 0:10:22until you are quite happy that you've got the right ones.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26'I'm delighted. I'm flattered you should ask me back, Roy.'
0:10:26 > 0:10:29We'll have a couple of drinks afterwards.
0:10:29 > 0:10:30'Oh, yes.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33'Thank you very much. On the BBC as well?'
0:10:33 > 0:10:37I don't know about that but we will try.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39'I'd be delighted, it's a great accolade.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43- Bless you... - 'Congratulations on your longevity.'
0:10:43 > 0:10:46And the same to you. We'll have some laughs.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50- 'Look forward to seeing you. Cheers now.'- Bye.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54- That was Frankie Howerd, he is coming back on.- Oh, good. He's super.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58- He's always marvellous.- A very good man.- Would you like a sherry?
0:10:58 > 0:11:02That's a very civilised thought. Thank you kindly.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05The silver light on the water this morning...
0:11:05 > 0:11:09I've been wasting a lot of time looking out of the window.
0:11:13 > 0:11:17It's hard to believe, but seafaring runs in the Plomley blood.
0:11:17 > 0:11:22A long time ago, there were ship owners and privateers,
0:11:22 > 0:11:27Francis Plomley, a surgeon's mate, and Sir Richard, an admiral.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36This is the British Broadcasting Corporation.
0:11:39 > 0:11:45Be not a-feared, the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs
0:11:45 > 0:11:49that give delight and hurt not.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53Sometimes, 1,000 twangling instruments will hum about my ears
0:11:53 > 0:12:00and sometimes voices that, if I'd had waked after a long sleep, would make me sleep again
0:12:00 > 0:12:08and then in dreaming, the clouds me thought would open and show riches ready to drop upon me.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12And when I waked, I'd try to dream again.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26This week our castaway is the footballer, Trevor Brooking.
0:12:26 > 0:12:32Trevor, did you ever dare to think as a schoolboy, when you were edging towards professional football,
0:12:32 > 0:12:34that you'd get as far as you have got?
0:12:34 > 0:12:41No, I mean I love football. Every opportunity I was playing football but it never did cross my mind
0:12:41 > 0:12:44about professional football until the scout came round the house.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48Watch Brooking... He scored from inside the six-yard box!
0:12:48 > 0:12:53Once you think of it as a career, you have to take a different view.
0:12:53 > 0:12:58If I hadn't gone into it, you'd wonder how things would have gone.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02It's an unpredictable career but, certainly,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06it's one, really, looking back, that I wouldn't have changed at all.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Frankly, whenever I ask myself the question that I ask my castaways,
0:13:10 > 0:13:14I realise how exceedingly difficult they are to answer.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17The thing is, I find I change my mind all the time.
0:13:17 > 0:13:24I get crazes for different kinds of music, from piano jazz to French romantic opera.
0:13:24 > 0:13:29Among my eight, really there's only one constant and that is Beethoven's Emperor Concerto.
0:13:29 > 0:13:34I think it's a piece of music that would last a long time on anybody's desert island.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04Circular, big palm tree in the middle, fake.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07It's got yellow sand on it, little lapping waves.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11I'm there in trousers to the knee and frayed.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15A few suitcases lying around and carrying my guitar,
0:14:15 > 0:14:19a couple of these records, the log that we managed to swim ashore on.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24Desert Island Discs conjures up traditional British pleasures
0:14:24 > 0:14:28like the great British breakfast, The Billy Cotton Band Show.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31Very sort of downbeat, very relaxed.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36I love its...homeliness.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41Back to music, number six.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43Is a song called Searchin'.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48This is one we used to do at the Cavern with the Beatles.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51We had groups of fans who used to give themselves little names.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55There used to be a group of fans called The Cement Mixers,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58there was some other group called The Wooden Tops.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02They make up little names for themselves to be in a little gang.
0:15:02 > 0:15:07There was two girls called Chris and Val and they used to say,
0:15:07 > 0:15:09"Sing Searchin', Paul! Sing Searchin'!"
0:15:09 > 0:15:13That was the big request from Chris and Val. "Sing Searchin'!"
0:15:13 > 0:15:14# Gonna find her...
0:15:16 > 0:15:18# Gonna find her... #
0:15:18 > 0:15:20That was me and George did that bit,
0:15:20 > 0:15:23then John singing the lead.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27# Gonna find her Yeah, I'm gonna searchin'
0:15:29 > 0:15:31# I'm gonna searchin'
0:15:31 > 0:15:32# Oh, yeah
0:15:32 > 0:15:37# Searchin' every whi-i-ich a-way Yeah, yeah!
0:15:37 > 0:15:40# Oh, yeah, searchin'
0:15:40 > 0:15:42# Gonna find her
0:15:42 > 0:15:44# Gonna find her
0:15:46 > 0:15:51# Searchin' every which a-way Yeah, yeah!
0:15:51 > 0:15:56# But I'm like that northwest Mountie
0:15:56 > 0:16:00# You know I'll bring her in some day. #
0:16:00 > 0:16:04- THEY LAUGH - Great. Good words on this one.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15Paul McCartney didn't choose anything by the Beatles or himself.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19Elisabeth Schwarzkopf chose seven of her own.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22Then, of course, there was Otto Preminger.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26I have as much hair as you. I shave it because I think it's awful
0:16:26 > 0:16:31to have this little hair around the thing and be bald otherwise.
0:16:31 > 0:16:37If you take my advice, buy yourself an electric shaver and shave it.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40- I'll start tomorrow. - Please, yes.
0:16:40 > 0:16:45You played us eight discs, all from soundtracks of your own films.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49If you could only have one of the discs, which would it be?
0:16:49 > 0:16:51I won't tell you.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54Which one would YOU like best?
0:16:54 > 0:16:56You see, you can't answer.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00You ask all these questions, if I ask you one question you just get
0:17:00 > 0:17:03red in your face, and your head particularly,
0:17:03 > 0:17:07- and you can't answer.- I could answer it but I'm not going to.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09Then I won't answer either.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14Who was it who chose a mirror?
0:17:18 > 0:17:24This isn't quite the looking glass that I had expected to receive from you.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27Send it back, Russell. We do try to give satisfaction.
0:17:27 > 0:17:28A larger one, or...
0:17:28 > 0:17:31A larger one is what I wanted.
0:17:31 > 0:17:38One of the things that emerges from my very close, perceptive and acute observation of your programme
0:17:38 > 0:17:45over at least 27 years, is that there is a quiet...internal pressure
0:17:45 > 0:17:48on the person who is sitting in the seat.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52I felt I couldn't just say, "Yes, I could enjoy loneliness",
0:17:52 > 0:17:59or, "No, I couldn't", but that I had to put warts on my own nature. Do you know what I mean by that?
0:17:59 > 0:18:03Yes, it isn't really a question to which one has a ready answer.
0:18:03 > 0:18:10It isn't something that you've thought through, you have to think as you speak in replying to that one.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13When I talk to people like you, I will deliberately
0:18:13 > 0:18:20frighten them into making them talk to me, and you do it completely the other way around.
0:18:20 > 0:18:27I think it's a shame to frighten people because they are inclined to curl up and get a bit tense.
0:18:27 > 0:18:32I will say very little and let them get on with it. Why should I do all the work?
0:18:32 > 0:18:35It's as simple as that!
0:18:35 > 0:18:39Are there people who will use the platform you offer,
0:18:39 > 0:18:45as I was strongly tempted to, to appear to be musically most staggeringly erudite and eclectic?
0:18:45 > 0:18:50Yes, indeed, I will sometimes use the alcohol breakdown.
0:18:50 > 0:18:55I find this very useful, we have been discussing the musical choice and it doesn't look quite right,
0:18:55 > 0:19:01so I say, "let's go and get a breath of air and shall we go across to the pub for a few minutes?"
0:19:01 > 0:19:06A couple of large gins and then I will say,
0:19:06 > 0:19:10"There is one record in this list that doesn't match the others."
0:19:10 > 0:19:16And slowly, and rather grudgingly, comes out the confession about the musical brother-in-law.
0:19:16 > 0:19:23THEY LAUGH ..Who's recommended something slightly esoteric but very GOOD.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28I did find myself lurching heavily towards pseuds' corner.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32I thought I should have the Grande Messe des Morts running through it!
0:19:34 > 0:19:38There is that temptation to appear grand and knowledgeable about music.
0:19:38 > 0:19:44But there are two pseuds' corners. There is one that goes towards a bit...a lot of Stockhausen,
0:19:44 > 0:19:48and one that goes towards George Formby
0:19:48 > 0:19:52and you're trying to tread a dreadful tightrope between them.
0:19:52 > 0:19:55Yes, I thought you trod it very successfully.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59It was very entertaining choice and I thought it was a very honest one.
0:19:59 > 0:20:01That's most generous of you.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04It's time we had another record.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08The bizarrest thing I ever supervised was a little lad
0:20:08 > 0:20:13from St Paul's Cathedral Choir called Paul Phoenix, who sang My Way.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17# And now, the end is near
0:20:17 > 0:20:24# And so I face the final curtain
0:20:24 > 0:20:26# My friend
0:20:26 > 0:20:32# I'll say it clear, I'll state my case
0:20:32 > 0:20:36# Of which I'm certain
0:20:36 > 0:20:41# I've lived a life that's full
0:20:41 > 0:20:47# I've travelled each and every highway
0:20:47 > 0:20:53# And more, much more than this
0:20:53 > 0:20:58# I did it my way. #
0:20:59 > 0:21:02Records show that you were a very good milkman.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05You managed to fit in a double round.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Well, yes, I think we're back to ambition.
0:21:08 > 0:21:13I wanted to do the milk round better than anybody else, so I used to go out
0:21:13 > 0:21:18at half past four in the morning, delivering all the milk.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21I'd go off to breakfast, then go back to the yard
0:21:21 > 0:21:28and fill up with eggs, butter, cheese, bread, cakes - anything I could sell
0:21:28 > 0:21:30because I used to get commission on it.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33So I then did a second round.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36Were your employers impressed?
0:21:36 > 0:21:43I think they must have been, because after a year they came and took me away and promoted me.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47- You became a sales manager at only 23?- Yes, that's right.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52And was sent abroad to study milk distribution in other countries.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56Yes, and supermarketing in particular, which took me to America
0:21:56 > 0:21:59in the period which was very interesting.
0:21:59 > 0:22:01Let's have your third record.
0:22:01 > 0:22:07Well, the third one is the Triple Concerto, Beethoven's Triple Concerto,
0:22:07 > 0:22:12with Oistrakh, Rostropovich and Richter, and conducted by Karajan.
0:22:12 > 0:22:18Knees Up Mother Brown, sung by the audience at the Old Metropolitan, Edgware Road.
0:22:18 > 0:22:23- What did your parents want you to be? - I don't honestly know. I really don't know.
0:22:23 > 0:22:29I have a feeling my mother would have liked me to have gone into the church.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33I was never prodded. You see, my father died when I was very young,
0:22:33 > 0:22:40so a stronger influence was my mother but I don't think she said, "You must do this or that."
0:22:40 > 0:22:47- You did, in fact, teach in Sunday school? - I was a Sunday-school teacher at 13!
0:22:47 > 0:22:53- Really?- Yes. And I was very popular among the children because I decided
0:22:53 > 0:22:57that some of the stuff I was teaching was rather dreary,
0:22:57 > 0:23:02and so I used to make up the things as I went along, and tell stories.
0:23:02 > 0:23:06- You told them jokes? - Not jokes. I used to tell them stories about Robin Hood
0:23:06 > 0:23:11and the rest of the Sunday school teachers used to look at me and say,
0:23:11 > 0:23:14"Isn't he marvellous? He's riveting their attention!"
0:23:14 > 0:23:18It was very innocent and romantic. I felt guilty about that.
0:23:18 > 0:23:25I wasn't preaching entirely the word of God, but at least it kept them interested!
0:23:25 > 0:23:28It was the first audience, in a way, I suppose.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32- I was egotistical then. - Let's have your second record.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36I thought the first one was a bit common
0:23:36 > 0:23:39and I would show my posher side now, my more refined side.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42I like a lot of classical music,
0:23:42 > 0:23:47or most classical music. One of my favourites is Chopin, I like Chopin very much.
0:23:47 > 0:23:53I thought I'd choose a bit of Chopin but I wouldn't choose one of those flowery bits.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57I'd choose something quiet, gentle, to go to sleep to.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01Do you go to sleep by it, or with it, or to? Anyway, to sleep.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04It's a Nocturne, which means "night", doesn't it?
0:24:04 > 0:24:12- Yes, it does.- In C minor, and it's played here by Arthur Rubenstein, who I saw a lot of times, genius.
0:24:12 > 0:24:13Yes, indeed.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25There can be very few countries in which you haven't appeared.
0:24:25 > 0:24:32Well, I played practically everywhere, but I'm sad to say I don't play in Germany.
0:24:32 > 0:24:37And please, I want to state it once more in public,
0:24:37 > 0:24:41I don't go to Germany only out of respect for the dead.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44Unfortunately, one of the dead is my whole family.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51We don't know where this island is, do we?
0:24:51 > 0:24:56We don't know, but it's not a bad island, it's got everything on it that you need.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00- Do you think you'd manage? - I think I could survive.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04Would you know which way to go? Do you know anything about stars or navigation?
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Yes, I do know the stars.
0:25:07 > 0:25:12This is the BBC Light Programme and here is a photograph of me saying it.
0:25:12 > 0:25:17You said in an interview some time ago that a desert island was the answer.
0:25:17 > 0:25:18How often do you feel that?
0:25:18 > 0:25:21Never. I used to in my young days.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24The desert island is the coward's choice, isn't it?
0:25:24 > 0:25:29There is no such thing as a desert island any more, it's only on radio.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37Bring her to port.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41Surely you mean starboard, Sir?
0:25:41 > 0:25:42Port!
0:25:42 > 0:25:45You were in fact shipwrecked at one point?
0:25:45 > 0:25:47Yes, I was blown from Yugoslavia
0:25:47 > 0:25:51to a little place called Termoli,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55which at that moment was just behind the Allied lines.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59If I'd gone another five miles north I would have been shipwrecked
0:25:59 > 0:26:02behind the German lines.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05As it was, I only lost my ship and none of my men.
0:26:07 > 0:26:15Do not drink gasoline, fuel oil, anti-freeze liquid, or alcohol.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18When you have a raging thirst you may be tempted to drink liquid,
0:26:18 > 0:26:22which under normal circumstances, you would never think of drinking.
0:26:22 > 0:26:29If you drink any of these liquids instead of water, you will collapse and die.
0:26:29 > 0:26:34Survival manuals are a popular choice but, of course, there are those who realise
0:26:34 > 0:26:38that a spell on a desert island is a wonderful opportunity to improve the mind.
0:26:48 > 0:26:53John Donne. "No man is an island entire of itself.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57"Every man is a piece with the Continent, part of the main.
0:26:57 > 0:27:03"If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07"As well as if a manner of thy friends or if thy known were.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12"Any man's death diminishes me because I'm involved in mankind
0:27:12 > 0:27:16"and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19"It tolls for thee."
0:27:26 > 0:27:34The first one is the song I always request of a person with a great tenor voice.
0:27:34 > 0:27:36It's called Oh Danny Boy.
0:27:36 > 0:27:41- PRINCESS MARGARET:- This is a record, quite an old record, I think -
0:27:41 > 0:27:46about 1948 - called Rock Rock Rock.
0:27:46 > 0:27:53So, it is Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A.
0:27:53 > 0:28:01I should like it by Sir Malcolm Sargeant because he is associated in my mind with the Messiah,
0:28:01 > 0:28:03the Hallelujah Chorus.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07Number seven is Little Charlie Parker.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12His advent on the world will be remembered for a long, long time.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16- What's he playing? - Parker's move.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22In the vaults of the BBC Record Library, the riches seem endless.
0:28:22 > 0:28:28A million discs, a million and a half, 2 million...? Nobody has ever counted them.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32OK, well, this one... I haven't chosen any Beatles records
0:28:32 > 0:28:36but if we had more than eight, I probably would have.
0:28:36 > 0:28:42I haven't chosen any of my records, so to sort of sum up the whole thing, I have chosen one
0:28:42 > 0:28:50off John Lennon's record, Double Fantasy, which I think is a beautiful song, very moving to me.
0:28:50 > 0:28:55I would like to sum the whole thing up by playing a song called Beautiful Boy.
0:28:59 > 0:29:06# Close your eyes, have no fear
0:29:08 > 0:29:14# The monster's gone, he's on the run and your daddy's here
0:29:17 > 0:29:24# Beautiful, beautiful beautiful, beautiful boy
0:29:26 > 0:29:32# Beautiful, beautiful beautiful, beautiful boy
0:29:33 > 0:29:41# Before you go to sleep say a little prayer.
0:29:42 > 0:29:50# Every day in every way it's getting better and better
0:29:52 > 0:29:58# Beautiful, beautiful beautiful, beautiful boy
0:30:00 > 0:30:06# Beautiful, beautiful beautiful, beautiful boy. #
0:30:09 > 0:30:16# When the wintry winds start blowing and the snow is starting in the fall
0:30:16 > 0:30:23# Then my eyes turn westward knowing that is the place I love best of all
0:30:23 > 0:30:31# California, I've been blue Since I've been away from you
0:30:31 > 0:30:38# I can't wait till I get going Even now I'm starting in a car. #
0:30:40 > 0:30:45# One who keeps tearing around
0:30:45 > 0:30:49# One who can't move
0:30:50 > 0:30:53# Where are the clowns?
0:30:53 > 0:30:56# Send in the clowns
0:30:56 > 0:30:59# Just when I start
0:30:59 > 0:31:02# Opening doors
0:31:02 > 0:31:06# Finally knowing the one that I wanted
0:31:06 > 0:31:10# Was yours. #
0:31:10 > 0:31:13I sing this in my bath sometimes with water splashing.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21I can't remember the words though! I only remember the first bit!
0:31:26 > 0:31:30# No-one is there. #
0:31:30 > 0:31:33Little Richard, Tutti Frutti.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36Paul, I read that you were a Boy Scout.
0:31:36 > 0:31:41- Yep.- Because - this is important - did you get a lot of badges?
0:31:41 > 0:31:43Um, not many, no.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46I got a bivouac badge.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49- That's camping out, isn't it?- Yeah.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53This is going to be very useful to you, all this knowledge, on your desert island.
0:31:53 > 0:31:55Right, I make a fine fire.
0:31:55 > 0:31:57If there's any wood on this island.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59- Yes indeed.- OK.
0:31:59 > 0:32:02- And you can rig up a shelter of some sort?- Sure, bivouac badge!
0:32:02 > 0:32:06I think the first thing would be to build a secure raft.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08I wouldn't like to leave.
0:32:08 > 0:32:14At least on the island, I think that someone could come along, so I would never leave the island
0:32:14 > 0:32:17unless I was 100% confident in the raft that I had managed to build.
0:32:17 > 0:32:21What I'm getting at is how you are going to manage on this desert island.
0:32:21 > 0:32:23Have you ever done any camping out?
0:32:23 > 0:32:27- Fishing?- Certainly not. No, sir. - Sailing?
0:32:27 > 0:32:31- And nothing is...- Cooking?
0:32:31 > 0:32:37Nothing fills me with such dismay as talk about the subculture of the sea
0:32:37 > 0:32:43for propellers and sheets in the wind and things of that sort.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46- You wouldn't try to escape? - Certainly not.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51Yes. Yes, eventually, yes.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54It would be nice for two or three weeks but not forever.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58Oh no. I wouldn't... No no, certainly I'd try to escape.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01Would you rig up a shelter on this desert island? Could you look after yourself?
0:33:01 > 0:33:04Yes, I think I could.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06I think I'd rather enjoy it.
0:33:08 > 0:33:13Consider the family of Dougal Robertson, adrift for 28 days.
0:33:13 > 0:33:20They kept alive by sucking fluid from the spinal cavities of fish and introducing into their bodies
0:33:20 > 0:33:26an undrinkable mixture of rainwater, sea water and turtle blood with a makeshift enema.
0:33:28 > 0:33:35By the time you do make landfall, you will probably be covered with boils and sores
0:33:35 > 0:33:39and in no condition to cope with the local flora and fauna.
0:33:39 > 0:33:47There are 300 varieties of poisonous reef fish, never mind the land crabs that can do dreadful things to you.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52Venomous insects and a host of creatures that you'd never even believe existed.
0:34:18 > 0:34:23Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming today to help us celebrate
0:34:23 > 0:34:25a marvellous programme
0:34:25 > 0:34:30and its 40th anniversary. Thank you all of you who have been castaways,
0:34:30 > 0:34:35and thank you particularly to Roy Plomley, whose idea the programme was,
0:34:35 > 0:34:42and who's been keeping it up at such a splendid standard for 40 years.
0:34:42 > 0:34:48I've been trying to think why Desert Island Discs, alone among famous radio programmes,
0:34:48 > 0:34:55has gone so successfully for such a long time. I decided that it's because all of us feel ourselves -
0:34:55 > 0:34:59whether we are eminent or not as potential castaways -
0:34:59 > 0:35:02all of us have our own favourite eight gramophone records.
0:35:02 > 0:35:07The other reason that I believe Desert Island Discs has gone on so long and so successfully
0:35:07 > 0:35:15is because Roy always has tried to get the best out of people, simply to give them the opportunity
0:35:15 > 0:35:20to reveal themselves as the nice people most of them are...
0:35:20 > 0:35:22LAUGHTER
0:35:22 > 0:35:30..through the way they choose not only the music but also the luxuries and the books.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35And one luxury you are allowed to take - nothing of any practical use.
0:35:35 > 0:35:39- Well that would definitely be a guitar.- Right.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43Because that's the kind of thing I can spend hours and engross myself with.
0:35:43 > 0:35:49Apart from football, I enjoy sport - tennis and golf - and obviously I need somebody else at tennis,
0:35:49 > 0:35:51so I would plump for golf... golf clubs.
0:35:51 > 0:35:56If it was on a small desert island, I would probably need an extra sand-iron for practice
0:35:56 > 0:35:59but I would take a few golf balls as well.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03I have chosen something which I think would have great practical use to me anyway.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08I would like to take the entire contents of my wine cellar with me - is that allowed?
0:36:08 > 0:36:12It seems very good sense - yes, indeed you can.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14That would be an ornament, would it?
0:36:14 > 0:36:16Ornamental or...yes.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21For instance, if I was to say to you that my mother had died,
0:36:21 > 0:36:25- one of the things that was left was a little cross. Could I take that? - Of course.
0:36:25 > 0:36:29That's what I would take, a little cross which I'd got, yes.
0:36:29 > 0:36:35My list of luxuries is so long that I'm afraid...
0:36:35 > 0:36:38A snap decision,
0:36:38 > 0:36:40which will you have?
0:36:40 > 0:36:45No, I'm not going to respond on that.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50One really can't choose.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53I suppose if I had...
0:36:53 > 0:36:55to take any...
0:36:58 > 0:37:01- Go on.- No, no, let's go back.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05- Yes, right.- Why don't you ask the question again? Can you repeat that? - Yes, of course.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07Keep running.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11Tales from the Vienna Woods, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
0:37:11 > 0:37:16If you could take only one disc out of the eight you played us, which would it be?
0:37:16 > 0:37:19No doubt, Oh, What A Beautiful Morning.
0:37:19 > 0:37:24And one luxury to take to the island, any one object that would give you pleasure to have.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26Well, after books...
0:37:26 > 0:37:28You are going to have ONE book.
0:37:28 > 0:37:31After the books I would certainly take
0:37:31 > 0:37:34a musical comedy company with me.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37It must be inanimate, I'm afraid.
0:37:37 > 0:37:38You mean it has to be inanimate?
0:37:38 > 0:37:40Yes.
0:37:40 > 0:37:44I suppose I would take a supply of...
0:37:44 > 0:37:49- It has to be something one cannot read, one cannot hear, one cannot see.- Well, no.
0:37:49 > 0:37:54I think I would take some maple syrup from our farm in Vermont.
0:37:54 > 0:37:59And one book, apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already on the island.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03- The Bible and Shakespeare are already there.- That's a basic ration you will find when you land.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07Well then, I would take a complete consolidated set
0:38:07 > 0:38:14of Tolstoy, Trollope and a few copies of Evelyn Waugh.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18Not a chance, no, no! Just one book, one volume.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20War And Peace, no question about it.
0:38:20 > 0:38:27Thank you, Professor John Kenneth Galbraith, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.
0:38:27 > 0:38:28Well, it's been a great pleasure.
0:38:28 > 0:38:33I hope you will all join me on the desert island to hear
0:38:33 > 0:38:36Oh, What A Beautiful Morning.
0:38:36 > 0:38:37Goodbye, everyone.
0:38:39 > 0:38:45You know the story of the people who had a house and the river ran at the bottom of the garden,
0:38:45 > 0:38:48and it overflowed,
0:38:48 > 0:38:51and Mother floated out of the kitchen window
0:38:51 > 0:38:53on the kitchen table.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56I accompanied her on the piano.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59I'd take a large tin of acid drops,
0:38:59 > 0:39:03it's a thing which I have often craved for in the desert.
0:39:03 > 0:39:06- You told me this included art. - Yes, indeed.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10I don't think art is a luxury, you see, I think art is a necessity.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14But all right, because you are very strict,
0:39:14 > 0:39:18aren't you? Michelangelo's David.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21Well, as you won't allow me to take my dog,
0:39:21 > 0:39:24I'm going to take the Michelangelo David.
0:39:24 > 0:39:26Again, it's a statement of heroism
0:39:26 > 0:39:30and I think I couldn't possibly not pull myself together
0:39:30 > 0:39:32and get on with life if he was there.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35I'll take my fiddle.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38A television set that didn't work.
0:39:38 > 0:39:40Once a day I would look at this thing
0:39:40 > 0:39:43and reflect that sometimes there is no sight more beautiful
0:39:43 > 0:39:45than a blank television screen.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49Well now, could I have
0:39:49 > 0:39:53a 500cc trail bike, get about quickly?
0:39:53 > 0:39:57I don't see why not. We have to give you a limited amount of petrol,
0:39:57 > 0:40:00otherwise you could keep fires going and do all sorts of useful things.
0:40:00 > 0:40:04- Could I also have six Japanese mechanics?- No.- Oh.
0:40:04 > 0:40:07If you get sand in the engine, you will have to get it out yourself.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10I think I had better take a push bike then.
0:40:10 > 0:40:11A poppy,
0:40:11 > 0:40:14a live growing poppy.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17Because I think they're very beautiful to look at
0:40:17 > 0:40:20and they are a very serviceable flower.
0:40:20 > 0:40:24A case of malt whisky or alternatively a box of cigars
0:40:24 > 0:40:28because I am addicted to both of those.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30- I don't suppose I would be allowed both?- No, a snap decision - which?
0:40:30 > 0:40:34It would have to be the whisky because that would allow me to forget the cigars.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39Could I have a life-size rubber inflatable Faye Dunaway doll?
0:40:41 > 0:40:44If such a thing is manufactured, it would be dispatched.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47And how about the saxophone, can I take the saxophone as well?
0:40:47 > 0:40:50No, one or the other.
0:40:50 > 0:40:52What a heart-rending decision.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54I'll take the saxophone.
0:40:55 > 0:41:03- I would take my perfume, Hammam Bouquet made by Penhaligon in London.- Right, a large flacon.
0:41:04 > 0:41:10Aha! I'd really... I'd stick to my pipe, I'm afraid.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13I've been trying to give up smoking for 50 years.
0:41:13 > 0:41:19I would take a stick of the very best marijuana I could find and I would save it for years
0:41:19 > 0:41:24and hope it didn't get too stale because I know I would have only one opportunity to smoke it.
0:41:24 > 0:41:26This is a legal talk, Mr Mailer!
0:41:26 > 0:41:29Well, here we are in trouble again!
0:41:29 > 0:41:30It couldn't be a woman.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33It must be an inanimate object.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36- A very beautiful watch... - And one book...
0:41:36 > 0:41:42Well, there is a beautiful autobiography by Otto Preminger!
0:41:42 > 0:41:45That is the book I enjoyed most.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48Curiously enough, I would like to take a plastic bath.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51I simply love lying in a hot bath.
0:41:51 > 0:41:54First of all, I must have a record player there, yes?
0:41:54 > 0:41:57That is there, solar batteries.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00- Oh, I see!- Solar-powered, the sun.
0:42:00 > 0:42:02Oh, I see, sun.
0:42:02 > 0:42:09In that case, I will have to sneak there, you know, a video cassette with all of my performances.
0:42:13 > 0:42:17Alas, some castaways are a little more pessimistic.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22To be, or not to be,
0:42:22 > 0:42:25that is the question.
0:42:25 > 0:42:30Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
0:42:30 > 0:42:36or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?
0:42:38 > 0:42:39To die...
0:42:39 > 0:42:41to sleep,
0:42:41 > 0:42:43no more.
0:42:43 > 0:42:49And by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to,
0:42:49 > 0:42:55'tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd. To die...
0:42:56 > 0:42:59To sleep...
0:42:59 > 0:43:05to sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub... for in that sleep of death
0:43:05 > 0:43:10what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
0:43:10 > 0:43:11must give us pause.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41Would you endure prolonged loneliness?
0:43:41 > 0:43:43What would you be most glad to have got away from?
0:43:46 > 0:43:48Does music mean a lot to you?
0:43:48 > 0:43:51Could you build a shelter?
0:44:09 > 0:44:11Would you try to escape?
0:44:14 > 0:44:17Do you know which way to go?
0:44:17 > 0:44:22If you could take only one of the eight discs you have chosen, which would it be?
0:44:23 > 0:44:29And one book, apart from the Bible and the Complete Works Of Shakespeare.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50PHONE RINGS
0:45:03 > 0:45:04Hello?
0:45:04 > 0:45:06Oh, Derek, yes...
0:45:06 > 0:45:10I seem to have dozed off. I was going to ring you, wasn't I?
0:45:10 > 0:45:12Yes, castaways.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16Yes, of course we ought to have some ideas for castaways.
0:45:16 > 0:45:18Captain Bligh.
0:45:18 > 0:45:20What am I talking about - Captain Bligh?
0:45:20 > 0:45:24No, I've got one written down here, Baroness Maria von Trapp -
0:45:24 > 0:45:29you know, the Sound Of Music lady - what about her? She'd be excellent.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32Yes, I've got some more somewhere.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38I'll call you back, I'm a bit disorganised at the moment, all right?
0:45:38 > 0:45:40Yes, in a few minutes.
0:45:40 > 0:45:42Right.
0:46:05 > 0:46:09Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd.