Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs is a talk show radio programme, broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942.

Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usually, but not always, music) a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were to be cast away on a desert island, whilst discussing their lives and the reasons for their choices. It was devised and originally presented by Roy Plomley. Since 2006, the show has been presented by Kirsty Young.

More than 3,000 episodes have been recorded, with some guests having appeared more than once and some episodes featuring more than one guest.

Format

Guests are invited to imagine themselves cast away on a desert island, and to choose eight recordings, originally gramophone records, to take with them; discussion of their choices permits a review of their life. Excerpts from their choices are played or, in the case of short pieces, the whole work. At the end of the programme they choose the one piece they regard most highly. Guests are also automatically given the Complete Works of Shakespeare and either the Bible or another appropriate religious or philosophical work. They are then asked which book, of their choice, they would like to take with them. Popular choices include Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. Actress Judi Dench, who suffers from macular degeneration, was permitted to take an audiobook in place of a printed manuscript.