Desert Island Disc

Top marks to the BBC for putting the entire archives of Desert Island Discs online - that's every castaway from 1942 to the present day. The programs are also listed in categories - authors, actors, politicians and so forth. Find the site HERE - over the years it seems everybody who is anybody has been featured. And any programs you are particularly interested in can be downloaded as a podcast and kept forever.

Desert Island Discs is a long-running BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme (surpassed only by the Grand Ole Opry, 28 November 1925), and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio. Originally devised and presented by Roy Plomley, each week a famous guest ("castaway") is asked to choose eight pieces of music, a book and a luxury item for their imaginary stay on the island, while discussing their lives and the reasons for their choices. The programme's famous theme is By the Sleepy Lagoon composed by Eric Coates in 1930. Since 2006 it has been presented by Kirsty Young.