Kirsty Young's castaway is the singer Sandie Shaw.
With her melodic, velvety voice, bare feet and Sassoon bob she was the epitome of everything that was swinging about the '60s.
She was just 17 when she first topped the charts with Always Something There to Remind Me and went on to become Britain's first Eurovision winner with Puppet on a String. She loathed the song at the time, but has recently come to terms with it after recording a new version which is, she says, rather forlorn.
Along with the highs have been terrible lows - years that she calls her dark ages, when, without money or creative freedom, she felt hopeless. It was Buddhism that turned her fortunes around and became central to her life. Now, she says, she cannot believe the journey life has taken her on and she is preparing for a final flourish as a performer.
Record: None of them!
Book: Lecture on The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life
by Daisaku Ikeda
Luxury: Omamori Gohonzon
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
19 Dec 2010
Nick Park
Kirsty Young's castaway is the Oscar-winning animator Nick Park.
His most famous creations are Wallace and Gromit: Gromit the silent but wise dog; Wallace, his well meaning owner with notably less brain-power. They now hold the same place in the nation's heart at Christmas that Morcambe and Wise once occupied. They are old-fashioned and quintessentially British - as familiar as bread and butter, or hoping the rain holds off - but their appeal is international.
The world they inhabit is one of Jacobs cream crackers and tea-strainers - so it's little surprise that in real life too Nick Park's own creature comforts are modest: "The thing is, I have everything I want really. I've got my little house, I've got a campervan, I love the British countryside, I'm not after yachts or things like that."
Record: I Forgot that Love Existed - Van Morrison
Book: A Collins Bird book
Luxury: My own 'Amazing pair of binoculars'
Producer: Leanne Buckle.
12 Dec 2010
Sir Torquil Norman
Kirsty Young's castaway week is the aviator, inventor and arts patron, Sir Torquil Norman.
He comes from a family where derring-do is in the DNA - his grandfather was a pioneering airman, his grandmother an adventurer and his father also a keen pilot.
Torquil ended up in the toy trade where the skills needed were, he says, a close attention to detail combined with the outlook on life of a seven year old. He was, he admits, perfectly qualified. In retirement he set about his biggest project - he bought a disused railway engine shed and raised tens of millions of pounds to safeguard its future as a venue for performing arts and a centre for young people.
Record: Nobody Knows You when You're Down and Out - Bessie Smith
Book: Book by his father: Nigel Norman - Verses 1911 - 1943.
Luxury: A miniature still with a little ice-making machine attached to it to make dry martinis.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
4.6 / 5
128 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
50 ratings
Contact Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010
Guest appearances
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