Desert Island Discs BBC

Listeners choose the music that has been special to them during the weeks of lockdown. With Jane Moss, Hugh Mullally, Ailish Douglas, Professor Jason Warren, Niti Acharya, Margery Hookings, Simon Spiller, Clare Raybould and Garry Greenland.

DISC ONE: Amazing Grace by Judy Collins
DISC TWO: Who Knows Where The Time Goes? by Sandy Denny
DISC THREE: The Whole of The Moon by The Waterboys
DISC FOUR: Heimweh op. 57 Nr. 6: Homesickness, composed by Edvard Grieg, performed by Emil Gilels
DISC FIVE: Ab Saunp Diya by Om Vyas
DISC SIX: Prelude and The Sound of Music by Julie Andrews & Orchestra of St. Luke's
DISC SEVEN: Over The Rainbow / What A Wonderful World by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
DISC EIGHT: Six Million Steps (West Runs South) by Rahni Harris & F.L.O

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Maria Balshaw is the Director of Tate, overseeing four major art galleries: Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, Tate Modern and Tate St Ives.

Maria was born in 1970 in Birmingham, and grew up in Northampton, where her father, Walter, was a parks officer, and her mother, Colette, was a teacher. She read English and Cultural Studies at the University of Liverpool and fell in love with the newly opened Tate Liverpool at Albert Dock.

After working as an academic for almost a decade, she changed career and headed a government campaign to inspire creativity in schools.

In 2006, she became director of the Whitworth gallery in Manchester, where she promoted works by women artists and oversaw a major redevelopment and expansion of the building. The Whitworth won the Art Fund Museum of the Year award in 2015. Maria also took on the roles of Director of Manchester City Galleries, and Director of Culture for Manchester City Council. The Observer called her “a northern powerhouse in her own right”.

She took over leadership of the four Tate galleries from Sir Nicholas Serota in June 2017, and is the first woman to hold this role.

Maria has two children from her first marriage and lives in Kent and London with her second husband, Nick Merriman, Director of the Horniman Museum.

DISC ONE: Ghost Town by The Specials
DISC TWO: Wild is the Wind by David Bowie
DISC THREE: It's a Sin by Pet Shop Boys
DISC FOUR: Love Hurts by Emmylou Harris with Gram Parsons
DISC FIVE: Hope There's Someone by Antony and the Johnsons
DISC SIX: Cantelowes by Toumani Diabaté
DISC SEVEN: Waiting for the Great Leap Forward by Billy Bragg
DISC EIGHT: Crown by Stormzy

BOOK CHOICE: Vickery’s Folk Flora: an A-Z of the Folklore and Uses of British and Irish Plants by Roy Vickery
LUXURY ITEM: A full set of flower and vegetable seeds
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Waiting for the Great Leap Forward by Billy Bragg

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Steve Backshall is an explorer, naturalist and broadcaster.

His BAFTA-winning programmes bring viewers of every generation closer to nature – from the children's series Deadly 60, featuring close encounters with the most dangerous and venomous creatures on earth, to Blue Planet Live and Springwatch.

His interest in the natural world began at a young age, after his parents decided to swap their terraced house for a smallholding with goats, ducks and geese.

His big break as a broadcaster arrived when National Geographic offered him the post of Adventurer in Residence and he’s been taking on the most arduous challenges and toughest environments on earth ever since. He ran a marathon in the Sahara and has swum cage-free with great white sharks.

His adventures have also brought him many near-death moments. He broke his back while rock climbing and recently almost drowned while kayaking in Bhutan.

Steve is married to the Olympic champion rower Helen Glover, and they have a two year old son and twins born earlier this year.

DISC ONE: Beautiful War by Kings of Leon
DISC TWO: The Wind by Cat Stevens
DISC THREE: Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead
DISC FOUR: Even After All by Finley Quaye
DISC FIVE: I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by Ash Cutler and Rachael Hawnt
DISC SIX: Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley
DISC SEVEN: 6 Words by Wretch 32
DISC EIGHT: This Life by Vampire Weekend

BOOK CHOICE: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
LUXURY ITEM: A guitar
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by Ash Cutler and Rachael Hawnt

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor

Sharon Horgan is a writer, actor and producer best known for co-writing and co-starring in the Channel 4 series Catastrophe with US comedian Rob Delaney.

Sharon was born in 1970 in east London, where her parents Ursula and John were running a pub. They moved to Ireland when Sharon was three and eventually set themselves up as turkey farmers.

Sharon went to a convent school, then art college in Dublin, before moving to London in 1990, hoping to become an actor. Following six years working at a job centre, she decided to get a degree and enrolled on an English course at Brunel University. She reconnected with Dennis Kelly, who she had acted with previously, and they started writing together. Their breakthrough was the BBC Three series Pulling, first broadcast in 2006, which chronicled the lives of three single women leading unfulfilling lives in an unfashionable part of London.

Sharon appeared in films while continuing to write and, in 2014, set up her own production company. In 2015, together with Rob Delaney, she co-wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed Catastrophe, about a couple who discover they're expecting a child after a short affair. Sharon was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performer and she and Rob won the BAFTA TV Craft Award for Best Comedy Writer in 2016. Catastrophe ran for four series, ending in 2019.

Sharon's other writing credits include the acclaimed series Motherland, Divorce and This Way Up, while her most recent film role was in Military Wives, opposite Kristin Scott Thomas. Sharon is divorced from her husband, Jeremy Rainbird, and lives in London with her two daughters.

DISC ONE: Rock n Roll Suicide by David Bowie
DISC TWO: The Queen is Dead by The Smiths
DISC THREE: Kid's Song by Mic Christopher
DISC FOUR: Telephone Thing by The Fall
DISC FIVE: The Only One I Know by The Charlatans
DISC SIX: Everything Goes My Way by Metronomy
DISC SEVEN: The Suburbs (continued) by Arcade Fire
DISC EIGHT: Moments of Pleasure by Kate Bush

BOOK CHOICE: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
LUXURY ITEM: A solar powered word processor
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Moments of Pleasure by Kate Bush

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Annie Nightingale was BBC Radio 1’s first female presenter and is its longest-serving DJ, celebrating her 50th anniversary at the station this year.

Born and brought up in south west London, she fell in love with the romance and mystery of radio through her father’s meticulous tuning of their home set to broadcasts from exotic places like Prague and Hilversum. On leaving school at 17, she spent a year on a journalism course in central London.

After relocating to Brighton, she worked her way up through local newspapers to the national press and magazines and eventually, by the mid-1960s, to TV. She interviewed the Beatles as a young journalist, and gave early support to artists including David Bowie, Ian Dury, Eminem and Primal Scream. In 1970, she was the first woman DJ to join Radio 1 with a Sunday evening show. From 1978 to 1982, Annie was the sole female presenter on the BBC TV music show The Old Grey Whistle Test, the only woman to have held the job. Her excitement for new music and musical genres from acid house to grime, hasn’t wavered.

She currently hosts a weekly Radio 1 show called Annie Nightingale Presents… (on air on Wednesdays between 1 and 3 am) and has received countless awards from Caner of the Year to Commander of the Order of the British Empire, which she received this year for services to radio.

Annie has a son and a daughter from her first marriage. She is twice divorced and lives in London.

DISC ONE: Bury a Friend by Billie Eilish
DISC TWO: Some People by Ethel Merman
DISC THREE: Instant Karma! by John Lennon
DISC FOUR: Too Many Fish in the Sea by Marvelettes
DISC FIVE: Space Oddity by David Bowie
DISC SIX: Freedom by Beyoncé Featuring Kendrick Lamar
DISC SEVEN: Gymnopédies No. 1, composed by Erik Satie, conducted by Peter Breiner, performed by Gerald Garcia (guitar) and Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Košice
DISC EIGHT: My Way by Sid Vicious

BOOK CHOICE: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
LUXURY ITEM: A saxophone
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Space Oddity by David Bowie

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Cathy Drysdale

Jens Stoltenberg is the Secretary General of NATO and a former Prime Minister of Norway.

Although he was born into a political family in Norway, he grew up thinking he would become a statistician, before turning to a career in politics.

He served as the Prime Minister of Norway twice. During his second term, Norway experienced one of the darkest days in its recent history, when 77 people were murdered in a bomb attack in Oslo and a mass shooting on a nearby island.

Before becoming the Secretary General of NATO, a post he has held since 2014, he spent time as a UN Special Envoy on climate change. His term in office as Secretary-General has been extended until September 2022.

DISC ONE: Lift Me by Madrugada and Ane Brun
DISC TWO: No Harm by Smerz
DISC THREE: So Long, Marianne by Leonard Cohen
DISC FOUR: Hungry Heart by Bruce Springsteen
DISC FIVE: Make You Feel My Love by Ane Brun
DISC SIX: Til Ungdommen by Ingebjørg Bratland
DISC SEVEN: Free Nelson Mandela by The Special A.K.A.
DISC EIGHT: From Up Here by Ingrid Olava

BOOK CHOICE: A statistics textbook
LUXURY ITEM: A pair of skis
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Til Ungdommen by Ingebjørg Bratland

Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor

Photo credit: NATO