Desert Island Discs BBC Radio 4

Jenny Sealey has been the artistic director of Graeae Theatre Company since 1997: Graeae is a deaf and disabled-led company and a leader and innovator in accessible theatre. Jenny has directed opera as well as plays, and was the co-director of the 2012 Paralympic opening ceremony.
Jenny was born in Nottingham in 1963, the eldest of four sisters. She lost her hearing at the age of seven following a fall at school in which she banged her head. At that time, deaf children were not encouraged to use British Sign Language, and so she taught herself to lip read, and stayed in a mainstream school, although she often found it challenging. She also continued to take ballet lessons, helped by an inspirational teacher who encouraged her to follow the form and movements of the dancer in front of her. She went on to study dance and choreography at Middlesex Polytechnic.
After graduation, Jenny worked as an actor before becoming the artistic director of Graeae. In 2022 she was awarded an OBE for services to disability arts. Most recently she returned to acting and toured the UK with Self Raising, her one-woman autobiographical play.
Jenny lives in London with her son and partner.
DISC ONE: Handel: Messiah, HWV 56, Pt. 2: No. 44, Chorus. Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth. Composed by George Frideric Handel and performed by The Sixteen Choir, conducted by Harry Christophers
DISC TWO: Yesterday - The Beatles
DISC THREE: Teenage Kicks - The Undertones
DISC FOUR: The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - Roberta Flack
DISC FIVE: Because The Night - Patti Smith Group
DISC SIX: Spasticus Autisticus – John Kelly and the cast of Reasons to be Cheerful
DISC SEVEN: If It Can't Be Right Then It Must Be Wrong – John Kelly and the cast of Graeae’s stage production of Reasons To Be Cheerful
DISC EIGHT: Days – Kirsty MacColl
BOOK CHOICE: The Complete Works of Armistead Maupin
LUXURY ITEM: A photography kit
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Handel: Messiah, HWV 56, Pt. 2: No. 44, Chorus. Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth. Composed by George Frideric Handel and performed by The Sixteen Choir, conducted by Harry Christophers

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

James Graham is an award-winning dramatist whose plays include This House, Ink and Dear England starring Joseph Fiennes as the England football manager Gareth Southgate. His acclaimed television productions include Sherwood and Quiz, based on the story of the so-called coughing Major Charles Ingram who was found guilty of cheating on the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
James was born in Kirkby-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire in 1982. He was a shy boy who was encouraged to perform in school plays by his teachers. He went on to study drama at Hull University where he wrote his first play Coal Not Dole! He took the play to the Edinburgh fringe and the reception it received from audiences encouraged him to carry on writing.
After graduating he worked as a stage doorkeeper at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham where one of his personal highlights was looking after Danny La Rue, the star of the Christmas panto. His first London premiere came in 2005 at the Finborough Theatre in London with Albert’s Boy, which explored the arguments for and against nuclear weapons.
In 2020 James was awarded an OBE for services to drama and young people in British theatre.
DISC ONE: Disco 2000 - Pulp
DISC TWO: Chatanooga Choo Choo - Glenn Miller
DISC THREE: Up In Arms - Foo Fighters
DISC FOUR: Syncopes - Gabriel Yared
DISC FIVE: Your Disco Needs You - Kylie Minogue
DISC SIX: Where Are We Now? - David Bowie
DISC SEVEN: If You Came To See Me Cry - Katie Brayben (from Tammy Faye: The Musical)
DISC EIGHT: Going To A Town - Rufus Wainwright
BOOK CHOICE: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
LUXURY ITEM: A keg of Single Malt Scotch Whisky
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Where Are We Now? - David Bowie

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

The Honourable Lady Rita Rae is a lawyer and judge, and the current Rector of the University of Glasgow. Early in her career she was a rare woman in the heavily male-dominated legal world. She went on to work on many high profile criminal cases over five decades as a solicitor, an advocate and subsequently a judge in Scotland’s Supreme Court.
Rita grew up in Plains, Airdrie, to the east of Glasgow. She was a shy child but earned the nickname ‘The Last Word’ from her parents because of her need to argue her case when she felt something wasn’t right. She was inspired to become a lawyer by her maternal grandfather, a noted advocate and anti-fascist from Naples.
Her parents met in a munitions factory in Italy where her mother was working. Her father was a Scottish bomb disposal expert helping to dismantle munitions after the war. They married and moved to Scotland, but Rita and her brother were not accepted by her Scottish family because of their Catholicism.
Rita became a solicitor in 1974, entering a world dominated by men. When told by a senior colleague that women were ‘emotionally unsuitable for court work’, she set about proving him wrong. She became a partner in her firm at the age of 27, and was called to the bar in 1982, one of just 13 female advocates in Scotland at the time. She was made a Sheriff in 1997 and a Judge of the Supreme Courts in 2014.
In 2021 she was elected Rector of the University of Glasgow, the first female working rector in the university’s 570-year history.
DISC ONE: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18 - III. Allegro scherzando. Composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff, performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano) and London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn
DISC TWO: “Ah! Dite alla giovine” from Act 2 of La Traviata. Composed by Giuseppe Verdi, performed by Angela Gheorghiu (soprano), Leo Nucci (baritone) and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Sir Georg Solti
DISC THREE: Mamma - Beniamino Gigli
DISC FOUR: Aranjuez mon amour - Massimo Ranieri
DISC FIVE: Cheap Flights - Fascinating Aïda
DISC SIX: “The Flower Song” (“La fleur que tu m’avais jetee”), Carmen, Act II. Composed by Georges Bizet, performed by José Carreras (tenor) and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducted by Jacques Delacôte
DISC SEVEN: Ave Maria. Composed by Giulio Caccini (Arr. Brinums) and performed by Inessa Galante (Soprano), Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Aleksandrs Vilumanis
DISC EIGHT: Climb Ev’ry Mountain - Peggy Wood
BOOK CHOICE: The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples by David Gilmour
LUXURY ITEM: A solar powered car
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Mamma - Beniamino Gigli
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producers Paula McGinley and Tim Bano

Sandy Powell won her first Academy Award for dressing Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love, and has since won two more Oscars - along with a further dozen nominations - and three BAFTAs. Her credits range from Gangs of New York for Martin Scorsese to Mary Poppins Returns for Disney, and she's worked with many of the biggest current screen stars, including Leonardo di Caprio, Cate Blanchett and Al Pacino.
Sandy was born in south London and completed an art foundation course at St Martin’s School of Art. In 1981 she got her first job designing costumes for the choreographer Lindsay Kemp’s show Nijinsky at La Scala in Milan. She later worked for the director Derek Jarman on his film Caravaggio and continued to collaborate with him until his death in 1994. She has also enjoyed long working relationships with Martin Scorsese and Todd Haynes.
Sandy has won acclaim for her designs on films with historical settings, including The Wings of the Dove, The Young Victoria and The Favourite starring Olivia Colman, as well as the flamboyant glam rock world of Velvet Goldmine and the fairy-tale fantasy of Cinderella, starring Lily James.

In 2011 she was awarded an OBE for services for the film industry and in 2023 she became the first costume designer to receive a BAFTA Fellowship.
DISC ONE: Jeepster - T Rex
DISC TWO: Adagietto, Symphony No. 5 in C-Sharp Minor. Composed by Gustav Mahler and performed by Orchestre de l'Académie de Santa Cécilia and conducted by Franco Mannino
DISC THREE: Life on Mars? - David Bowie
DISC FOUR: La Vie en Rose - Alan Dunn
DISC FIVE: I’ll Never Fall in Love Again - Bobbi Gentry
DISC SIX: Satellite of Love - Lou Reed
DISC SEVEN: Where Love Lives (Come On In) - Alison Limerick
DISC EIGHT: I Left My Heart in San Francisco - Tony Bennett
BOOK CHOICE: Josef Koudelka: Gypsies
LUXURY ITEM: A lemon tree
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Life on Mars? - David Bowie
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Clive Oppenheimer is a volcanologist, filmmaker and Professor of Volcanology at the University of Cambridge. His research has taken him on expeditions across the world, from Antarctica, where he discovered the camp of Captain Scott’s attempt to reach the South Pole, to Ethiopia where he was held at gunpoint by rebels.
Clive was born in London, and fell in love with rocks and the stories they tell on visits to what is now the Natural History Museum. His mother survived the Blitz in London and his father escaped persecution by the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s. On a gap year trip to Indonesia, Clive saw his first volcanoes and realised both their natural power and their significance in human lives. He studied at the University of Cambridge, and completed a PhD at the Open University.
He has taken part in and led expeditions to volcanoes all over the world, including Indonesia, Italy and Ethiopia. He is one of few Westerners to have worked in North Korea, where he was invited by the government to study volcanic activity at the culturally significant Mount Baekdu.
He has also made three documentaries with filmmaker Werner Herzog about volcanoes and their scientific, cultural and spiritual significance.
DISC ONE: Blue Rondo a la Turk - Dave Brubeck Quartet
DISC TWO: Love Hangover - Diana Ross
DISC THREE: Autobahn - Kraftwerk
DISC FOUR: Lava - The B-52's
DISC FIVE: Debaser - Pixies
DISC SIX: Turangalîla-symphonie, Part VI Jardin du sommeil d’amour. Composed by Olivier Messiaen and performed by the Orchestre de l’Opéra Bastille, cond Myung-Whun Chung, with Yvonne Loriod (piano) and Jeanne Loriod (ondes martenot)
DISC SEVEN: T’zeta - Bezawork Asfew
DISC EIGHT: Hymn for the Dormition of the Mother of God - The Sixteen and Harry Christophers
BOOK CHOICE: The Vivisector by Patrick White
LUXURY ITEM: A seismometer
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Debaser – Pixies
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producers Sarah Taylor and Tim Bano

Cillian Murphy has received global acclaim for his performance in the title role of Christopher Nolan’s epic film Oppenheimer. He has been nominated for an Oscar, which follows the best actor award he picked up at this year’s Golden Globes. On the small screen he played the Birmingham gangster Thomas Shelby for a decade in the BAFTA-winning Peaky Blinders, which made him a household name.
Cillian was born in Cork in 1976 and initially music was his creative outlet. His band Sons of Mr Green Genes, which he formed with his younger brother, was offered a five album record deal, but the boys’ parents thought his brother was too young and vetoed a career in music.
Cillian changed tack and in 1996 was cast as Pig in Enda Walsh’s play Disco Pigs, reprising the role in a film version in 2001. His breakthrough film role came playing Jim the bicycle courier in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later in 2002 which he followed up with a starring role in Ken Loach’s the Wind that Shakes the Barley.

In 2005 he played Dr Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow - in Christopher Nolan’s film Batman Begins, which was the start of their continuing creative collaboration.
Cillian lives in Ireland with his wife, the artist Yvonne McGuinness, and their two sons.
DISC ONE: The Boy in the Bubble - Paul Simon
DISC TWO: The Wandering Minstrel - Séamus Ennis
DISC THREE: Walter’s Trip - The Frank and Walters
DISC FOUR: Bullet the Blue Sky - U2
DISC FIVE: Somebody to Love - Queen
DISC SIX: Everything in its Right Place - Radiohead
DISC SEVEN: We Can Work it Out - The Beatles
DISC EIGHT: If I Was A Painter - Lisa O’Neill
BOOK CHOICE: Samuel Beckett: The Complete Dramatic Works
LUXURY ITEM: An acoustic guitar and strings
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: We Can Work it Out - The Beatles
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley