List of Desert Island Discs episodes (2001–2010)
The BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs invites castaways to choose eight pieces of music, a book and a luxury item that they would take to an imaginary desert island, where they will be marooned indefinitely. The rules state that the chosen luxury item must not be anything animate or indeed anything that enables the castaway to escape from the island, for instance a radio set, sailing yacht or aeroplane. The choices of book and luxury can sometimes give insight into the guest's life, and the choices of guests between 2001 and 2010 are listed here.
Very rarely programmes will be repeated in place of new shows as a tribute to former guests who have recently died – for example Radio 4 repeated Humphrey Lyttelton's show, originally aired on 5 November 2006, on 15 June 2008. Desert Island Discs takes two short breaks, in spring and summer. BBC Radio 4 broadcasts new programmes for approximately 42 weeks each year on Sunday mornings, usually with a repeat transmission five days later. On Remembrance Sunday the programme is not broadcast but that week's programme gets a single airing in the Friday repeat slot.
2001
2002
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
| The Aubrey-Maturin series 20 by Patrick O'Brian | Golf clubs and balls | |||
| Susana Walton | The Education of a Gardner by Russell Page | Downy Pillow | ||
| Bob Worcester | Globes at Greenwich by Elly Dekker | |||
| Phyllis Sellick | The Oxford Companion to Music | Clockwork radio tuned to Radio 4 | ||
| David Linley | The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher | Guitar | ||
| Sir Paul Nurse | Telescope | |||
| Kazuo Ishiguro | Collected short stories of Anton Chekhov | Big roll of paper | ||
| Sue MacGregor | History of the World by John Roberts | Unlimited supply of nicely-scented sun block | ||
| Lord May | Capablanca's Hundred Best Games of Chess by Hans Golombek | Isle of Lewis chess set from The British Museum | ||
| Dame Beryl Grey | This Sceptred Isle by Christopher Lee | Box of watercolour paints | ||
| Fay Godwin | Egg tempera paints, brushes, and boards to paint on | |||
| by Anthony Bourdain | ||||
| Vision: 50 Years of Creativity | ||||
| - | A notebook and pencil | |||
| Suggs | ||||
| Sue Johnston | Dickens by Peter Ackroyd | BBC Radio Five Live | ||
| The Mabinogi in modern Welsh | ||||
| Diplomacy and Murder in Tehran: Alexander Griboyedov and the Tsar's Mission to the Shah of Persia by Laurence Kelly | ||||
| Van Gogh's Irises | ||||
| Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis | ||||
| Speaking of Diaghilev by John Drummond | ||||
| Philip Pullman | A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust | A Jar of Apricots by Chardin | ||
| Paul Gambaccini | The Complete Carl Banks Library by Carl Banks | Piano | ||
| War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | Pencils and paper | |||
| Rt Hon Robin Cook MP | ||||
| Oil paints | ||||
| One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez | ||||
| Patricia Cornwell | An endless supply of notebooks and pens |
2003
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
| Gillian Anderson | The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle | Recordings of her daughter and "her love" reading self-written stories and poetry | ||
| Ulysses by James Joyce | ||||
| Sir Trevor Nunn | The Complete Works of Charles Dickens | A photo of his wife and all of his children | ||
| World of Wonder: 10,000 things every child should know | ||||
| War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | ||||
| Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome | Potato seeds | |||
| One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez | Pencils, paper and watercolours | |||
| All the Little Live things by Wallace Earle Stegner | ||||
| Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen | ||||
| Utopia by Thomas More | ||||
| La première gorgée de Bière et autres plaisirs minuscules by Philippe Delerm | Sunglasses | |||
| Pencil and paper | ||||
| David Copperfield by Charles Dickens | ||||
| Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt | ||||
| Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens | ||||
| Glimpses by Brendan Kennelly | ||||
| Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes | ||||
| Snorkelling equipment | ||||
| RIBA drawings collection | ||||
| The Borrowers by Mary Norton |
2004
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
| War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | ||||
| The Earth from the Air by Yann Arthus-Bertrand | ||||
| Pencils and thick paper to write and draw on | ||||
| SUMO by Helmut Newton | Triptych, May - June, 1973 by Francis Bacon | |||
| The Rattle Bag: An Anthology of Poetry by Ted Hughes | Waterslide | |||
| Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain | A piano | |||
| Mansfield Park by Jane Austen | ||||
| Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister videos | ||||
| Vanity Fair by William Thackeray | ||||
| Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens | ||||
| Treasure Island and Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson | ||||
| Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen | ||||
| Spotted dick with Lyon's golden syrup | ||||
| Ethics by Spinoza, translated by G. H. R. Parkinson | ||||
| Engelbert - What's In a Name: The Autobiography by Engelbert Humperdinck | ||||
2005
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
| Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutierrez | ||||
| Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes | ||||
| Microcosmographia Academica by Francis M. Cornford | ||||
| My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell | ||||
| Olive oil | ||||
| Pensées by Blaise Pascal | Vermeer painting: The Piano Lesson | |||
| His mysterious object | ||||
| Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan | ||||
| "A book which is in my head about my brother" | ||||
| Modelling clay and tools | ||||
| Wild Reckoning: An Anthology Provoked by Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" edited by John Burnside and Maurice Riordan | ||||
| Derek Jarman's Garden by Derek Jarman | Howard Hodgkin's painting: Learning About Russian Music | |||
| Reading Lyrics: More Than 1,000 of the Century's Finest Lyrics by Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball | ||||
| Stop Thinking, Start Living by Richard Carlson | ||||
| Demian by Hermann Hesse | ||||
| Coffee | ||||
| Teach yourself mathematics illustrated by voluptuous women |
2006
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
| Vanity Fair by William Thackeray | ||||
| Vanity Fair by William Thackeray | ||||
| Rizla liquorice papers | ||||
| The complete works of Milton | Continuous supply of very cold & dry white wine | |||
| Ink, pen, paper and correction fluid | ||||
| Ethics by Spinoza | ||||
| How Britain made the Modern World by Niall Ferguson | ||||
| Family photograph albums | ||||
| Other Men's Flowers: An Anthology of Poetry by Lord Wavell | ||||
| Rembrandt's Hendrickje Bathing | ||||
| In Search of Lost Time by Proust | ||||
| Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins | ||||
| Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor by Mervyn Peake | ||||
| Remembrance of Things Past by Proust | ||||
| Jamie's Dinners: The Essential Family Cookbook by Jamie Oliver | ||||
| Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory | ||||
| Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre | ||||
| On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee | ||||
| Reach for the Sky: The Story of Douglas Bader by Paul Brickhill | ||||
| Remembrance of Things Past by Proust | ||||
| War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | ||||
2007
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
| Desert Islands by Walter de la Mare | ||||
| Ulysses by James Joyce | ||||
| Being and Time by Martin Heidegger | ||||
| The History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell | ||||
| Video camera and film | ||||
| Complete works of Dylan Thomas | ||||
| Lessons in Ndebele by James Pelling and Pamela Pelling | ||||
| Book on medieval history | Daily Araucaria crossword | |||
| Collected plays of George Bernard Shaw | ||||
| Great Expectations by Charles Dickens | ||||
| Collected works of Thomas Hardy | ||||
| Untold Stories by Alan Bennett | ||||
| Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela | ||||
| Oxford Anthology of English Poetry | ||||
| First Love by Ivan Turgenev | ||||
| Collected works of Anthony Trollope | ||||
| Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes | ||||
| Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen |
2008
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
| Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes | ||||
| Case books of John Hunter | ||||
| Encyclopædia Britannica | ||||
| Cloudy Bay Sauvignon blanc | ||||
| Tenor saxophone | ||||
| Collected works of Somerset Maugham | ||||
| Austerlitz by W G Sebald | A ‘magic’ pudding and a drink | |||
| Yes Minister | Pencil and paper | |||
| His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman | ||||
| Odyssey by Homer | ||||
| Teach yourself piano tuning | ||||
| Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens | ||||
| Vanity Fair by Thackeray | ||||
| Divine Comedy by Dante in Italian with English translation | ||||
| War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | ||||
| To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee | ||||
| Selected Stories by Alice Munro | ||||
| Larousse Gastronomique | Notebook and pens | |||
2009
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
| Cautionary tales by Hilaire Belloc | ||||
| Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela | ||||
| Untold Stories by Alan Bennett | A piano | |||
| Encyclopædia Britannica | ||||
| Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke | ||||
| Coups de Pilon by David Diop | ||||
| Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke | Wise Potato Chips | |||
| The collected works of P. G. Wodehouse | ||||
| Paints | ||||
| Caroline, Countess of Cranbrook | Food in England by Dorothy Hartley | Ink and a pen | ||
| Piers Morgan | An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan | |||
| Faber Book of English Verse | ||||
| Martin Shaw | Post Captain in the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian | |||
| Arlene Phillips | Little Women by Louisa May Alcott | |||
| Harvey Goldsmith | The Reader's Digest Do-It-Yourself Guide | A piano | ||
| Hugh Pennington | ||||
| David Mitchell | Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh | DVD player and sitcom boxsets | ||
| Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall | Moby Dick by Herman Melville | |||
| Nicky Haslam | Legacy by Sybille Bedford | |||
| Dame Joan Bakewell | War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | |||
| Roberto Alagna | ||||
| Barry Manilow | Man vs Wild - Survival Techniques from the Most Dangerous Places on Earth by Bear Grylls | |||
| Ellen MacArthur | The SAS Survival Handbook | |||
| Steve Coogan | ||||
| Jan Pienkowski | ||||
| Colin Pillinger | Journey into Space by Charles Chilton | |||
| Jerry Springer | ||||
| Anthony Julius | Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy | San Pellegrino water on tap | ||
| Julia Donaldson | ||||
| Sir Stuart Rose | Wisden Cricketers' Almanack | |||
| Morrissey | The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde | |||
| Such Sweet Thunder: Benny Green on Jazz by Benny Green | ||||
| The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand | ||||
| David Tennant |
2010
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
| John Copley | ||||
| Mary Portas | The works of Rumi, Persian poet and philosopher | |||
| James Ellroy | Libra by Don DeLillo | |||
| Frank Warren | Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson | Merlot grapevine | ||
| Mary Beard | Treasures of the British Museum by Marjorie Caygill | |||
| Gok Wan | Beautiful Thing by Jonathan Harvey | Lip balm | ||
| Jim Al-Khalili | The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose | |||
| Clive Woodward | Short Game of Golf by Dave Pelz | |||
| June Spencer | Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome | |||
| Maggie Aderin-Pocock | Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon | |||
| Duncan Bannatyne | The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett | |||
| Frank Cottrell Boyce | The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin | |||
| Emma Thompson | ||||
| Fay Weldon | ||||
| Rob Brydon | ||||
| Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne | Madonna and Child by Henry Moore | |||
| György Pauk | How to be an Alien by George Mikes | |||
| Frank Skinner | ||||
| Lewis Gilbert | ||||
| Tony Adams | The book of Alcoholics Anonymous | |||
| Dame Fanny Waterman | The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith | |||
| Biggest book of poetry available | ||||
| Tim Robbins | ||||
| Lynn Barber | The Complete F. Scott Fitzgerald | |||
| Jimmy Mulville | The Complete Works of P. G. Wodehouse | |||
| Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-Lytton | ||||
| Kathy Burke | The Complete Works of Graham Linehan | |||
| The Rise and Fall of the British Empire by Lawrence James | ||||
| Johnny Vegas | The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell | |||
| Sarah Doukas | The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin | |||
| Michael Mansfield | The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine as his Bible and The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz | |||
| Nick Clegg | The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa | A stash of cigarettes | ||
| Lang Lang | The Analects of Confucius | Two feathered pillows | ||
| Ian McMillan | The Long and The Short of It: Poems 1955-2005 by Roy Fisher | A tandem bike with wooden models of his family on the front | ||
| Anna Del Conte | The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa | Extra virgin olive oil | ||
| Alice Cooper | Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut | |||
| Robert Harris | Scoop by Evelyn Waugh | A nightly fragrant bath | ||
| Frances Wood | A copy of Chinese dictionary Cihai, which means Sea of Words | The war memorial outside Euston Station | ||
| A book of his father's poems and verses | A small still with an ice maker attached to it | |||
| Nick Park | A Collins bird book | His own "amazing pair of binoculars" | ||
| Sandie Shaw | Lecture on The Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life by Daisaku Ikeda | Omamori Gohonzon |
- Instead of the Bible: The Bhagavad Gita
- Instead of the Bible: The Gathas of Zarathustra
- Instead of the Bible: The Mahābhārata
- Instead of the Bible: The Qur'an
- Instead of the Complete Works of Shakespeare: The Complete Works of Goethe
- No bible
- Instead of the Bible: The Torah