Desert Island Discs

This week's castaway on Desert Island Discs may be nearing 70, but he knows how to play The Generation Game. Bruce Forsyth is one of the great all-rounders - television host, pianist, dancer and comedian. He began performing as a child, tap-dancing on the roof of his father's lock-up garages. But, as he tells Sue Lawley, his big night came when he was asked to compere Sunday Night at the Palladium. He has spent more than five decades in showbiz, progressing from Boy Bruce the Mighty Atom, to probably the most successful game show host on television. To quote one of his own famous catchphrases, "Didn't he do well?"[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: I'll Never Love This Way Again by Dionne Warwick Book: The collected works by Omar Khayyam Luxury: Sand iron (golf club)

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the Leader of the Opposition, the Right Honourable Tony Blair. He will be describing his beliefs, both political and religious, and revealing the man behind the sound bites.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Recuerdos De La Alhambra by John Williams Book: Ivanhoe by Walter Scott Luxury: Guitar

Atlanta was her sixth Olympic Games. The first was 20 years before. On Desert Island Discs, Tessa Sanderson reveals the competitive drive that brought her back from retirement at the age of 40 to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. She fondly recalls her rivalry with fellow competitor Fatima Whitbread, and remembers the moment she became the first and only British woman to win an Olympic throwing gold medal.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston Book: The History of the World by J M Roberts Luxury: Toothbrush and toothpaste

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is a writer, a traveller and an advisor to a Prince and Prime Minister.Now nearly 90, he'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his early years in South Africa, his incarceration as a Japanese prisoner-of-war and his life-long campaign to save the bushmen of the Kalahari Desert.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Piano Sonata No. 17 in Dm 'Tempest' by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Golden Bough by James Frazer Luxury: Piano

He's called "His Excellency" by some; to others he's "Fatty Patten". Next year he will hand over Hong Kong to the Chinese.Chris Patten, this week's castaway on Desert Island Discs, describes the challenges of being the colony's last British Governor. He recalls the moment he won the election for the Conservative Party, but lost his own seat, and how, as Environment Secretary, he found himself implementing "the single most unpopular policy that any British government has tried to introduce since the last war" - the poll tax.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Mass No. 18 in C minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking Luxury: A bath

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the wine writer Jancis Robinson.One of only 200 Masters of Wine in the world, she recalls how her passion was first aroused by a full-bodied Chambolle-Musigny. It was, she says, the first time she realised that wine was an intellectual experience and not just for lubrication. A familiar face on television for her Matters of Taste and Wine Course series, she also edited the prestigious Oxford Companion to Wine. But her main occupation is tasting, and she can sip and spit more than a hundred varieties at a sitting. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Sabat Mater Inflammatus Et Accensus by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi Book: Middlemarch by George Eliot Luxury: Cellar of wines and a corkscrew

The ball rolled past the gap between him and Gordon Banks and into the back of the net. The Germans were one goal up. This week's castaway, Jackie Charlton, recalls the match which was to bring him to his knees in relief and joy as England went on to win the 1966 World Cup. Just one of the crowning moments of a career that could so easily have ended down the pit, except for his talent with the ball. Nicknamed "The Boss" because of his straight talking, Jackie describes his relationship with his brother "Our Kid" Bobby Charlton and his success as manager of Ireland. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: September Song by Frank Sinatra Book: Encyclopaedia of How To Survive Luxury: Fishing rod

Always an outsider, she seems to have gone against all the mores of her time; from opening a dancing school in Calcutta to living alone with her children in Kashmir. On Desert Island Discs this week, the writer Rumer Godden describes how her rich life in India (under the Raj) and in Britain has influenced her novels.She says she can't remember a time when she didn't write. Now in her late 80s, and after publishing more than 50 books, including Black Narcissus and The River, she's just added another to her list. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Kinderscenen Traumerei by Robert Schumann Book: The Atlantic book of British and American Poetry by Edith Sitwell Luxury: A widow's cruse filled with whisky

The castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is Professor Lewis Wolpert. As Chairman of the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science, he is a passionate advocate of the value of science and the increasing need for the recognition and promotion of its importance. He'll be talking to Sue Lawley about his early life in South Africa, his recent struggle with clinical depression and his passion for the views of the 18th-century philosopher David Hume - particularly on the existence of God.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and The Principles of Morals by David Hume Luxury: Bicycle

His fourth novel, Popcorn, has been widely-acclaimed by the critics. He's about to begin a nationwide tour with his stand-up comedy routine. And, after the success of his TV series The Young Ones and Blackadder, he's currently writing The Thin Blue Line for BBC1. Yet despite all that, Ben Elton, this week's castaway, says he's more of an enthusiastic 'farty' than a "smug git in a shiny suit".He muses as to whether his scatter-gun delivery (so mocked by the tabloids) is the result of his fear of the audience, or of a self-righteous belief in his own opinion, and when stranded on a desert island, he will reveal himself as a serious satirist or just a maverick motormouth.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: And Your Bird Can Sing by The Beatles Book: His wedding photo album Luxury: The British Museum