Desert Island Discs

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson. He has the task of managing one of the most challenging briefs of government - and the stakes are raised further because, when there is an election, the Prime Minister Gordon Brown has made it clear that the main battleground will be health.Johnson says that unlike many politicians, he is not a keen strategist who has spent his life plotting his career, instead he has simply 'drifted along', taking whatever challenges fate offered. He has drifted on quite an incredible journey - raised among the deprivation and squalor of London in the 1950s, he was orphaned when he was 12 and brought up by his sister. He left school without an O-level but with ambitions to join the music industry. Instead, after a spell stacking supermarket shelves, he became a postman and by the time he was 20 he was married with three children. He rose through the trade union movement where his astute negotiating skills and political acumen brought him to Tony Blair's attention. According to those who know him best, however, his political ambitions are limited - his children say he would still rather be the lead singer in a band than Prime Minister.[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: Diaries by Samuel Pepys Luxury: Digital radio.

In a heartfelt conversation, George Michael, the iconic singer-songwriter and Wham! alum, shares candid insights about his tumultuous life, including the impact of fame and personal struggles. He reflects on his experiences with grief and identity, revealing how bereavement inspired his music. George discusses the burden of secrecy around his sexuality, expressing relief after coming out. He also pays tribute to Amy Winehouse, shares the joy of music creation, and contemplates what brings him peace after years of turmoil.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the conductor Vladimir Jurowski. Described as the most active and influential conductor in Britain today, he has been the musical director at Glyndebourne for the past six years, and this autumn takes over as Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Vladimir's roots however lie in Russia, where he was one of the last generation to experience the Communist regime. The two-room apartment in Moscow that he shared with his parents, siblings and grandmothers, was always full of music; his father was a conductor. He says he "grew up in the wings of the theatre", and he knew from a very early age that his life too would be dedicated to music. However, he resisted following in his father's footsteps until he was seventeen, when he heard Mahler's music for the first time. After that, he says, there was no turning back. He changed as a person, physically he says, when he picked up the baton, and went on to make his conducting debut at the tender age of 23. He has been constantly in demand around the world ever since, but manages to combine this international career with being a husband and father.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Variations 29 & 30 by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Complete Works by Aleksandr Pushkin Luxury: A piano.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the publisher Felix Dennis. He blossomed among the flower power generation, finding fame as one of the defendants in the notorious Oz Magazine obscenity trial in 1971. It fired his loathing of the establishment but instead of dropping out he opted in and beat them at their own game. For the past 30 years his talent has been spotting a niche in the magazine market and launching a title to fill it - his success has made him one of the richest men in Britain.For many years his life was one of addiction and excess - but latterly the only thing he feels compelled to do each day is write poetry and he's become one of a very rare breed - a best-selling poet.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: One Too Many Mornings by Bob Dylan Book: The Dictionary of National Biography Luxury: A very long stainless steel shaft to encourage pole-dancing mermaids!

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the writer Andrew Davies. He is the king of television adaptation; Pride and Prejudice, Vanity Fair, Middlemarch and Tipping the Velvet are just a few of the dramas he has brought to our screens. Until he was 50, he was an English lecturer and wrote in his spare time - it was a sort of mid-life crisis that sent his career soaring. Since then, his signature has been stripping down the classics, sexing them up and serving Austen, Eliot and Dickens to appreciative audiences. The trick is to make sure the stories remain relevant to viewers today - and that, he says, is straightforward because the main motivators remain the same - sex, love, money and power.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Hiawatha Rag by Chris Barber Band Box Book: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Luxury: Endless supply of Mojitos.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the investment banker Nicola Horlick. She has, perhaps, done more than anyone else to shatter the glass ceiling - a mother of six children and now stepmum to another three, her proud boast is that she's never missed a sports day or a school speech day. She says her career is largely an extension of her maternal instinct and she nurtures the companies she's ploughing funds into. With her apparently limitless energy, talent and ambition she seemed to be the one woman who had managed to have it all. Then her eldest daughter, Georgie, was diagnosed with leukaemia. For the next 10 years, until Georgie's death in 1998, Nicola combined nursing her daughter with her highly successful career, while also looking after the rest of her growing family. Now she is launching a new investment company and, with her very personal knowledge of the NHS, says she doesn't rule out a future within the health service.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: A Cenar Teco from the final Act of Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Luxury: A bath.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the writer Thomas Keneally. He had already been nominated for the Booker Prize three times when he published a historical novel that many said should not have been eligible for the contest. It told the story of one man, Oskar Schindler, who risked his life and lost his fortune to save more than a thousand Jews. Schindler's Ark not only won the prize, it has been the best-selling Booker winner ever and went on to be made into the Oscar-winning film Schindler's List. Religion and war have been themes through much of his work and indeed his own life. His father's absence during World War II helped to create a serious-minded child who went on to train for the priesthood. But just weeks before his ordination he quit the church, picked up his pen and started writing.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Herz und Mund und Tat Und Leben- Heart & Mind & Deed & Life by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: Collected Plays by George Bernard Shaw Luxury: Can of Beluga caviar, spoon and tin opener.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the animator Oliver Postgate. As the creator of Noggin the Nog, The Clangers and Bagpuss, Oliver holds a special place in many childhoods. So it may come as something of a surprise that he never thought about how his programmes would be received by children; instead he says he simply focussed on making the stories great - everything else was secondary. For 20 years he toiled in a converted pigsty in Kent, animating the characters Peter Firmin drew, churning out 120 seconds of film a day. He says a respectable average for an animation company now would be two seconds! Oliver's own childhood was a lonely one; ignored by his busy parents and sent to an experimental school he hated. He says that to this day, he has no meaning unless he is doing something, and this is a direct legacy of his desperation to be noticed as a child.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: When the Saints Come Marching In by Pete Fountain Book: Huge book of English Poetry Luxury: A comfortable bed.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the actor Simon Russell Beale. Critics are torn over their descriptions of him: to some, he's the greatest stage actor in Britain today. To others, merely the greatest Shakespearean actor of his generation. Whichever it is, when he's cast in a play, it invariably sells out, the audience is spellbound and the reviewers smitten.Yet initially it seemed as if music was his calling; he was a choirboy at St Paul's, won a singing scholarship to Cambridge and went on to study at the Guildhall School of Music. An unorthodox approach to the drama department saw him change direction and he has gone on to win huge acclaim and many awards for his work. Unusually for a modern actor, he has only dabbled lightly in film and television work - he says when faced with the choice between a play and a film he always picks the play.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: First Movement of 4th Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: Book on medieval history Luxury: Daily Araucaria crossword.

Wangari Maathai, a renowned environmentalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, dives into her inspiring journey from a modest Kenyan upbringing to becoming a global advocate for democracy and nature. She shares poignant moments from her childhood that shaped her passion for tree planting and human rights. Reflecting on her surprise at winning the Nobel Prize, she connects environmental justice with broader human rights. Maathai also discusses the challenges of navigating activism within political spheres, emphasizing the power of traditional knowledge in combating deforestation.