Desert Island Discs

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Betsy Blair. She was an actress in Hollywood during its heyday and is best known for her role in Marty, the Oscar-winning tale of a shy butcher and lonely teacher who, against the advice of friends and family, fall in love. She was barely 16 when she began her career as a dancer and it was while she was on her way to an early audition that she met Gene Kelly. She was still a teenager and he was 12 years her senior, but they were married and the couple set up home in one of Hollywood's most glamorous addresses - Rodeo Drive. They were known for throwing open their doors on Saturday night for star-studded parties; their guests included Tyrone Power, Judy Garland and Greta Garbo. After 16 years, the marriage broke up and Betsy moved first to France then England where she met and married Karel Reisz, director of The French Lieutenant's Woman. She embraced a career in European films, working with celebrated directors including Juan Antonio Bardem and Michelangelo Antonioni. Her 1955 film Marty was shown again as one of the classic films at this year's Cannes Film Festival.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: There's a Boat dat's Leaving Soon for New York by George Gershwin Book: Reading Lyrics - American Songs 1900-1975 Luxury: An ice cream maker

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the cookery writer Nigel Slater. The British public have taken Slater and his recipes to their hearts and - crucially - their kitchens in recent years, encouraged by his philosophy that cooking need not be daunting. Don't cook to show off, he says, or because you feel you should - cook for enjoyment, and comfort. Choose good ingredients, cook them simply, and above all - relax. Slater's passion for food grew out of a lonely, neglected childhood in which his only comforts were culinary. Born in Wolverhampton in the late 50s, his mother died when he was just nine leaving a gap in his life which he tried to fill with comfort food. Against his father's wishes, he fantasised about being a chef, later leaving home to go to catering college and then work in a variety of restaurants around the country. After testing recipes for a new magazine, he first came to public attention as food editor for Marie Claire. Currently food editor of the Observer, Slater's books are both popular and critically acclaimed. His 2003 memoir Toast won biography of the year at the British Book Awards, his cookbook Appetite won an Andre Simon for Cookbook of the Year in 2000, and Slater himself has won the Glenfiddich Trophy and Cookery Writer of the Year Award in 1999.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Teddy Bears Picnic by Henry Hall and Val Rosing Book: Derek Jarman's Garden by Derek Jarman Luxury: Howard Hodgkin's painting Learning About Russian Music

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the peace campaigner Satish Kumar. He has dedicated his life to promoting a peaceful, measured way of living; walking thousands of miles to raise awareness for his cause. Satish was born in Rajasthan, India, in 1936. As a child he decided to follow a spiritual life and, until he was 18, Kumar lived the life of an itinerant Jain monk, travelling from village to village with no more possessions than a begging bowl and a change of clothes. Then in 1961, news from Britain reached Kumar. The 90-year-old philosopher and peace campaigner Bertrand Russell had been arrested for his anti-nuclear activities and sentenced to a week in prison. Kumar saw it as a call to action - if a 90-year-old man was prepared to go to jail for peace, what could he, a young man in his 20s, contribute to the struggle? Together with his friend Prabhakar Menon, Satish walked to the four nuclear capitals - Moscow, Paris, London and Washington. Their journey began at the grave of Mahatma Gandhi and ended, two and a half years later at the grave of John F Kennedy. For the past 30 years Satish has edited the magazine Resurgence, which promotes an ecological way of living - and he has pioneered the Human Scale Education movement.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Ma Solitude by Georges Moustaki Book: The Collected Writings by Mahatma Gandhi Luxury: A spade

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser Prof Sir David King. He's had a testing four and a half years in the job - his tenure has coincided with an epidemic of foot and mouth disease, as well as a series of ongoing public health controversies played out in the media, such as the safety of the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) and concerns over genetically-modified crops. He was born in South Africa and brought up in a middle-class suburb of Johannesburg. As a teenager he was taken by his school to visit a township to see how black South Africans lived. He says it was an eye-opening experience and, while he pursued his scientific studies, he also took a stance against the political regime and wrote letters denouncing apartheid. His activism brought him to the attention of South Africa's secret police - he was questioned and left with little option but to leave the country. He came to Britain and continued his studies here. He pursued an academic career - he was made the 1920 Professor of Physical Chemistry at Cambridge University in 1988, a post he still holds, and has recently been confirmed for a second term as the Government's chief scientist.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Don't Know Why by Norah Jones Book: Wild Reckoning, An Anthology Provoked by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring by John Burnside Luxury: Bunch of canvases with oils and brushes

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actress Imelda Staunton. Imelda Staunton is one of the UK's most versatile and popular actresses. Through a career spanning nearly 30 years she has consistently refused to be typecast, moving effortlessly from playing brassy Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, to the oppressed Sonya in Uncle Vanya, to a grieving mother in Peter's Friends. Her most recent film role was in Mike Leigh's production Vera Drake - she played the eponymous heroine, a 1950s housewife who unbeknownst to her family carried out illegal abortions. She won huge acclaim for her performance, including an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA award for Best Actress. Imelda Staunton was born in Archway, London, in 1956. Her mother Bridie was a hairdresser, and the family lived over her shop, whilst Imelda's father worked on the roads. It was an elocution and drama teacher at her school, Jacqueline Stoker, who encouraged her talent, adapting plays for her and putting her in for school drama competitions. She also encouraged Imelda to apply for drama school. At the time, Imelda had never heard of RADA - but she was offered a place there and studied alongside Alan Rickman, Juliet Stevenson and Timothy Spall. Imelda Staunton lives with her husband, the actor Jim Carter, and their daughter, in London. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: I'll Know by Julie Covington & Ian Charleson Book: A book on astronomy Luxury: Modelling clay and tools

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the novelist Josephine Cox. Josephine Cox is one of Britain's most popular authors. She became an overnight publishing sensation at the relatively late age of 43 and has written 34 books which have sold 15 million copies worldwide. Now, her publishers print 'bestseller' on the cover of each new work, they're so confident of its success. But it was by no means a straightforward route to fame and fortune. She was born in Blackburn during World War II and grew up in dire poverty. As a child, she used to charge her school friends a penny for her to tell them a story, she and her siblings slept six to a bed, and they used to drink water out of jam-jars. One of her teachers recognised her talents and prophesied her future success as a writer. But it was only decades later when, convalescing after an illness, she had the time to pick up a pen and write. Her first book was accepted immediately and she has been writing two books a year ever since. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Imagine by John Lennon Book: "A book which is in my head about my brother" Luxury: Photo album of my family

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the journalist Katharine Whitehorn. Katharine Whitehorn was the first journalist to write a column about her personal and domestic life and draw broader truths from her experiences - it's the kind of material that is now commonly found on women's pages and is satirised in Private Eye's Polly Filler - but in the 1950s and 1960s it was a new phenomenon and she was its brightest and wittiest exponent. She came to journalism through a circuitous route that took in Picture Post, Woman's Own and The Spectator, but it was on the Observer - where she worked for more than 30 years - that she really made her mark. She was at the vanguard of a generation of women who were told they could 'have it all' and she may even be the only one to have managed it - a successful, well-paid career, a happy marriage and complete family. While at the Picture Post she met Gavin Lyall - who went on to become a successful novelist - they had two sons and were married for 45 years until his death in 2002. She is now the agony aunt for Saga Magazine.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Slow movement of Double Violin Concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach Book: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Luxury: A machine to distil whatever is there

Pulp's singer and musician, Jarvis Cocker is castaway by Sue Lawley.Jarvis formed the band Pulp in the late 1970s and says that as a gawky, self-conscious teenager he felt pop music did not properly inform him about the disappointments and miseries of growing up - and he was determined to write songs that included "the messy bits and the awkward, fumbling bits". He had to wait more than a decade to find success - but Pulp went on to become one of the most popular bands of the 1990s, with hits including Do You Remember the First Time? Sorted For Es And Wizz and Common People.The band's crowning glory was its performance of 'Common People' at the Glastonbury festival in 1995. The following year, Jarvis Cocker made headlines again - this time the tabloid front pages after he invaded the stage while Michael Jackson was performing at the pop industry's annual awards ceremony. Fans were thrilled, but it marked the beginning of a difficult time in the singer's life. Now he is married with a young son and living in Paris and has recently written songs for Nancy Sinatra and Marianne Faithfull as well as writing the music for the film Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire.DISC ONE: Theme - Robert Mellin DISC TWO: Transmission - Joy Division DISC THREE: Mouldy Old Dough - Lieutenant Pigeon DISC FOUR: Ten Guitars - Engelbert Humperdinck DISC FIVE: The War is Over - Scott Walker DISC SIX: Lady With the Braid - Dory Previn DISC SEVEN: I See a Darkness - Johnny Cash DISC EIGHT: Sailing By - Ronald BingeBOOK CHOICE: Sombrero Fallout - Richard Brautigan LUXURY CHOICE: A bed with a mosquito net CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Sailing By - Ronald BingeDesert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley.Producer: Leanne BuckleFirst broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2005.

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the actor Patrick StewartPatrick Stewart had to wait a long time for fame. The Shakespearean actor was nearly 50 when he was offered the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Contrary to predictions, the programme was a huge hit, and Patrick Stewart's famously bald cranium was on posters, duvet covers and Star Trek memorabilia the world over. Patrick was born in Mirfield, Yorkshire, a town with a passion for amateur dramatics. The youngest of three brothers, he grew up watching performances by the all-female drama company to which his mother belonged. After a disastrous stint as a reporter, Patrick went on to work in repertory theatre around Britain, and then to a successful career with the RSC, during which he won an Olivier Awardfor his portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. After seven series at the helm of the Starship Enterprise, he has returned to Britain and to his first love, the theatre. He is currently appearing in David Mamet's A Life in the Theatre in London's West End.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings by Benjamin Britten Book: A compendium of the world's best science fiction Luxury: His beloved billiard table and a shed to keep it in

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the high wire walker Philippe Petit. Since the age of 17 Petit had been, in his own words, a 'wandering troubadour', making a living by doing magic in the salons of Paris. Notre Dame became the site of Petit's first illegal wirewalk, on 6th June 1971. On 7th August 1974 Philippe Petit committed 'the artistic crime of the century' when he put a rope between the towers of the World Trade Centre in New York and spent nearly an hour walking back and forth across it, pausing to kneel and lie down on the wire. He brought much of Manhattan, a quarter of a mile below him, to a standstill, and succeeded in pushing Richard Nixon's resignation off the front pages of the newspapers the following day. Since walking between the twin towers Petit has done wire-walks all over the world including Tokyo and Jerusalem. He has, uniquely, devised plays to be performed on the high wire and has also become artist in residence at the cathedral of St John the Divine in New York, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: 1st Movement of Sonatine for Violin and Piano by Antonin Dvořák Book: Ashley's Book of Knots by Clifford Ashley and Book of short stories Luxury: His mysterious object (An object found by his father that, as yet, no-one can identify)