Desert Island Discs

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the artist Sam Taylor-Wood. She is known for her photography and short films, including 'David' - a film of the footballer David Beckham sleeping - and her 365-degree photograph that was wrapped around the Selfridges store in central London. She is one half of art's most glamorous couple - her husband is the art dealer Jay Jopling.Her route into art was scattered and uncertain. Although she knew she wanted to study art, she ended up taking a BTech in fashion before studying art at Goldsmiths. In 1997 she was awarded a prize as the most promising new artist at the Venice Biennale, but the same year saw the birth of her daughter and within months she was diagnosed with colon cancer. She fought it off only to find within a few years, that she was suffering from breast cancer. She emerged from illness with a major show at the Haywood Gallery - said to be the youngest person to be granted a retrospective there. She now says that her illness has given her a drive to keep working - and to do whatever seems the most fun. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Tiny Dancer by Elton John Book: Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes Luxury: Karaoke machine

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the former SAS soldier turned author Andy McNab. After being abandoned as a baby, he was adopted and was brought up in the Peckham area of South London. A life of minor crime followed until he joined the infantry with the Royal Green Jackets in 1976 progressing to the SAS. In the Gulf War, McNab commanded the Bravo Two Zero patrol, given the task of destroying underground communication links in Iraq and mobile Scud launchers. Three of the eight-man patrol were killed, one escaped and four were taken prisoner by the Iraqis and tortured over a six-week period. He's been awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Military Medal and was the British Army's most highly decorated serving soldier when he left the SAS in 1993. His book Bravo Two Zero became a bestseller and this was followed by his autobiography Immediate Action. Since then, he's published seven novels about a former soldier who then works for British Intelligence.Elements of this programme may offend or upset some listeners.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Sweet Thing by David Bowie Book: Any book by Charles Dickens Luxury: A gollock

Sue Lawley's castaway is the dancer Carlos Acosta. Carlos Acosta is one of the greatest ballet dancers of his generation. He is the first black principal dancer at Covent Garden. Tocororo, the show about his own life, that he wrote, choreographed and starred in, broke box office records at Sadlers Wells and in his homeland of Cuba he is a national hero. But his extraordinary success has followed an even more remarkable journey from the impoverished back streets of Havana. He was the youngest of 11 children and, as a boy, his only ambition was to be a footballer. At the age of nine, his father sent him to ballet school - inspired not by art, but by the promise of free school meals and the hope that his increasingly delinquent son would be brought into line by the strict regime. Carlos hated it, was bullied by his friends and was twice expelled. The first time, his father persuaded the school to take him back, the second, his father found another ballet school and secured Carlos a place there as a boarder. It was only there, at the age of 13, that he had an epiphany. Seeing the Cuban National Ballet perform he decided he did want to follow that path. At the age of 16 he travelled for the first time to Europe, he won four major dance competitions in one year and his career as an international ballet dancer was launched.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Bacalao Con Pan by Irakere Book: Dirty Trilogy of Havana by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez Luxury: Case of Havana rum

Sue Lawley's castaway is the actress Kim Cattrall. Kim Cattrall became a household name in her forties as a result of playing man-eater, defiant singleton and PR mogul Samantha Jones in Sex and the City. She is about to star in the play Whose Life is it Anyway? in the West End of London.She was born in Liverpool but grew up in Canada and decided to be an actress at a young age. She says a formative experience was appearing in a school play Piffle It's Only a Sniffle when she took the role of a cold germ which had to infect the other children by tickling them with a feather until they sneezed. She spent time in drama schools in Canada, Liverpool and New York and says now that her first love is theatre - and her film roles allow her to feed her theatre habit. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: My Favourite Things by John Coltrane Book: An English Dictionary Luxury: Fragrant body cream

Sue Lawley's castaway is the singer Engelbert Humperdinck. Engelbert Humperdinck is one of Britain's most successful entertainers. He is known as the King of Romance and has been at the top of the showbusiness ladder for nearly 40 years - selling more than 130 million records including sixty-four gold and 23 platinum albums. He was born Arnold George (Gerry) Dorsey in 1936 in India and was one of 10 children. At the age of 10, his family returned to the UK and Leicester. At 17 he began performing in clubs and pubs. In 1965 his manager changed his name to Engelbert Humperdinck but it was still two years before his chance arrived. His big break came in April 1967 when Dickie Valentine was ill and Engelbert took his slot on the show Sunday Night at the London Palladium. His single Release Me flew off the shelves staying in the charts for 56 weeks. He went off to conquer America and there he shared the bill with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra while he counted Elvis Presley as a close friend. He starts a new UK tour in February next year and his autobiography Engelbert - What's in a Name? was published this year.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Return to Me by Dean Martin Book: What's in a Name? by Engelbert Humperdinck Luxury: A saxophone

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is John Fortune.John Fortune is one of Britain's most respected and enduring satirists. For the past 12 years he has been half of the award-winning double act, The Long Johns, with John Bird, that have brought a sharper political edge to Bremner, Bird and Fortune. As a result of the act, they have been named the Best Opposition by The Oldie Magazine and are Bafta award winners. It is a return to the forefront of political satire for John Fortune - he had joined Peter Cook in setting up The Establishment Club in the 1960s and had taken the review to America to widespread acclaim and returned to Britain to write for, among others, BBC Three and Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Piano Sonata No 30 in E Major by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Leopard (In Italian & English) by Giuseppe di Lampedusa Luxury: A rug made by the Baluch people from Afghanistan

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is Sir Bobby Robson. Sir Bobby Robson is one of the most enduring and popular faces in football. For more than five decades he has dedicated his life to the game - as a player and manager. As a small boy growing up in a mining village in County Durham, he learnt his ball skills by playing football in the streets and backyard with his four brothers.By the time he was 15, Bobby knew he had a particular gift and was attracting the attention of the local talent scouts. But, despite being offered a professional place by his home team of Newcastle, he decided to head south to Fulham, where he thought he'd have a greater chance to shine. He went on to play successfully for Fulham and West Bromwich Albion and earned twenty England caps before an ankle injury cut short his international career. He then managed Ipswich Town for 13 very successful years - leaving when he was offered the opportunity manage the England squad. After a successful career in Europe he returned to Britain in 1999 to manage Newcastle but was sacked early in the season. Despite health problems, he says he hasn't given up hope of finding another club to manage. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: It Was a Very Good Year by Robbie Williams and Frank Sinatra Book: The works of historian John Keegan: The First World War & the Second World War collected into one volume by John Keegan Luxury: Sun lounger with canopy to protect him from the sun

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the artist Tracey Emin. Tracey Emin is one of the most successful and controversial artists to emerge during the 1990s. Her work was championed early on by influential art dealer Jay Jopling and later by the collector Charles Saatchi. Her work is highly autobiographical and confessional. A talented drawer and painter, she has attracted most attention for her art installations - including her tent, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With and the Turner Prize-nominated My Bed. Her art is adored and condemned in equal measure, but wherever she exhibits she attracts queues and has a room at Tate Britain dedicated to her work. She was brought up in Margate and she has recently finished a film, Top Spot, which reflects her own experiences. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Young Americans by David Bowie Book: Ethics by Spinoza Luxury: A pen which would never run out

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the death row lawyer Clive Stafford Smith. Clive Stafford Smith spent more than 25 years representing people on death row. He's saved hundreds of lives and counts his clients among his friends. He says his work is his calling - one he was drawn to after writing an essay on capital punishment while at school. Initially he thought it was a history essay and was appalled to find the death sentence was still in use. He planned to become a campaigning journalist, but a summer spent meeting prisoners on death row inmates convinced him that he would be able to achieve more by representing them directly. So he trained in law and set up his own legal practice to enable him to do so. He has received several awards for his work including, in 2002, the OBE.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Spem in Alium by Thomas Tallis Book: The Koran (in Arabic and English) Luxury: My computer

Sue Lawley's guest this week is the internationally acclaimed choreographer Matthew Bourne. He was born in the East End of London in 1960. As a child, his great passion was musicals and stage shows - rather than ballet. Despite his later success, he showed no interest in dance until the age of 20 when he enrolled at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London. He's built his reputation on his unconventional interpretations of classical ballets such as Nutcracker which he reworked from being a cosy Christmas setting to a grim Victorian Orphanage. Swan Lake was similarly changed with the traditional tutu-clad ballerinas being replaced by dozens of bare-chested male dancers with wings, and he transformed Carmen into Car Man about a bisexual male drifter set in a small American town. He was awarded an OBE in 2001.[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]Favourite track: Night and Day by Ella Fitzgerald Book: Diaries by Kenneth Williams Luxury: Spotted Dick with Lyon's syrup