Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It was devised and originally presented by Roy Plomley.
Desert Island Discs holds the record for the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio and is one of the longest-running radio programmes in the world (surpassed only by the Grand Ole Opry, 28 November 1925 in the United States and by Sunday Half Hour, 14 July 1940 in the United Kingdom.).
Each week a guest ("castaway") is asked to choose eight pieces of music, a book and a luxury item for their imaginary stay on the island, while discussing their lives and the reasons for their choices. The programme's theme is "By the Sleepy Lagoon" composed by Eric Coates in 1930. Since 2006 the show has been presented by Kirsty Young.
Read more about Desert Island Discs: Format, Notable Castaways, Copyright Status, Appearance in Fiction
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)