Desert Island Discs - Appearance in Fiction

Appearance in Fiction

In Tom Stoppard's play The Real Thing, the playwright protagonist, Henry, frets over his forthcoming appearance on Desert Island Discs, worrying about whether he should be honest and admit his admiration for pop music (particularly pop music derided by critics) or pretend to favour more conventionally admired music.

In the 1979 film Porridge criminal boss, and avid Radio 4 listener, Harry Grout stated that it was an ambition of his to one day appear on the programme. (As of 2012, Peter Vaughan, the actor who portrayed the character has not appeared as a guest on the show)

The programme is mentioned by Bender in the Futurama episode "Obsoletely Fabulous".

In Howard Jacobson's The Finkler Question, Finkler is invited to appear on the programme. In the third series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, antagonist Jeffrey Granger (played by Bill Nighy) claims he "has been asked to appear" on the show.

The 1996 Absolutely Fabulous episode "The Last Shout" featured the character Edina Monsoon (played by Jennifer Saunders) being interviewed by Sue Lawley (in an off-camera cameo) for Desert Island Discs. All of Edina's music choices were songs by Lulu.

For the "Dibley Live" (1998) episode of The Vicar of Dibley, in which the characters are generating programming ideas for the village's one-week radio station, the chronically dull Frank originally proposes a programme called Desert Island Desks, in which he would recount his favourites from the many desks at which he has sat during his lifetime. Instead, he opts for An Hour of Frank Talking, in which he unexpectedly reveals how he came to discover his – hitherto undisclosed – homosexuality; however, none of the locals turns out to have heard the show, having anticipated a boring hour and chosen not to tune in.