List of Desert Island Discs episodes (2001–2010)
The BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs invites castaways to choose eight pieces of music, a book (in addition to the Bible - or a religious text appropriate to that person's beliefs - and the Complete Works of Shakespeare) and a luxury item that they would take to an imaginary desert island, where they will be marooned indefinitely. The rules state that the chosen luxury item must not be anything animate or indeed anything that enables the castaway to escape from the island, for instance a radio set, sailing yacht or aeroplane. The choices of book and luxury can sometimes give insight into the guest's life, and the choices of guests between 2001 and 2010 are listed here.
Very rarely programmes will be repeated in place of new shows as a tribute to former guests who have recently died – for example Radio 4 repeated Humphrey Lyttelton's show, originally aired on 5 November 2006, on 15 June 2008. Desert Island Discs takes two short breaks, in spring and summer. BBC Radio 4 broadcasts new programmes for approximately 42 weeks each year on Sunday mornings, usually with a repeat transmission five days later. On Remembrance Sunday (in November) the programme is not broadcast but that week's programme gets a single airing in the Friday repeat slot.
2001
2002
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 January 2002 | Sir Peter Morris | The Aubrey-Maturin series 20 (complete hardback set) by Patrick O'Brian | Golf clubs and balls | more |
| 13 January 2002 | Susana Walton | The Education of a Gardner by Russell Page | Downy Pillow | more |
| 20 January 2002 | Bob Worcester | Globes at Greenwich by Elly Dekker | Celestial and terrestrial globes | more |
| 27 January 2002 | Phyllis Sellick | The Oxford Companion to Music | Clockwork radio tuned to Radio 4 | more |
| 3 February 2002 | David Linley | The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher | Guitar | more |
| 10 February 2002 | Sir Paul Nurse | The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski | Telescope | more |
| 17 February 2002 | Kazuo Ishiguro | Collected short stories of Anton Chekhov | Big roll of paper | more |
| 24 February 2002 | Sue MacGregor | History of the World by John Roberts | Unlimited supply of nicely-scented sun block | more |
| 3 March 2002 | Lord May | Capablanca's Hundred Best Games of Chess by Hans Golombek | Isle of Lewis chess set from The British Museum | more |
| 10 March 2002 | Dame Beryl Grey | This Sceptred Isle by Christopher Lee | Box of watercolour paints | more |
| 17 March 2002 | Fay Godwin | The Rattle Bag by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney | Egg tempera paints, brushes, and boards to paint on | more |
| 24 March 2002 | Dorothy Rowe | The Oxford Companion to the Body edited by Colin Blakemore | A snorkeling suit with prescription goggles | more |
| 31 March 2002 | Gordon Ramsay | Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain | A fresh vanilla pod | more |
| 7 April 2002 | Fiona Reynolds | The Making of the English Landscape by W. G. Hoskins | The full collection of Ordnance Survey maps of the British Isles | more |
| 14 April 2002 | Sir Christopher Bland | The collected works of John Donne | Two and half miles of a Hampshire chalk stream | more |
| 21 April 2002 | Wayne Marshall | The Grove Dictionary of Music | A Steinway Model D piano, specially conditioned to deal with all weathers | more |
| 28 April 2002 | Betty Jackson | Vision: 50 Years of Creativity | Lipstick | more |
| 5 May 2002 | Jude Kelly | - | A notebook and pencil | more |
| 12 May 2002 | Sir Aaron Klug | A set of books on Roman Republican and Imperial Coinage | A set of mixed Greek and Imperial coinage | more |
| 19 May 2002 | Suggs | A concise book of Italian verbs | A nucleus of bees | more |
| 26 May 2002 | Sue Johnston | Dickens by Peter Ackroyd | BBC Radio Five Live | more |
| 9 June 2002 | Leonard Rosoman | A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce | A sloping lawn | more |
| 16 June 2002 | Jan Morris | The Mabinogi in modern Welsh | A hot water bottle | more |
| 23 June 2002 | Lady Longford | Diplomacy and Murder in Tehran: Alexander Griboyedov and the Tsar's Mission to the Shah of Persia by Laurence Kelly | An orange tree | more |
| 30 June 2002 | Minette Walters | The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations | Van Gogh's Irises | more |
| 7 July 2002 | Alan Titchmarsh | One of P. G. Wodehouse's Blandings novels | A box of watercolours | more |
| 15 September 2002 | Brian May | Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis | His own guitar: the Red Special | more |
| 22 September 2002 | Timothy Spall | The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens | A drum kit | more |
| 29 September 2002 | Dame Alicia Markova | Speaking of Diaghilev by John Drummond | The perfume Knowing by Estée Lauder | more |
| 6 October 2002 | Philip Pullman | A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust | A Jar of Apricots by Chardin | |
| 13 October 2002 | Paul Gambaccini | The Complete Carl Barks Library by Carl Barks | Piano | more |
| 20 October 2002 | Carl Djerassi | The collected poetry and prose of Wallace Stevens | A solar powered computer with a secret compartment containing a white powder | more |
| 27 October 2002 | P. D. James | War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | Pencils and paper | more |
| 3 November 2002 | Rt Hon Robin Cook MP | The National Hunt form book | A chess computer | more |
| 15 November 2002 | Marguerite Wolff | Alan Walker's biography of Liszt | A piano | more |
| 17 November 2002 | Christopher Ondaatje | Robert Service's Anthology of Poetry | A painting: The Blue Nude by Justin Deranyagala | more |
| 24 November 2002 | Iain Duncan Smith | The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell | Oil paints | more |
| 1 December 2002 | John Malkovich | The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner | A cappuccino maker | more |
| 8 December 2002 | Linton Kwesi Johnson | One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez | A bass guitar | more |
| 15 December 2002 | Sinéad Cusack | The plays of Anton Chekhov | A big hat with a lot of muslin | more |
| 22 December 2002 | Rowan Williams | A collection of W. H. Auden poems | A piano | more |
| 29 December 2002 | Patricia Cornwell | Essay on population by Thomas Malthus | An endless supply of notebooks and pens | more |
2003
2004
2005
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 January 2005 | Carlos Acosta | Dirty Havana Trilogy by Pedro Juan Gutierrez | A case of Havana rum | more |
| 9 January 2005 | Andy McNab | Any Dickens book | A gollock | more |
| 16 January 2005 | Sam Taylor-Wood | Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes | A karaoke machine | more |
| 23 January 2005 | Dr Jonathan Miller | The Invertebrates by Libbie Henrietta Hyman | A canvas roll containing a castaway's dissecting set | more |
| 30 January 2005 | Peter Maxwell Davies | A Sanskrit dictionary | Copper plate engravings of Dürer's Passion | more |
| 6 February 2005 | David Starkey | Microcosmographia Academica by Francis M. Cornford | Hot and cold running water, a bath tub and bath oil | more |
| 27 February 2005 | Geoffrey Palmer | The Oxford Book of English Verse by Arthur Quiller-Couch and The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse by Philip Larkin | A fly fishing rod | more |
| 6 March 2005 | Alison Richard | The Journals of Captain Cook | A solar powered shower | more |
| 13 March 2005 | Stephen Poliakoff | My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell | A box of plastic straws to fiddle with | more |
| 20 March 2005 | Raymond Briggs | The complete works of Beachcomber | A full size billiard table with Radio 4 built into each leg | more |
| 27 March 2005 | Yvonne Brewster | A primer to learn Italian with a tape | Olive oil | more |
| 3 April 2005 | Lorin Maazel | Pensées by Blaise Pascal | Vermeer painting: The Piano Lesson | more |
| 10 April 2005 | Philippe Petit | The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford Ashley | His mysterious object (an object found by his father that as yet no one can identify) | more |
| 17 April 2005 | Patrick Stewart | A compendium of the world's best science fiction so he can become an expert | His beloved billiard table and a shed to keep it in | more |
| 24 April 2005 | Jarvis Cocker | Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan | A bed with a mosquito net | more |
| 1 May 2005 | Katharine Whitehorn | A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson | A machine to distill whatever is there | more |
| 8 May 2005 | Josephine Cox | "A book which is in my head about my brother" | A photo album of her family | more |
| 15 May 2005 | Imelda Staunton | A book on astronomy | Modelling clay and tools | more |
| 22 May 2005 | David King | Wild Reckoning: An Anthology Provoked by Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" edited by John Burnside and Maurice Riordan | A bunch of canvases with oils and brushes | more |
| 29 May 2005 | Satish Kumar | The collected writings of Mahatma Gandhi | A spade | more |
| 5 June 2005 | Nigel Slater | Derek Jarman's Garden by Derek Jarman | Howard Hodgkin's painting: Learning About Russian Music | more |
| 12 June 2005 | Betsy Blair | Reading Lyrics: More Than 1,000 of the Century's Finest Lyrics by Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball | An ice cream maker | more |
| 19 June 2005 | Alexander McCall Smith | A collection of W. H. Auden's works | A handmade pair of shoes | more |
| 26 June 2005 | Ruby Wax | The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann | A huge bed | more |
| 3 July 2005 | Paulo Coelho | The complete works of Oscar Wilde | A trip around his island on Concorde | more |
| 10 July 2005 | Ronald Searle | The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | The best Champagne possible | more |
| 18 September 2005 | Brenda Blethyn | A dictionary | A karaoke machine | more |
| 25 September 2005 | Julian Clary | Stop Thinking, Start Living by Richard Carlson | An all-purpose prosthetic arm | more |
| 2 October 2005 | Frank Gardner | A Passage to India by E. M. Forster | A solar powered buggy | more |
| 9 October 2005 | Michael Winner | The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger | A big supply of caviar | more |
| 16 October 2005 | Jacqueline Wilson | The collected stories of Katherine Mansfield | A fairground carousel | more |
| 23 October 2005 | Mario Testino | Demian by Hermann Hesse | His own pillow | more |
| 30 October 2005 | Boris Johnson MP | An Indian paper edition of Homer | A large pot of French mustard | more |
| 6 November 2005 | Chris Evans | A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens | A pair of swimming goggles with prescription lenses | more |
| 18 November 2005 | Renée Fleming | The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis | Coffee | more |
| 20 November 2005 | Mary Midgley | The Variety of Religious Experiences by William James | A solar hot water system | more |
| 27 November 2005 | Sir David Frost | The London A-Z | Sunday newspapers | more |
| 4 December 2005 | Colin Firth | Stories of Woody Allen | His guitar | more |
| 11 December 2005 | David Hope | The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens | A case of selected malt whiskies | more |
| 18 December 2005 | Maggi Hambling | The Complete works of Just William by Richmal Crompton | The wine cellar from All Souls College, Oxford | more |
| 25 December 2005 | John Rutter | Teach yourself mathematics illustrated by voluptuous women | A viola | more |
2006
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January 2006 | Kelly Holmes | A set of encyclopaedias | A large supply of chocolate | more |
| 8 January 2006 | Richard Griffiths | Vanity Fair by William Thackeray | Velázquez's Las Meninas | more |
| 15 January 2006 | Frankie Dettori | The history of the Derby | A lifetime's supply of Pinot grigio | more |
| 22 January 2006 | John Sutherland | Vanity Fair by William Thackeray | An iPod | more |
| 29 January 2006 | Rt. Hon. Shirley Williams | Collected works of W. H. Auden | A personal computer linked to the Internet | more |
| 5 February 2006 | Jeremy Irons | The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford Ashley | Rizla liquorice papers | more |
| 12 February 2006 | Karen Armstrong | The complete works of Milton | Continuous supply of very cold & dry white wine | more |
| 19 February 2006 | Frederic Raphael | The Oxford Latin Dictionary | A Montblanc pen, nibs and spiral-bound squared notebooks | more |
| 26 February 2006 | Rachel Whiteread | A reference book on the natural history of the island | Ink, pen, paper and correction fluid | more |
| 5 March 2006 | Jack Higgins | The complete works of Charles Dickens | A mobile phone | more |
| 12 March 2006 | Terence Stamp | The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame | One of his wheat-free loaves | more |
| 7 May 2006 | Daniel Barenboim | Ethics by Spinoza | A piano with a mattress | more |
| 14 May 2006 | Darcey Bussell | A biography of Audrey Hepburn | An eyelash curler | more |
| 21 May 2006 | Digby Jones | How Britain made the Modern World by Niall Ferguson | A video or pictorial book of '100 examples of excellence' | more |
| 28 May 2006 | David Cameron | The River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall | A crate of Scotch whisky | more |
| 4 June 2006 | Armando Iannucci | The complete short stories of H. G. Wells | A virtual sherry trifle | more |
| 11 June 2006 | George Davies | A book about learning to paint | A Cannondale bike | more |
| 18 June 2006 | Peter Mansfield | Family photograph albums | A helicopter | more |
| 2 July 2006 | John Browne | Other Men's Flowers: An Anthology of Poetry by Lord Wavell | A lifetime's supply of 'great cigars' | more |
| 9 July 2006 | Monty Don | Collected poems of Henry Vaughan | Rembrandt's Hendrickje Bathing | more |
| 16 July 2006 | Ian Rankin | A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell | A traditional American pinball machine | more |
| 23 July 2006 | Hanna Segal | In Search of Lost Time by Proust | A snorkel and polaroids | more |
| 30 July 2006 | David Edgar | An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan | A piano | more |
| 6 August 2006 | Michael Rosen | The complete poems of Carl Sandburg | The didgeridoo belonging to his late son Eddie | more |
| 13 August 2006 | Simon Cowell | Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins | A mirror | more |
| 20 August 2006 | A. A. Gill | Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor by Mervyn Peake | His children's pillows | more |
| 27 August 2006 | Joan Plowright | Remembrance of Things Past by Proust | A piano | more |
| 1 October 2006 | Quentin Blake | Collected works of Charles Dickens | Arches watercolour paper | more |
| 8 October 2006 | Jane Horrocks | Jamie's Dinners: The Essential Family Cookbook by Jamie Oliver | An endless supply of tissues | more |
| 15 October 2006 | Robert Fisk | Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory | A violin | more |
| 22 October 2006 | Camila Batmanghelidjh | Being and Nothingness by Jean-Paul Sartre | A yoyo | more |
| 29 October 2006 | Heston Blumenthal | On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee | Japanese knives | more |
| 5 November 2006 | Humphrey Lyttelton | Collected works of James Thurber | A keyboard | more |
| 17 November 2006 | John Stevens | Reach for the Sky: The Story of Douglas Bader by Paul Brickhill | A cellar of Champagne | more |
| 19 November 2006 | Stephen King | Collected poetry of W. H. Auden | A water hammock | more |
| 26 November 2006 | Matt Lucas | The Deeper Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd | Oslo Court, his favourite London restaurant | more |
| 3 December 2006 | Raymond Gubbay | Collins Robert French/English, English/French Unabridged Dictionary | An espresso coffee machine | more |
| 10 December 2006 | Karl Jenkins | Michelin Guide to France | A piano | more |
| 17 December 2006 | Arnold Wesker | Remembrance of Things Past by Proust | Supplies of pen and paper | more |
| 24 December 2006 | Gloria Hunniford | War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | Family photographs | more |
| 31 December 2006 | Anthony Horowitz | A large French dictionary | A fountain pen, ink and paper | more |
2007
2008
2009
| Date | Castaway | Book | Luxury | More info |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 January 2009 | Simon Murray | Cautionary tales by Hilaire Belloc | Lots of paper, pencils, and pencil sharpener | more |
| 11 January 2009 | Ruth Padel | The Iliad by Homer | A lot of paper and pencils | more |
| 18 January 2009 | Vincent Cable MP | A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking | An Aston Martin car | more |
| 25 January 2009 | Alan Sillitoe | The Air Publication 1234 (RAF manual for navigation) | A communications receiver – receiving only | more |
| 1 February 2009 | Thomas Quasthoff | Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela | Good wine | more |
| 8 February 2009 | David Suchet | Magnum Magnum edited by Brigitte Lardinois | His clarinet and an unlimited supply of reeds | more |
| 15 February 2009 | Professor Dame Kay Davies | Untold Stories by Alan Bennett | A piano | more |
| 22 February 2009 | David Walliams | Collected poems (edition 1988 or 2003 not stated) of Philip Larkin | A gun (to shoot himself, if lonely) | more |
| 1 March 2009 | Lord Rix | Encyclopædia Britannica | A proper orthopaedic cushion | more |
| 8 March 2009 | Richard Madeley | Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke | Guitar | more |
| 15 March 2009 | Baaba Maal | Coups de Pilon by David Diop | Guitar | more |
| 22 March 2009 | Athene Donald | A set of the Lymond novels of Dorothy Dunnett | A bath | more |
| 29 March 2009 | Sebastian Faulks | C. K. Scott Moncrieff's translation of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past | A wicket, cricket bat, net, an endless supply of balls and a bowling machine that can be set to replicate the style of any bowler | more |
| 10 May 2009 | Whoopi Goldberg | Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke | Wise Potato Chips | more |
| 17 May 2009 | Peter Sallis | The collected works of P. G. Wodehouse | No. 7 Meccano outfit | more |
| 24 May 2009 | Barry Humphries | The Melbourne Street Directory (an old version) | Paints | more |
| 31 May 2009 | Caroline, Countess of Cranbrook | Food in England by Dorothy Hartley | Ink and a pen | more |
| 7 June 2009 | Piers Morgan | An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan | His cricket bat | more |
| 14 June 2009 | Baron Healey | Faber Book of English Verse | Very large box of chocolates including nougat | more |
| 21 June 2009 | Martin Shaw | Post Captain in the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian | A synthesiser to make up his own music | |
| 28 June 2009 | Arlene Phillips | Little Women by Louisa May Alcott | Tweezers | |
| 5 July 2009 | Harvey Goldsmith | The Reader's Digest Do-It-Yourself Guide | A piano | |
| 12 July 2009 | Hugh Pennington | The Cabinet Cyclopedia edited by Dionysius Lardner | A brass microscope | |
| 19 July 2009 | David Mitchell | Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh | DVD player and sitcom boxsets | |
| 26 July 2009 | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall | Moby Dick by Herman Melville | Full set of Scuba gear | |
| 2 August 2009 | Nicky Haslam | Legacy by Sybille Bedford | A large 18th-century picture | |
| 9 August 2009 | Dame Joan Bakewell | War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy | An abundance of paper and pencils | more |
| 16 August 2009 | Roberto Alagna | The works of Victor Hugo | A guitar | more |
| 27 September 2009 | Barry Manilow | Man vs Wild - Survival Techniques from the Most Dangerous Places on Earth by Bear Grylls | A piano | more |
| 4 October 2009 | Ellen MacArthur | The SAS Survival Handbook | A fluffy purple worm (which has been taken everywhere) | more |
| 11 October 2009 | Steve Coogan | The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne | Fully restored Morris Minor Traveller with wooden detail | |
| 18 October 2009 | Jan Pienkowski | An audiobook of Martin Jarvis reading Just William by Richmal Crompton | A large supply of Moleskine sketch books | |
| 25 October 2009 | Colin Pillinger | Journey into Space by Charles Chilton | A picture of the Clifton Suspension Bridge | |
| 1 November 2009 | Jerry Springer | A photo album of family and friends | A cheeseburger machine | |
| 13 November 2009 | Anthony Julius | Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy | San Pellegrino water on tap | |
| 15 November 2009 | Julia Donaldson | Poem for the Day | A piano | |
| 22 November 2009 | Sir Stuart Rose | Wisden Cricketers' Almanack | A power shower with white fluffy towels and constant hot water | |
| 29 November 2009 | Morrissey | The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde | A comfortable bed with many pillows | |
| 6 December 2009 | Baroness Scotland | A bound collection of her family's prose and poetry | A luxurious bathroom | |
| 13 December 2009 | Lord Coe | Such Sweet Thunder: Benny Green on Jazz by Benny Green | A piano and a guide to playing it | more |
| 20 December 2009 | Sir Michael Caine | The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand | A large bed with 50% goose down and 50% feather pillows | more |
| 27 December 2009 | David Tennant | A la recherche du temps perdu by Marcel Proust | A solar DVD player loaded with the seven series of The West Wing | more |
2010
- ^ Instead of the Bible: The Bhagavad Gita
- ^ Instead of the Bible: The Gathas of Zarathustra
- ^ Instead of the Bible: The Mahābhārata
- ^ Instead of the Bible: The Qur'an
- ^ Instead of the Complete Works of Shakespeare: The Complete Works of Goethe
- ^ No bible
- ^ Instead of the Bible: The Torah
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