Helen McCrory’s DID is among the 5 Key Shows
By Donna Ferguson | The Guardian | January 23, 2022
As the radio classic marks a major anniversary, it’s the shared human experience revealed by the castaways that keeps us hooked
A familiar theme tune is playing in my ears as I step out of my front door and start running. It is a cold, frosty day in Cambridge but as I make my way towards Midsummer Common and the River Cam, I am transported to a much warmer climate. A desert island, where I know I will find exactly eight tracks of music, the Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare and an incongruous luxury.
I am, of course, listening to Desert Island Discs, which will celebrate its 80th anniversary next weekend. First broadcast on 29 January 1942, it is the jewel in BBC Radio 4’s crown, to the extent that being on it is “kind of like getting a people’s knighthood”, observes the Observer’s radio critic, Miranda Sawyer. “There is no better radio show,” she says. “And I think, because it’s been for so long, there’s a status attached to getting picked – like, if you get asked to be on Desert Island Discs, that means somehow that you’ve made it.”
There are now more than 2,300 episodes of the show available online from the BBC archive. The oldest available dates back to 1951, when Roy Plomley interviewed the actress Margaret Lockwood and the famous theme tune was heralded by squawking seagulls and the crash of waves.
Continue reading ‘It’s a show about love’: Desert Island Discs celebrates 80 years on air
