500 episodes of the BBC’s long running Radio series Desert Island Discs will shortly be available for download when BBC Radio 7 is relaunched as BBC Radio 4 Extra in April.
The online collection of previous episodes will feature interviews with a vast collection of well known personalities from political figures to writers and actors to musicians. The Desert Island Discs website will also feature the choices of every single castaway that has appeared on the programme since the series launch on the BBC in 1942.
Director of BBC Audio and Music Tim Davie said via the BBC press release: "This is a collection of simple measures, designed with listeners' interests in mind, to strengthen digital radio. I'm delighted to announce the launch of BBC Radio 4 Extra and hope that fans of Desert Island Discs will indulge themselves in the previously buried treasures of vintage episodes."
The Origins of Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley, an experienced broadcaster who was also the first presenter of the programme.
Roy Plomley devised a format inviting a guest to imagine that they are cast away on a desert island and to choose eight gramophone records to take with them. He emphasised in his book Desert Island Discs that it was never his intention that his castaways should pick their favourite records, and would advise them that they should choose the recordings they would want to have with them if they were going to be completely isolated from civilisation, possibly for the rest of their life.
At the end of the programme the castaway can choose the piece they would want to save if the waves of the sea came crashing in to steal their beloved musical choices.
The castaway is also given the complete works of Shakespeare and The Bible and also invited to choose a book of their own choice. Finally, a luxury may also be chosen which has to be inanimate and of no use whatsoever in assisting the castaway to escape the island.
Presenters and Guests on Desert Island Discs
The first Desert Island Discs was broadcast on January 29 1942 and featured the elegant Viennese comedian Vic Oliver who regularly featured on the BBC radio show Hi Gang!
Over the years many distinguished figures were castaway on the mythical island including Arthur Askey, Jeffrey Archer, Lauren Bacall, Roald Dahl, Margaret Thatcher, Donald Pleasance, David Niven and Maria Von Trapp.
Roy Plomley continued to present Desert Island Discs until his death in 1985. He was then succeeded by Michael Parkinson who presented the programme until 1988. Sue Lawley then took over presenting the programme until 2006 when current host Kirsty Young took the presenters chair.
Desert Island Discs has continued to grow in popularity and is now listened to on a weekly basis by nearly three million listeners. Kirsty Young's castaways in recent years have included Quentin Blake, Ronnie Corbett, Tom Jones, Nick Clegg, Ruthie Henshall, and Sebastian Faulks.
Desert Island Discs Online Archive Available From April 2011
The Desert Island Discs online archive will be found via the Radio 4 website from April, enabling listeners to hear previous interviews again as well as provide each guest¹s list the choices including music, books and luxury since 1942
Also from April, there will be archive editions of the show broadcast on Radio 4 Extra entitled Desert Island Discs The Archive Collection. Each edition will be curated by Kirsty Young who will update and contextualise each interview. Each edition will be broadcast in themed series.
There will also be a further series entitled The Desert Island Discs Selection which will feature extended one hour repeats from the past year and will be broadcast when the programme takes its break from the airwaves on Radio 4.
Kirsty Young said via the BBC Press Release: “I’m really delighted that BBC Radio 4 Extra will give people the chance to hear even more of the show and the launch of the new website means everyone has the chance get their hands on the Desert Island Discs archive and hear the music, book, luxury and lives of hundreds of castaways from programmes gone by. A real treat."
Desert Island Discs Available As A Weekly Podcast
Up until recent times, Desert Island Discs was only spared one repeat a week. In 2010 legalities with Roy Plomley¹s estate which own the rights to the format of the show were finally overcome so that an edited version of the programme could be enjoyed once again on BBC iPlayer and as a downloadable podcast from the BBC website.
Each week, the latest episode of Desert Island Discs is available to listen again on iplayer as well as downloadable as an edited podcast to listen with ease from your iPod or mp3 on the go.
Visit the Desert Island Discs website for the latest Desert Island Discs Podcasts.
Sources:
- BBC Press Release: Castaways Found Online and On BBC Radio 4 Extra In BBC Plans For Digital Radio
- Book: Desert Island Discs by Roy Plomley (William Kimber, 1975)
