This date in 1914 was the birth date of Desert Island Discs presenter Roy Plomley. 10 things you might not know about Desert Island Discs:
Plomley didn’t just present the show – he invented it. The idea came to him one night in 1941 when he was sitting at home in his Pyjamas. He immediately wrote a letter pitching it to the BBC.
The first episode was recorded on 27 January 1942 at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studio. It aired in the Forces Programme at 8pm two days later. The first guest was Viennese comedian, actor and musician, Vic Oliver, who was also Winston Churchill’s son-in-law. The first piece of Music he chose was Chopin’s Étude No.12 in C minor played by pianist Alfred Cortot. Actress Pat Kirkwood was the first female castaway.
Oliver did not choose a book or a luxury, though. At that time, the castaways only got “eight gramophone records” and an “inexhaustible supply of needles”. The luxury was introduced in September 1951 and the first person to choose one was actress Sally Ann Howes, who chose Garlic. The book was introduced in October that same year, and the first to be chosen was Who’s Who in the Theatre, the choice of actor and director Henry Kendall.
There are strict rules about what can be chosen as a luxury. It can’t be anything that could help you get off the island or communicate with the outside world, and it must be an inanimate object. Roy Plomley only bent the rules once by allowing Princess Michael of Kent to chose her pet Cat. Some guests got around the rules creatively. John Cleese was allowed to take Michael Palin with him, on the condition that he was dead and stuffed, and Dame Edna defended her choice of Madge Allsop on the grounds that “I can assure you, Madge is an inanimate object.” A Piano is one of the top requested items. Other requested items have included a blow-up sex doll (Oliver Reed), a stick of top quality marijuana (Norman Mailer), and a full-size replica of the Oval cricket ground, and a bowling machine (John Major). Morecambe and Wise were on the show together. When Eric asked for a deckchair, Ernie responded by asking for a deckchair ticket machine. Another famous response was Brigitte Bardot’s “a peeness” before she elaborated: “what the whole world needs most – ‘appiness.'”
The most requested piece of music is Ode to Joy, the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. In fact, the top ten are all classical pieces. The most requested popular song, depending on which source you use, is either Frank Sinatra's My Way or Edith Piaf’s Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien. The most popular band is The Beatles and the most popular song by them is Yesterday. The most-picked Gilbert and Sullivan operetta is The Mikado. There have been some off the wall choices, too, including the sounds of fog horns on the Mersey, and 4’33” by John Cage, which is four minutes and 33 seconds of silence. In 1958 soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf chose seven of her own recordings, and in 1979 all eight of British pianist Dame Moura Lympany’s choices were her own recordings.
All castaways get a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare and a Bible, which, according to Plomley, would have been placed there by the Gideon Society. However, since not all castaways are going to be Christians, other religious texts more appropriate to individual’s beliefs can be substituted instead. The novelist most chosen by castaways is Charles Dickens. The most popular poet is Dylan Thomas.
The theme tune is By the Sleepy Lagoon by Eric Coates (who was himself a castaway on the show in 1951). Plomley originally wanted the sounds of "surf breaking on a shore and the cries of sea birds", but Leslie Prowne, the head of popular record programmes at the BBC thought that would lack definition and insisted there should be music as well. The tune has been used since the first transmission in 1942, along with seagull sounds. Some pedantic listeners pointed out that herring gulls would not have been on a tropical island. For a brief period in 1964, tropical bird calls were used instead.
Roy Plomley presented the programme until his death in May 1985, except for an episode in 1942 when he was on as a castaway himself and was interviewed by Leslie Perowne. He was replaced by Michael Parkinson, Sue Lawley, Kirsty Young and the presenter at time of writing, Lauren Laverne, who has been in the chair since 2018.
Celia Johnson, Arthur Askey, Trevor Nunn, John Schlesinger, Kenneth Williams, Terry Wogan, Brian Rix, David Attenborough, John Mortimer, Adele Leigh, Delia Smith and Stephen Fry are among the castaways who have been on the show more than once. It’s unusual for people to turn it down but there have been a few including Sir Laurence Olivier, Albert Finney, Prince Charles, Ted Hughes and Mick Jagger. George Bernard Shaw declined on the grounds that he was “too busy with more important things”. Buzz Aldrin had Sue Lawley travel all the way to his house in California to do the recording there, but he left the room unexpectedly and refused to come back.
In 1989 a 74-year-old retired vicar admitted beating his wife to death with a radio because she wouldn’t let him listen to the show.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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