Classic Desert Island Discs - Colm Toibin

Jack Thorne, screenwriter and playwright, shares the eight tracks, book and luxury item he would want with him if cast away on a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.

Sue Lawley talks to the actor Dame Joan Plowright in a programme first broadcast in 2006. Dame Joan died in January at the age of 95.

Kirsty Young interviews writer Colm Toibin in a programme first heard in 2016.

Lauren Laverne talks to crossbench peer Dame Louise Casey in a programme from 2021.

Lindsey Hilsum is a multi-award-winning journalist who has been a foreign correspondent for the past four decades. She has been Channel 4’s international editor for the past 22 years and has reported on every continent except Antarctica. After studying French and Spanish at University, she worked as an aid worker in Mexico and Kenya before becoming the East Africa stringer for the BBC World Service. After realising her calling was journalism she devoted her career to covering events around the world including the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the 2003/4 war in Iraq.She also spent two years in Beijing as the China correspondent for Channel 4 News.Among her many awards for her work, she has been named Amnesty International Journalist of the Year, RTS Specialist Journalist of the Year and has received the Charles Wheeler Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to broadcast journalism. She is also the author of three books. When she is not abroad reporting, Lindsey lives in London.Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor .DISC ONE: Dancing in the Dark - Bruce Springsteen DISC TWO: Carey - Joni Mitchell DISC THREE: Shauri Yako - Orchestra Super Mazembe DISC FOUR: Summertime - Billie Holiday and her Orchestra DISC FIVE: Hurricane - Bob Dylan DISC SIX: The Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto (Arr. for Violin & Chinese Orchestra): Andante cantabile "Transformation" Composed by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang and performed by Lü Siqing and the Taipei Orchestra, conducted by Yiu-kwong Chung DISC SEVEN: Piece of My Heart - Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis Joplin DISC EIGHT: Who Knows Where the Time Goes - Fairport ConventionBOOK CHOICE: Collected Poems by W H Auden LUXURY ITEM: A Tang Dynasty horse CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Carey - Joni Mitchell

Donna Ockenden is a former clinical midwife who led the Ockenden Review which revealed, at the time, the biggest maternity scandal in NHS history. Published in 2022, the review highlighted serious failings in maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust which contributed to the deaths of more than 200 babies and nine mothers.Donna grew up in the village of Aberaman in the Welsh Valleys. She experienced a complicated childhood which included a period living in a homeless shelter along with her mother and four siblings. She is also a survivor of sexual abuse and believes her background helped her develop a tenacity and determination which she went on to apply to her work.She completed her nursing training in Swansea and Neath and trained as a midwife at the Portsmouth School of Midwifery. In 2015 she became Senior Midwifery Adviser to the Chief Executive of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). In May 2022 she was appointed chair of the independent review into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust which will be published next year. It is already the largest investigation into a single service in the NHS, hearing evidence from over 2,000 families so far.Donna lives in Chichester with her two cats.Details of organisations offering information and support with child sexual abuse or child bereavement are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.DISC ONE: We’ve Only Just Begun - The Carpenters DISC TWO: Bye Bye Baby - Bay City Rollers DISC THREE: Ukulele Lady - Ethel Merman DISC FOUR: Isn’t It Amazing - Hothouse Flowers DISC FIVE: If Only - Hazel O’Connor DISC SIX: I Can See Clearly Now - Hothouse Flowers DISC SEVEN: We’ll Keep a Welcome - Harry Secombe DISC EIGHT: Francesca - Hozier BOOK CHOICE: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë LUXURY ITEM: Red lipstick CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: I Can See Clearly Now - Hothouse FlowersPresenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Professor Carl Jones is a conservation biologist who is best known for saving the Mauritius kestrel from extinction. He is the scientific director of Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, chief scientist at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and an honorary professor in ecology and conservation biology at the University of East Anglia.He was born in Carmarthen in Wales and was fascinated with animals from an early age, rearing rescued common kestrels, owls and hawks in his back garden. He studied biology at North-East London Polytechnic and, after learning about the plight of the Mauritius kestrel, he was determined to go out to the country to try to save the bird.He arrived in Mauritius in 1979 when there were only two known breeding pairs left in the wild. By the time he left in 1999 he’d established a captive breeding programme and today hundreds of Mauritius kestrels fly over the islands where he spent decades pioneering his, sometimes controversial, methods. Today the Mauritius kestrel is the national bird. He is also responsible for saving from extinction three species of reptiles, a fruit bat and several plants.He was appointed an MBE for his work in 2004 and in 2016 he won the prestigious Indianapolis Prize – the world’s leading award for animal conservation.Carl lives in Carmarthen with his wife and two children and assorted animals including two Andean condors called Carlos and Baby. DISC ONE: Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf Opus 67 - The London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult DISC TWO: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. Narrated by Richard Burton and performed by Meredith Edwards, Gwenllian Owen and Gwenyth Petty DISC THREE: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll - Ian Dury DISC FOUR: La Rivière Noire - John Kenneth Nelson DISC FIVE: Asimbonanga - Johnny Clegg & Savuka DISC SIX: Sega lakordeon – Rene oule bwar mwa - La Troupe de l’Union DISC SEVEN: Londonderry Air - Beatrice Harrison DISC EIGHT: Clear Sky - Catrin FinchBOOK CHOICE: The Collected Works of Dylan Thomas LUXURY ITEM: Binoculars CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Asimbonanga - Johnny Clegg & Savuka Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Cyndi Lauper is a multi-award winning singer and songwriter. She has sold more than fifty million records, won an Emmy for acting and her musical Kinky Boots earned her a Tony and an Oliver award. Born in 1953, Cyndi grew up in a blue collar neighbourhood in New York. Her mother loved music and art and took her children to free exhibitions in New York which inspired Cyndi. As a very young girl, Cyndi listened to her mother’s extensive record collection and mimicked the voices she heard from musicals and operas.After a difficult family home life due to her mother’s turbulent marriages, Cyndi found solace in music and began writing songs when she was ten. She left home at seventeen determined to make it in the music industry. She started out as a singer in bands, whilst supporting herself doing a series of jobs. Early in her career, she lost her voice for almost a year after trying to make herself heard over amps which were too loud. Success eventually came when she released her debut solo album She’s So Unusual in 1983 – the first album by a female artist to spawn four consecutive US Top 5 singles.Cyndi lives in New York with her husband, David who is an actor. They met on a set of a film and rock legend Little Richard officiated their wedding.DISC ONE: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Composed by Claude Debussy and performed by The Orchestre National de Lyon DISC TWO: All That Meat and No Potatoes - Louis Armstrong And His All-Stars DISC THREE: Puccini, “Un bel di, vedremo” (“One fine day, we shall see”) from Act II of Madame Butterfly. Performed by Maria Callas with Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, conducted by Herbert von Karajan DISC FOUR: Getting to Know You - Marni Nixon DISC FIVE: I Want Hold Your Hand - The Beatles DISC SIX: A Sailboat in the Moonlight - Billie Holiday And Her Orchestra DISC SEVEN: One Way or Another - Blondie DISC EIGHT: Hound Dog - Big Mama ThorntonBOOK CHOICE: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris LUXURY ITEM: A luxury hotel CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Puccini, “Un bel di, vedremo” (“One fine day, we shall see”) from Act II of Madame Butterfly. Performed by Maria Callas with Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, conducted by Herbert von KarajanPresenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Sarah Taylor

William Boyd is the author of eighteen novels, five short story collections and numerous screenplays. His first published novel, A Good Man in Africa, was inspired by his childhood in West Africa. He is well known for writing ‘whole life’ novels including Any Human Heart which he adapted as a BAFTA-winning television series. He was born in Accra in Ghana where his Scottish father worked as a doctor, specialising in tropical medicine. In 1964 the family moved to Ibadan, Nigeria where he witnessed the Nigerian Civil War – the Biafran War – which had a profound effect on him both personally and professionally.He read English Literature and Philosophy at the University of Glasgow and became a lecturer in English at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. During this period he wrote novels and short stories on the side until his breakthrough novel, A Good Man in Africa, was published in 1981. In 2005 he was appointed CBE for services to literature.William lives in London with his wife Susan and over 10,000 books.DISC ONE: Sunday - Mandy Patinkin (George), Sunday in the Park with George Original Broadway Cast Ensemble and Orchestra DISC TWO: Sorry Sorry - Femi Kuti DISC THREE: Away Down the River - Alison Krauss DISC FOUR: Que reste-t-il de nos amours - Charles Trenet DISC FIVE: Daniel - Elton John DISC SIX: Britten: Violin Concerto, Op. 15: 1. Moderato con moto. Performed by Janine Jansen (violin) London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Järvi DISC SEVEN: Brahms: Horn Trio In E Flat, Op. 40 - 1. Andante - Poco più animato. Performed by György Sebök (piano) Arthur Grumiaux (violin), Francis Orval (horn) DISC EIGHT: Al Otro Lado del Río - Jorge DrexlerBOOK CHOICE: Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov LUXURY ITEM: A piano CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Daniel - Elton JohnPresenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley

Sir Jony Ive is a designer who is best known for his pioneering work at Apple alongside his friend and colleague, the late Steve Jobs. Jony’s creative vision is behind some of the company’s seminal products which have transformed the way we live today including phones, music players and watches. He was born in Chingford in east London and loved drawing and spending time in his father’s workshop where the two of them made the young Jony’s Christmas presents including a go-kart, a treehouse and a toboggan. He studied Industrial Design at Newcastle Polytechnic and moved to San Francisco to work for Apple in 1992. In 1997 Steve Jobs returned to the company, having been ousted several years earlier, and the two of them set about revolutionising the landscape for home computers with the creation of the iMac. In 2019 Jony set up his own company LoveFrom with the industrial designer Marc Newson. In 2023 Jony and his team designed a foldable Red Nose for Comic Relief and in the same year the company launched a scholarship programme aimed at increasing representation in the design industry.In 2012 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to design and enterprise.DISC ONE: Really Saying Something (US Extended Version) - Bananarama, Fun Boy Three DISC TWO: De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da - The Police DISC THREE: Main Theme - Carter Takes a Train - Roy Budd DISC FOUR: Singin’ in the Rain - Harry Ive DISC FIVE: Don’t You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds DISC SIX: Define Dancing - Thomas Newman DISC SEVEN: Debussy: Suite bergamasque, L.75: 3. Clair de lune. Composed by Claude Debussy and performed by Claudio Arrau (piano) DISC EIGHT: "40" - U2 BOOK CHOICE: The complete set of Jeeves & Wooster novels by P G Wodehouse LUXURY ITEM: A bed CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: "40" - U2 Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley