Desert Island Discs Revisited

English novelist Barbara Pym shares her castaway choices with Roy Plomley.

Barbara's first novels were published in the 1950s, but by the early 1960s, she fell out of favour with publishers – until her revival in 1977.

Novels include: A Glass of Blessings, Excellent Women, Less than Angels, Quartet in Autumn and An Unsuitable Attachment.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 1978.

Photo credit: The Barbara Pym Society

From Strauss to Bithikotsis. Novelist Barbara Pym shares her castaway choices

Christopher Lee is British cinema's king of horror - with his roles in the Hammer House films and The Wicker Man.

He talks with Sue Lawley about his disappointment at not being able to follow what he considers his true vocation, that of an opera singer, and about his 50-year career which has encompassed 230 films, 27 plays and numerous radio and television appearances.

DISC ONE: La Belle Hélène by Jacques Offenbach sung by Jussi Björling

Disc TWO: Si, pel ciel (Oath duet) (from Otello) by Giuseppe Verdi sung by Enrico Caruso

DISC FOUR: The Flying Dutchman by Richard Wagner sung by Herman Uhde

DISC FIVE: Rinaldo by George Frederic Handel sung by Samuel Ramey

DISC SIX: Brünnhilde, heilige Braut! (from Götterdämmerung) by Richard Wagner sung by Lauritz Melchior

DISC SEVEN: Scintille, diamant (from Tales Of Hoffmann) by Jacques Offenbach sung by Sherrill Milnes

DISC EIGHT: Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sung by Ezio Pinza

BOOK CHOICE: The Sword In The Stone - T H White

LUXURY ITEM: A set of golf clubs

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Rinaldo by George Frederic Handel

Presenter: Sue Lawley

Producer: Olivia Seligman

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1995.

Actor Christopher Lee shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

From Handel to Wagner. Hammer Horror actor Christopher Lee shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley. From 1995.

He talks with Sue Lawley about his disappointment at not being able to follow what he considers his true vocation, that of an opera singer, and about his 50-year career which has encompassed 230 films, 27 plays and numerous radio and TV appearances.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 1995.

Actor Christopher Lee is castaway by Sue Lawley.

He has seen extraordinary success - as one half of the comedy duo behind Little Britain, as a cross-channel swimmer and more recently on the West End stage and as a novelist. In this frank interview, he describes his life away from the spotlight; how he used to practise comedy routines in his bathroom, the excitement of an early trip out wearing a Jean-Paul Gaultier skirt, the inner drive that propels him and the unhappiness he feels when he has no company except his own.

Favourite track: Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths

Book: Collected Poems by Philip Larkin

Alternative to Bible: None - Bible not taken

Luxury: A gun.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2009.

Comedian and writer David Walliams makes his castaway choices. From 2009.

Legendary stand-up comedian Ken Dodd shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Then aged 62, the funny man looks back to his early years in Knotty Ash, and his continued attachment to the Liverpudlian suburb where people are 'supreme optimists'.

He also recalls his interest in ventriloquism, itching powder and reveals the inspiration behind his famous tickling stick.

Producer: Olivia Seligman

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 1990.

Palin's theatrical career began at Oxford University where he wrote and performed with friends. David Frost saw Palin and Terry Jones perform at the Edinburgh Festival and brought all future members of Monty Python together, first as writers for satirical TV show The Frost Report.

After finishing at Oxford, Palin compered a TV comedy show in Bristol, much to his parents' disappointment, but eventually convinced the BBC to commission Monty Python's Flying Circus.

This surreal TV sketch show series starred Palin, along with John Cleese, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam.

After a bumpy start, Python became a huge influence on British comedy.

DISC ONE: Things Ain't What They Used To Be - Duke Ellington and His Orchestra

DISC TWO: Tales of Men's Shirts - The Goons

DISC THREE: Londonderry Air (Danny Boy) - Black Dyke Band

DISC FOUR: You're A Heartbreaker - Elvis Presley

DISC FIVE: And When They Ask Us - The Rita Williams Singers

DISC SIX: Lullaby of Broadway - Dick Powell & Wini Shaw

DISC SEVEN: Things We Said Today - The Beatles

DISC EIGHT: Edward Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36: Variation IX 'Nimrod' - London Symphony Orchestra

BOOK CHOICE: Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

LUXURY CHOICE: Bed

CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Edward Elgar's Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36: Variation IX 'Nimrod' - London Symphony Orchestra

Producer: Derek Drescher

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in November 1979.

From Elgar to Duke Ellington. Actor and writer Michael Palin shares his castaway choices.

PD James was born in Oxford, later moving to Ludlow on the Welsh Borders where she experienced a childhood which she says had more in common with a Victorian childhood than anything today. She was a well-behaved, quiet child who entertained herself and her siblings by telling and writing stories. Phyllis attended an old-fashioned grammar school where she enjoyed English lessons. She says 'I knew I was going to write books'.

Because of financial pressures at home, she had to leave school at 16, first following her father into the tax office, then in a theatre where she met her husband, who was training to be a doctor. World War Two intervened and, because her husband returned from work in the Medical Corps with a severe mental illness, Phyllis had to be the main breadwinner, working as principal hospital administrator at the North West Regional Hospital Board, London in charge of five psychiatric hospitals.

It wasn't until she was 39, whilst working in the hospital, that Phyllis began her first novel, Cover Her Face. 'I knew it was something I was going to do, and it was just that life was so busy I didn't get round to it'. She chose the name PD James because it looked good on a book jacket, and crime genre because she didn't want to draw on autobiographical details.

The book was immediately accepted by a publisher, and in 1979 she gave up her other jobs to become a full-time writer, focusing on Detective Adam Dalgleish of Scotland Yard as her main character. P D James was awarded the OBE in 1982 and made a Life Peer in 1992.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 1992.

From The Doobie Brothers to Tom Waits. Comedy star Victoria Wood CBE shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young

For decades Victoria has been one of our best-loved writers and performers. Her TV highlights - Acorn Antiques, Dinnerladies and Housewife 49 - have won her a devoted following as well as stacks of awards.

But, in a moving and open interview, she describes how, as a teenager, she felt she was a misfit - she had few friends, she struggled with her weight and at school she used to steal other people's homework. She joined a youth theatre and it was, she says, the saving of her. She found like-minded people and a sense that she had something to offer.

Victoria is very careful about how much of her own life she puts into her work. She doesn't mind saying she cuts her pubic hair with nail-scissors, but rarely discusses her children on the stage.

Victoria reveals her favourite tracks, book and luxury.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2007.