Five Uplifting Moments from Desert Island Discs
Throughout the summer, Lauren Laverne has been receiving postcards from her mythical desert island. Sometimes funny, sometimes deeply moving, often silly or joyful, these short clips have offered glimpses into the extraordinary lives of the thousands of people who have been cast away over the years.
Here are five of the most uplifting moments from some beloved castaways, from Adele to Judi Dench, covering tales of childhood snails, inspirational teachers, and Jilly Cooper’s creaking bed springs.
1. Judi Dench’s lifelong love of performing began as a snail
Dame Judi Dench is one of a very rare group of people who has been cast away to the desert island three times. On her most recent visit she talked about her stage debut as a child of amateur theatre lovers. She wasn’t playing a Shakespearean heroine or a spy chief back then. In fact, the role wasn’t even human. “I remember playing a snail,” she told Kirsty Young in 2015. “My father made me this huge shell which I had to creep under and at one point creep out of.” When the day came to perform for parents, young Judi’s scene-stealing instinct came through: “I stood up with this thing tied around me looking out at everybody. And I just heard the wonderful principal of the school, Miss Meaby, saying, ‘Get down Judith!’”
2. Ian Wright’s life changed when one teacher stopped him outside a classroom
Long before becoming an Arsenal legend and Match of the Day regular, Ian Wright was a young boy struggling at school. “I found it very hard to focus on what they wanted me to do. My handwriting was really poor. I wasn't confident with my reading.” After being sent out of class for the third time, one of the school’s strictest teachers, Mr Pigden, walked past young Ian. “I was so scared of him. He looked down at me and he said, ‘Come with me’. And that changed my life.” Mr Pigden trusted Ian with small responsibilities, like collecting the registers from teachers. “I just felt important. And then he'd put me back into the classroom and then my writing got better.”
Many years later, they were reunited on a TV programme. “He was one of the youngest pilots in World War II and was chosen to do the flyover of Buckingham Palace,” Ian explained to Lauren, tearing up as he remembered the moment, “and I remember him saying that he was more proud of the fact that I played for England than him flying over Buckingham Palace. He changed my life just by recognising when I was standing outside that classroom that I needed more, and he gave it to me. He's the greatest man in the world.”
3. Adele almost didn’t realise she was being signed to a record label
I couldn't believe that he wanted to sign me. I thought they wanted me to be a scout because I had a really good top eight favourite artists on MySpace.Adele on being surprised she was offered a record deal
Adele was working at Gap clothing shop when a friend uploaded her demo to MySpace. Within days, she had a meeting with a small label called XL, and no idea what was about to happen next. “I'd never heard of XL and I said to my friend Ben, who's now still my guitarist, ‘Come with me, I'm scared, what if he’s a weirdo?’ I met Nick [Huggett] and he was like, ‘Alright mate, who's your manager?’ And I was like, ‘It’s Pat at the Gap’. I couldn't believe that he wanted to sign me. I thought they wanted me to be a scout because I had a really good top eight favourite artists on MySpace.”
4. A childhood accident sparked George Michael’s love of music
Something strange happened to popstar George Michael when he was eight years old, as he explained to Kirsty when she cast him away in 2007. “I had a head injury, and it was quite a bad bang. All my interests changed in six months. I had been obsessed with insects and creepy crawlies. I used to get up at five o'clock in the morning and go out into this field behind our garden and collect insects before everyone else got up. And suddenly, all I wanted to know about was music.”
As a teenager, he traded his real name — Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou — for George Michael. “There is a very urgent need for a stage name when you’re 18,” he joked. But even if the name was made up, he came to realise that the persona of George Michael was real. “Everything you do is you, even if it's the lies you tell, even if it's an act, it's part of the real me, isn't it? Because it's what I want people to think I am.”
5. Jilly Cooper revealed the secret to a long marriage
In a conversation as lively as her novels, Rivals author Jilly Cooper credited the success of her long marriage to creaking bed springs. “They were creaking because of hysterical laughter,” she clarified to Kirsty Young in 2016. “We did laugh about an awful lot of things together. I remember the Daily Mail ringing my husband up and saying, ‘What does Jilly wear in bed?’ And he said, ‘Dogs mostly.’”
Jilly also had advice for anyone wanting to write a blockbuster novel: “Keep a diary, because you won't remember. When you are 25, you immediately forget what it's like to be 24. Memory is very false. Every time anything funny happens, write it down. And I just think follow your heart.”
