Dame Harriet Walter

From Prokofiev to Nina Simone.

Dame Harriet Walter shares her castaway choices with Kirsty Young.

The actress has been a stalwart of the stage for more than three decades - winning great acclaim for her work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.

Performing ran in the family - her uncle is the actor Christopher Lee and she remembers how, as a child, he would make her shriek by putting on his famous 'Mummy' walk to scare her. She turned down a place at Oxford because she knew she wanted to act - only to find that the drama schools weren't keen on her... she was turned down five times before securing a place.

Dame Janet says she has never thought about making clever career choices, but, in the year in which she was made a dame, turned 60 and married for the first time, she says it has all turned out better than she ever expected.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in June 2011.