Professor Heinz Wolff

From Marlene Dietrich to Rod Stewart. Scientist Heinz Wolff shares his castaway choices with Sue Lawley.

Professor Heinz Wolff came to public attention when he presented TV's The Great Egg Race, in which he challenged people to conquer engineering problems with a rubber band, a pencil and a pickled onion.

It was his father who encouraged his enthusiasm for invention, sharing his Sunday afternoons experimenting with his chemistry set, or organising talks from physicists who had to hide their surprise at assessing the ideas of a six-year-old child.

In the 1970s while designing aids for disabled people, Professor Heinz devised the phrase 'Tools for Living' to describe his work. After all, as he points out, we all use tools to cope with our environment, whether as an astronaut, a diver or an elderly person.

In the 80s, he founded the Institute for Bioengineering at Brunel University. There he continued his inventions devising for example, a box for experimenting in outer space, a voice machine for people who can't speak and a safety system for deep-sea divers.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 1998.