Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,02 Jan 1994,40 mins

Available for over a year

The castaway in Desert Island Discs this week is Dr Oliver Sacks. Now a distinguished Professor of Neurology, he was immortalised by Robin Williams in the film Awakenings. Inspired by Dr Sacks' book of the same name, it tells the story of the summer of 1969, when the catatonic patients he was treating at the time responded to an apparent miracle drug and came alive. He'll be talking about the excitements and disappointments of that summer and also about some of the 100s of extraordinary case histories which have formed the basis of his many other books. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: Chu Chin Chow Here Be Oysters by Martin Lawrence Book: Dictionary of Musical Themes Luxury: Scuba diving kit

Programme Website
More episodes

Tracklist

  1. Track
    Artist
  2. 1.
    Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
    Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)
    Grateful Dead
  3. 2.
    Mass in B minor - Et in carnaus est
    Mass in B minor - Et in carnaus est
    Johann Sebastian Bach
  4. 3.
    Chu Chin Chow Here Be Oysters
    Chu Chin Chow Here Be Oysters
    Martin Lawrence