E1285 - Desert Island Discs' First Castaway

The BBC broadcast the first ever edition of Roy Plomley’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ - the world’s longest-running interview programme - on 29th January, 1942. 

Opening, as the show still does, with Eric Coates’s theme music ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’, the episode welcomed comedian Vic Oliver as the series’ first ‘castaway’. Plomely would go on to present a further 1,785 editions of the show until his death in 1985.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly consider the metaphor of an abundant and sunlit desert island in the context of the horrors of the Blitz; discover how BBC censors ensur...