Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1986, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson. If I told you our castaway is a columnist, broadcaster, musician, lyricist and novelist, that would only be half of the story.

He's also written biography, musicals, and has had his own show on television.

In between times he took it upon himself to read every word of the 123 editions of wisdom.

Here is of course Benny Green. Benny I've known you many many years but didn't realize that in fact you're a Yorkshireman?

Yes, my father was what they call a strolling player in the 20s and he strolled to leads because there was a job there playing

a saxophone he met my mother got, therefore I have a birth qualification and play

for Yorkshire and I'm still waiting for the call.

He could come to the state there and that's all you're.

Your father was a musician, so that's obviously where you're interested in his started.

He taught me to play, he was a saxophone play and he taught me to play the saxophone and clarinet and more important

presented me with the instruments. I was 13 at the time.

And what about ambition then? I mean was it always likely that you're going to be a musician?

No, not really before that. When I was in single figures I always wanted to be what I used to call a reporter.

I'd always be seen in little photographs to this day when I was a kid with notebook and pencil. I was always writing and I was going to be a writer and it wasn't until I was 13 years old that it suddenly hit me that I might like to be a musician instead.

But I was surprised by that myself when I became an habit of music because I'm not very musical strangely enough I felt it very difficult

I wasn't an actual musician I didn't have an ear I didn't have much aptitude it took me a long

long time to reach any state of proficiency at all.

Let's have a first choice of record.

Well, the first choice is connected with these pre-war years when I was a little bit.

My father was a great lover of London and he took me around with him all over London not just

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