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

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

The program was originally broadcast in 1983 and the presenter was Roy Plumley. On our Desert Island this week is a very funny lady, Beryl Reed. Now Beryl, this serious problem of being cast away alone on a Desert Island, there's nothing funny about that.

How well do you think you could adjust yourself to loneliness?

Oh, I think quite well. Really quite well because I get at the moment what I call people poisoning,

but I mean that's because I just sometimes see too many people and

I do find my own house in the country a sort of perfect retreat and I do try and escape from cocktail parties. I don't like large

social gatherings of any kind. Right now on this island you have just eight records.

Did you find it very hard to choose?

Yes I did.

Because I love so many things.

It's very hard to make a choice of only eight records.

What's the first one?

The first one is snozled around singing Monte Carlo or Bust.

Why?

Because I think that at some time I might need a great deal of energy on the island

to get up and if it was hot, I don't know if it was hot, to go and collect some sticks to build something

or really to go and do something practical. And this is such an energy-filling tune and sound, and I think that would really get me off onto my feet

and get me moving in doing something I think that'd be a very good one

Get out the jalopopi and polish the wheels.

She's gotta be the smartest of the oar wheels.

Polish the paint work and clean off the rust they won't see our chassis for dust

...