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 1982, and the presenter was Roy Plumlee. This week our cast away is the distinguished oceanographer and marine explorer Jacques Cousteau.

Captain Cousteau, you are no stranger to Desert Islands, I'm sure you must have visited many.

Yes, that is true, some of them very small,

and a few of them larger.

Could you endure loneliness for a long time?

No, I would not.

I'd like to get away from stupid people.

Right, yes.

But I love the company of brilliant people.

So I'm a social animal.

I don't think I could resist very long on a desert island.

How much does music mean to you?

A tremendous amount.

I have sacrificed almost everything in my life except music.

I have sacrificed my family to a certain extent. I've sacrificed all my friends, I've sacrificed my privacy, but there's something I don't

want anybody to touch is a minimum amount of time to get closer to my friends the thousands of records that I have home.

Have you any musical skill yourself to play the piano?

I play the piano, yes. Not well, but I play a piano. Now you have chosen your eight records. Did you find that very difficult? No, but I am not sure that I made by selection because I like so many records that I had to make just, you know, a fool around and picked up eight that I like but I could pick 20 sets of eight that I like as much as these.

What's the first one you have there?

I've chosen this one very broadly because Pagani sings my Mediterranean and it has for me a tremendous

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