David Walliams

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2009

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is David Walliams. He has seen extraordinary success - as one half of the comedy duo behind Little Britain, as a cross-channel swimmer and more recently on the West End stage and as a novelist. In this frank interview, he describes his life away from the spotlight; how he used to practise comedy routines in his bathroom, the excitement of an early trip out wearing a John Paul Gaultier skirt, the inner drive that propels him and the unhappiness he feels when he has no company except his own.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths Book: Collected Poems by Philip Larkin Alternative to Bible: None - Bible not taken Luxury: A gun.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Krestey Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 2009. My castaway this week is David Williams, star of Little Britain and Cross Channel Swimmer.
0:33.0	Sounds odd, doesn't it?
0:35.0	And indeed, it's the stark anomalies in his life that mark him out from your run-of-the-mill
0:39.0	fantastically successful performer.
0:42.0	Prime-time comedy and heavyweight pinter plays,
0:45.4	tacky chiffon frocks and bespoke sable row suits, endlessly reported liaisons with
0:50.4	gossip column lovelies, but somehow always single.
0:54.0	His achievements, it seems, come with a degree of suffering.
0:57.0	I have this thing before a show when I really hope the fider line goes off,
1:01.0	and it was the same with the swim, he says. I kept thinking, I hope something... a but let's go through the rundown of your achievements to date three
1:13.8	BAFSA and Emmy single-handedly raised what was a million with your comic
1:19.9	released big swims because if I say them it sounds like I would but it, it sounds like
1:23.0	about arrogant.
1:24.0	It would, but it's easy for me to say them.
1:26.3	More than a hint of somebody who is fantastically focused.
1:31.1	And driven.
1:31.9	Yes, I am incredibly driven. My mom and dad were very very hard
1:35.7	workers and my dad made sure we were all up on time and we'd never miss school and
1:42.0	they both had a really strong work ethic and I've just had that all my life.
1:46.4	When I was training from the channel I didn't miss a single training session or ever
	...

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