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Desert Island Discs

Jackie Collins

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.413.7K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 1986

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jackie Collins lives in Beverley Hills, California, and writes novels, all of which appear in the bestseller lists, and many have been filmed. In conversation with Michael Parkinson, she talks about her childhood in England, joining her sister Joan in Hollywood at the age of 15, her brief acting career, and her writing. She also selects the eight records she would take to the mythical island. [Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs] Favourite track: What's Going On? by Marvin Gaye Book: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Luxury: Photograph of family

Transcript

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0:00.0

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

0:05.3

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

0:08.4

The program was originally broadcast in 1986, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson.

0:30.4

If you want a definition of a best-selling author, then a check on the achievements of our

0:34.3

castaway would do for a start. She's written 11 books, there are 60 million of them in print worldwide,

0:40.5

and in more than 30 languages. In the main she writes about the glamour and the glitz of Hollywood.

0:45.7

Her descriptions of what goes on in Tinseltown have her under the title of The Queen of Sleeves,

0:51.3

and she's Jackie Collins. Jackie, for somebody who reports all the goings-on

0:56.7

the happenings in Hollywood, would being on a desert island be a kind of an awful imposition?

1:03.6

I think that's eventually where I'm going to end up. I mean, I think I'm going to be a great

1:07.2

old eccentric one of these days writing my books. I would really like to be like Agatha Christie,

1:11.7

you know, everybody knew my name, but nobody knew what I looked like, and I could live on a

1:15.6

desert island and have my friends visit me. Be great. Now you're not allowed to have your friends visit

1:19.3

easy, so you can't. But you have to be totally alone. Absolutely so.

1:22.7

Alone with one's memories, Michael, huh? I think it would be very, very interesting.

1:28.6

I don't think I would like it as a permanent solution to life's problems,

1:32.1

but it would be nice for a year or so just to get away from telephones.

1:35.6

So you wouldn't try to escape for at least a year?

1:37.9

No, not for at least a year. Let's have a first choice of record.

1:41.2

You eight records to take with you, which will be the first one?

1:43.3

Well, the first one would be Dion Warwick walk on by, because first of all, I think she has

1:48.1

the most wonderful voice. Secondly, I think that when she was recording with Bert Bacarack,

...

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