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 1988, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson. On television our castaway is immediately recognizable for his boundless energy, his brisk delivery,

the commonness with which he tackles the most obscure subject.

One critic observed that his stocking trade is enthusiasm,

another remark he turns science into showbiz.

He is James Burke.

James, people would assume, of course, seeing you on television explaining all these inexplicable things,

it would be very good on a desert hour and that nothing

will be beyond your capability without two. They'd be quite wrong. I'm immensely

impractical. I have a great good fortune to be married to a woman who has two

qualities I don't have, good looks and immense practicality.

She does everything.

I think in the background.

So she's not allowed in the desert down and so in fact it would be a total disaster, would it?

I think so, yes. I mean if I survive it would be because

of accident of circumstance. What about music too I mean you've got this the company of

eight records is music something that's important in your life? Yes, I was planning to be a musician when I was young.

I took singing lessons from a very early age as soon as my voice broke and I played the clarinet for about 10 years and I conducted local orchestras and I did music to S level and all that stuff and I was planning to be a musician, well a singer and an English master said to me one day how far forward in the chorus would you like to end up and I said at the front and he said well do something else

He said you can always sing for fun but you'll never sing for money.

And so I quit and switch subjects at the age of about 17 and ended up doing an academic subject instead.

And he was quite right. I've had music all my life as a pleasure without the

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