Jesse Armstrong, writer
Desert Island Discs
BBC
4.3 • 14.3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2026
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jesse Armstrong is a British author, screenwriter, and producer.
He has written several award-winning TV comedies and satirical dramas and won many accolades for his work including two BAFTA TV Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and three Writers Guild of America Awards. His hit HBO series Succession has won nineteen Emmys.
Jesse was born and educated in Oswestry, Shropshire, and attended Manchester University where he studied American Studies as an undergraduate and American History for his Masters. After university, he worked as a researcher for a Labour Member of Parliament for a couple of years it was an experience that would later inform his time as a writer on The Thick of It.
He met his writing partner, Sam Bain, at Manchester University and together they created and co-wrote 9 seasons of Channel 4’s BAFTA-winning comedy Peep Show and 4 seasons of the student comedy Fresh Meat. During this time, he also wrote for the political satire series The Thick of It and co-wrote the film In the Loop, the latter of which earned him Oscar and BAFTA nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay. He also co-wrote the films Four Lions and Downhill and wrote and directed the television film, Mountainhead.
He was the creator and show-runner of the hit HBO TV show Succession, a drama about a fictional powerful media family with the plot centring around which child would succeed the father played by Brian Cox. Succession won a total of 19 Emmys including Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for each of Succession’s four seasons.
He lives in London with his wife and has two children in their twenties.
DISC ONE: A Day in the Life - The Beatles DISC TWO: Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division DISC THREE: Debaser - Pixies DISC FOUR: Georgia on my Mind - Billie Holiday DISC FIVE: The Magic Number - De La Soul DISC SIX: New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down - LCD Sound System DISC SEVEN: Dream Song 28: Snow Line. Written and read by John Berryman DISC EIGHT: Violin Concerto in D Major, RV 234 “L’inquietudine” 1: Allegro. Composed by Antonio Vivaldi and performed by Walter Gallozzi and I Musici
BOOK CHOICE: The Norton Anthology of Poetry LUXURY ITEM: A football CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Georgia on my Mind - Billie Holiday
Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor
Desert Island Discs has cast many TV writers away to the island over the years including Russell T Davies, Sally Wainwright and Abi Morgan. You’ll also find the stars of Peep Show, Robert Webb and David Mitchell in there too along with the actor Brian Cox who played the patriarch, Logan Roy, in Jesse’s hit TV series, Succession. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | In 2019, we began investigating the disappearance of Dr. Ruzha Ignatva. |
| 0:14.0 | I believe we are a very special network. |
| 0:16.0 | A scammer who stole billions from investors around the world. |
| 0:21.5 | She's on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. |
| 0:24.5 | And now we have some unmissable updates. |
| 0:27.8 | She has money and when you have money, you have power. |
| 0:30.6 | Join me, Jamie Bartlett, as the hunt for the missing crypto queen continues. |
| 0:35.5 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:40.0 | Hello, I'm Lauren Levern and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast from BBC Radio 4. Every week, I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, |
| 0:45.7 | book and luxury that they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. |
| 0:50.3 | For rights reasons, the music's shorter than on the original broadcast, but you can find a version with longer music tracks on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:57.7 | Listeners will also get access to episodes 28 days earlier than everyone else. |
| 1:02.1 | I hope you enjoy listening. My castaway this week is the writer and showrunner Jesse Armstrong. |
| 1:25.7 | He's created some of the most talked about shows in |
| 1:28.2 | recent TV history, from his breakthrough success, peep show, which he made with a long-time |
| 1:33.1 | writing partner Sam Bain, to his epic family saga succession, which married Shakespearean themes |
| 1:39.1 | of power, avarice and betrayal with pitch-black humour, winning 19 Emmys. He grew up in Oswestry in Shropshire. |
| 1:47.4 | After moving to Manchester to study American literature at university and to rave at the |
| 1:51.9 | hacienda, he spent time working as a researcher in the House of Commons. A career in Westminster |
| 1:57.3 | wasn't for him, but his experience of life behind the scenes helped the political |
| 2:01.5 | comedies he worked on, the thick of it, in the loop, and Veep hit the right note. |
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