Jessie Buckley, actor
Desert Island Discs
BBC
4.3 • 14.3K Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jessie Buckley is an actor and singer. She recently won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe Award for her critically acclaimed role playing Shakespeare’s wife Agnes in Chloé Zhao’s film Hamnet. Her performance has also garnered her an Academy Award nomination.
Jessie won an Olivier Award for her portrayal of Sally Bowles in a 2021 West End revival of Cabaret. Her breakout film role came in 2018 when she played an aspiring country music singer in the musical Wild Rose.
Jessie was born in Killarney in County Kerry to creative parents. Her mother trained as a singer and harpist and her father, who ran a guest house when she was growing up, writes poetry. As a child Jessie and her siblings put on Irish dancing performances for people who stayed in the guest house.
In 2008 she appeared in the BBC talent show I’d Do Anything – the televised search to find a Nancy for a West End production of Oliver! Jessie came second in the competition and afterwards Sir Cameron Mackintosh, one of the judges, sent her on a Shakespeare workshop at RADA which she says changed her life.
She made her professional stage debut as Anne Egerman in the 2008/2009 revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music at London's Menier Chocolate Factory. In 2010 she stepped away from professional work and enrolled at RADA where she studied for three years.
After graduating she performed on stage, screen and television. She received her first Oscar nomination playing opposite Olivia Colman in the 2021 film the Lost Daughter.
Jessie lives in Norfolk with her husband and their baby daughter.
DISC ONE: Samhradh Samhradh - The Gloaming DISC TWO: O Holy Night. Composed by Adolph Adam and performed by Marina Cassidy DISC THREE: Who Knows Where the Time Goes (Live at Philharmonic Hall, New York, NY - October 1969) - Nina Simone DISC FOUR: Troy - Sinéad O'Connor DISC FIVE: Send In the Clowns – Judi Dench DISC SIX: Shobis Galoba (Christmas Song) - Basiani Ensemble DISC SEVEN: The Red Shoes - Kate Bush DISC EIGHT: Old Note - Lisa O'Neill
BOOK CHOICE: The Complete Poems of Tim Buckley LUXURY ITEM: Jessie’s own bathtub and bath salts CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Samhradh Samhradh - The Gloaming
Presenter: Lauren Laverne Producer: Paula McGinley
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | Their company's success helped build a nation. |
| 0:10.9 | The company is such a big part of Korea's economy. |
| 0:13.5 | But who are the family behind one of the world's tech giants? |
| 0:17.2 | They often say, look, we built the nation. |
| 0:19.2 | And without us, South Korea as it exists today, |
| 0:22.6 | would simply not be here. Inheritance, Samsung, explores the real-life dramas of the Lee family |
| 0:28.3 | and their company. They are the equivalent of royalty. Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.7 | Hello, I'm Lauren Levern, and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:38.8 | Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury that they'd want to take |
| 0:43.7 | with them if they were cast away to a Desert Island. For rights reasons, the music's shorter |
| 0:47.9 | than on the original broadcast, but you can find a version with longer music tracks on BBC |
| 0:52.7 | sounds. Listeners will also get access to episodes 28 days earlier than everyone else. |
| 0:58.1 | I hope you enjoy listening. |
| 1:23.7 | Music My castaway this week is the actor and singer Jesse Buckley. |
| 1:29.1 | She first came to public attention singing on a BBC talent show when she was just 17. |
| 1:35.3 | She didn't win, but its title proved prophetic. She went from I'd Do Anything to being a performer who really can, widely regarded as one of the most versatile actors of her generation. In addition |
| 1:41.6 | to her Olivier Award and a place on the Mercury Prize shortlist, |
| 1:45.7 | she recently won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for her starring role in Hamnet. Her critically |
| 1:51.5 | acclaimed performance as Shakespeare's wife, Agnes, has also secured her an Oscar nomination, |
| 1:56.9 | her second. Growing up in County Kerry, creativity was her family's first language. Her father |
| 2:02.6 | wrote poetry and her mother was a singer and harpist. Watching her ability to move people to tears |
... |
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