Hello, I'm Christy 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 1982, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

This week, our cast away is the playwright and actor, John Osborne.

How important in your life is music, John?

Oh, absolutely vital, important.

I mean, I really can't think of my life without it.

But I was very lucky, because my father was very musical being well,

I suppose, and it always figured very, very largely in my life.

Have you any musical skill yourself?

No, I wish I had.

I mean, I'd love to play the piano in a bar or something like that.

I mean, I wouldn't want to play it well, because I wouldn't be good enough.

No, I'd love to play any instrument.

Did you have any plan on choosing your eight records?

Well, no, because it's such a...

As we all know, it's a hopeless, sadistic task to make somebody choose eight things,

and of course, some of it must relate to your life,

and some of the ones I've chosen have,

and some of nothing to do is at all,

except that they have to do with...

Oh, I suppose, my feelings about life generally,

...