Kirsty Young, broadcaster

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kirsty Young was the award-winning presenter of Desert Island Discs between 2006 and 2018, interviewing 496 castaways. Her TV work includes BAFTA-winning coverage of events marking the centenary of World War One, and memorable live presentation from Windsor of the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II earlier this year. Kirsty was born in East Kilbride in Scotland. After a chance meeting with a freelance TV cameraman, she became interested in a media career, and worked as a runner and then a researcher for an independent production company, before joining BBC Radio Scotland as a trainee news and continuity announcer, beating 700 other applicants. She moved to Scottish Television in 1992, and five years later she was part of the launch of Channel 5, presenting its main news programme while famously perching on the studio desk rather than sitting behind it. She also presented the BBC’s Crimewatch for many years. In 2018, Kirsty had to step back from broadcasting, to undergo treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. After four years away from the microphone, she returned to present coverage of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June this year. She is married to Nick Jones, CEO of Soho House and they have four children. DISC ONE: Cello Suite No.1 in G Major, BWV1007: I. Prelude [J.S.Bach] performed by Steven Isserlis DISC TWO: My Baby Just Cares for Me by Nina Simone DISC THREE: Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell DISC FOUR: Caledonia by Dougie MacLean DISC FIVE: I Happen to Like New York Bobby Short, performer. [Cole Porter, composer] DISC SIX: Songbird by Fleetwood Mac DISC SEVEN: O Magnum Mysterium by [Tomás Luis de Victoria] sung by The Voices of Ascension choir, directed by Dennis Keene DISC EIGHT: Count Me Out by Kendrick Lamar BOOK CHOICE: The Most of Nora Ephron by Nora Ephron LUXURY ITEM: A cinema and film archive CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Cello Suite No.1 in G Major, BWV1007: I. Prelude [J.S.BACH] performed by Steven Isserlis Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts
0:04.9	Hello, I'm Lauren LeVern and this is the Desert Island Disks Podcast.
0:08.7	Every week I ask my guests to choose the 8 tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with
0:13.5	them if they were cast away to a desert island.
0:16.7	This is an extended version of the original Radio 4 broadcast and for right reasons the
0:21.8	music is shorter than the original broadcast.
0:24.6	I hope you enjoy listening.
0:47.9	My cast away this week is Kirsty Young.
0:50.8	He's a multi-award winning broadcaster who might at first glance require little introduction
0:55.6	to Desert Island Disks listeners but is that true?
0:59.0	After all, her phenomenal professional skill lies in making her subject rather than herself
1:04.6	the entire focus of her work.
1:06.9	Her ability to reveal the truth of a story, a moment, a person to her audience is nothing
1:12.8	short of remarkable.
1:15.0	It's a feat she's accomplished again and again throughout her 30 years on air from the
1:19.4	newsroom where she chronicled the horror of 9-11 as it unfolded to her baffer-winning
1:24.4	coverage of the centenary of the Battle of Passion Dale and more recently that moment
1:29.3	when she found exactly the right words to express the somber gratitude of a nation after
1:34.6	the state funeral of her majesty the Queen.
1:37.5	Of course there were also the 12 unforgettable years she spent as host of this programme.
1:42.9	On a personal note they made her my broadcasting hero and the toughest imaginable actor follow.
1:48.1	She sent castaways including Tom Hanks, Dame Judy Dench and David Beckham to the island.
	...

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