I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by

their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism with me,

Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista 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 1979,

and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Music On our desert island this week is the entertainer Marty Kane.

Marty, do you play records a lot?

Yes, I do. Yes, I love music. It's my hobby. You're a high-fi expert, aren't you? No, expert is a slight, well, a little bit hyperbolic, I think. I'm not exactly an expert, but I've learnt how to switch it on in about ten minutes now. But it's all got to sound right. A lot of machinery travels round with you. Yes, yes. I can't be without my music.

Did it take you long to choose just eight records that may have to last a long, long time?

Oh yes, it took me ages and ages.

Loads and loads of thought, well, perhaps records or sounds that associate,

so to remind me of things.

And when I sat and thought about it, it was quite amazing. Because I couldn't take all my favourites anyway, you know, my sort of modern present-day favourites, because otherwise I get bored very quickly. What's the first one you've got there on the pile? A record called Birdland by Manhattan Transfer, which just happens to be my record of the moment. It's very cheerful and always sort of cheers me up.

And this is one record of the moment that's going to last, do you think?

Yes, I think it will.

Thank you. Birdland like years from Birdland, but I'm still preaching the rhythm.

Long gone uptight years from Birdland and I'm still teaching it rhythm. Birdland, and I'm still teaching it rhythm.

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