Hello, I'm Kirstie 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 1977, and the presenter was Roy Plumlee. On our Desert Island this week is the founder and director of the National Youth

Theatre Michael Croft. Michael does music play a big part in your life?

It doesn't play a very big part these days except insofar as now and again I present a play with music

but when I was a youngster I had a very strong interest in music.

I'm growing up in Manchester.

I spent many Sundays at the Halle at Bellevue,

but I'm afraid that my classical taste has diminished over the years and I find myself

I can barely rise above the level of good pop these days.

What's your first record? The first choice, I'd like to start with a cold porter number sung by Hatch, get out of town,

which was one of my favorites as a young man on this particular medley, it's followed by night and day.

And when you're near close to me, we touch to March the thrill when we meet is so bittersweet

the darling it's getting me down so So on your mark get set and get out of town.

My it and day under the height of me. to vintage coal porter numbers by hutch. You talked to being brought up in Manchester. Were you born there?? No I was born in the country in

fact I was born in Shropshire in a tiny little hamlet that nobody's ever heard of

a little place called Hengege don't tell me you've heard of it. I haven't, I'll be honest. What was your first ambition?

Writing was a big ambition. Playing cricket was an even bigger ambition, and I think I spent most of my summertime as a boy

anyway playing cricket either at school or at Longsight Cricket Club with a burning

desire to get to old Trafford and be taken on by Lancashire.

Well the war interrupted not only my ambitions but of course cricket as well and I never really picked up cricket after the war so that that ambition went writing

remained as an ambition.

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