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 Kirstie Young and this is a download from the

Desert Island Discs archive.

This edition may be slightly different from what was actually broadcast, but it is the only version we have.

It comes from the British Library's radio collection.

The recording didn't contain the guest's eight music choices, so we rebuilt the original show by using discs from the BBC Gramophone Library.

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

Full details can be found on the castaways page on the Desert Island Discs website.

The program was originally broadcast in 1979.

And the presenter was Roy Plumley.

This week, our castaway is the artist, Peter Blake.

Well, of course, painting is a lonely business, Peter, so you're used to solitude, aren't you?

Yes, I am. Yes, I'm in the studio by myself lots of times, so I'm quite used to being alone.

How important to you is music?

Quite important. I play records when I'm working usually, and there's lots of music in the house. I mean, I have a certain taste, my wife

has another taste, and the children play other things. So there's music all the time. What's the first

record you've chosen to take with you to the island? Sergeant Pepper by the Beatles. Now, that's an important record in your life because you designed the cupboard, didn't you? Yes, I did. It isn't why I chose it, in fact. I mean, the reason I've chosen that one, really, it was a very important period in my life. To hear it every morning would be very exciting anyway. It's a kind of overture

to the day. But it is one of the best records from that time. Now going back to the cover to remind

...