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 1981.

Desert Island Discs. As usual, the castaway is introduced by Roy Plamley.

This week, our castaways, the playwright Peter Nichols.

How big a thing is music in your life?

It's always been a very important part of my life.

I suppose I became a jazz fan as a result of reacting against my father

who enjoyed classical music, more orchestral music,

and was one of those armchair conductors who used to

wave a baton to his large collection of 78s, you know, he was the sort of Bristol version of

Toscanini. And I, like any young man, I suppose, reacted against that and became a jazz fan,

and now I've come full circle and I hope I enjoy most kinds of music equally.

Do you make music, Do you play an instrument?

No, I tried to play the piano, but I never succeeded. I couldn't read.

Do you sing?

...