Ruby Wax
Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010
BBC
4.4 • 804 Ratings
🗓️ 26 June 2005
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the broadcaster and comedian Ruby Wax. Her brass neck and immunity to embarrassment led to her pioneering a new brand of journalism which saw celebrities, film stars and even royalty open their hearts - and their sock drawers - to her. She rifled through Madonna's handbag and, with Ruby's encouragement, Imelda Marcos entertained the audience with a rendition of Feelings.
Ruby grew up in Illinois, the only child of Jewish refugees who had fled Austria in 1939. Her childhood was unhappy - and, by the time she was 18, she says she was so unconfident she feared she would never find a job without her parents' help. But she left America and came to Britain where, eventually, she was to find a place at the Royal Shakespeare Company. There, her friend and contemporary Alan Rickman persuaded her that her future lay in writing rather than acting. Her career has spanned more than 20 years but she says that while she has been enjoying the success that came her way, she has also suffered from depression and an anxiety that she should not pass on to her own children the insecurities she suffered from herself.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: A Day in the Life by The Beatles Book: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann Luxury: A huge bed
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy. |
| 0:05.4 | My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:10.7 | The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that. |
| 0:17.4 | With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to |
| 0:22.4 | helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all |
| 0:28.1 | put together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life, |
| 0:34.9 | check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. |
| 0:42.2 | For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music. |
| 0:45.3 | The program was originally broadcast in 2005, and the presenter was Sue Lawley. |
| 0:50.7 | Music was Sue Lolly. |
| 1:09.0 | My castaway this week made her name as a television interviewer. |
| 1:13.0 | Her style is unique, her programs astonishingly revealing, |
| 1:15.0 | wacky, witty and dead clever. |
| 1:17.9 | She's rifled through the lives of those she's talked to like a housemaid through a sock drawer. |
| 1:19.9 | The results have been extraordinary. |
| 1:22.0 | Imelda Marcos sang for her, Madonna allowed her to inspect her thongs |
| 1:25.7 | and O.J. Simpson stabbed her with a banana. |
| 1:29.0 | She herself had a turbulent childhood in Illinois where her father, a Frankfurta magnate, and her |
| 1:34.9 | mother subjected her to verbal abuse and the occasional beating. She escaped to Britain via |
| 1:39.9 | finishing school in Switzerland, where she tried with limited success to become an actress. |
| 1:44.9 | Then she started writing comedy, and gradually her own style emerged, the unembarrassable |
| 1:50.8 | interloper in the lives of the famous and the unusual. These days, she doesn't appear much on television, |
... |
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