Sir David Wilson

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 1986

⏱️ 34 minutes

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Summary

Sir David Wilson, who is the Director of the British Museum, first became interested in archaeology when his family moved to the Isle of Man and he discovered the existence of some people called Vikings. In conversation with Michael Parkinson, he talks about his career as an archaeologist and about the problems of running such a large treasure house.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Die Schopfung - Die Himmel Erzahlen Die Ehre Gottes by Franz Joseph Haydn Book: Diaries by Samuel Pepys Luxury: Refrigerator

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 1986, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson. A castaway today has been described as the custodian of the richest collection of historical objects in the world.
0:35.5	He's the director of the British Museum, Sir David Wilson.
0:38.8	So David, is it possible to estimate just how many objects the British Museum contains?
0:44.0	No, we're trying to guess all the time.
0:46.0	Some people say 8 million, some people say 10 million, some people say 20 million,
0:50.0	anywhere between 10 and 20 million.
0:52.0	Give or take 10 million.
0:53.0	Well, that's not too mad.
0:54.0	What about putting a price in it?
0:56.0	Is that possible?
0:57.0	No, just say billions of pounds,
0:59.0	but the point is it's irreplaceable,
1:01.0	so it's not worthwhile putting a price on it often.
1:03.0	Well now for the purpose of this programme to David, going from being
1:06.2	custodian of all those priceless and countless objects, you're on a desert island.
1:10.3	You have nothing there except your luxury object, which you'll ask you about later, and your eight records.
1:15.0	So what would be the first choice of record?
1:17.0	Well, the first choice has to remind me of the British Museum.
1:20.0	So why not a piece of music written for the British Museum, written in 1769 within a few years of its
1:26.7	foundation by Mozart, who visited it as a boy of nine.
	...

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