Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela,

Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey, history's youngest heroes with me, Nicola Cochlin. Listen on BBC Sounds.

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4.

For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

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Music My castaway this Christmas is Sir Michael Cain.

He is, of course, a British film legend, appearing in more than 100 pictures and winning two Oscars in a movie career that has Sir Michael Kane. He is, of course, a British film legend, appearing in more than a hundred

pictures and winning two Oscars in a movie career that has, so far, spanned four decades. Alfie,

Zulu, Get Carter, the Italian job, educating Rita and Hannah and her sisters are just a handful

of the films he's known for. It is an extraordinary roster, and all the more remarkable

because when he was a child,

it seemed that working from dawn

in Billingsgate Fish Market

was the sum of what life had to offer.

Tell a Cockney he's no good, he says,

and he'll dedicate his life to proving otherwise.

Michael Kane, that quote suggests

that you are somebody who will not be defeated.

Yeah, it was very funny because during a particular hard time of my life, much later,

I heard a saying by Winston Churchill, and it's been my motto ever since. He said,

if you're going through hell, keep going.

Tell me about those first moments when you fell in love with cinema. You went to the

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