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 podcast from the

Desert Island Discs Archive. For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1987,

and the presenter was Michael Parkinson.

Music A castaway is an enigmatic figure in the mainly transparent world of show business.

In the 60s, he made his film debut in Billy Budd and was described as the most beautiful man in the world.

He seems certain to become a huge international star.

Instead, he's plotted his own highly individual

and often seemingly quirky path through life.

Fame and fortune there have been.

He's worked with Pasolini and Fellini.

His sergeant Troy, and far from the madding crowd,

is etched in the memory of anyone who saw the film. And yet there have been other occasions when he seemed to detour from the

path. The mystery is deepened because of his reluctance to give interviews. Now, however, he's

handing out clues. The first volume of his autobiography is about growing up in London's East End.

The author is Terence Stam.

Terence, do you look forward to isolation on this desert island? Well, I like to spend a lot of time on my own, whether I'd like to be completely on my own. It's another question. Do you think

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