Desert Island Discs

The singer songwriter Nick Cave was cast away by Lauren Laverne in 2025.
He has written huge hits such as "Into My Arms" and "Where the Wild Roses Grow", but songwriting doesn't come easily to him. His notebooks are full of what he describes as "bad stuff", and he'd like them to be burned after his death, thank you very much. The best way to approach the job, he says, is in office hours and wearing a suit.
You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

The actor and writer Meera Syal was cast away by Sue Lawley in 2003.
She was awarded a Damehood earlier this year, but Meera Syal rose to prominence as one of the writers of the TV series Goodness Gracious Me. It came at a time in the 1990s when the perception of the British Asian experience was changing and, she says, held a mirror up to British society.
You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

The BBC's chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet was cast away by Lauren Laverne in 2022.
She has reported from many war-torn countries, including Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, but says she doesn't want to be defined by war. Instead, she is interested in the human cost of conflict. When she arrives in a place, she embeds herself in the lives of the local people; discovering what she calls the “heat and dust” of a society helps her to tell their stories.
You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

The former England manager Gareth Southgate was cast away by Lauren Laverne in 2024.
He was 25 when he made his debut for the England team. By the time he retired from international football, he had been capped 57 times. As England manager, he led the team to two finals in the European Championships, further than they had come in more than five decades since 1966.
You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

The actor Michael Sheen was cast away by Lauren Laverne in 2025.
He has portrayed many real people on stage including Tony Blair, Brian Clough and David Frost, though never Jack Nicholson. That was his father's department, who had a second career impersonating the actor, which started around the time Nicholson played the Joker in the 1989 Batman film.
You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.