Desert Island Discs

Desert Island Discs
	Desert Island Discs logo used on the BBC website
Genre	Talk radio; music;
Running time	43 minutes
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Language(s)	English
Home station	BBC Forces Programme (1942–1944); BBC Home Service (1943–1944, 1951–1967); BBC Light Programme (1945–1946); BBC Radio 4 (1967–present);
Hosted by	Roy Plomley (1942–1985); Michael Parkinson (1986–1988); Sue Lawley (1988–2006); Kirsty Young (2006–2018); Lauren Laverne (2018–present);
Created by	Roy Plomley
Produced by	Gillian Hush; Olivia Seligman; Angie Nehring; Miranda Birch; Leanne Buckle; Cathy Drysdale;
Recording studio	Broadcasting House
Original release	29 January 1942
No. of episodes	3,227 (28 March 2020)
Opening theme	"By the Sleepy Lagoon" by Eric Coates
Website	BBC website

Desert Island Discs is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942.

Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordings (usually, but not always, music), a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were to be cast away on a desert island, whilst discussing their life and the reasons for their choices. It was devised and originally presented by Roy Plomley. Since 2018, the programme has been presented by Lauren Laverne.

More than 3,000 episodes have been recorded, with some guests having appeared more than once and some episodes featuring more than one guest. An example of a guest who falls into both categories is Bob Monkhouse, who appeared with his co-writer Denis Goodwin on 12 December 1955 and in his own right on 20 December 1998.

When Desert Island Discs marked its 75th year in 2017, The Guardian called the show a radio classic. In February 2019, a panel of broadcasting industry experts named it the greatest radio programme of all time.

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