As the radio classic marks a major anniversary, it’s the shared human experience revealed by the castaways that keeps us hooked
A familiar theme tune is playing in my ears as I step out of my front door and start running. It is a cold, frosty day in Cambridge but as I make my way towards Midsummer Common and the River Cam, I am transported to a much warmer climate. A desert island, where I know I will find exactly eight tracks of music, the Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare and an incongruous luxury.
I am, of course, listening to Desert Island Discs, which will celebrate its 80th anniversary next weekend. First broadcast on 29 January 1942, it is the jewel in BBC Radio 4’s crown, to the extent that being on it is “kind of like getting a people’s knighthood”, observes the Observer’s radio critic, Miranda Sawyer. “There is no better radio show,” she says. “And I think, because it’s been for so long, there’s a status attached to getting picked – like, if you get asked to be on Desert Island Discs, that means somehow that you’ve made it.”
