Greg Davies, comedian
Greg Davies, comedian, writer and actor, shares the eight tracks, book and luxury item he would take with him if cast away to a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.
Greg Davies is a familiar face on television as the host of Taskmaster, the BAFTA-winning game show, and he has achieved sell out national arena tours as a stand-up. His on-screen breakthrough came in 2008 when he played the head of the sixth form, Mr Gilbert, in the highly successful teenage comedy series the Inbetweeners. He wrote and starred in the black comedy the Cleaner and co-wrote the sitcom Man Down in which he played a man in the grip of a midlife crisis.
Greg was born in St Asaph in north Wales and grew up in Shropshire. At school he gravitated towards what he calls the silly boys who created characters and devised comedy sketches in the playground. When he was 18 he discovered Eddie Murphy whose stand-up routines about his relatives spurred Greg to look to his own family as comedic source material.
Greg spent 13 years as an English and Drama teacher – a time he looks back on with mixed emotions and which he has mined for his stage act. When he was 33 he left teaching and started performing stand-up gigs and performed his first solo stand-up show at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010.
Greg lives in south London.
DISC ONE: Baggy Trousers - Madness
DISC TWO: Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell
DISC THREE: 100% Endurance - Yard Act
DISC FOUR: Circlesquare - The Wonder Stuff
DISC FIVE: Cemetry Gates - The Smiths
DISC SIX: Consider Yourself - Jack Wild (The Artful Dodger) and The Orchestra, conducted by John Green. From Oliver! [An Original Soundtrack Recording]
DISC SEVEN: She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
DISC EIGHT: The Next Episode - Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg
BOOK CHOICE: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
LUXURY ITEM: Sausages
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: 100% Endurance - Yard Act
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley
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10 things we learned from Greg Davies’s Desert Island Discs
The comedian, writer and actor speaks to Lauren about truth, his parents... and sausages.
Music Played
-
Madness
Baggy Trousers
- Total Madness.
- Union Square Music.
- 4.
-
Glen Campbell
Wichita Lineman
- Glen Campbell - The Capitol Years 1965 - 1977.
- Capitol Nashville.
- 13.
-
Yard Act
100% Endurance
- The Overload.
- Universal-Island Records Ltd..
- 11.
-
The Wonder Stuff
Circlesquare
- If The Beatles Had Read Hunter...The Singles.
- Polydor Records.
- 9.
-
The Smiths
Cemetry Gates (2008 Remaster)
- The Sound of the Smiths (Deluxe 2008 Remaster).
- Rhino/Warner Records.
- 39.
-
Jack Wild and The Orchestra, conducted by John Green
Consider Yourself
- Oliver! (An Original Soundtrack Recording).
- Sony BMG.
- 6.
-
The Cult
She Sells Sanctuary
- With Honors (Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack).
- Warner Records.
- 3.
-
Dr. Dre
The Next Episode (feat. Snoop Dogg)
- 2001.
- Aftermath.
- 11.
Broadcasts
- Sun 12 May 2024 10:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
- Fri 17 May 2024 09:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
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Desert Island Discs
Castaway guests share the soundtrack of their lives.