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Sue Lawley's castaway is satirist John Bird.

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is John Bird. As a student, he changed the face of the Cambridge Footlights review by rejecting jokes on bed-makers and punting and writing a political review instead. In the early 1960s he helped found The Establishment Club with Peter Cook. Writing sketches with John Fortune, they found they were unable to find suitable actors to perform their work, and so took to the stage themselves. Satire, he says, died in the late 1960s and he struggled to make a living, until Rory Bremner hired them. As 'The Two Johns', their dialogues featuring an awkward interviewer and slippery politician have won them much recognition and a BAFTA award.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Repons by Pierre Boulez
Book: The collected works by Wallace Stevens
Luxury: 2,000 soft loo rolls

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 2 Jun 2000 09:00
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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Music Played

  • Felix Mendelssohn

    Octet for Strings in E flat major

    Orchestra: The Smetana and Janacek Quartets

    • Octet and Piano Trio No 1.
    • Supraphon.

  • Kurt Weill

    Ach, bedenken Sie (from The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny)

    Soloist: Lotte Lenya

    • Mahogonny.
    • CBS.

  • Joseph Haydn

    String Quartet in D Major - 4th movement

    Orchestra: The Giovane Quartetto Italiano

    • String Quartets.
    • Claves.

  • Claude Debussy

    Jeux (finale)

    Orchestra: Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

    • Orchestra Music.
    • Philips.

  • Gerry Mulligan and the Concert Jazz Band

    Big City Blues

    • Gerry Mulligan 63.
    • Verve.

  • Johannes Brahms

    Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major

    Soloist: Maurizio Pollini Orchestra: Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

    • Piano Concerto No 2.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • Igor Stravinsky

    The Rite of Spring

    Soloist: Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir

    • The Rite of Spring for Piano.
    • Decca.

  • Castaway's Favourite

    • Pierre Boulez

      ΈιΓ©±θ΄Η²Τ²υ

      Soloist: Pierre Boulez Orchestra: Ensemble InterContemporain

      • Repons.
      • Deutsche Grammophon.

  • Book Choice

    • The collected works - Wallace Stevens

  • Luxury Choice

    • 2,000 soft loo rolls

Credits

Presenter Sue Lawley
Interviewed Guest John Bird

Broadcasts

  • Sun 28 May 2000 11:15
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
  • Fri 2 Jun 2000 09:00
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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