Making my Dad's Desert Island Discs - "it's emotional, but really special"
When Dan Johnson's Dad, Graeme, was diagnosed with lung cancer, they decided to make their own Desert Island Discs recording. Dan talks about those emotional hours together.
Graeme Johnson died at the end of 2017. He was 63 and had lung cancer – though he wasn’t a smoker. It hit his family hard, as it does for anyone who loses a family member – especially at a relatively young age. Before he died, Graeme came up with the idea of he and his son, Dan, sitting down and recording his own Desert Island Discs - inspired by the popular Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 programme. Recording it was extremely emotional for Dan - editing it, even more so. It’s taken him 4 years to finish it. When he shared on Twitter that he'd made this recording, it got a huge reaction. Dan Johnson is a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Correspondent. And recently Adrian Chiles got in touch and said he’d like to talk to him about it on his 5 Live show. Dan, not one to talk about himself, agreed because he said if it helps just one person to have that conversation with a relative, to maybe do something similar and have that incredible bank of memories recorded to listen back to, then he'd be chuffed. Because he's really glad he did that with his dad. This is 5 Minutes On: Making my Dad’s Desert Island Discs.
Photo Credit: Dan Johnson
