Desert Island Discs: Archive: 2016-201822 Maj 2016

Berry Gordy

Kirsty Young's castaway is the producer Berry Gordy.

He founded the Motown record label and his musical empire made worldwide stars of Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Jackson 5 and Marvin Gaye.

The second youngest of eight children, he was brought up in Detroit. He left school at sixteen to become a Featherweight boxer, and served as a soldier in the Korean war before making music his career. His first foray into the music business was a jazz record store in Detroit but he was out of step with popular taste and he became bankrupt.

It was whilst working on a a car production line that he came up with the idea of setting up a record label. The combination of his song-writing skills and entrepreneurial spirit took Motown music to the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and to the centre of American culture during a pivotal moment in America's civil rights history. He was friends with Dr Martin Luther King and recorded some of his speeches on the Motown label.

Producer: Sarah Taylor.

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Avsnitt(126)

Bill Gates

Kirsty Young's castaway is Bill Gates.He sat at his first computer while still at school in Seattle, wrote his first computer programme aged just 13 and went on to co-found the company Microsoft, beco...

4 Feb 201635min

Sigrid Rausing

Kirsty Young's castaway is the philanthropist and publisher Sigrid Rausing.Founder of one of the UK's largest philanthropic foundations, her trust has given away around £230m to human rights causes si...

24 Jan 201633min

Sir Anthony Seldon

Kirsty Young's castaway is the educationalist and writer, Sir Anthony Seldon.Now Vice-Chancellor of Buckingham University, he was the Master of Wellington College. He has written, co-written and edite...

17 Jan 201637min

Alex Crawford

Kirsty Young's castaway is the Sky TV news correspondent Alex Crawford.She's won the Royal Television Society's Journalist of the Year award an unprecedented four times - reporting from the world's wo...

10 Jan 201633min

Colm Toibin

Kirsty Young's castaway is the writer Colm Toibin.Best-known for his novels "Brooklyn" - now made into a film - "Nora Webster" and "The Master," he has been nominated for the Booker Prize three times....

3 Jan 201637min

Patricia Greene

Archers actress Patricia Greene is castaway by Kirsty Young. For nearly 60 years she's played the role of Jill in BBC Radio 4’s The Archers which celebrates its 65th anniversary on January 1st 2016....

27 Dec 201536min