Desert Island Discs

Emma Grede is the businesswoman behind major fashion brands including Skims and Good American, which she co-founded with Kim Kardashian and Khloé Kardashian, respectively. Last year Forbes included her on their list of America's Richest Self-Made Women, with an estimated net worth of $405 million.
She grew up in Plaistow, East London, the eldest of four daughters. Her parents separated when she was five and she was raised by her mum, who worked long hours as a trader at an investment bank. Emma took on a lot of the responsibility at home caring for her sisters. Dyslexia meant she struggled at school, but she found satisfaction in a string of part-time jobs, from delivering newspapers to making sandwiches in a deli. She later dropped out of the London College of Fashion to pursue a career in the industry, and by her mid-twenties she had founded her first company.
She made her name brokering deals between celebrities and brands that included signing Natalie Portman as the face of Dior. In 2016 she founded an inclusive denim brand called Good American with Khloé Kardashian, and in 2019 she launched the shapewear brand Skims with Kim Kardashian.
Lately her success has led her out of the boardroom and into the spotlight with guest appearances on Dragon’s Den, and the US equivalent Shark Tank, as well as launching a podcast and writing a memoir.
Emma lives in Los Angeles with her husband and business partner Jens, and they have four children.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Hannah Hufford and Christine Pawlowsky
Desert Island Discs has cast away many fashion leaders to the island over the years including Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.

Sir Roger Deakins is an acclaimed cinematographer who is known for his visual artistry on films including The Shawshank Redemption, 1917, Fargo, Skyfall and Blade Runner 2049. His talents have been acknowledged with a knighthood, five BAFTAs and two Oscars.
Roger was born in Torquay, Devon in 1949. In 1968 he attended the Bath Academy of Art where he was inspired by one of his tutors, the street photographer Roger Mayne, to go out with his camera and capture what he saw. Roger Deakins followed this advice and spent his weekends shooting people and places in British seaside towns.
In 1975 Roger graduated from the National Film School in Beaconsfield and started work as a cameraman – making documentaries and music videos. His first feature film was Cruel Passion which came out in 1977. In 1984 he worked on Michael Radford’s film adaptation of George Orwell’s novel 1984, starring Richard Burton and John Hurt.
The first of Roger’s collaborations with filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen started in 1991 with the film Barton Fink. The three of them went on to make 12 films together including O Brother, Where Art Thou? Fargo and The Big Lebowski.
In 2018 Roger won his first Academy Award for Blade Runner 2049, directed by Denis Villeneuve. He was knighted for services to film in 2021.
Roger lives in California with his wife James. They also have a home in Devon.
DISC ONE: One of Us Cannot Be Wrong - Leonard Cohen
DISC TWO: Aqaba - June Tabor
DISC THREE: 21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson
DISC FOUR: Soldier’s Song - Lucinda Williams
DISC FIVE: Bat Out of Hell - Meat Loaf
DISC SIX: The Island - Paul Brady
DISC SEVEN: Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning - Cowboy Junkies
DISC EIGHT: Isn’t it a Pity - Nina Simone
BOOK CHOICE: Moby Dick by Herman Melville
LUXURY ITEM: Fishing tackle
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Aqaba - June Tabor
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley

Shania Twain is a singer and songwriter and one of only two artists in history to have three consecutive diamond albums.
By the time she was eight years old, she had a repertoire of one hundred songs which she would sing in bars. She began to write her own songs at the age of ten. Her mother was convinced that she was going to be a star and took her to perform in smoky clubs.
Off stage, all was not well in the family home and Shania grew up in a turbulent household where there was much fighting. When she was thirteen years old, she persuaded her mother to drive Shania and her sisters to Toronto to a women’s shelter.

Her parents eventually reunited and then were both killed in a car accident when Shania was twenty-two years old. She then became the guardian of her younger siblings and put her music dreams on hold to look after them.
Eventually she got a job in a golf resort singing and came to the attention of a Nashville music executive and was offered a recording contract when she was thirty.
She was enjoying a record-breaking global musical career when disaster struck. She was bitten by a tick and contracted Lyme disease which prevented her from singing for the best part of a decade. She announced her return in 2011 and returned to the stage in 2012.
Shania lives in Switzerland with her second husband.
DISC ONE: We’ve Only Just Begun - Carpenters
DISC TWO: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John
DISC THREE: Dust in the Wind - Kansas
DISC FOUR: El Paso - Marty Robbins
DISC FIVE: Gabriel’s Oboe - Ennio Morricone
DISC SIX: Gentle on my Mind - Glen Campbell
DISC SEVEN: Sir Duke - Stevie Wonder
DISC EIGHT: Ode to Billie Joe - Bobbie Gentry

BOOK CHOICE: Life is Fair by Brian Hines
LUXURY ITEM: Insect Repellent
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Dust in the Wind - Kansas
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor
Desert Island Discs has cast other musicians away over the years including Adele, Cher, Kylie Minogue and Cyndi Lauper. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.

Paul Farmer is a charity leader who has spent his life campaigning, fundraising and changing the national conversation around some of the most challenging issues in our society. Currently at the helm of Age UK, he previously spent 16 years as the CEO of Mind, the UK’s largest mental health charity.
Paul was born in Oxford, the son of a former Benedictine monk and a former nun. He read history at St Peter’s College, Oxford, where he met his future wife, Claire. After graduating, he found a role working for a heritage centre and fell in love with the charity sector, moving to the Samaritans. His experiences taking calls from those struggling with their mental health awakened a passion for working in the mental health sector.
In 2006 he moved Mind, where he became CEO. He led a fifteen-year campaign that helped to change legislation, and the national conversation around mental health. For the past few years, he has campaigned for older people as Chief Executive at Age UK, and encouraged the public to prepare and plan for a happier, healthier later life.
Paul lost his wife, Claire, to cancer in 2019. He lives in West London.
DISC ONE: Think - Aretha Franklin
DISC TWO: Part of the Agnus Dei from the Mass for Five Voices, performed by The Sixteen with Harry Christophers conducting - William Byrd
DISC THREE: Don’t Leave Me This Way - The Communards
DISC FOUR: Rotterdam (Or Anywhere) - The Beautiful South
DISC FIVE: Feeling Good - Nina Simone
DISC SIX: Into My Arms - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
DISC SEVEN: Drunk Surfer - Westside Cowboy
DISC EIGHT: Sunshine on Leith - The Proclaimers
BOOK: A collection of Simon Armitage’s poetry
LUXURY: A bowling machine with a combination of cricket and tennis balls
CASTAWAY’S FAVOURITE: Sunshine on Leith - The Proclaimers
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Sarah Taylor and Hannah Hufford
Desert Island Discs has cast away many campaigners to the island over the years including Marjorie Wallace, Julia Cleverdon, and Sue Ryder, Baroness Ryder of Warsaw. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.

Professor Liz Morris is a glaciologist whose work in some of the earth’s most inhospitable environments has broadened humanity’s understanding of climate change and polar science. Her accolades include the prestigious Polar Medal and an OBE for services to Polar Science.
Liz was born in London in 1946 and family legend has it that she fell in love with snow and ice the following year during what was known as the Big Freeze - one of the most severe and punishing winters in British history.
She studied physics at Bristol University and applied for a role at the British Antarctic Survey in the early Seventies. At that time the institute did not have any female scientists working in the field and her application was rejected.
Liz bided her time and eventually did get to work at the BAS, becoming head of the Ice and Climate Division in 1986. The following year she became the first British woman to undertake tent-based research in Antarctica, arriving just as the ozone hole discovery was breaking.
Liz completed her last field trip in 2014. In 2020 the Antarctic Place-Names Committee named a glacier in her honour.
Liz divides her time between the Cotswolds and Scotland.
Presenter: Lauren Laverne
Producer: Paula McGinley