logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2015
35m 22s

Sandi Toksvig

Bbc Radio 4
About this episode

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is Sandi Toksvig.

Host of BBC Radio 4's News Quiz until June 2015, she is also a writer and comedian and recently entered the world of politics, helping to found the Women's Equality Party.

Her parents were both broadcasters: her mother worked as a studio manager and announcer before she married, her Danish father's job as a foreign correspondent took the family around the world. Sandi and her siblings spent much of their childhood in the United States and when she was "asked to leave" yet another American school, her parents sent her to boarding school in England. She soon decided to lose her strong American accent and went on to Cambridge, where she performed in the Footlights.

In addition to writing, her most recent acting role was in Call the Midwife and she continues to appear regularly on TV and radio shows as a panelist: she is to start as the next host of QI, taking over from Stephen Fry. She's also Chancellor of Portsmouth University.

Up next
Dec 2015
Commander Chris Hadfield
Kirsty Young's castaway is Chris Hadfield.He was the first Canadian commander of the International Space Station and took part in three space missions spending a total of 166 days orbiting the Earth. He has spent over 14 hours doing two space walks. He flew his first eight day mi ... Show More
35m 44s
Dec 2015
Kylie Minogue
Ahead of Glastonbury 2025, hear Kylie Minogue - Glastonbury’s 2019 ‘Legend’ slot performer - choose the songs that soundtrack her life in this classic episode of Desert Island Discs.With seven number ones and ten million singles sold in the UK, she is the third-biggest selling fe ... Show More
35m 27s
Dec 2015
Atul Gawande
Kirsty Young's castaway is the surgeon, author and former Reith lecturer, Atul Gawande.A general and endocrine surgeon in Boston, he is professor in both the Department of Health Policy & Management at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Department of Surgery at Harvard M ... Show More
34m 56s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2021
Sailing by the stars: The pioneering voyages of David Lewis
David Lewis was of one of the most remarkable nautical explorers of modern times. In the mid-1960s, he took his wife and two small daughters - who were less than five years old - on a sailing trip around the world in a small catamaran. What is more, for one part of the journey, h ... Show More
39m 29s
Sep 2022
A Man of the World
Go behind the yellow border to meet the family that made National Geographic an American institution. Gilbert M. Grosvenor’s 60-year career followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather—but he learned that sometimes he had to do things his own way. In his new memoir, A ... Show More
29m 40s
Jun 2023
BBC OS Conversations: Mount Everest
It’s 70 years since a New Zealand mountaineer and his Nepali-Indian Sherpa mountaineer guide reached the highest point on Earth. There have been celebrations in Nepal in recent days to mark the anniversary. Thousands of people have followed in their footsteps but this climbing se ... Show More
24m 9s
Oct 2016
Sacha Gervasi & David de Rothschild: Chasing Dreams, Seeking Adventure & The Power of Story To Change The World
“Curiosity is one of the greatest drivers of change.”David de Rothschild Two British ex-pats walk into a room. One, a writer and filmmaker. The other, a global adventurer and environmentalist. Upon cursory glance, it's an odd pairing — two exceedingly talented and accomplished ye ... Show More
1h 52m
Aug 2019
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is 300 years old this year. Is he real? Well, the book says that it was 'written by himself'. In celebration we have invited two notable desert island survivors to discuss his life and strange surprising adventures, eight and twenty years all alone in an uninhabit ... Show More
24m 47s
Jun 2022
High lives
Spanning five countries, the Himalaya is home to peoples who have adapted to living in the harshest of conditions. Journalist and broadcaster Ed Douglas, author of the first major history of the Himalaya has been visiting these remote communities for 30 years. Now they are openin ... Show More
27m 49s
Jun 2022
David Harewood, actor and presenter
David Harewood is a British actor and presenter who found global fame playing the CIA director David Estes in the acclaimed TV drama series Homeland. He was the first black actor to play Othello at the National theatre in 1997 and took the role of Martin Luther King in the Olivie ... Show More
34m 52s
Apr 2021
David Attenborough's first expedition
In 1954, the BBC broadcast a new television programme in Britain. It was called Zoo Quest and it launched the career of a man who has since brought the natural world into millions of homes around the world, the broadcaster Sir David Attenborough. Louise Hidalgo has been listening ... Show More
9m 17s
Feb 2021
A wombat ate my homework
We’re exploring the theme of recovery, delving into times when we’ve stepped in to help save our natural world, and looking at the moments when it’s come to our rescue too. We’ll be starting off in the sea off the West Coast of Africa where a crew member from the latest David Att ... Show More
33m 16s