Desert Island Discs BBC Radio 4

Shirine Khoury-Haq is the chief executive officer of the Co-op Group – the first female chief executive in its 180-year history and the first from an ethnic minority background.
Shirine was born in Beirut to a Palestinian father and a Turkish mother. Her father was a geophysicist who worked in the oil industry and his work took the family around the world. By the time Shirine was 12 she had lived on every continent except Antarctica, regularly having to adapt to very different schools and classmates.
She studied for a Bachelor of Commerce in accounting and economics at the Australian National University in Canberra, while taking on a number of jobs to pay her way. In 1996 she joined the McDonald’s Corporation as a finance and operations manager and then joined IBM as an associate partner.
In 2014 she was appointed chief operating officer for Lloyd’s of London and five years later she joined the Co-op as chief financial officer. She became the Group’s CEO in August 2022.
Shirine lives in Cheshire with her husband and two daughters.
DISC ONE: Jamaica Farewell - Harry Belafonte
DISC TWO: Ya Talien Eljabal - Rola Azar
DISC THREE: Better Together - Jack Johnson
DISC FOUR: Fight the Power - Public Enemy
DISC FIVE: Nuthin’ But A “G” Thang - Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg
DISC SIX: Supermassive Black Hole - Muse
DISC SEVEN: How Great Thou Art - Susan Boyle
DISC EIGHT: Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of - U2
BOOK CHOICE: The Quran
LUXURY ITEM: A photo frame
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: How Great Thou Art - Susan Boyle
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

The Australian actor Rebel Wilson became an international star with a breakthrough part in the 2011 Hollywood comedy Bridesmaids, opposite Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy. She followed this up playing Fat Amy in the highly successful Pitch Perfect trilogy, which documents the fortunes of a female college acapella group.
Rebel was born in Balmain, a suburb of Sydney. Her parents bred and showed dogs, in particular beagles, and her first brush with showbusiness came when she visited television studios to watch the dogs perform in popular shows. The dogs were so successful they even had their own agents.
She studied for a combined arts and law degree and then joined the Australian Theatre for Young People. At the age of 29 she sold everything she had and left Sydney to try her luck in Hollywood where she slept on a friend’s sofa for the first few months. She gave herself a year to make it and Bridesmaids came at just the right time – she never looked back.
Rebel recently made her debut as a director with the Deb, a musical set in Australia.
DISC ONE: Just the Way You Are - Bruno Mars
DISC TWO: Greatest Love of All - Whitney Houston
DISC THREE: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Monty Python
DISC FOUR: I Missed the Bus - Kris Kross
DISC FIVE: We Belong - Pat Benatar
DISC SIX: Let Me Entertain You - Robbie Williams
DISC SEVEN: Can You Feel the Love Tonight? - Elton John
DISC EIGHT: Here Comes The Sun - The Beatles
BOOK CHOICE: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
LUXURY ITEM: A bath tub and bath salts
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life - Monty Python
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

The Irish writer John Boyne is best known for his 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, which became a literary phenomenon, selling more than 11 million copies around the world. It was translated into 60 languages and adapted into a film, a play, a ballet and an opera. He has written more than two dozen books, including a number of titles for younger readers.
He was born in Dublin in 1971, and had ambitions to become a writer from an early age. He studied English Literature at Trinity College Dublin, followed by a Master’s degree in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. From the mid-1990s, he spent seven years working at a bookshop in Dublin, while trying to launch his literary career.
Many of his books have historical settings: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is the story of two boys – one German, one Jewish – during the Holocaust; other books have taken inspiration from the Mutiny on the Bounty and Tsarist Russia. More recently, he’s addressed sexual and physical abuse within the Catholic church in Ireland, drawing in part on his own experiences at school.
He lives in Dublin, not far from where he grew up.
DISC ONE: Bright Eyes - Art Garfunkel
DISC TWO: The Sound of Music - Julie Andrews
DISC THREE: Elton's Song - Elton John
DISC FOUR: Take on Me - A-ha
DISC FIVE: Lullaby for Cain (Instrumental) - Sinéad O'Connor
DISC SIX: Extract from String Quartet No. 4, composed by Noah Max and performed by The Tippett Quartet
DISC SEVEN: Make Your Own Kind of Music - Mama Cass
DISC EIGHT: Night of the Swallow - Kate Bush
BOOK CHOICE: The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
LUXURY ITEM: A cinema screen showing The Devil Wears Prada
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Night of the Swallow - Kate Bush
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

Dame Sarah Storey is Great Britain’s most successful Paralympian, winning 17 gold, eight silver and three bronze medals. She was just 14 when she took two weeks off school to compete as a swimmer in the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics, where she won her first two gold medals. Since then, she has competed in a further seven Paralympics, switching to cycling from 2005.
A TV documentary inspired Sarah's childhood ambition to take part in the Paralympics, even though her swimming club coach told her that it was too late - at the age of 10 - to start training for an elite career.
After competing in four Paralympics in the pool, she decided to try cycling after persistent ear infections and chronic fatigue. She was immediately successful and has continued to win medals at both the Paralympics and World Championships in numerous events, breaking many world records. She is supported on and off the track by her husband, Barney Storey, who is also a gold medal-winning cyclist. They have two children, who were born in 2013 and 2017.
Sarah is the Active Travel Commissioner in her home city of Manchester, and is still training with the aim of competing in the 2024 Paralympics in Paris – which would be her ninth games, at the age of 46.
DISC ONE: Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
DISC TWO: Spinning Around – Kylie Minogue
DISC THREE: It Only Takes a Minute - Take That
DISC FOUR: A Different Beat - Boyzone
DISC FIVE: This is the One - The Stone Roses
DISC SIX: Heroes - David Bowie
DISC SEVEN: Wannabe - Spice Girls
DISC EIGHT: Step On – Happy Mondays
BOOK CHOICE: The Chimp Paradox by Professor Steve Peters
LUXURY ITEM: A snorkel and mask
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Livin’ on a Prayer - Bon Jovi
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

Greg Davies is a familiar face on television as the host of Taskmaster, the BAFTA-winning game show, and he has achieved sell out national arena tours as a stand-up. His on-screen breakthrough came in 2008 when he played the head of the sixth form, Mr Gilbert, in the highly successful teenage comedy series the Inbetweeners. He wrote and starred in the black comedy the Cleaner and co-wrote the sitcom Man Down in which he played a man in the grip of a midlife crisis.
Greg was born in St Asaph in north Wales and grew up in Shropshire. At school he gravitated towards what he calls the silly boys who created characters and devised comedy sketches in the playground. When he was 18 he discovered Eddie Murphy whose stand-up routines about his relatives spurred Greg to look to his own family as comedic source material.
Greg spent 13 years as an English and Drama teacher – a time he looks back on with mixed emotions and which he has mined for his stage act. When he was 33 he left teaching and started performing stand-up gigs and performed his first solo stand-up show at the Edinburgh Festival in 2010.
Greg lives in south London.
DISC ONE: Baggy Trousers - Madness
DISC TWO: Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell
DISC THREE: 100% Endurance - Yard Act
DISC FOUR: Circlesquare - The Wonder Stuff
DISC FIVE: Cemetry Gates - The Smiths
DISC SIX: Consider Yourself - Jack Wild (The Artful Dodger) and The Orchestra, conducted by John Green. From Oliver! [An Original Soundtrack Recording]
DISC SEVEN: She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
DISC EIGHT: The Next Episode - Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg

BOOK CHOICE: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
LUXURY ITEM: Sausages
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: 100% Endurance - Yard Act
Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Tim Spector is Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Head of the Department of Twin Research at King’s College London. He was one of the co-founders of the ZOE Covid Symptom study, which for which he was awarded an OBE. He has also written best-selling books about the relationship between what we eat and our health and well-being.
Tim was born in London in 1958 into a medical family. His mother was a physiotherapist and his father was an eminent pathologist, although Tim initially resisted his father’s encouragement to follow him into medicine. Once qualified, Tim specialised in rheumatology before switching to epidemiology. In 1992, he set up a large-scale research study of twins which now has more than 15,000 identical and non-identical twins taking part.
After a health scare in 2011, Tim became more interested in how we can influence the microbes in our gut to help us stay well. He has published several books on the science of eating well and is a pioneer in personalised food nutrition.
Tim lives in London with his wife, who is also a doctor.
DISC ONE: Life on Mars - David Bowie
DISC TWO: Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 / Act 1 - 13. Dance Of The Knights Composed by Sergei Prokofiev and performed by Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy
DISC THREE: Paint it, Black - The Rolling Stones
DISC FOUR: Dreams - Fleetwood Mac
DISC FIVE: Puttin’ on the Ritz - Gene Wilder playing Dr Frankenstein, Peter Boyle as The Monster and Norbert Schiller as the announcer. Music conducted by John Morris from Young Frankenstein (Original Soundtrack)
DISC SIX: All of Me (live) - Louis Armstrong
DISC SEVEN: That’s Entertainment - The Jam
DISC EIGHT: In the Ghetto - Elvis Presley
BOOK CHOICE: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
LUXURY ITEM: A fermenting set
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: All of Me (live) - Louis Armstrong

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor