Desert Island Who

First broadcast in 1942, the popular BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs has presented the favourite musical choices of hundreds of famous celebrities should they have ended up cast away. The BBC have recently made the series available in the form of a searchable archive, detailing the choices made by guests and also the actual programme to listen to in a number of cases.

In such a lengthy series it is inevitable that a many of Doctor Who's cast have featured; for example, the first Doctor himself William Hartnell was a guest on 23rd August 1965, choosing Charlie Chaplin's Spring Song as his favourite amongst other tracks like Lawd, You Made The Night Too Long by Louis Armstrong and Politsvian Dances by Alexander Borodin.

A year earlier, the third Doctor Jon Pertwee made his choices on 12th October 1964; these included two pieces by Mozart, Love is Strange by Lonnie Donegan, and his favourite being Georgia On My Mind by Ray Charles.

More recently, the 27th December 2009 featured outgoing tenth Doctor David Tennant, who cited Tim Minchin's White Wine In The Sun as his favourite, amongst items like Deacon Blue's Dignity and his favourite band The Proclaimers performing Over And Done With; this episode of the series is one of those that is also available for download.

Other notable names include 'alternative' Doctors Peter Cushing (1959) and Rowan Atkinson (1988), short-lived Master Derek Jacobi (1978), and the tenth Doctor's last fellow TARDIS traveller Bernard Cribbins (1963); explore the index for the choices of many other Doctor Who guest stars!

(with thanks to Jamie Austin)