The Spiral Times: Desert Island Mum & Dad | BB

It was a deep full circle (spiral?) joy this month to sit with two of the people who made me. We made this show using the grand tradition of BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs programme, first aired in 1942 (!) widely considered the greatest radio programme of all time and appointment listening in our house for as long as I can remember. My Mum and Dad select eight records each, plus a luxury item and a book, that they would take to survive a stint on a desert island, and tell little slivers of their life stories through them. From Dad blocking Enoch Powell’s car as a student in 1967, to Mum making her way as a seventeen year old secretary in the swinging sixties, their contrasting upbringings in Wales and England, they narrate their choices to navigate this world with humour and curiosity, and how they stayed in love through a shared life of exploration; from living and volunteering in Jamaica during times of political upheaval, working in remote highland communities in Papua New Guinea in the 70s, preserving and reflecting on Welsh social and political traditions, the identities we are born with and the homes and selves we build. Hope you enjoy.