BBC Sounds Music Radio Podcasts hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast.
Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island.
And for rights reasons, the music is shorter than the original broadcast.
I hope you enjoy listening.
My castaway this week is the award winning playwright and screenwriter, James Graham.
He's one of the most successful dramatists in Britain today, carving out a reputation for state of the nation shows that offer profound insights into contemporary history.
If that sounds a bit dry, it isn't.
His skill at finding history's human heart and pinpointing its pivotal moments with plenty of laughs along the way has generated hit after hit.
They include this House, about the minority Labour government of the 1970s, Inc.
The story of Rupert Murdoch's takeover of the sun, and Dear England, which spotlights how Gareth Southgate changed the culture of English football.
His television work is equally impressive.
He grew up in Nottinghamshire and in 2022 put his hometown on screen in the much acclaimed BBC drama Sherwood, which addressed the deep divisions he saw in the wake of the miners strike.
It taught him to see both sides of a debate and to look for the humanity in those with whom he disagreed.
He says people may think I'm too nice to be a political playwright and that I don't go for people's scalps.
I try to empathize and understand them.
I just think it's the easiest thing in the world to be cynical.
It's lazy, it's unfair, it's really boring.
James Graham, welcome to Desert Island Discs.
Hi, thank you for having me.
It's such a pleasure.