This is an extended version of a programme first broadcast on Sunday 10 March 2024. James Graham is an award-winning dramatist whose plays include This House, Ink and Dear England starring Joseph Fiennes as the England football manager Gareth Southgate. His acclaimed television productions include Sherwood and Quiz, based on the story of the so-called coughing Major Charles Ingram who was found guilty of cheating on the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? James was born in Kirkby-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire in 1982. He was a shy boy who was encouraged to perform in school plays by his teachers. He went on to study drama at Hull University where he wrote his first play Coal Not Dole! He took the play to the Edinburgh fringe and the reception it received from audiences encouraged him to carry on writing. After graduating he worked as a stage doorkeeper at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham where one of his personal highlights was looking after Danny La Rue, the star of the Christmas panto. His first London premiere came in 2005 at the Finborough Theatre in London with Albert’s Boy, which explored the arguments for and against nuclear weapons. In 2020 James was awarded an OBE for services to drama and young people in British theatre. DISC ONE: Disco 2000 - Pulp DISC TWO: Chatanooga Choo Choo - Glenn Miller DISC THREE: Up In Arms - Foo Fighters DISC FOUR: Syncopes - Gabriel Yared DISC FIVE: Your Disco Needs You - Kylie Minogue DISC SIX: Where Are We Now? - David Bowie DISC SEVEN: If You Came To See Me Cry - Katie Brayben (from Tammy Faye: The Musical) DISC EIGHT: Going To A Town - Rufus Wainwright BOOK CHOICE: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking LUXURY ITEM: A keg of Single Malt Scotch Whisky CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Where Are We Now? - David Bowie Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Paula McGinley
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.