September 19, 2020
Cricketers have a staple on the show since its launch in 1942. What can we learn about their appearances?
Cricket castaways: the games long run on Desert Island Discs
By Peter Hoare for The Nightwatchman
Desert Island Discs is older than one-day cricket, Test Match Special and covered pitches. It was born on the BBC Forces Programme in 1942, the same year as Mike Brearley, one of the 20 or so cricketers to have been stranded on the island with eight records, a book and a luxury, the works of Shakespeare and a Bible. The format was devised by Roy Plomley when the thought of being swept away to a desert island would have had great appeal in a country at war, but it has endured for almost 80 years and an invitation to appear on the programme has become better than a place on the honours list for some.
The first cricketing castaways were Denis Compton and Bill Edrich in 1951. They were also the first of the programme’s guests to be shipwrecked together, so linked were they in the public’s imagination as the Middlesex Twins. Jim Laker was next, just a few weeks before his 19-wicket slice of history at Old Trafford in 1956. Laker’s appearance is one of the earliest of which a small audio segment survives. He complained that too much Cricket was being played, a perpetual refrain of cricketers through the ages.
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