Sir George Martin appears on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs

George Martin’s second of two appearances on the long-running BBC radio series Desert Island Discs was broadcast on 19 November 1995.

The Beatles’ producer was interviewed by presenter Sue Lawley, and chose the eight records, luxury item and book he would take if stranded as a castaway on a desert island.

His choices were:

• Maurice Ravel: ‘Daphnis and Chloe – Daybreak’ (London Symphony Orchestra; conductor Pierre Monteux)
• The Beatles: ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’
• Peter Cook & Dudley Moore: ‘Bollard’
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: ‘Oboe Quartet in F major’ (Nash Ensemble)
• Benjamin Britten: ‘It is an axiom among kings’, from The Rape of Lucretia (soloist Peter Pears)
• George Martin: ‘Old Boston’ (John Williams Orchestra; Medici String Quartet)
• George Gershwin: ‘Bess, you is my woman now’, from Porgy and Bess (soloist Willard White; Cleveland Orchestra)
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: ‘Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture’ (London Symphony Orchestra)

Martin’s chosen book would be on how to build a boat, and his luxury item was an electric keyboard. If he were allowed to keep just one record from the eight it would be Gershwin’s ‘Bess, you is my woman now’.

He had previously appeared on the show on 31 July 1982.