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Racing Castaways

Clare Balding

Duration: 45 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 ExtraLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 Extra

Available for 7 months

Sporting broadcaster Clare Balding is castaway by Kirsty Young.

BBC TV's coverage of London's 2012 Olympics was her triumph and much like Team GB she'd been in training for her big moment for quite a while.

Clare has worked on five Olympic Games, four Paralympics, three Winter Olympics and a great deal of horse racing.

It's on the turf that's she's most at home - her father was a champion racehorse trainer and for a number of years she herself was a leading amateur flat jockey.

The first pony she ever rode, as a toddler, was a gift from the Queen; she went to public school and Cambridge but her life hasn't been an entirely easy ride. She has coped with thyroid cancer, being forcibly "outed" by the tabloid press and in her own words being "a disappointment from the moment" she was born.

She says, "This may sound nauseating but I'm a very happy person. I love my work, I love my life and I'm told by those who know and love me that it's a bit like living with Tigger".

DISC ONE: Barenaked Ladies - If I Had A Million Dollars
DISC TWO: London String Chorale - Galloping Home
DISC THREE: Yazoo - Only You
DISC FOUR: Neil Diamond - Beautiful Noise
DISC FIVE: Underworld - Caliban's Dream
DISC SIX: Belle and Sebastian - I Want the World to Stop
DISC SEVEN: Billy Joel - She's Got a Way
DISC EIGHT: Beck Goldsmith - I Vow to Thee My Country

BOOK CHOICE: Encyclopaedia of Nature
LUXURY CHOICE: Thermos mug with tea, milk and sugar
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Billy Joel - She's Got a Way

Producer: Cathy Drysdale

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2013. Show less

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