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Castaway guests share the soundtrack of their lives.

Eight tracks, a book and a luxury: what would you take to a desert island? Guests share the soundtrack of their lives.

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Kirsty Young

Sally Wainwright

Cathy Drysdale

Desert Island Discs: Sally Wainwright

05/10/2014

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Sally Wainwright

Sally Wainwright, TV screenwriter, is interviewed by Kirsty Young.

Kirsty Young talks to Sally Wainwright, screenwriter of Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the writer Sally Wainwright.

TV is her chosen medium and Last Tango In Halifax, Happy Valley or Scott & Bailey are watched by millions of viewers. Her ear for dialogue and talent for story-telling place her among the cream of small screen dramatists: she majors in whip-smart phrasing and plot lines that twist the innards with their tension, but never strain plausibility.

Her passion for every day drama was honed at her mother's knee: in the 60's and 70's as Mrs. Wainwright watched Coronation Street, young Sally tuned in too, developing an affinity with the power of the portrayal of language as it is spoken and life as it is lived. She would later go on to write for the show.

She says, "When I was seven I started writing down the things people said - it was something I just had to do. I think I was born with it - it's like being able to draw or paint."

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

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