Desert Island Discs

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

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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.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Desert Island Discs: Colonel Lucy Giles

Colonel Lucy Giles

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Colonel Lucy Giles

Colonel Lucy Giles shares the soundtrack of her life with Lauren Laverne.

Colonel Lucy Giles, President of the Army Officer Selection Board, shares the soundtrack of her life with Lauren Laverne.

Colonel Lucy Giles is an officer of the British Army’s Royal Logistic Corps and is currently President of the Army Officer Selection Board - the first woman to take on this role. 

After attending her local comprehensive school in Wincanton, Somerset, she studied Biological Sciences at Exeter University where she joined the University Officers’ Training Corps, despite having no military background herself.

After what she calls a “retrospective year out”,  she joined the last female-only company at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Transport in 1992, which became the Royal Logistic Corps the following year.

Over a career spanning more than 25 years, she has served in over 20 countries including South Africa, Bosnia, East Timor and Sierra Leone. She was the first female Officer Commanding of 47 Air Despatch Squadron, enabling operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in 2015 became the first woman Commander of New College, Sandhurst. She was promoted to the rank of colonel in 2018. 

She is married to Brigadier Nick Post, and they have two children, Jess and Alex.  In her spare time, she is a marathon runner.

DISC ONE: The Day That Never Comes by Metallica    
DISC TWO: Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana  
DISC THREE: Pilate's Dream (from Jesus Christ Superstar) by Barry Dennen 
DISC FOUR: Love Shack by The B-52’s   
DISC FIVE: Street Spirit (Fade Out) by Radiohead
DISC SIX: For those in Peril on the Sea, a special arrangement by Lieutenant Colonel Simon Haw MBE, performed by Band of the Coldstream Guards and members of the Guards’ Chapel Choir
DISC SEVEN: Fire by Kasabian  
DISC EIGHT: Big in Japan by Alphaville    

BOOK CHOICE: A book by Agatha Christie 
LUXURY ITEM:  A jigsaw puzzle 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Day That Never Comes by Metallica

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Sarah Taylor

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