Desert Island Discs

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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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Desert Island Discs: Mark Strong, actor

Mark Strong, actor

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Mark Strong, actor

Mark Strong, actor, shares the soundtrack of his life with Lauren Laverne.

Mark Strong has appeared in more than 60 films, along with numerous TV dramas and plays. 

His career took off after he won a leading role in the landmark 1996 BBC series Our Friends in the North, and since then his screen work includes dramas such as Syriana, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Zero Dark Thirty and The Imitation Game, as well as the fantasy and comic book worlds of Stardust, Kick Ass and Shazam.  In 2015 he won the Olivier best actor award for his London stage performance in A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller, in a production that also won him great acclaim in New York.   

Mark was born in London, the only child of an Austrian mother and an Italian father. His father left the family when Mark was a baby and has played no part in his life. Thanks to his mother, Mark is fluent in German, and he spent most of his school holidays with his Austrian grandmother.  His mother had two jobs to support them both, and Mark attended state boarding schools in the UK from the age of six. His first taste of performing came in a punk rock band at school, but he began his further education by starting a law degree in Germany, before changing course and returning to the UK to study drama.  

Most recently he has been filming the TV drama Temple, in which he plays a rogue surgeon operating in abandoned tunnels beneath a London underground station.

DISC ONE: Spanish Stroll by Mink DeVille
DISC TWO: Are You Lonesome Tonight (Laughing Version) by Elvis Presley
DISC THREE: Helden by David Bowie
DISC FOUR: Police and Thieves by The Clash 
DISC FIVE: (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by Devo
DISC SIX: You’ve Got the Love by The Source featuring Candi Staton (Eren’s Bootleg Mix) 
DISC SEVEN: Peter Piper by Run DMC 
DISC EIGHT: Whole Lotta Love by Ike and Tina Turner
   
BOOK CHOICE: Magnum Streetwise: The Ultimate Collection of Street Photography  
LUXURY ITEM: A wind up radio 
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Helden by David Bowie  

Presenter  Lauren Laverne
Producer  Sarah Taylor

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