Desert Island Discs

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

Discussion & Talk

Podcasts

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: Life Stories

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: Professor Dame Lesley Regan, obstetrician and gynaecologist

03/11/2023

Professor Dame Lesley Regan, obstetrician and gynaecologist

BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Professor Dame Lesley Regan, obstetrician and gynaecologist

Lesley Regan, gynaecologist, shares the soundtrack of her life with Lauren Laverne.

Professor Dame Lesley Regan, Women's Health Ambassador, shares the eight tracks, book and luxury item she would take with her if cast away to a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.

Professor Dame Lesley Regan is the Government’s first Women’s Health Ambassador for England.  She is one of the main drivers behind the upcoming Women’s Health Strategy which aims to tackle the gender health gap and improve services for women.

As a former president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists – only the second woman to hold that post in its 94-year history – she shone a light on historically taboo subjects from period problems and contraception to the menopause.

Lesley was born in London in 1956.  When she was seven she told her father that she wanted to be a doctor and although the sciences weren’t her strongest subjects at school, she won a place at the Royal Free Hospital Medical School in London in 1975.

In 1991 she was appointed a senior lecturer in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St Mary’s Hospital in London and consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.  The following year she set up the Recurrent Miscarriage Clinic at St Mary’s which is the largest miscarriage referral service in the world.

In 2020 she was appointed a DBE for services to women’s healthcare.

DISC ONE: Mr Bojangles – Nina Simone   
DISC TWO: Symphony No. 5 in C Sharp. Composed by Mahler and performed by Berliner Philharmoniker  
DISC THREE: Agnus Dei. Composed by Bach and performed by Iestyn Davies, (counter-tenor), The English Consort, conducted by Harry Bicket
DISC FOUR: I Cried for You - Katie Melua
DISC FIVE: Norma: Act I, Scene 1: Casta diva (Norma/Coro) Composed by Vincenzo Bellini and performed by Maria Callas (soprano), The Teatro Alla Scala Orchestra, conducted by Tullio Serafin 
DISC SIX: The Best – Tina Turner 
DISC SEVEN: Metamorpheme – Shakespeare and the Bible
DISC EIGHT: Clarinet Concerto In A, K. 622 - II. Adagio. Composed by Mozart and performed by Karl Leister (clarinet) and Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Herbert Von Karajan

BOOK CHOICE: The Works of George Eliot
LUXURY ITEM: Marmite on toast
CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: The Best – Tina Turner

Presenter  Lauren Laverne
Producer  Paula McGinley

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Desert Island Discs

Professor Dame Lesley Regan, obstetrician and gynaecologist

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4