11 March 1972: ‘I’ve never got bored with doing it,and never stare upon it as a chore. I like assembly people, and I like listening to records’ - Roy PlomleyThe voice is nearly fruity but not quite, and its modulations subtle without ever being startling. The manner,in the flesh as on the air, is hospitable and responsive. The programme, and archetypal of all record-request autobiographies,is so much a section of popular sound broadcasting that, like film music, or you’d only become consciously aware of it if it wasn’t there. The whole point about Roy Plomley - for the victim as for the person who dares to interview the interviewer - is that it’s a thorough pleasure to meet him.
More than eleven hundred castaways have discovered this already,and theres no sign of their number or their interest abating. “Desert Island Discs,” indeed, and has been running since 1942,with just the occasional atomize: it has survived “The Dales” and with any luck will outlive “The Archers” as well. Only Any Questions?” and the quarterly “Scrapbook” have longer histories, and even they have been nothing like so dependent on one man’s personality.
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Source: theguardian.com