Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young has revealed she would take a Tom Jones song with her to a desert island because he “pulsated sexuality” and was one of her favourite castaways. Young gave a frank assessment of the 74 year-old Welsh singer’s appeal: “I can only imagine he is a killer in the sack.”
Young also revealed that one of her great regrets was not having Joan Rivers on the BBC Radio 4 show. The comedian, who died in September, had been lined up to appear but had not been able to make it.
Asked what songs she would take with her to a desert island, Young’s choices included Gorecki’s Symphony No. 3, a Van Morrison song “because it’s in the soundtrack to my life” and “a little bit of Tom Jones”.
“He was one of my favourite castaways,” Young told the Radio Festival in Salford on Tuesday.
Asked whether he radiated sexual magnetism, she said: “I cannot tell you how much. I was grateful I was interviewing him in the autumn of his years, because God knows if he had walked into the studio 30 years ago, I would not have been responsible for my actions. He pulsates sexuality in a way that is probably unfair.”
She added: “He has an animal magnetism and is very at home with himself.”
Young said she thought Labour leader Ed Miliband’s choices when he appeared on the show last year, which included Robbie Williams’ Angels, were “a little bit 50-50. Clearly there was music in there that was dear to him, he was also doing what any frontline politician would do, slightly hedging his bets.
“For much of the exchange he actually was looking down a lot, I can’t remember. My overall impression was his list was probably compromised in places, but fair enough.”
Of Rivers, Young said: “We had a pencilled-in date for Joan to come on a couple of times but it didn’t fit with her schedule so we couldn’t make it work.
“I was lucky enough on one occasion to meet her, she was very different from her public persona, an incredibly engaged, warm individual, she was also Joan Rivers. That would have made a terrific programme.”
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