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Betty Driver

Veteran Coronation Street actress Betty Driver joins Kirsty Young to choose her Desert Island Discs.

Kirsty Young's castaway is the veteran Coronation Street actress Betty Driver.

For more than forty years she's been pulling pints and dishing up her hot-pot in the Rovers Return. But her career in showbusiness started decades before she took up residence on Britain's most famous street.

She was a child when her mother put her on the stage and she toured the country with an act that showcased her stunning singing voice - it brought success but not happiness. "I did it for over twenty years," she says, "and hated every day of it." Although she has been working now for an incredible 80 years, she says: "I just love work and I will never retire. They'll have to shoot me to get rid of me!"

Producer: Leanne Buckle.

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 28 Jan 2011 09:00

Music Played

  • Oscar Hammerstein II

    I'll Take Romance

    Artist: Betty Driver Composer: Hammerstein/Oakland

    • Up with the Curtain.
    • ASV.
  • Castaway's Favourite

    • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

      Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor

      Artist: Stephen Hough with the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Osmo Vanska

      • Tchaikovsky: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 - 3 - Romantic Piano Concerto, vol. 50.
      • Hyperion.
  • Ella Fitzgerald

    Night and Day

    Composer: Cole Porter

    • Ella Fitzgerald: Cole Porter Songbook.
    • Verve.
  • Johann Strauss II

    Thunder and Lightning Polka

    Artist: Sir Harry Mortimer (with the G.U.S. (Footwear) Band

    • Championship Bandstand.
    • EMI.
  • Winifred Atwell

    Black and White Rag

    Composer: Botsford

    • Queen Of The Ivories: Black & White Rag.
    • Sanctuary records.
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    the Overture to Swan Lake

    Artist: Leonard Slatkin conducting the St Louis Symphony Orchestra

    • Swan Lake.
    • RCA.
  • Hoagy Carmichael

    Skylark

    Composer: Carmichael/ Mercer

    • Too Marvellous for Words: Capital sings Johnny Mercer.
    • Capitol.
    • C 496791.
  • Johannes Brahms

    The Adagio from the Cello Sonata No.2 in F Major.

    Artist: Steven Isserlis

    • Cello Sonatas.
    • Hyperion.
  • Book Choice

    • Rebecca - Dame Daphne Du Maurier

  • Luxury Choice

    • Eau de Soir perfume by Sisley

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Betty Driver

Broadcasts

  • Sun 23 Jan 2011 11:15
  • Sun 23 Jan 2011 11:30
  • Fri 28 Jan 2011 09:00

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