I was moved today by Nemony Lethbridge on Desert Island Discs. Under Lauren Laverne, the castaways have become less predictable and, in my opinion, this is one of the best ever. I apologise if I sound egotistical but that variety is what I tried to create in my castaways series for The Oxford Times. I was privileged to interview 120 inspirational people with links to Oxford, every month from Jan 2007 to Dec 2016. I modeled it on Desert Island Discs (without the music). My castaways could take art, books and objects to the island & it had a name- Oxtopia. The features were turned into three books filled with fabulous photographs and life stories. The launch of the first book was in the Ashmolean Cast Gallery where the legendary Roger Bannister gave the closing speech. 
The artist Weimin He illustrated the cover of Oxford Castaways (1) Joanna Harrison (The Snowman animator ) designed the cover of Oxford Castaways 2.
Weimin has attended and sketched at many castaway events. He sketched the wonderful Peggy Seeger when she came to another gala night I organised. Weimin and Peggy are both Oxtopians
Here is her fascinating life story Peggy Seeger
The series could have gone on forever but Newsquest stopped employing freelancers so my twenty years of writing for The Oxford Times ended. While it lasted it, the castaway events were warm, fun and friendly like this one in Antiques on High. I’m next to Colin Dexter and behind me are the poet Jenny Lewis, a founder of the Isle of Wight Festival, Ray Foulk ,the film producer Victor Glynn , former radio journalist Bill Heine and illustrator Korky Paul . 
If you are interested in the series, documentary film maker Zoe Broughton filmed this illustrated lecture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NvrzUnGE50
Here are a couple of collages of some Oxford Castaways.
It was a huge privilege to get to know these wonderful people and many became friends including the Bannisters. Roger was present at the launch of Oxford Castaways 3 in the Maths Insitute. His daughter, the delightful Charlotte Bannister Parker presided. It was one of his last public events. and I love this photo of them together taken at the launch event. 
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When he died I wrote this tribute for the Indian online newspaper The MadrasCourier .