Robert Fisk - BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs

Fisk is retiring. Sad. Hope this isn't out of place here.

15 October 2006

Kirsty Young’s castaway on Desert Island Discs this week is the journalist Robert Fisk.

He is one of our most distinguished foreign correspondents and has spent his life covering conflicts around the world - the past thirty years immersed in the life and politics of the Middle East.

He formed his ambition at a young age, he saw Hitchcock's film Foreign Correspondent when he was just 12 years old and was determined to join their ranks.War, too, was a strong influence - his father had fought on the Western Front and was haunted by his experiences. He insisted that young Robert should learn about the war and his first foreign holiday was a tour of the Somme.

He has become used to living in a war zone - he has escaped a kidnap attempt, survived an attack by Afghan refugees and risked his life to secure interviews other journalists dream. Perhaps his greatest scoop was securing a series of face to face interviews with Osama Bin Laden.

1. Dies Irae
2. Adagio for Strings
3. This was the Finest Hour
4. Mellow Yellow
5. The opening of Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major
6. The Lord is My Shepherd
7. Beirut Hal Zarafat
8. Hatikiva – the national anthem of Israel