Tahra Zafar, costume and effects designer

13:22Lauren Laverne:No, my mum was really annoyed because her shifts never allowed her to go. Thank God for that.

13:28Tahra Zafar:Did she rub shoulders with, you know, any of your Sammy Davis Juniors or Frank Sinatras?

13:33Lauren Laverne:Yes, they were all there then and they got, you know, were asked out for meals and things like that which did she go well um I do know that uh Nat King Cole was quite keen on her Frank Sinatra was quite keen on Amy I think maybe stories for them to tell but um an amazing place to be you know at an extraordinary time so I'm trying to picture your mum Tara because she she also acted

14:04Tahra Zafar:in films, TV, commercials. I wonder what it was like seeing this kind of extremely glamorous on-screen, on-stage version of her and then the mum that you had at home because your mum and dad split when you were little so she would have been a single parent most of the time.

14:17Lauren Laverne:Yeah, very young single parent, very beautiful young lady. It must have been really hard. You know, there were times when it was a bit tough but we got through it in the way we got through it and we had like this extraordinary kind of cultural life. We used to go to the theatre and exhibitions all the time. We didn't go on holidays and things like that, but we did the arts in style.

14:40Tahra Zafar:So Tara, your mum had you when she was very young, you know, and she was a dancer then, but she changed career later. What did she end up doing?

14:48Lauren Laverne:We were kind of leaving home and she was only about 38. She, with her work, had decided to help out with production while she was performing and that role kind of grew. And she ended up working for some theatre producers, eventually got a job with Cameron Mackintosh and was with him for 22 years. And she did all of his overseas licensing of all of his shows. Because she was a performer and because she did all of that, she had that knowledge of the whole kind of side of theatre. I'd love to hear your third disc, please, Tara Zafar. What's it going to be? So the third one is part of being at home.

15:31Lauren Laverne:we had this box set of Beethoven symphonies and we listened to them and listened to them and listened to them and Beethoven 9th was something that we used to listen to a lot and I kind of felt I would like something symphonic on the island and something choral that I could sing along really badly to quite loudly. I thought it would be quite fun.

16:24CHOIR SINGS

16:46MUSIC PLAYS

16:47Tahra Zafar:Part of the finale from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Singverein, conducted by Herbert von Karajan. Tara, from a young age, you say you hunkered into art. What kind of things were you making?

17:00Lauren Laverne:I would make things like all the time. So every Easter or Christmas, I get given like an Airfix model, machinery that really kind of appealed to me. And so I would make all these aeroplanes and paint them and hang them for my bedroom. I would do lots of painting. I'd make clothes. I would make lots of tiny things, you know, like a tiny rolled up measuring tape cover with little felt flowers and some buttons on top and things like that for my granny. It was like I would always be making things. So you just leave a trail of creation behind you.

17:38Tahra Zafar:And you were diagnosed with dyslexia when you were a kid, which I found quite surprising because it was often not tested for in those days.

17:44Lauren Laverne:No, it wasn't tested for. And my mum was really on it because my school said I was riding backwards at one point and had quite a stressful time with a teacher being kind of quite, quite nasty. And my mum said no, you know, so she took me to a specialist. And in those days, they do like IQ tests, and then they do all of those sort of things. and I was diagnosed with dyslexia but you know I also had a high IQ and things like that so it was kind of proof that I wasn't stupid.

18:20Tahra Zafar:The important thing is to to understand yourself isn't it and to not internalize the kind of negativity that you were getting from for example that teacher that you were talking about so were you able to do that were you how did you feel about about yourself and what was your approach to learning?

18:35Lauren Laverne:It was difficult actually because I think if you're a kid who's got a really good memory and can do school easily, you're going to feel great about yourself. If you're the child who has lots of different skills and is told that they're not in the top set or that they can't do this and can't do that, they're not going to feel great about themselves. Was that you? That was me. They did the test that they did and I ended up going to a Saturday school for gifted children and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. and got accepted into a school. Kind of at that point it was semi-selective, comprehensive. Camden School for Girls.

19:13Lauren Laverne:Camden School for Girls. But I still found it really hard. I don't think I ever really fitted in until I kind of grew up enough to be confident enough to know who I was or could be.

19:27Tahra Zafar:You also had a very inspirational art teacher at Camden School for Girls,

19:32Lauren Laverne:Chris Livesey. Chris Livesey, yes. He was absolutely amazing. And I spent a lot of time in the art room and he really kind of pushed my art. I'm very sad he's no longer with us. And I didn't quite get a moment to say thank you, which I'm kicking myself for, which is a great shame that I didn't do that. But his art room was really an amazing place. He had this pair of boots, which if other people went to the school, I'm sure they all drew these old boots. But, you know, there was always a still life set up so you could go in there and do a still life draw or paint or whatever. You know, really clever.

20:14Tahra Zafar:Tara Zafar, it's time for your next disc, your fourth choice today, please. What are we going to hear?

20:19Lauren Laverne:This is part of my art school time and the brilliant film Terry Gilliam's Brazil. What an amazing filmmaker. and the soundtrack is Brazil that I'd like to have on my desert island. I have this thing that it's kind of a theme tune. So if I go into a hotel or somewhere and they've got kind of a pianist, cheesy pianist, I always go up and say, excuse me, can you play Brazil? And they always do. Do they know it? Is it more than pianists know? Yeah, really all over the world. And they all do their own version. I love it. And I particularly like this particular version, which was from the film, the soundtrack, because it's got a good bit of whistling and I like whistling.

20:57Lauren Laverne:so I can whistle around.

20:59Tahra Zafar:Are you a good whistler?

21:00Lauren Laverne:Yes, I am. Self-taught? No, my dad whistled, so we were whistling. Duets? Yeah. Yeah.

21:28Lauren Laverne:We stood beneath an amber moon And softly murmured, someday soon Someday we can...

21:42Tahra Zafar:Brazil, from the soundtrack performed by Geoff Mulder. Tara Zafar, you studied theatre design at Central School of Art and Design, Central St Martin's, these days. How did you get your first job?

21:54Lauren Laverne:I got my first job actually from my degree show, which I was pretty lucky. An amazing costume designer called Stephanie Howard came in and had seen that while I was at college, I did a lot of pub theatre. So I designed lots of shows in kind of pub theatres all around London. And I'd had to paint the set, make the set, do the costumes and things like that. So I kind of, I was, you know, very handy. She asked me to be her assistant for the English Shakespeare Company's War of the Roses. They were going to do the whole of the Wars of the Roses, which started from Richard II, Henry IV, the two, Henry V, and then ending in Richard III.

22:42Lauren Laverne:A lot... Right, an undertaking. So I got asked to be her assistant in the design department for her initially, and then I kind of moved over and did buying, costume buying.

22:53Tahra Zafar:So there you were, you were working on stage, you know, with theatre shows. Your career was going very well, but then you had the opportunity to work at the Jim Henson Creature Shop, the father of the Muppets. Father of the Muppets. What was that like? So it's this building in Camden, this is the 90s. What an extraordinary place to work. What was it like?

23:11Lauren Laverne:It was amazing. We were on Camden Lock, so the building was on the side of the canal. It was the whole building. I'm just imagining loads of fake fur in loads of different colours. Oh, well, yes, of course. And quite a lot of fun. Please tell me that Kermit and Miss Piggy came to visit. They did. Everyone just got so excited. I got some pictures and all of that sort of thing. Like a royal visit, basically. Oh, it's a complete royal visit, yeah. Yeah. We had a fabrication floor where we did the making and then with the hair departments. And then upstairs was like the start of computer generated creatures.

23:51Lauren Laverne:And so that was the top floor with all of the offices. So it was this hive of industry, worked on many different things, lots of pop promos, commercials like Honey Monster. And that's where we did the monkey for ITV Digital, which is now the PD Tips monkey. Did lots of projects and then working on the first Harry Potter movie there. OK, well, I want to come to that. I'm going to pause and put a pin in it for a second because you met your husband James at the Creature Workshop.

24:20Tahra Zafar:Yes.

24:21Lauren Laverne:Yes. Did your eyes meet over a monster's head? What happened? It was actually it was a sea turtle. But yes, we were doing a production of Pan for Australia and he came in to sculpt it. Yeah, so we met there. He was at the time art directing on TFI Friday and had originally done the big breakfast in the kind of art department but was also a sculptor, had trained to be a sculptor and an illustrator. How quickly did you hit it off? Really quickly, you know, really kind of kindred spirits and yeah, it was lovely.

24:58Tahra Zafar:So you were involved in making the creatures for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This takes us up to 2000, fabricating Hedwig the owl, Scabbers the rat. Was it as magical to work on as it was to watch?

25:10Lauren Laverne:It was really exciting because we'd read all the books and, you know, when that film production started, it was really wonderful. We made this stunt Scabbers that had to go in and out of Ron's pocket. They trained all of these lovely rats to do different tricks. At the sound of a bell, one would run up some stairs or go onto someone's shoulder. or eat something or stop. And they all looked identical. We asked, can we have one to copy? Because it had to be identical. And they said, oh, you can have this one, Max, because he's a bit thin and he doesn't like being handled. He's not doing very well at the training, but you can have him to copy.

25:49Lauren Laverne:And we had him at the workshop and then came the weekend. It was like, well, who's going to look after Max at the weekend? So we ended up taking him home. And he was a very well-loved rat. and got fed a lot and adored by everybody at work and handled and played with. And when we returned to him at the end, he'd put on weight and liked being handled and he made it into the film. No way!

26:16Tahra Zafar:Oh, what a happy ending from Max the Rat. Yeah. Let's have some more music, Tara Zafar, your fifth choice today. What's next?

26:23Lauren Laverne:Well, it's Stevie Wonder because I love Stevie Wonder and I really wanted Sir Duke because it's not only about a brilliant musician, but it's got lots of people in it. I think that's what I'm going to miss, you know, on the island is being around people and the noise, you know, they make when they're having a nice time. So it would make me feel as if they were, maybe I would be sitting in my bedroom or doing something and they'd be in the next door room. But I would be quite happy kind of listening to the party that was happening and the energy. I thought it would be really good while I'm maybe stripping some bark and doing some weaving to make a comfy bed or maybe trying to make my first knife, which I might have to make.

27:08Lauren Laverne:I thought it would be really invigorating morning music.

27:18Lauren Laverne:Music is a world within itself Where the language we all understand With an equal opportunity

27:30Tahra Zafar:For artists sang, dance and clap their hands

27:34Lauren Laverne:Just because the record has a groove Don't make it in the groove But you can tell right away And up to A when the people start to move

27:44Tahra Zafar:Stevie Wonder and Sir Duke. Tara, in 2004, your daughter Zara was born and I think she proved incredibly useful at helping you with your first job back after maternity leave because you worked on the children's series in the night garden. You helped bring Upsy Daisy to life. How was she instrumental in the development of those costumes and puppets?

28:06Lauren Laverne:I started part-time when it was my first, as you said, first job back. Started part-time and by the time we finished the project, you know, because there's many stages to a project before you go into the main build, She was our audience. So she was like three, three and a half at that point. So by the time I'd finished the Ponty Pines and the Watingers. I remember them well. I've got kids that age, yeah. Yeah. They, yes, lived next door to one another. A bit of one-upmanship going on there. Very funny. One had a moustache, one didn't. Ponty Pines were quite hectic. The Watingers, being a bit more chilled out, as I remember.

28:43Lauren Laverne:Yeah. She was completely of that age. for us to kind of watch it and love it. A really lovely project to be involved with. And there were live theatre shows for In the Night Garden as well. Yes, yes. And those live theatre shows, which are still going every year. What I love is it's the first theatre experience for many children. And you go into the theatre and strangely you think it's empty because you see all the seats from the back. It's only when you go to the front, you can see lots of little small people sitting in them. They're on their booster seats and just so excited. They're so excited to see all of those beautiful characters come to life.

29:28Lauren Laverne:And it really is very lovely.

29:29Tahra Zafar:There's a surprisingly mathematical side to puppet scale and proportion, though, isn't there? It's, you know, there's something underpinning all of this.

29:37Lauren Laverne:Yeah, there is. I think under a lot of what I do, even though it looks very soft and gentle, There's a lot of mathematics and there's a lot of, with proportions, getting everything right, working out how things work. And there's also quite a lot of technical things of electronics and mechanics and exploring materials and things like that. So, yeah, that's my other brain side that gets very happy when I'm kind of working those things out as well. Time for some more music, I think, Tara Zafar. Your sixth disc today. What is it? It's Groove is in the Heart. Some of my choices have been made for maybe what I would get up to on the island.

30:16Lauren Laverne:So I would have kind of some activities which were morning songs. But I think as I get to Groove is in the Heart, it's kind of late afternoon or later at night, maybe the fire going, having a good dance. And again, it's reminding me of having a really good bop. you need to have a really good, be able to have a dance and kind of feel a bit free you're going to be a bit free, you're going to be by yourself you don't need to worry about what anyone else is thinking that's what I've gone for

30:45Tahra Zafar:We're going to dance We're going to dance We're going to dance and have some fun

31:16Tahra Zafar:D-Light and groove is in the heart. Tara Zafar, you were head of costume, hair and make-up for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies. Your team created a mind-boggling 23 ,000 costumes. What were you tasked with and how on earth did you approach something of that scale? Well, what's the task?

31:38Lauren Laverne:I was there for just under two years. It was like a year and three quarters. The first three months, it was just me and lots of spreadsheets. we had like four creative teams who all needed attention, love and care. And you were quite keen that everything should come from British suppliers. Yes. Why was that important to you? Very important to me. Well, the taxpayers were paying for it. So I kind of set that as my personal goal that we would only use British manufacturers. And we just found some wonderful companies who really sort of understood what we were at. Part of my job was not only on the dry side initially, was to get all of these spreadsheets and timelines kind of put together and finding all these factories.

32:29Lauren Laverne:And then it came the fun bit of actually doing it and creating it. And at what point did Dani say, well, we've got the Queen? They had the idea and they went to the palace and they said yes, but they didn't think she would be involved as much as she was. They didn't think she would do a skydive initially. No. And, you know, we'd made a costume for a double and a stunt double. I worked really closely with the Palace on that.

32:55Tahra Zafar:Yes, and you went to Buckingham Palace to prepare the Queen's outfit for her James Bond sketch.

33:02Lauren Laverne:Yeah, Angela Kelly, who's this amazing, amazing, amazing lady who was just like the best, one of the Queen's best friends.

33:10Tahra Zafar:And she was her dresser, wasn't she?

33:12Lauren Laverne:She was and went into lockdown with her and all of that sort of thing. She was really up for us getting involved and helping us for as much as possible. It was a very wonderful insight into how much people work behind the scenes on all of these things, making sure the dress is in the right place or maybe she was in, the late Queen would be in, Sandringham or Windsor. They've all got to be in the right place. you know they've got to have all their clothes the logistics and you know in terms of her response

33:46Tahra Zafar:to you to what you were planning what did she make of it because I know that you had to match

33:50Lauren Laverne:the stunt doubles wig to her hair yes so we we did have an audience a private audience in one of her rooms and me and the wig supervisor Matt it was wonderful we were only in there for about as long as you could boil an egg but we had these hair samples and we had to match them the light wasn't very good and we all had to shuffle over into the the bay of the window with the with the late queen there and she was very game and then I had to write all these very complicated labels with all the different samples with her watching me like oh I'm not going to my hands can't shake now I've got to um we got this very beautiful wig made and you could have done shot to shot back of head front of head with our with our copy but we didn't need to use it in the end because she did the whole thing.

34:40Lauren Laverne:So we were delighted. And what about the big night itself?

34:44Tahra Zafar:I mean, what was it like for you watching the audience's

34:47Lauren Laverne:reaction? We got to the Queen's arrival. I did watch and I was just blown away by it all. But when the fireworks are going off at the end of the show and you know you've delivered it and everyone has had a great time. Very important. It's so exciting. And the volunteer cast were given all their costumes as a thank you. So they all got the tube home after the show and you'd have all of the industrial revolution and then you'd have the people who were in Thanks Tim, you know, that amazing section for Sir Tim Berners-Lee and they'd be in their kind of 70s vibe or their 60s vibe and they'd all be kind of, it's like this big soup of people in these wonderful costumes.

35:36Lauren Laverne:Carriage after carriage.

35:38Tahra Zafar:So Tara, London 2012 was obviously an incredible professional high. I know that in the years that followed, you and your husband James went through some very tough times. He was diagnosed with bone cancer and he died in 2016. I think treatment moved very fast after he got his diagnosis. What happened and how did you approach it? How did you handle what you were going through, the two of you?

36:01Lauren Laverne:Well, you've just, yeah, so he went from rounds of GP, going back forwards to the GP, to finally seeing a specialist. And then you finally see the specialist and they say, oh, yes, I'm really sorry, but you're going to have to lose your lower leg and you're going to start chemo. We want you to start tomorrow. And you get taken to that room, that room at the side. And tears didn't really happen because you're just so stunned. Yeah. Yeah. But it's it's tough. You know, it was it was. But he was a really fit young man. So and they said, you know, he's for being a fit young man. They they love people who are fit and because they do really well.

36:49Lauren Laverne:so he had to have his leg amputated below the knee but because he was stubborn and got on with it while he was doing chemo he got himself into a good place so that he could then start being fitted for a prosthesis so he was in a wheelchair for a short time which he hated wheelchair which he hated and then started the kind of the road to rehabilitation and trying to walk but the whole time he liked he was in chemo after chemo because he was a fit young person they just kind of threw it all at him to kind of keep him going. I think you've said that however difficult what you were going through was there was also an element that you know you valued the

37:40Tahra Zafar:quality of the time that you spent together you made sure that you know the way you approached the time that you had together was, you know,

37:46Lauren Laverne:you chose how you spent your time. Yeah, I stopped working to kind of be with him and look after him. And actually what kept him going is because he could draw. He was, he, so after being at Henson's, Jim Henson's Creature Shop, he then became known as a TV production designer, did MasterChef and Great British Bake Off and was known for doing kind of cool cooking programmes, but then also was this amazing illustrator and he did lots of concept drawings for TV shows or do storyboards and things like that. So he managed to kind of keep himself going by drawing, which he could do sitting down anywhere.

38:35Lauren Laverne:So he did that as best as he could whenever he could And I just, I stopped and we spent time together. And it was lovely, actually. Even the worst of times and best of times, you know. I think the more time you spend with someone, the more you notice the details of their life and get to appreciate that. So that it's, yeah, it's kind of, you know, you're doing the right thing. and I don't know whether that sounds a bit shallow in some ways but I think there's... When you know you're giving someone time, it is rewarding. However hard and horrible it is, it's just the thing that you want to do.

39:29Tahra Zafar:And he sounds amazing. I mean, he climbed Mount Etna, apparently, once he got his prosthesis sorted.

39:35Lauren Laverne:Yeah, yeah. So he kind of actually, he tried to keep his illness under the wire for quite a long time and would turn up for meetings with trousers on and you wouldn't really know how he was like, what was going on underneath. We went on our holiday and, yeah, he climbed out of the scree of Mount Etna with his prosthetic leg and with a few people and they all gave him a big round of applause at the top. But it was, yeah, very special times.

40:04Tahra Zafar:And what kept you going? Who supported you, you know, during that time and then also after he died? You know, how have you managed that?

40:12Lauren Laverne:Well, my lovely mother and sister and my Alexi, my half-sister, you know, and we've got much closer as a result of going through that time.

40:25Tahra Zafar:Let's have some more music, Tara. Your seventh choice to do.

40:29Lauren Laverne:I have to take Pink Floyd Eclipse, which we actually used in the opening ceremony. This moment we used in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. I think I definitely want to base myself on the sunset side of the island, whether or not it's on the shipping line or whether it's not. I don't really care. But I think there's nothing nicer than watching the sunset. so I would put on Eclipse by Pink Floyd and I would feel part and connected to the wonderful cosmos of the world and feel quite small but quite big at the same time and just take it all in.

41:11Tahra Zafar:All that you touch And all that you see All that you taste All you feel

41:20Lauren Laverne:And all that you love And all that you hate Are you distrust Are you saved And I'll let you give And I'll let you deal And I'll let you buy Big Morrow

41:40Tahra Zafar:Pink Floyd and Eclipse. So Tara, when the Eurovision Song Contest came to Liverpool in 2023, you were the natural choice as head of costume after all that you've done in London 2012 and beyond. Now, what does costume for Eurovision actually involve? Were you dressing the performers, the contestants?

42:01Lauren Laverne:No, I wasn't, and I wish I was. We supported all of the different countries with their costume needs. So I'm imagining sequins everywhere at this point. Lots of sequins. If you think about what it could be like and then you think it was like 10 times crazier. That is exactly Eurovision. That is Eurovision. And you'd suddenly have the King and Queen coming around or you'd have Peppa Pig appearing or you'd have all sorts going on. It was great fun. And for us, because we were hosting it because Ukraine couldn't, so we had lots of Ukrainian talent coming over, which was very humbling because, you know, they would be coming from a war zone.

42:52Lauren Laverne:And they would drop into Liverpool and all the craziness of the Eurovision Song Contest. And then they returned afterwards to Ukraine. You had to keep remembering that the experience that I was having was very, very different from the experience they were having. You know, it must have been quite surreal for them.

43:13Tahra Zafar:Well, it's almost time to cast you away to your island. What kind of place are you hoping for? You've imagined Tracy Island, so it sounds like it's going to be busy.

43:23Lauren Laverne:Yeah, I think I need to find something to cut things so I can make things, make a little nest for myself. On the survival front, I think I'd be fine. I might have different moods, so I maybe have some different camps at different sides of the island, depending on. Or I might just want to build a little kind of green barrier and hide for a little bit.

43:44Tahra Zafar:What I love is how you can instantly visualise your island. You know, you've talked about the different sides, you've talked about the different times of day, you've got it in your mind's eye immediately, which makes complete sense given what you do for a living. But I kind of think, you know, you'd be one of the most prepared castaways in that sense that we've ever sent to the island.

44:04Lauren Laverne:Maybe. My main issue in my life is time is filled, you know, filled up with stuff. I'm really looking forward to having a bit of quiet head time to just really enjoy myself and kind of be in the moment and do what I do.

44:23Tahra Zafar:So, yes. Well, I think you should embrace the island on those terms, Tara. And before you go, we will, of course, give you your eighth disc. What's your final choice today?

44:33Lauren Laverne:It is a Dave Brubeck take five. Why this one? Oh, I've chosen that because it's slightly mathematical. You know, it's like a modern Mozart mathematics. It's got a calmness to it, which I think is beautiful. Yeah, and kind of reminds me of like New York and places like that, cities. So I think I will, I am, you know, I'm a Londoner, I'm a Cockney, you know, all of that sort of thing. I will miss the city so I think that will make me very happy

45:36Thank you.

46:08Tahra Zafar:Dave Brubeck and Take 5, bringing the urban environment to your island, Tara Zafar. You're going to need a drink to go with that track, though.

46:16Lauren Laverne:Yes, I am no doubt going to find some good fruit that I could maybe ferment and I can have a cheeky little cocktail while I'm watching.

46:26Tahra Zafar:I can see you now on the sunset side of your island. Yeah. So, Tara Zafar, I'm going to send you away. to the island. I'm giving you the books to take with you. The Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare and one other book of your choice. What's that going to be?

46:39Lauren Laverne:After lots of consideration, I did think about Dickens and whether you could get the whole of every Dickens novel into one big fat book. It's a compendium. But I thought, yeah, that was a bit silly. But I would like the compendium of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Now that does exist. Yes. I looked it up. I checked. you can absolutely have it. So a favourite of yours? Yeah, and I think I could look at and read many beautiful books but something that is kind of of my era, of my time, I listen to it on the radio, I watch the TV series, I worked on the film.

47:17Tahra Zafar:You worked on the film?

47:19Lauren Laverne:Yeah, and it's friendly words saying don't panic on the front would be very good for me on the island, I think.

47:26Tahra Zafar:That's the perfect choice, Tara. I'll also give you a luxury item to make your time there more enjoyable. What are you going to go for? The time is an issue.

47:36Lauren Laverne:I'd love some time to think and I'd love some time to write something and to draw some things. So I think I just want some really good sketchbooks and some art materials to go with it. But what I would like is I know islands can get very, suffer from humidity. Oh, yes. So I don't really want them being a mouldy, soggy mess as I'm working on them. So I would also like a cabinet that would keep a constant humidity that I could store my sketchbooks in, if that is allowed. Yes, we could do what we like. By the time I come off the island, they probably would be mouldy otherwise.

48:18Tahra Zafar:So it's an anti-humidity cabinet full of art supplies. Yes. Perfect. It's a great luxury. It's yours.

48:26Lauren Laverne:Thank you.

48:26Tahra Zafar:And finally, which one track of the eight that we've heard today would you save from The Waves?

48:31Lauren Laverne:Well, I think I would save Eclipse Pink Floyd because it's just huge music, simple, huge music that I would just let wash over me in a sort of I'm a person in the cosmos sort of way. And then all the others I could sing along to in my head if I had to while I was doing all the things that I'm going to be doing. Fabulous, Tara Zafar

48:57Tahra Zafar:thank you very much for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs Thank you very much for having me

49:13Tahra Zafar:Hello, it was lovely chatting to Tara and I hope she's very happy on her island with her art materials and a nice cocktail on the go There are more than 2 ,000 programmes in our archive that you can listen to, including the film costume designers Jenny Bevan and Sandy Powell. The author of Tara's favourite book, Douglas Adams, is also in our archive. You can hear all their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or on our own Desert Island Discs website. The studio manager for today's programme was Giles Aspen, the executive production coordinator was Susie Roilance, the assistant producer was Christine Pavlovsky, the content editor was Mugabe Turia, and the producer was Sarah Taylor.

49:52Tahra Zafar:Join me next time when my guest will be the photographer Richard Young.

50:18Tahra Zafar:From BBC Radio 4, Wolf Valley. Thor Martinsen? Hello? Thor? Are you home? Four people have died over the last five years All within the same organisation Hello? Thor? We're in three different countries No fault accidents seen individually, but I'm going to open One, two, three Shit! Shit!

50:51Tahra Zafar:Listen to Wolf Valley first on BBC Sounds.