Let's remember that DID is supposed to shed light on the tastes and background of the "castaway", not the artists whose music they choose. Most of the music output on radio is focussed on the quality/importance etc of the tracks played. DID is not about this, it's about the person doing the choosing. I suppose that's why it's on Radio 4.

In the unlikely event of my ever being invited on to DID, I'll choose music that's important to me personally. That's what the programme is for.

And if Christy Moore chose tracks that are not recognised as the performer's "best", maybe the listeners should be asking themselves what this choice tells us about him.

Actually, I find DID less interesting and revealing than it used to be - they seem to have almost forgotten about the desert island. They used to ask the castaway how they'd cope with loneliness, and whether they could cook or hunt or had other survival skills, etc. There's hardly any mention of all this now, just a quick request for one book and one luxury, and to my mind it leaves us knowing less about the person than the older format did.

Marje