Dame Vera Lynn

As part of Radio 4's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, the castaway in this week's Desert Island Discs will be Dame Vera Lynn.

She'll be talking to Sue Lawley about her own wartime experiences - as the now-legendary 'forces sweetheart' she performed in front of servicemen as far away as Burma, and as close to home as London's Regent's Park, and since then she has been constantly in demand all over the world for her singing and her songs, reviving as they do wartime memories both happy and sad.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Room 504 by Vera Lynn Book: A book of edible fruits and vegetables Luxury: Watercolour paints, brushes and paper