Main content

Roger Graef

Kirsty Young talks to film-maker Roger Graef.

Kirsty Young's guest is filmmaker and criminologist, Roger Graef.

Pioneering in his chosen subjects and style, for the past fifty years he has shone a spotlight on hitherto hidden areas of society and influenced the entire genre of modern day documentary making. His films on key institutions like the Police have not just helped change attitudes but policy too.

A New Yorker and Harvard graduate, he first came to Britain to study Shakespeare: his London debut as a theatre director was a Tennessee Williams' play. He soon realised that the drama and storylines of real life were where his heart and talents lay.

He says, "What I want on my gravestone is 'Here Lies Roger Graef - he made a difference ...' and people are telling me that I have. But I don't think about it because there's so much left to do."

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

Available now

45 minutes

Last on

Fri 31 Oct 2014 09:00
成人快手 Radio 4

More episodes

Previous

Debbie Wiseman

Next

Wendy Dagworthy

See all episodes from Desert Island Discs

Clip

Music Played

  • Johnny Nash

    I Can See Clearly Now

    • I can See Clearly Now.
    • Epic.

  • Nina Simone

    My Baby Just Cares For Me

    • The Best of Nina Simone.
    • Digimore.

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Moonlight Sonata 聳 3rd movement

    Performer: Alfred Brendel.
    • Alfred Brendel: Works by Berg, Bach聟.
    • Philips.

  • Gustav Mahler

    Symphony No.5 聳 1st movement

    Performer: Bruno Walter. Performer: New York Philharmonic.
    • Symphony No.5.
    • Sony Classical.

  • Caterina Bueno

    Cade l'uliva

    • La Veglia.
    • Bravo Records.

  • Cass Galton

    This is Me

    • Soundtrack from Feltham Sings.
    • Films of Record.

  • Georges Bizet

    Au fond du temple saint (from The Pearl Fishers)

    Performer: Robert Merrill. Performer: Jussi Bj枚rling.
    • The Pearl Fishers 聳 Bjoerling聟.
    • RCA.

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    St Matthew Passion

    Performer: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
    • St Matthew Passion.
    • Archiv.

  • Book Choice

    • Lost and Found in Russia by Susan Richards

  • Luxury Item

    • A piano with six books of Bartok鈥檚 Mikrokosmos

Credits

Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Roger Graef
Producer Cathy Drysdale

Broadcasts

  • Sun 26 Oct 2014 11:15
    成人快手 Radio 4
  • Fri 31 Oct 2014 09:00
    成人快手 Radio 4

Featured in...

The Desert Island Discs podcast

The Desert Island Discs podcast

Subscribe or download individual episodes.

Listen to over 2,000 programmes

Click above to browse castaways, from 1942 to today.

Articles

Read the surprising things we've learned about some stand-out castaways.

Podcast