Desert Island Discs: Tracey Ullman

DESERT ISLAND DISCS: TRACEY ULLMAN (320kbs-m4a/78mb/34mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 26th September 2021

Tracey Ullman was the first woman to be offered her own television sketch show – both in Britain and America – and has starred in film and television dramas alongside Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett and Hugh Grant. The Emmy-winning Tracey Ullman Show ran for four seasons in the US and provided the launch pad for the Simpsons.

Tracey was born in Slough and as a child she would impersonate people and put on shows for the amusement of her mother after the death of her father. At 12 she won a scholarship to the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London and worked in repertory theatre and the West End in London before her television career took off. She was one of the stars of the BBC’s primetime sketch show Three of a Kind alongside David Copperfield and a young Lenny Henry.

In 1985 she moved to Los Angeles with her husband, the producer Allan McKeown, where her uncanny impressions of Americans from all walks of life won her acclaim and awards in equal measure.

After the death of her husband Tracey returned to the UK in 2016 and was soon back on our screens in a new sketch series, Tracey Ullman’s Show, which showcased her enduring talent for sending up the powerful and the famous, including Dame Judi Dench, Angela Merkel and Theresa May.

Presenter Lauren Laverne
Producer Paula McGinley

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - American Girl [Universal/Island]
The Beatles - You Won't See Me [EMI]
Mike Nichols And Elaine May - Nichols And May At Work [Sony Music]
Earth, Wind & Fire - That's The Way Of The World [Sony Music]
Elvis Costello & The Attractions - Every Day I Write The Book [Mercury]
Kirsty MacColl - They Don't Know [Stiff]
Stevie Wonder - You And I [Universal/Island]
The Waterboys - This Is The Sea [Chrysalis]