The songs Emma Thompson couldn’t live without
Born in 1959, Emma Thompson is one of the UK’s most celebrated actors and writers. Her father was an actor, but it wasn’t until she joined the Cambridge Footlights that she embraced the profession for herself. During her time with the esteemed comedy troupe, she befriended fellow members Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Robbie Coltrane. After landing a string of well-reviewed roles in films like The Fortunes of War and Howards End, Thompson wrote the screenplay for an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, in which she starred opposite Hugh Grant. Since then, she’s appeared in Love Actually, Harry Potter, Matilda and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. Here, Thompson selects the eight tracks she couldn’t live without.
When Thompson sat down with Desert Island Discs‘ Kirsty Young in 2010, she began by discussing her home in Scotland. It was “bought for three-and-six” when she was 15 and is currently occupied for a third of the year by Thompson and the rest of her family. Her first track, ‘Corarsik’, is an ode to that beloved highland dwelling. “This piece of music is by the Scottish film composer Patrick Doyle, who I’ve known since I was 23,” she explained. “[He’s] written for loads of films that I’ve been in. He wrote for Ken [Branagh’s] films, for Much Ado, for Henry V, for Sense and Sensibility and for Nanny McPhee. And when I turned 50, he wrote this piece of music, which is about the land surrounding our house.”
After selecting one of her father Eric Thompson’s songs for the British kids’ TV show The Magic Roundabout, Emma kept things classical with Benjamin Britten’s ‘A Ceremony of Carols’ – which continues to bring back fond memories of Christmases past – before naming ‘Candido’ by Inti-Illimani who came together following the assassination of Chilean freedom songwriter Victor Jara. Following a frank discussion about her struggles with depression, saying, “I think I should have sought professional help sooner than I did”, Thompson named her next track: ‘Hold On’ by Tom Waits, which she dedicated to her daughter Gaia. “I loved being pregnant,” Thompson said. “I was so happy, just happier than I’d ever been.”
The songs Emma Thompson couldn’t live without
- ‘Corarsik’ – Patrick Doyle (Not on Spotify)
- ‘Florence It’s A Lovely Morning’ – Eric Thompson (Not on Spotify)
- ‘A Ceremony of Carols’ – Benjamin Britten
- ‘Candidos’ – Inti‐Illimani
- ‘Hold On’ – Tom Waits
- ‘Cantaloop’ – Us3 & Rahsaan
- ‘Some of Your Planes’ – Richard Lumsden
- ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’ – Joe Cocker
Thompson also dedicated a song for her husband Greg Wise, Us3’s ‘Cantaloop’, which she describes as “groovy groovy jazzy funky”. Then, after dubbing Arnold Schwarzenegger “very orange”, Emma named her penultimate track: a song “about the fact that not everything you do will succeed.” It’s ‘Some of Your Planes’ by Thompson’s brother-in-law Richard Lumsden. To see Emma’s final track, check out her full eight-track selection below. You can listen to her conversation with Kirsty Young on BBC Sounds.
