The Island

The Island (2025, United Kingdom)

BBC radio show BBC radio sitcom radio sitcom British comedy show

Soon after participating in Desert Island Discs programme, actor Stephen Mangan finds himself stranded on a desert island with the items he chose during the broadcast. But, as he soon finds out, he is not alone here. In fact, quite few famous people who took part in the Desert Island Discs shows are here with him. Straight away they check his items and discover that none of them is actually useful. Stephen, still a bit disoriented, learns that most of the people who ended up on this island brought with them items that are not practical, like espresso machines, grand pianos or bibles. Later he arrives to the settlement only to discover that the inhabitants of the island are strapped for food and other bare necessities.

A comedy show with quite clever idea behind it - what if the Desert Island Discs participants would actually land on a desert island with the items they chose during the show. It is unique, it opens a lot of possibilities to show the clash of personalities and... that is where the good ideas ended, unfortunately. First of all, it would be impossible to actually hire the celebrities to voice their characters within The Island, so Stephen Mangan reads the whole thing like an audiobook.

And Stephen Mangan is a talented man, but providing convincing voices for people like Tony Robinson, Sandi Toksvig or Richard Madeley would be a challenge to anyone. But, it is just a comedy show, you can overlook that bit, Stephen Mangan did well enough job to keep it real. But there is another layer of problems - the setting was interesting, the plot was intriguing enough... until it stopped. At some point it just falls apart, the story is moving forward, but seems to be going absolutely nowhere.

The idea behind The Island was appealing, the beginning was interesting, but after just couple of episodes it lost most of its momentum and just chugged along towards an inevitably bland ending. The show had promising premise, but seemed to be a half-baked idea that lacked a clear direction.

shows about celebrities desert island-themed radio shows