[1] Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordings (usually, but not always, music), a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were to be cast away on a desert island, whilst discussing their life and the reasons for their choices.

Actress Judi Dench, who has macular degeneration, was permitted to take an audiobook in place of a printed manuscript.

[13] After Plomley's death in 1985, the programme was presented by Michael Parkinson from 1986 to 1988, then from 1988 to 2006 by Sue Lawley and from 2006 to 2018 by Kirsty Young.

[4][8] Young was replaced by 6 Music presenter Lauren Laverne, who interviewed Olympic diver Tom Daley for her first show, broadcast on 30 September 2018.

[14][15] The first castaway was Vic Oliver, and several castaways, including Celia Johnson, Arthur Askey, Trevor Nunn, John Schlesinger, Kenneth Williams, Terry Wogan, Brian Rix, David Attenborough, John Mortimer, Adele Leigh, Delia Smith and Stephen Fry have been cast away more than once.

[19] In the early 1970s, Alistair MacLean was chosen as a guest, but the head of the European wing of the Ontario Tourist Bureau, who had the same name, was accidentally invited instead.

[21] Plomley originally wanted the sounds of "surf breaking on a shore and the cries of sea birds" to open and close each programme.

However, Leslie Prowne, the head of popular record programmes at the BBC, was concerned that it lacked definition and insisted that music should also be used.

Plomley and the series' producer Frederic Piffard selected "By the Sleepy Lagoon", composed by Eric Coates (who appeared on the show in 1951).

These recordings date from the period 1952 to 1988 and feature many notable celebrities of the era including Bing Crosby, Margot Fonteyn and James Stewart.