Hundreds of episodes of Desert Island Discs will be made available online by the BBC.
The corporation is also setting up a searchable database of every piece of music, every book and luxury chosen by guests on the long-running Radio 4 show.
The new archive will be made up of five hundred of the most recent episodes.
Current presenter Kirsty Young will also present a series of updated hour-long episodes on Radio 4 Extra after the station, which is currently known as Radio 7, is relaunched in April.
She said: “Desert Island Discs occupies a special place in many listeners’ hearts – its enduring popularity throughout the decades testifies to that. I’m really delighted that BBC Radio 4 Extra will give people the chance to hear even more of the show and the launch of the new website means everyone has the chance get their hands on the Desert Island Discs archive and hear the music, book, luxury and lives of hundreds of castaways from programmes gone by. A real treat.”
The show, which first appeared in 1942, was created by Roy Plomley and now pulls in around three million listeners a week.
It has also been presented by Michael Parkinson and Sue Lawley but its format, where guests are asked to choose eight pieces of music, a book, and a luxury to take to a desert island has not changed.
Some of the more unusual choices of a luxury over the years include actress Kathy Burke who asked for a life-size laminated photograph of Dragon’s Den star James Caan and Russell Harty who wanted a flagpole with a Union Jack flag.
Paul McCartney asked for a guitar and Sir Alec Guinness wanted apricot brandy.
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