How Lily Allen brought the house down with a Disney song aged 11
Desert Island Discs

How Lily Allen brought the house down with a Disney song aged 11

B1IntermediateSeptember 29, 20262 min

The singer-songwriter Lily Allen was cast away by Kirsty Young in 2014. Although her school reports painted a mixed picture of Lily's academic achievements, a singing teacher spotted her vocal talent and encouraged her to perform. She brought the house down with a song from the Disney film Dumbo. You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

Play episode

Opens the player: the full transcript, every word clickable, with translation and flashcards.

Try it: tap any word

Real sentences from the start of this episode. Every word is marked with its level.

Sentence 7 of 12 · 0:43

of the class and she always joins in and helps all the other children if

.

got a little bit older, it became, you know, Lily could really excel at this

Hear this sentence

Tap a word to see its meaning in your language.

Do you know these words?

5 harder words from this episode. Tap one to see what it means, then mark it.

  • B20:43

    Tap for the meaning

  • B20:48

    Tap for the meaning

  • B20:52

    Tap for the meaning

  • C11:11

    Tap for the meaning

  • B21:20

    Tap for the meaning

Mark a few words and we'll tell you how this episode fits your level.

Is this episode right for you?

B1

B1 · Intermediate

Fine if you can follow simple news

A1 41%A2 41%B1 6%B2 13%C1 0%
  • 87% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 153 words a minute: a natural pace.
  • 5 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

Transcript

The opening of the episode. The whole transcript is in the player.

0:00

Welcome to Desert Island Discs postcards. I'm Lauren Laverne. We've cast away thousands of people to our imaginary desert island, among them many singers. Our cast away today is the singer-songwriter Lily Allen. Back in 2014, Lily told Kirsty Young how her old school reports painted a mixed picture of her academic achievements.

0:34

Nursery started really well. It sort of said, you know, Lily is the life and soul of the class and she always joins in and helps all the other children if they're sad and she's a fantastic little helper and blah blah blah. And then as I got a little bit older, it became, you know, Lily could really excel at this

0:52

subject if only she applied herself to then being like well I would love to tell you what Lily was like in this class but we haven't seen her. What was Lily doing when she wasn't at school? Hanging out with older kids, smoking and drinking and snogging probably. Where are you? I get a contradictory impression from much of

That was the opening. The rest of the episode (1 min) is in the player: every word clickable, with translation, saved words and flashcards.

Continue in the player

Automatically generated from the audio. May contain errors. Audio belongs to its publisher and is played from their feed. Rights holders can request removal — copyright & takedown policy