By way of answer me and my Scottish friend launched instantly into The Archers' theme music, which remains a staple of the UK radio-scape a further 30-plus years on.

Another veteran feature of the BBC's regular radio output is Desert Island Discs, in which public figures are asked to choose eight favourite recordings (usually musical) that they would take to a desert island with them, along with a book and a luxury.

Since 1942, when the programme was first aired, there have been only four regular hosts or presenters. This compares favourably with that other bastion of job security, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which is onto its sixth President over the same span.

Anyway, over the course of these nigh on 76-years, dozens of athletes and other sports personalities have been among those interviewed.

It is one of the wonders of the digital age in which we now live that, quite apart from rendering the eponymous discs largely obsolete, one may quickly and easily ascertain the choices made by a large number of these "castaways".

I thought it might be diverting in this period of relative calm before the Russian storm breaks upon us once again to conduct my own ad hoc survey. 

To be honest, I cannot claim to have stumbled upon any revelations of utterly earth-shattering significance; for the most part, sporty guests have exhibited, for my money, notably conservative musical tastes.

But the exercise was not without interest: who could have foreseen, for example, that legendary football manager Bill Shankly would select You'll Never Walk Alone, or that Des Lynam, presenter of the BBC's 1990 World Cup coverage, would include Nessun Dorma?

These things are, of course, subjective, but I would say that decathlete Daley Thompson made among the coolest music selections: Marvin Gaye, James Taylor, Heatwave, Al Green, with Unchained Melody designated the one track he would save from the waves.

Wheelchair basketball player Ade Adepitan, Public Enemy, Dandy Livingstone, Minnie Riperton, Bob Marley, swimmer David Wilkie, Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, Traffic, Roxy Music, and, somewhat to my surprise, businessman Mark McCormack, Bruce Springsteen, early Beatles, Don't Cry For Me Argentina, have to be right up there.

So does 1968 Olympic boxing gold medallist George Foreman, whose list included Sam Cooke, James Brown, The Temptations and Frank Sinatra's Strangers in the Night.

Personally, I was less taken with some of demon pace bowler Fred Trueman's choices, which included, understandably no doubt, a homely ditty called Tables and Chairs by the Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

I don't suppose I am alone in tending to associate 1950s runners Chris Brasher and Christopher Chataway. So it was interesting to see that as well as Sibelius and Beethoven's ninth symphony, both had chosen a song called Sh-Boom.

Admittedly, Chataway had picked The Crew-Cuts' version, whereas Brasher plumped for a rendition by Stan Freberg and the Toads.

Not only that, but whereas Brasher's luxury was a sailing dinghy, Chataway had gone for underwater breathing apparatus.

Had they happened to wash up on the same desert island, you cannot help but feeling, they would have complemented each other as beautifully as when, in 1954, they paced Roger Bannister to the first sub-four-minute mile. Sh-Boom!

There are other intriguing pairings: jockey Bob Champion and footballer Gary Lineker are linked, it seems, by a common love of U2's With Or Without You; former England cricket captain Ian Botham and former England rugby captain Will Carling both chose the guitar anthem Layla; double middle distance Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes and boxer Alan Minter share a mutual appreciation of Brown Girl in the Ring by Boney M.

Former Pakistan cricketer turned politician Imran Khan chose no fewer than three songs by his compatriot Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; his favourite tune of all, however, was by Pink Floyd.

Often, the book and luxury choices seem perhaps more revealing than the records.

While I never saw him play, I always suspected that Danny Blanchflower was my type of footballer. His book choice of Lawrence Durrell's The Alexandria Quartet does nothing to discourage me from that opinion.

Beds, chairs, couches and pillows are a relatively common luxury choice, suggesting that sports stars are frequently tired. So is golf equipment - ill-fated cyclist Tommy Simpson was among those who made that selection.

Not everyone was so easily pleased: racing driver Graham Hill asked on one of his appearances for The Dancers by David Wynne, a sculptor whose work included a rendering of the racehorse Shergar.

Rower Guy Nickalls asked, I thought ambitiously, for Rembrandt's Titus.

Others exhibited an eminently practical streak: Ian Botham wanted a fishing rod together with an encyclopaedia of the world's fish species. 

Multi gold medal-winning wheelchair athlete Tanni Grey-Thompson asked for a Guide to Edible Foods on a Desert Island. Not for nothing, you feel, is she now helping to shape the country's destiny as Baroness Grey-Thompson of Eaglescliffe.

Oh and do not expect oarsman Matthew Pinsent to join the current fad for beards: his luxury was a shaving kit.

Two final details to end.

The respective luxury choices of runners Gordon Pirie and Michael Johnson, Olympic medallists both, said much, I thought, about how the aspirations of athletes, and many others, have, well, evolved over the past half-century or so.

Pirie wanted a "motor car"; Johnson, a McLaren SLR. With petrol.

The last word simply has to go to Dennis Taylor, the snooker player who at one time had probably the most famous pair of glasses in the sporting world.

Taylor's luxury choice - "a limitless supply of yoghurt" - completely threw me until I listened to the broadcast.

"I am the worst person in the world at sunbathing," he explained. "I have had sunstroke a couple of times. My sister Molly had told me that natural yoghurt was the best thing for sunburn."

So there you have it: a soothing balm for peeling skin - and of course, at least on cloudy days, Taylor would not starve. If that isn't killing two birds with one stone, I don't know what is.

Happy new year, everyone.