Former Labour Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has passed away at the age of 86 and his appearance on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs has picked up some attention as a result.

Lord Prescott appeared on the programme in February 2012 and talked about his life with presenter Kirsty Young.

Topics that were brought up included the impact that failing the school 11+ exam had on him and living in a highly political home.

Additionally, he speaks of his debt to his wife Pauline and how for many years of their marriage he underestimated her.

He also described the inferiority complex which dogged him for much of his adult life, sharing: "All the attacks on me because of my grammar and kind of background, aggressive style - it used to ruff up a few feathers and whilst I would never let it show, certainly deep inside me I felt a bit inferior."

Some of his music choices included Satin Hall by Duke Ellington, Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees and A Town Called Malice by From The Jam.

The full Desert Islands Discs episode with John Prescott can be found on the BBC website here.

The life and career of John Prescott

John Leslie Prescott was born in Prestatyn, then in Flintshire, on 31 May 1938. His father was a railway signalman and his mother came from a mining family.

Although his family left Wales when he was four, he remained proud of his heritage and always considered himself Welsh, BBC News reports.

He became a trainee chef on leaving school at 15 and then worked for eight years as a ship's steward on passenger liners, becoming active in the National Union of Seamen.

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In 1962, he went to Ruskin College, Oxford, where he got a diploma in economics and politics, and later to Hull University to study for an economics degree.

Active in the merchant sailors' strike of 1966, he served as an official with the National Union of Seamen for two years.

Not long after that, he was elected as an MP for Kingston upon Hull East in 1970 where he served for 40 years and played a key part in Tony Blair's New Labour government.