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Composer
34 episodes
Chosen over the decades
34
Total castaways
1980s
Peak decade
7
Decades seen
Castaways who chose this
Gyles Brandreth on applying to become an MP the day his youngest daughter became a teenager
How Chris Lowe hissed "don't look triumphant" at Neil Tennant on Top of the Pops
John Rutter on the out-of-tune upright piano that opened a world of magic at age three
Neil Simon on his brother predicting at age 15 he’d be America’s best comedy writer
Miss Bluebell on hiding her husband in an attic for two and a half years in Nazi-occupied Paris
J K Galbraith on interrogating Nazi leaders like Goering and Speer
James Clavell on being given a proclamation from King George VI as a returning POW
Cecil Beaton on first hearing the Merry Widow from a hurdy gurdy man aged five
C. Northcote Parkinson on being too busy writing books to play discs
How 'Can't we try a little longer?' made Patricia Batty Shaw WI secretary
Gladys Cooper on pretending to be Mary Hennessy to get her first stage role
Dirk Bogarde on his first job cleaning the gentleman's lavatory at Kew Theatre
Birgit Nilsson on learning a role in three days and bringing a half dozen handkerchiefs