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Composer
217 episodes
Chosen over the decades
217
Total castaways
1990s
Peak decade
8
Decades seen
Castaways who chose this
Neil Simon on his brother predicting at age 15 he’d be America’s best comedy writer
Glenys Kinnock on her father's Suez Canal lesson in 1956
How Derek Jameson's invented war-hero father story collapsed when he did the maths
Shirley Anne Field on wiping off her make-up to land her role in The Entertainer
Ken Livingstone on being greeted by the deputy whip as a horrible little monster
Norman Schwarzkopf on his five-year-old son's drawing of a general
Michael Grade on being shocked by anti-Semitism and bullying at public school
Shirley Porter on being denied head girl, possibly because of her Jewish name
Paddy Ashdown on being asked to call himself Captain Jeremy John Durham Ashton
The Duchess of Kent on her first memory of music from a Victorian musical box
Eric Clapton on discovering at nine that his parents were actually his grandparents
Robert Runcie on turning back to rescue a crewmate from a burning tank
Joan Turner on her nervous breakdown from juggling home, husband, and career
How a broken pair led Michael Heseltine to seize the mace
Bamber Gascoigne on the paralysing boredom that made him give up acting
Bernard Levin on how being forced to learn the violin nearly poisoned him for music
Elaine Paige on her fourth audition for Evita thinking ‘Here we go again’