Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Composer
66 episodes
Chosen over the decades
66
Total castaways
1980s
Peak decade
7
Decades seen
Castaways who chose this
Richard Wilson on his drama teacher telling him he couldn't speak properly
Tim Waterstone on being fired from WH Smith
How a collapse of confidence in the US led Anthony Seldon to meditation and yoga
Patricia Greene on being asked for dating advice by a stranger in Waitrose
Penelope Wilton on the warm air from a pantomime stage that made her want to act
Simon Russell Beale on being cast as Desdemona by his English teacher at 13
Joanna Lumley on being put in a private hospital room because she had no male visitor
Katharine Whitehorn on her husband telling her to get a job on a Hampstead Heath bench
Diana Athill on discovering the facts of life at age 11 in a book by Mary Stopes
Kyffin Williams on cutting holes in his own paintings with a Stanley knife
Michael Holroyd on his father threatening to take him to court over his novel
David Shepherd on being told to ‘go and drive a bus’ by the Slade School of Art
How a request to paint fingernails on a Paris flight led Peter Palumbo to his wife
How a desire to be a poet got Vernon Scannell sent to a psychiatrist
Stan Barstow on the moment a book by H.E. Bates showed him what to write about
Nigel Kennedy on getting a perfect score after his teacher warned him against playing jazz
How Jorge Bolet's Carnegie Hall debut audience included Rachmaninoff, Horowitz and Heifetz
Gerald Priestland on being sent away to boarding school at the age of seven
Peter Maxwell Davies on being taken to see The Gondoliers at age four
William Walton on choristers threatening to quit over Belshazzar's Feast