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Composer
87 episodes
Chosen over the decades
87
Total castaways
1990s
Peak decade
7
Decades seen
Castaways who chose this
Richard Rogers on being beaten at boarding school for failing to remember lines
Colin Thubron on grabbing the hands of a mob that wanted to string him up
Penelope Lively on being told by her publisher she hadn't won the Booker Prize
Enoch Powell on describing his younger self as a ‘learning machine’ at Cambridge
David Wilson on taking his coat off at his British Museum interview
Earl of Harewood on worrying his royal bargaining power as a POW was a bluff
Grace Kelly on being turned down by a college because of returning GIs
How Churchill introduced Fitzroy MacLean as a young man who made a public convenience of Parliament
Frederic Raphael on having to explain why a character is named Martha not Georgina
How a hateful meeting at the Musicians' Union made Antal Dorati leave Germany
Peter Shaffer on his two and three quarter years as a Bevin boy down the coal mines
How Nellie Wallace's rude noises inspired Alec Guinness to become an actor
Richard Adams on improvising Watership Down on a car journey to see Judi Dench's Viola
How a levitating feeling during a BBC broadcast told Stiles-Allen of Chaliapin's death
Alan Pegler on his decision to buy the Flying Scotsman to save it from extinction