Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Composer
122 episodes
Andrew Lloyd Webber on building a toy theatre and getting his first tune published at age eight
Chris De Burgh on not wanting to be a grandfather saying he could have been a great singer
Colin Dexter on Lord Harding of Penshurst offering to publish his first Morse novel within 24 hours
Harry Enfield on bitterly resenting his father for picking him up from parties
Colin Blakemore on developing a stomach ulcer at the age of eleven
Hanif Kureishi on being racially insulted every day from age four to sixteen
How a rugby injury cost Gordon Brown parts of three university years
How Derek Jameson's invented war-hero father story collapsed when he did the maths
Willy Russell on the woman who told him the same story every week for two years
Paul Merton on conducting the Joe Loss Orchestra with a knitting needle aged two
Barbara Castle on her mother’s feeding kitchen for miners’ children during the 1920s lockout
The Duchess of Kent on her first memory of music from a Victorian musical box
David Essex on the music from a Soho basement that felt like a star over Bethlehem
Brendan Foster on breaking the world record at the opening of Gateshead Stadium
Miss Bluebell on hiding her husband in an attic for two and a half years in Nazi-occupied Paris
Jacques Loussier on instantly understanding piano at his first sitting
How writing the first letter of each word cured Richard Condon's stutter
Geoffrey Howe on convincing Labour voters that Tories don't have horns, tails or cloven hooves
Dennis Taylor on standing on a lemonade crate to play snooker for the first time
Michael Quinn on telling Ritz directors they’d have to pay to taste his cooking