Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Composer
506 episodes
Chosen over the decades
503
Total castaways
1980s
Peak decade
8
Decades seen
Castaways who chose this
Bill Sowerbutts on a plum stone that supposedly produced an apple
Alec Robertson on his mother's singing lesson that ended with 'never come back'
Isaac Stern on the friend who inspired his violin playing – and now sells insurance
Alfred Brendel on being forced to remove his tails after a piano stool mishap
David Shepherd on raising £46,000 in one evening for a poacher-catching helicopter
Nyree Dawn Porter on changing the spelling of her Maori name from Ngaire
How the musical Breakfast at Tiffany's flopped disastrously for Richard Chamberlain
How a quiet Sherlock Holmes trip to Switzerland became a world story for Paul Gore-Booth
How walking down the main street of Chipping Camden taught Gordon Russell more than school
Gladys Cooper on pretending to be Mary Hennessy to get her first stage role
Marlene Dietrich on giving up the violin because she hated doing things in halves
Dirk Bogarde on his first job cleaning the gentleman's lavatory at Kew Theatre
Claudio Arrau on teaching himself to read music before he could read words at age four