Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Composer
506 episodes
Chosen over the decades
503
Total castaways
1980s
Peak decade
8
Decades seen
Castaways who chose this
Martin Sheen on Bill Clinton's unsolicited set design advice
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on making peppermint creams aged eight
Antonia Fraser on her 'don't come in' notice for writing while raising six children
John Humphrys on fearing his career was over after Jonathan Aitken's accusation
Steven Isserlis on comparing listening to his own recordings to a dog sniffing the pavement
Eliza Manningham-Buller on the lift ride when she wondered which colleague was a traitor
Vladimir Jurowski on conducting La Bohème the day after his father's heart attack
Andrew Davies on making up scenes and convincing people Jane Austen wrote them
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
Raymond Tallis on his father asking why treat old people since everyone dies
JP Donleavy on Brendan Behan breaking into his cottage to read The Ginger Man
Natasha Spender on improvising on the piano to communicate with her father
Raymond Gubbay on the moment his father got him involved in Mozart's Il Seraglio
How an advert for foster children gave Jacqueline Wilson the idea for Tracy Beaker
Menzies Campbell on the moment he was told he had a malignant tumour
Michael Morpurgo on first seeing his father as a convict in Great Expectations
How seeing an architecture school in Edinburgh set Nicholas Grimshaw's career