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Composer
506 episodes
Chosen over the decades
503
Total castaways
1980s
Peak decade
8
Decades seen
Castaways who chose this
Josephine Barnes on her father becoming a mature undergraduate at Oxford aged 44
David Hare on writing a play in four days after a playwright let him down
Enoch Powell on describing his younger self as a ‘learning machine’ at Cambridge
Claus Moser on watching Hitler's torchlight procession from his window
Michael Foot on the radiogram that brought Mozart into his flat
How a novice master warned Trevor Huddleston he would miss children
Peter Donohoe on putting his hands under his armpits in a 70mph car crash
Hugh Trevor-Roper on being ordered to investigate Hitler's disappearance
How bumping his head on the ceiling made Jeremy Isaacs dizzy with opera
William Davis on seeing death and destruction at age ten in wartime Germany
How a desire to be a poet got Vernon Scannell sent to a psychiatrist
Bernard Levin on how being forced to learn the violin nearly poisoned him for music
Joanna Lumley on being sent to boarding school where she could be 'bad solidly for three months'
How a two-book deal for Phil Edmonds started his wife's writing career
Kenneth Williams on the newsvendor whose voice he used for Gramp Fattock
Sue Ryder on being taken to Yorkshire slums by district nurses at age seven
How James Prior challenged the minister of food over his school pig club
Phil Edmonds on his family being ostracized as 'Kaffa Booties' in Zambia
How a tank-building mission took Ian MacGregor from Glasgow to America
Brian Redhead on vowing to be a journalist after reading about Scoop Mallory
Jackie Stewart on learning about timing from a deer stalker on Loch Lomond
How a tip-off about concentration camps sent Shirley Williams to America
Selina Scott on earning a penny a line by covering funerals and weddings aged 14
Michael Tippett on serving two months in prison as a conscientious objector
How writers failing to deliver a script led Jonathan Lynn to write his first TV episode