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Composer
506 episodes
Chosen over the decades
503
Total castaways
1980s
Peak decade
8
Decades seen
Castaways who chose this
How Margaret Thatcher volunteered to lead her party when no one else would
Amadeus String Quartet on their debut concert that turned people away
Dorothy Edwards on writing her first story aged four and finding it after her grandmother's death
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
Arthur C Clarke on building his own crystal set to listen to music as a youth
Shirley Conran on walking down Tottenham Court Road with her morale shattered
Marisa Robles on winning a radio competition at nine only to have her bicycle prize taken away
James Bolam on having his on-screen family murdered while being assessed for a comedy part
Egon Ronay on how a friend drinking a Russian commander under the table helped him leave Budapest
How Barry Tuckwell joined the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as third horn at 15
Michael Holroyd on arguing so persuasively his father told him to profit from it
Christopher Milne on the weekly moment his singing voice dominated in chapel
Anthony Quayle on his first taste of money from a musical sketch with Naylor Grimson
Melvyn Bragg on being addicted to reading anything from sauce bottles to the Old Testament
How seeing herself in Rotten to the Core left Charlotte Rampling in tears
Noel Barber on a 105-year-old man who apologised for being late after a four-mile walk
Luciano Pavarotti on not being able to imagine himself alone for more than a day
Sherrill Milnes on building something substantial to escape a desert island
Bruce Tulloh on getting the idea to run across America from the Guinness Book of Records