Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Decade
485 episodes
Michael Crawford on forgetting to put his ragged pants on during an opera
Noel Edmonds on quitting a £3,000-a-year job at 19 with nothing to fall back on
Alec Clifton-Taylor on escaping his family to rush into a church as a child
Cathy Berberian on singing baritone, bass and coloratura as a child because nobody told her she couldn't
Simon Rattle on the terrifying moment before his first rehearsal with an orchestra
How 'Can't we try a little longer?' made Patricia Batty Shaw WI secretary
Rita Streich on being held tight by her mother as wolves approached the sledge in Siberia
Catherine Gavin on the grenadier guards saluting de Gaulle in liberated Paris
Clifford Curzon on his first paid performance in a freezing Kennington church
Victoria de los Angeles on her father convincing a priest to combine her mother's and uncle's names
Anna Raeburn on expecting Laurence Olivier to discover her on her 17th birthday
Shinwell on the generals who threatened to resign when he arrived at the War Office
Lennox Berkeley on Nadia Boulanger showing him what was missing in his music
Charles Aznavour on selling chocolate and stockings on the black market during the occupation
How 13 episodes of a television series made Robert Hardy wish for a desert island
George MacDonald Fraser on the waterfall accident that helped him finish Flashman
How Gerald Ellison handled the Oxford sinking in the Boat Race
How Margaret Thatcher volunteered to lead her party when no one else would
Amadeus String Quartet on their debut concert that turned people away