About this programme

Major new documentary profile of the English composer Vaughan Williams, being shown to mark the 50th anniversary of his death. The film features more than 90 minutes of music, including specially recorded extracts from all the symphonies - Job, The Tallis Fantasia, The Lark Ascending, The Pilgrim's Progress and Greensleeves - and commentary from Nicola Benedetti, Simon Keenlyside, Joan Rodgers, Sian Edwards, Jordi Savall, Imogen Holst, Adrian Boult, Barbara Dickson, Andre Previn and Tamas Vasary. The programme also includes the last interview with the composer's widow Ursula Vaughan Williams, filmed six weeks before her death in October, as well as contributions from such diverse admirers as John Adams and Richard Thompson of Fairport Convention, Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys, Tony Benn, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Michael Tippett, Martin and Eliza Carthy, Mark Anthony Turnage and Harrison Birtwistle. The music is performed by the National Radio Orchestra of Hungary, the London Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the National Youth Orchestra and Gloucester Cathedral Choir.