Hello, I'm Joanna Lumley. I'm in my garden in London and I'm walking down the garden path to the music room. In there, I'll find my husband, the composer and conductor, Stephen Barlow.

I call you Stevie. Do you mind me calling you Stevie on these podcasts? Would you rather not? Would you rather I call you Stephen?

Yes, it is.

Now, we've been married almost 40 years,

and I think, however long you've been with someone,

you have questions that you'd like to ask your partner.

So this podcast is my chance to ask Stephen the questions I've always wanted to ask him

about one of his and my greatest passions, classical music.

I go back to something that you once said to me, Stevie,

as I say, what would it be like if you didn't have any music?

And you said you would literally die.

Do you still stick with that?

Yeah.

No, I might have time to go and buy a small vineyard somewhere.

What does a conductor do?

Who's better, Beethoven or Mozart?

Why do some pieces of music make us feel such emotion?

I thought that we could step into something that almost caused a rift in our marriage.

No.

Yes.

Oh, Beitone's a hero of mine, too.

Come on.

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