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"If my work has been to create words and images, my passion has always been music," the Oscar-winning writer and director Anthony Minghella told ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 3 listeners in 2003. Music flows through his work like a vital river, from his early radio plays through to films such as The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley.

Juliet Stevenson, who worked with Anthony Minghella - most memorably in the film Truly, Madly, Deeply, charts how music shaped his life and career, 50 years after he created his first full-length show, a musical called Mobius the Stripper, at Hull University.

Anthony's siblings Gioia and Dominic look back at their upbringing on the Isle of Wight, where their Italian parents ran a busy cafe. Piano lessons, the Catholic church, Puccini arias and film soundtracks from a local cinema all played a part in Anthony's musical education - and a bedroom with a piano provided a refuge from the noisy world of the family business, and the stresses of teenage life. Anthony's self-written songs offered a welcome release and, as his old friend Graeme Du Fresne recalls, his creative drive was evident from the start.

Robert Cooper, who produced some of Anthony's most acclaimed ´óÏó´«Ã½ radio plays, including Cigarettes and Chocolate, as well as the film Truly, Madly, Deeply, reflects on how music was at the core of the dramas, and the Oscar-winning composer Gabriel Yared shares memories of a close working relationship on films such as The English Patient and The Talented Mr Ripley. Soprano Mary Plazas and conductor David Parry recall their 2005 collaboration on Madam Butterfly, the only opera Anthony directed, working with his wife Carolyn Choa - a regularly-revived production. And all reflect on the shock of hearing the news of Anthony's death in 2008, at the age of 54.

Producer John Goudie