Multi-award winning director Tony Palmer presents his film about Gustav Holst to mark the 150th anniversary this year of his birth. The film covers the life of this extraordinary man, who taught himself Sanskrit, cycled into the Sahara Desert, allied himself during the First World War with a ‘red priest’, distributed The Socialist Worker, studied astrology and composed one of the best-known works by an English composer, his orchestral suite The Planets.

Featuring the Savaria Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tamas Vasary, the Royal College of Music Orchestra conducted by Sian Edwards, the BBC Symphony Chorus conducted by Stephen Jackson and the St Paul’s Girls’ School Orchestra among many others including Katherine Jenkins and Kiri Te Kanawa, this film shows why Gustav Holst is often completely misunderstood but a great composer nonetheless.