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The comedian, actor and keen amateur musician Nick Mohammed charts the ups and down of the UK's relationship with the German composer Richard Strauss. He was first warmly welcomed here as a conductor, but within a few years faced censorship by the Lord Chamberlain who banned his controversial opera Salome until 1907 - and then only allowed a performance of an edited version.

We discover how Strauss's popularity soared and waned according to the politics of the time: the King and Queen eagerly joined huge crowds to see his opera Elektra in London in 1910 and he was awarded an honorary degree from Oxford University in 1914. But with the onset of WWI, MPs objected in parliament to the performance and promotion of German music and a movement began to support and favour British musicians and composers.

Nick learns how Richard Strauss's position as the "greatest living composer" meant he was courted in the early years of the Â鶹Éç in the 1920s, but how his relationship with the Nazi party led to him being classified as an "alien composer" during WWII and banned from the airwaves. Yet, in October 1947, with London still deeply scarred from German bombing, he returned for a Richard Strauss Festival which concluded with a celebratory concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

We also hear how after Richard Strauss's death, the Royal Albert Hall was chosen as the site of the world premiere for the Four Last Songs, widely considered one his most poignant works, written as a profound, intimate farewell to life and art.

The documentary includes new interviews with British soprano Louise Alder, Strauss expert Raymond Holden, classical music writer Dr Flora Willson, former Radio 3 and Proms controller Nicholas Kenyon, visiting Professor in Music at Royal Holloway Erik Levi, as well as rarely heard archive from conductors Norman del Mar, Adrian Boult and the singer Lotte Lehman.

Series Producer: Clare Walker for Â鶹Éç Audio