COMPOSER and conductor Carl Davis is not one to be slowing down, even after more than 40 years at the top of the world of commercial music.

But even he must have got the shock of his life when the BBC decided that the Sunday night costume drama, Cranford (based on three novels by Manchester writer Elizabeth Gaskell), was to go out before Christmas, and not begin in February as originally planned.

Carl was responsible – as he had been (more…)