Don't do heroin at the Royal Albert Hall

In episode 4 of The Classic! Pod, we ask whether people are really “classical music novices” — or whether classical music is already everywhere, quietly sneaking into films, adverts, TV shows, video games, McDonald’s after 11pm, and probably your childhood without you even noticing.We talk about film music, John Williams, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Brief Encounter, Kubrick, Bach in unexpected places, Lady Gaga’s extremely surprising connection to the Well-Tempered Clavier, and why film scores absolutely count as classical music. We also get into Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, video game soundtracks, Animal Crossing village tunes, Wii Music, and why composing for games deserves to be taken seriously.Along the way, there’s classical music in adverts, classical music as “fancy perfume energy”, Shostakovich in McDonald’s, MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross, and Jonny carrying a suspiciously large trombone case on the Tube.Plus, our recommendations of the week: a vivid, theatrical recording of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and Billie Holiday’s version of Kurt Weill’s “Speak Low”.Basically: you probably know more classical music than you think.