Pete Waterman shares his final soundtrack choice on Radio 3

Songwriter and producer Pete Waterman has revealed the music he wants to hear when he dies, speaking in an episode of Earlier with Jools Holland on BBC Radio 3.

Waterman, known for his work with artists such as Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley, described how he feels humbled comparing his own career to that of classical composer Tchaikovsky.

He told listeners that if he must go, he would like to do so to the sound of Tchaikovsky’s Hymn of the Cherubim.

“Sorry for getting emotional there on you but, how does a human being write a piece of music that literally, you can hear angels?” Waterman said. “Who knows what’s after this, but if I’m gonna go, I wanna go with that playing in the background.”

He recalled first hearing the work performed by a Russian choir at the Greek Orthodox Church in Hammersmith, describing the experience as transformative.

“I’m ashamed to say that I’m in the same industry as Tchaikovsky when I hear that,” he admitted. “That’s a different league, that is somebody that has a connection to something that I would never be able to reach.”

Waterman, also a railway enthusiast, was a special guest on the show today, 27 September, as it marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway, when George Stephenson drove Locomotion No. 1 on its inaugural journey from Shildon to Stockton-on-Tees via Darlington, to great fanfare.

You can listen back to the programme on BBC Sounds.