A FAMILIAR television face is hoping to share his infectious love of a musical legend with Bewdley Festival-goers next month.

Not many people will be aware that John Suchet, the face of ITN's lunchtime news bulletins, is also a leading authority on the turbulent life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven.

And despite the hectic nature of television news - particularly in the wake of last week's terrorist atrocities in the US - he is itching to take to the stage at Bewdley's Ramada Hotel on Friday, October 12.

Speaking exclusively to the Shuttle/Times & News, Mr Suchet admitted: "I have done more special programmes in the last week than ever before - I have never been on the air so much.

"It is a dreadful, dreadful story - even in our busy television newsroom I saw grown journalists with tears in their eyes when it happened and you don't see that very often.

"Anyone who has seen the pictures of the plane crashing into the second tower will not only never forget them but also show their grandchildren."

However, it is something of an understatement to say that Beethoven is an important subject to the newsreader - he has written a trilogy about the composer's life, The Last Master - in novel form.

"It's my other life!" Mr Suchet insisted. "I'm a failed musician and I became a journalist but the music has always been there.

"About 20 years ago I read up on his life. I knew his music from a young age but at first I only knew the heavy, dramatic stuff.

"When I discovered the beautiful romantic stuff he wrote I thought 'how could he have written all this when he was supposed to be going deaf and had this filthy temper?' I couldn't put the two together."

Mr Suchet decided he wanted to write a Beethoven book of his own, which became two and then three.

"I wrote them as novels because I wanted them to be accessible to ordinary people who do not know E-flat from C-sharp," he added.

"There are hundreds of biographies but I wanted to take the reader closer to the man. What was he drinking, where was he sitting, who was in the room with him when he wrote a particular piece of music?"

Mr Suchet is aiming to bring the world of Beethoven to life with help from the Bernard Lansky Trio in Bewdley in his presentation, which begins at 8pm.

But anyone who cannot wait until then can check out his website - www.madaboutbeethoven.com.

"I've had hundreds of e-mails from 45 different countries since I set it up 18 months ago," he said.

"Don't underestimate the power of the web - or Beethoven fans! They're truly worldwide."