They say that you don't appreciate something until you're deprived of it, but for most people it's hard to imagine a life without music. Terry Waite had that experience as a hostage in Beirut, until, one morning, a passer-by unknowingly lifted his spirits by humming the simplest of tunes outside the cell. From that moment, Terry knew the true power of music.

Jack Mapanje discovered that power in the Malawi Detention Centre. Despite a ban on music-making he managed to form a prisoners' choir, a choir which brought much-needed solidarity to the condemned as they faced the possibility of execution.

We also visit an extraordinary project run by the RNID to bring music into the lives of the deaf, and in many cases deaf-blind. For Tony, who lost his sight and hearing in his teens, the chance to learn the drums has been a truly life-changing experience. The same could be said of the countless Afghan musicians who found their very profession driven to extinction under the Taliban regime. No wonder the first images on television following the overthrow of the Taliban were of cars speeding through Kabul blaring out loud music. 'This', says one refugee, 'was the first time I felt proud to be Afghan'.