"A moody old man” is how Kate Bush described Bradford’s composer in an unusual song called Delius (Song Of Summer).

The song, on her 1980 Never Forever album, features the sound of an old man muttering “In B, Fenby”, reflecting the time Delius spent with his biographer, Eric Fenby, in later life.

After going blind, Delius dictated to the young Yorkshire musician and completed a number of works including Songs Of Farewell and the Idyll. Fenby’s biography, Delius As I Knew Him, was the inspiration for the late director Ken Russell’s 1968 film, Song Of Summer.

The film, co-scripted with Fenby, is regarded as a faithful account of a moving memoir. It recounts the last six years in the life of the composer who, by 1928, was blind and paralysed from tertiary syphilis, and unable to compose.

It is also a poignant account of how the young composer, Fenby, helped the ailing composer set down the unfinished scores he could hear in his head.

Actor Max Adrian played the tormented Delius and Christopher Gable, who went on to be the founder of Leeds-based Northern Ballet, played Fenby.

Until now, Russell’s film – described by Fenby as “disturbingly life-like” – was the only full-length biopic of Delius. Now, to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth, a new television film is being made about him – and will focus on his early years in Bradford.

Film-maker John Bridcut, who is currently working on the new film, said Delius’s youth in Bradford had a profound effect on the music he went on to compose. His North Country Sketches are inspired by his memories of the Yorkshire Moors.

Mr Bridcut said his aim was to move away from the image of Delius as a grumpy old man, as portrayed in Russell’s film.

While he may have been a “moody old man” in later years, as a younger man Delius led a passionate life, and had affairs. Violinist Tasmin Little describes him as a “passionate and open-minded man who wrote passionate music” and “lived life as he chose to”.

Due to be shown on BBC4 later this year, the new profile of Delius will also explore his time spent working on an orange plantation in Florida and his move to France, where he died in 1934.

To commemorate the anniversary of his birth, Delius’s work is also being featured on BBC Radio 3, starting with Music Matters, broadcast last week, followed later in the year by a special programme on Composer Of The Week and a Delius concert performed by Julian Lloyd Webber.

Delius will also feature on a special-issue Royal Mail stamp. as part of a series called Britons Of Distinction, available from February 23.