NEXT time you’re in the Bach of a cab, bear in mind your driver might have other strings to their bow.

To pay the bills, Mark Pharoah has spent 12 years driving his cab around London.

But for seven of those years he has also been on a secret mission – to master the notoriously difficult work of Johann Sebastian Bach for the violin.

Mr Pharoah, of Mottingham, said: “No other composer in the history of western music was able to write anything like this for a solo violin.

“For a lot of violinists this is like their Mount Everest.”

The dad-of-three first started playing when he was seven.

But after years of cab driving he was convinced to share his talents with the world after going to St Mary’s hospital in Paddington suffering from heart problems.

The father-of-three said: “I started chatting to a priest who was sitting next to me and the idea came from that.

“I thought I have this talent, a gift, and I should be using that in some way to inspire others.”

Over the years he has recorded 28 movements, memorising all the music until he was ready to perform it.

He said: “I don’t know any cabbies that play the violin. But when I was doing the Knowledge it struck me that a lot of cabbies go into it having already lived a life. A lot of them do have a story to tell.

“When you’re sitting in the back of one you can often find out something interesting about the driver if you pry a bit.”

The cabbie, whose passengers have included world famous conductor Simon Rattle, now plans to perform in every cathedral in England and Wales.

He has also self-released a CD of the recordings, called Mark Plays Bach, available at markplaysbach.org