Ronnie Hazlehurst R.I.P.

[Steve Crook]

Theme tune writer Hazlehurst dies

Ronnie Hazlehurst, who wrote the theme tunes for television shows such as Blankety Blank and Last of the Summer Wine, has died aged 79.

A former musical director at the BBC, he was closely involved with the Eurovision Song Contest and conducted the UK entry on seven occasions.

He died in hospital in Guernsey after suffering a stroke last week.

Broadcaster Michael Parkinson called the Manchester-born composer "a marvellous and talented musician".

"He was also a funny north country man with a great sense of humour," he said.

"When I was at the BBC I did a series of specials with him. He was one of the great unsung heroes on the music business - and a great professional."

Hazlehurst's partner, Jean Fitzgerald, said: "He was just a perfectionist in his profession and a very kind and generous man.

"To write that sort of music you have to be sensitive".

Hazlehurst was responsible for many of the BBC's best-loved theme tunes, including Yes, Minister, The Two Ronnies and Are You Being Served?

Umbrella stunt

The composer said he always tried to make the music fit the title of the programme - using a piccolo to spell out the title to Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em in Morse code.

"I wouldn't prostitute a tune, to bend it every which way to fit the title," he said, "but if I can make it so, I do".

Hazlehurst served as musical director of the Eurovision Song Contest three times, and famously conducted the UK entry in 1977 using a rolled-up umbrella.

In 1999, he received a Gold Badge award from the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters.

The BBC's head of comedy, Jon Plowman, said: "He was the composer of many of the best-loved signature tunes of the last 40 years of television - and some of his work is still heard today.

"He's associated with some of the best-loved shows of our lives."

Ms Fitzgerald said Hazlehurst had moved to Guernsey 10 years ago from Hendon, north London, and had had a heart bypass operation in October last year.

He is survived by two sons from his second marriage.

[smudge]

Like the obit said, his music is still being listened to today - certainly so, as it is on a lot of the current Beeb DVD releases. A fine tribute I should think. Another talented contributor and very familiar name gone...

Smudge

[marker]

Another sad loss of a very prolific composer RIP

[smiffy]

Not a good day today with Ned Sherrin and now Ronnie hazlehurst gone.I rarely watch Last of the summer wine now but always seem to catch the theme tune.
I have always thought it to be a beautiful piece of music , it is rather sad and melancholy but still gives you that feeling of " hope springs eternal " it accompanies the programme perfectly with it's theme of people in their autumn years ,still being young at heart .
What a legacy ronnie has left behind ,he may be gone but he won't be forgotten.

[lordtednfs]

I agree with you smiffy, "hope springs eternal". It does make you think about yourself as well and all the joys of a younger youth, even in later life.

If Parky should dedicate a show or just a few minutes to Ronnie, would someone please share those moments with me as well on dvdr. I cannot get Parky out here, but how I would love to be there to join in the respect for Ronnie and his brilliant talent. God bless you Ronnie. RIP.

[smiffy]

Just watched look north west on BBC1 and a quick tribute to ronnie from Kathy Staff,she remembered how in the early days of LOTSW she met ronnie who introduced himself by saying to her, "are you Kathy staff ? " she replied yes ,he said " do you come from Dukinfield ?" ,yes again, but ,ronnie said " nobody comes from Dukinfield " . Until today I didn't know that good old nora batty was from Dukinfield and she was looking very well too,so even though it's a sad day it's nice to know that another Icon is still thriving

[julian_craster]

Obituary
Ronnie Hazlehurst , Master of the TV theme tune

The Independent
03 October 2007
Ronald Hazlehurst, composer: born Duckinfield, Cheshire 13 March 1928; twice married (two sons); died St Peter Port, Guernsey 1 October 2007.

A distinctive and appropriate theme tune is a crucial component of a successful television series. It reflects the nature of the programme and if it is a comedy, the music itself should cause an anticipatory smile, as well as alerting viewers in another room that their programme is starting. Ronnie Hazlehurst was a master of this, writing, arranging and conducting the music for many of the BBC's biggest successes including The Two Ronnies, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Yes Minister and Last of the Summer Wine.
Hazlehurst was born in Duckinfield, Cheshire, in 1928. His father was a railway worker and his mother a piano teacher. Although Ronnie went to a grammar school, he left when he was 14 and became an office clerk in a cotton mill. Despite working long hours for £1 a week, he found time to play the cornet with George Chambers' band and, when offered £4 a week, became a professional musician. The band made regular broadcasts on the BBC Light Programme, but Hazlehurst left when Chambers refused to give him a raise.
During the 1950s, Hazlehurst was a freelance musician around Manchester, before the bandleader Woolf Phillips employed him as his deputy at the Pigalle nightclub in London. He also began working with Peter Knight, head of music for Granada TV, but when Knight left Granada a year later, Hazlehurst's own position came to an end. To make ends meet, he worked on a record stall in Watford market.
Hazlehurst was then appointed a BBC staff arranger, making his first significant contribution on The Likely Lads in 1964. He wrote the music for the TV play Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton (1965) and the series It's a Knockout (1966). In 1968, he became head of music for Light Entertainment.
Hazlehurst was particularly skilled at writing theme music, always trying to get the music to fit the title. For example, the theme rises and falls at appropriate moments in The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin (1976) and he used the sound of a cash register in the melody for Are You Being Served? (1972).
Sometimes, when a production was over budget, the music had to be made for the minimum cost. An ingenious example of Hazlehurst's skill was the use of two piccolos to relate the title of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973) in Morse code, but he had to fight to get the second piccolo.
The music invariably indicated the comedy to follow, but a glorious exception is his theme for Last of the Summer Wine (1973), which reflected the tranquillity of the Yorkshire Pennines and the gentle pace of the stories. Hazlehurst composed and conducted the incidental music for over 50 episodes of the sitcom. He also wrote the majestic melody for To the Manor Born (1979) and in 1980, used Big Ben's chimes as the inspiration for Yes Minister, where his theme music was accompanied by Gerald Scarfe's acidic caricatures.
Hazlehurst also wrote the themes for The Two Ronnies (1971), the first series of Only Fools and Horses (1981) and the generation-gap comedy Three Up, Two Down (1989). He wrote the music for the inane quiz series Blankety Blank (1979), which was hosted first by Terry Wogan and then Les Dawson, and also came up with the signature tune for Wogan's talk show. He was a man with a good northern sense of humour and he loved Spitting Image mocking him as the man with a four-second attention span. In truth, Hazlehurst was devoted to the music of Delius.
Hazlehurst wrote the introductory music for the BBC's coverage of the Montreal Olympics in 1976 and he arranged and conducted Clare Torry's performance of Dolly Parton's "Love Is Like a Butterfly" for Butterflies in 1978. He performed a similar service for Paul Nicholas who sang the theme song for the comedy in which he starred, Just Good Friends (1983).
Hazlehurst was often involved with the Eurovision Song Contest and was the musical director when it was hosted by the UK in 1974, 1977 and 1982; he conducted the British entry on several other occasions, notably for Michael Ball's "One Step Out of Time" in 1992.

Spencer Leigh

---------------------------------------------------------
From The Times
October 3, 2007
Ronnie Hazlehurst
Composer of theme tunes for many of Britain’s best-known sitcoms

Ronnie Hazlehurst, who wrote the theme tunes for television shows such as Blankety Blank and Last of the Summer Wine, has died aged 79. A former musical director at the BBC, he was closely involved with the Eurovision Song Contest and conducted the UK entry on seven

Ronnie Hazlehurst’s music will forever be associated with the heyday of the British sitcom. It has been described unkindly by its critics as “plinky plunky”, “fiddly twiddly” and “an aural dot-to-dot”. Writers on sport or politics have been known to sum up particularly silly mishaps by stating that they lacked only a Ronnie Hazlehurst soundtrack. The satirical puppet show Spitting Image once featured the Hazlehurst Requiem: “My soul doth magnify the Lord (tiddley-pom) / And praise my salvation (dum dum)”. But if his work lacked gravitas, it more than made up for it in memorability; it persists in the subconscious of everyone who grew up watching television in the 1970s and 1980s.
Born in Manchester, Hazlehurst first tried to make his living as a trumpet player, and after some session work for the BBC in London he joined the corporation in 1961 as an arranger and conductor, eventually becoming Light Entertainment Musical Director.
He first created incidental music for The Likely Lads and The Liver Birds, and a tune for It’s a Knockout. He worked often for small fees, greater responsibility arriving relatively late in 1971 when he took charge of the orchestra for The Two Ronnies.
Over the next 15 years he composed theme music for many of the programmes that comprised the golden age of British situation comedy, including Are You Being Served?, Just Good Friends, To the Manor Born, Yes Minister, Sorry! and Three Up, Two Down. He arranged themes for other artists, including that to Carla Lane’s Butterflies (1978) and Only Fools and Horses (1981) for John Sullivan.
Hazlehurst worked in other areas of light entertainment, too, writing in 1977 one of his most memorable and, to many, irritating, television themes — for Blankety Blank, hosted first by Terry Wogan. In 1982 he wrote the theme music for the Wogan chat show.
Hazlehurst insisted that there was no particular genius to his composing; he said he would merely sing the show’s title to himself and then transcribe the results. It could turn out to be subtly subversive: in 1973 the BBC complained that his composition for Last of the Summer Wine sounded nothing like a comedy theme: could he not at least speed it up? There was no time for a rewrite, however, as the programme was due to air two days after the music was delivered. The show became the longest-running comedy on British television, and the theme tune probably the best-loved of all Hazlehurst’s creations. Similarly, the theme for The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) dips and ascends at the appropriate parts of the phrase as it would if the title were sung, so that it seems, by itself, strangely serious.
Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em (1973) broke his writing pattern, as the producer Michael Mills insisted on a minimalist theme that would spell out the programme’s name in morse code. Hazlehurst was allowed only a piccolo, but after negotiation was allowed two. Only when Sydney Lotterby took over for series three was a tuba added to this extraordinarily sparse composition. Hazlehurst, who was paid just £30 for his trouble, seemed to thrive on the tight deadlines and scarcity of cash that pervaded his profession in the 1970s. “By the time the filming was done, there was nothing in the budget left for music,” he explained.
Hazlehurst had a long association with the Eurovision Song Contest, on which he served as Britain’s musical director three times. In 1977 he conducted both the German disco troupe Silver Convention and the British entry, Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran, performing Rock Bottom. Dressed in a bowler and conducting with a brolly, Hazlehurst helped the duo to second place. He also saw silver with Scott Fitzgerald (1989), Live Report (1989) and Michael Ball (1992). He conducted seven British entries and helped to build up a record for best overall results of any country. Britain’s success ended after Katrina and the Waves won the contest in 1997. Today interest in the contest has, like the points tally, dropped away sharply. The British sitcom has arguably experienced a similar decline.
In 1999 Hazlehurst received a gold badge award from the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. More surprisingly, at 72 he composed with Cathy Dennis the hit Reach, which made No 2 in the British charts for teen-pop group S Club 7 in the summer of 2000.
He moved from Hendon to Guernsey ten years ago.
He is survived by his partner, Jean Fitzgerald, and by two sons from his second marriage.

Ronnie Hazlehurst, musician and composer, was born in 1928. He died after a stroke on October 1, 2007, aged 79

[MrT]

A few years ago Ronnie Hazlehurst and his orchestra recorded a double cd "Laurel and Hardy's Music Box" . In this, Ronnie re-orchestrated many of LeRoy Shield's marvellous background ditties that played merrily against the back drop of Stan and Ollie's antics. I doubt whther any of these had ever been recorded before, but to L & H fans these recordings are priceless. If you are a L and H fan and haven't got this cd set, look out for it. You'll not be disappointed.

Mike (MrT)

[David Brent]

We always take the theme tunes to most of our favourite television shows for granted even though they are usually very catchy.
Many memorable theme songs are thanks to Ronnie Hazelhurst's great volume of wonderful work.

His contribution to the BBC and to the golden moments of British television cannot be underestimated.

Another sad loss.

Dave.