Ronnie Hazlehurst

Ronald Hazlehurst was born in Dukinfield, Cheshire, in 1928, to a railway worker father and a piano teacher mother.[1][2] Having attended Hyde County Grammar School, he left at the age of 14 and became a clerk in a cotton mill for £1 a week.[1][2] From 1947 to 1949 he did his National Service as a bandsman in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards.[2]

During his spare time, he played in a band, and soon became a professional musician earning £4 a week.[1] The band appeared on the BBC Light Programme, but Hazlehurst left when he was refused a pay rise.[1] Moving to Manchester, he became a freelance musician until he was offered a place in another band at a nightclub in London.[1] Ronnie Hazlehurst worked at Granada for about a year in 1955 and, after he left there, worked on a market stall in Watford to make ends meet.[1][2]

Hazlehurst joined the BBC in 1961, and became a staff arranger; his early works included the incidental music for The Likely Lads, The Liver Birds and It's a Knockout.[1][3] In 1968 he became the Light Entertainment Musical Director and, during his tenure, he composed the theme tunes of many sitcoms, including Are You Being Served?; Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em; Last of the Summer Wine (where he also wrote all the instrumental music for the show); I Didn't Know You Cared; The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin; To the Manor Born; Yes, Minister; Yes, Prime Minister; Just Good Friends; and Three Up, Two Down.[1][3][4][5] He also arranged the themes for Butterflies, Sorry!, and the first series of Only Fools and Horses.[3] In addition, he wrote the theme tunes for the sketch show The Two Ronnies, the game shows Blankety Blank, Odd One Out and Bruce Forsyth's The Generation Game and the chat show Wogan.[1][3] His theme tunes often included elements designed to fit the programmes, such as a cash till in Are You Being Served?, rises and falls in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and the Big Ben chimes for Yes Minister.[1][2] For Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Hazlehurst used Morse code to spell out the programme's title.[4][6] During his BBC career he composed the music for the opening of the BBC's coverage of the 1976 Olympics.[1] He left the BBC in the 1990s.[2]

Hazlehurst was also involved with the Eurovision Song Contest and was the musical director when the event was hosted by the United Kingdom in 1974, 1977 and 1982.[1] He also conducted the British entry on seven occasions, in 1977, 1982, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991 and 1992.[4][7] In 1977, as well as conducting the British entry, he also conducted the German entry.[3][7] To conduct the British entry that year, Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran, he used a closed umbrella instead of a baton and wore a bowler hat.[2][3]

He also arranged and conducted two singers' performances of their voice-overs for opening credits, Clare Torry for Butterflies ("Love Is like a Butterfly") and Paul Nicholas for Just Good Friends.[1]

He also recorded some LPs and CDs with his orchestra including a 2-CD box set of Laurel and Hardy film music; his orchestra also backed singer Marti Caine on an album that was released on CD.

Hazlehurst moved from Hendon, North London, to Guernsey in about 1997.[4] In 1999, he was awarded a Gold Badge from the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters.[4]

Music was Hazlehurst's life and passion as well as his work and he continued to work right up to his heart bypass operation in October 2006.[4] On 27 September 2007 he suffered a stroke and, without regaining consciousness, died on 1 October in Princess Elizabeth Hospital, St Martin, Guernsey.[5][8] Having been married twice, with two sons from his second marriage, at the time of his death his partner was Jean Fitzgerald.[4]

• Ronnie Hazlehurst at IMDb