Ronnie Hazlehurst | |
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| Born | Ronald Hazlehurst (1928-03-13)13 March 1928 Dukinfield,Cheshire, England |
| Died | 1 October 2007(2007-10-01) (aged 79) St Martin, Guernsey |
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| Years active | 1947–2006 |
| Known for | British television theme songs |
| Spouse | Jean Fitzgerald |
| Children | 2 |
Ronald Hazlehurst (13 March 1928 – 1 October 2007) was an Englishcomposer andconductor who, having joined theBBC in 1961, became its Light Entertainment Musical Director.
Hazlehurst composed thetheme tunes for many well-knownBritish sitcoms and game shows of the 1970s and the 1980s, includingYes Minister,Are You Being Served?,I Didn't Know You Cared andLast of the Summer Wine.
Ronald Hazlehurst was born inDukinfield,Cheshire in 1928 to arailway worker father and a pianoteacher mother.[1][2] Having attendedHyde County Grammar School, he left at the age of 14 and became aclerk in acotton mill for £1 a week.[1][2] From 1947 to 1949, he did hisNational Service as abandsman in the4th/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 theBBC Light Programme, but Hazlehurst left when he was refused a pay rise.[1] Moving toManchester, he became afreelance musician until he was offered a place in another band at a nightclub in London.[1] Ronnie Hazlehurst worked atGranada for about a year in 1955 and (after he left there) worked on a market stall inWatford to make ends meet.[1][2]
Hazlehurst joined the BBC in 1961 and became a staff arranger; his early works included theincidental music forThe Likely Lads,The Liver Birds andIt'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, includingAre You Being Served?,Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em,Last of the Summer Wine (where he also wrote all the instrumental music for the series),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, andThree Up, Two Down.[1][3][4][5] He also arranged the themes forButterflies,Sorry! and the first series ofOnly Fools and Horses.[3] In addition, he wrote the theme tunes for the sketch showThe Two Ronnies, the game showsBlankety Blank,Odd One Out,Bruce Forsyth'sThe Generation Game, and the chat showWogan.[1][3]His theme tunes often included elements designed to fit the programmes, such as acash till inAre You Being Served?, rises and falls inThe Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and theBig Ben chimes forYes Minister.[1][2] ForSome Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Hazlehurst usedMorse 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 the1976 Summer Olympics held inMontreal.[1] He left the BBC in the 1990s.[2]
Hazlehurst was also involved with theEurovision Song Contest and was the musical director when the event was hosted by theUnited Kingdom in1974,1977 and1982.[1] He also conducted theBritish entry on seven occasions, in 1977, 1982,1987,1988,1989,1991 and1992.[4][7] In 1977, as well as conducting the British entry, he also conducted theGerman entry.[3][7] To conduct the British entry that year,Lynsey de Paul andMike Moran, he used a closedumbrella instead of a baton and wore abowler hat.[2][3]
He also arranged and conducted two singers' performances of their voice-overs for opening credits,Clare Torry forButterflies ("Love Is like a Butterfly") andPaul Nicholas forJust Good Friends.[1]
He also recorded some LPs and CDs with his orchestra including a 2-CD box set ofLaurel and Hardy film music; his orchestra also backed singerMarti Caine on an album that was released on CD.
Hazlehurst moved fromHendon,North London toGuernsey 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 hisheart bypass operation in October 2006.[4] On 27 September 2007, he suffered astroke and, without regaining consciousness, died on 1 October at Princess Elizabeth Hospital inSt 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]
Hazlehurst is commemorated by ablue plaque on the front of the house of his birth on Lodge Lane, Dukinfield, which was unveiled in 2009.[9]
By the early 1980s, Hazlehurst's work had become sufficiently well-known to the general public that he was lampooned in aSpitting Image sketch (voiced byHarry Enfield and written byIan Hislop andNick Newman, with music byKeith Strachan) in which his career and music (including a fictional 15-secondRequiem mass, in the style of one of his TV themes) was covered byThe South Bank Show. The sketch was also included on the CD 'Spit in Your Ear', released in 1992.[10][11][12]
| Preceded by | Eurovision Song Contest conductor 1974 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Eurovision Song Contest conductor 1977 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Eurovision Song Contest conductor 1982 | Succeeded by |
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