BBC Career
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. In 1968 he became the Light Entertainment Musical Director and, during his tenure, he composed the themes tunes of many sitcoms, including Are You Being Served?, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Last of the Summer Wine, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, To the Manor Born and Three Up, Two Down. He also arranged the themes for Butterflies, Sorry! and Only Fools and Horses. 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.
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, a title-referencing theme for Last of the Summer Wine, and Big Ben chimes for Yes Minister. For Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Hazlehurst used Morse code to spell out the programme's title. During his BBC career he composed the music for the opening of the BBC's coverage of the 1976 Olympics. He left the BBC in the 1990s.
Read more about this topic: Ronnie Hazlehurst
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