I suspect Ronnie H's involvement in this song may have been a bit like the legendary sax solo on Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street, played, of course, by Bob Holness..........
I had a couple of encounters with Ronnie Hazlehurst back in the 80s. He was a fascinating man.
Breakfast just did a nice chat on him with clips galore. They showed a clip of the BBC's Eurovision Song Contest from 1982 where he was musical director. During intervals between acts, the orchestra performed a wide range of stuff, some of which came from the Testcard repertoire. If it wasn't such a copyright nightmare to clear, a repeat of the 82 ESC would be wonderful to see again. Mind you, large chunks of it are on YouTube! They also showed the UK's 1977 ESC entry "Rock Bottom" where he famously conducted the orchestra with a rolled up umbrella!
it really true that the theme to "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em" is the title of the programme in morse code?! That's genius if it is and well before Barrington Pheloung used the same idea for "Morse".
Wonderful
music from Mr Hazlehurst - every theme seemed to be the show in minataure - he had an extraordinary ability to capture the spirit and main theme of each programme. The fact that his name still goes up on screen at the end of even current programmes (Last oif the Summer Wine being one) is testament to his talent.
The Reggie Perrin theme is one of my all time favourites which beautifully reflects the programme's mixture of comedy and tragedy.
Yes, he was really good at that. I recall him saying that with Last of the Summer Wine, the producers had expected a bouncing comedy theme, but when he saw the early footage, what shone through for him was the poignancy of old men in their declining years, loneliness, dreams of lost youth etc. That's why he came up with that gentle and slightly wistful melody.
In my opinion Hazlehurst is right up there with Ron Grainer in terms of greatness, in fact I would say Hazlehurst was greater because of the vast range of his themes.
