Ronnie Hazlehurst

Born on 13 March 1928 in Dukinfield, Cheshire, England, Ronnie Hazlehurst died on 1 October 2007 in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, in the Channel Islands. His mother taught piano, yet she made scant headway with the boy, who advanced instead on his own timetable and, after his elder brother enlisted in 1939, taught himself the trumpet that had belonged to the departing sibling. Employed in a cotton-mill office, he performed with several neighbourhood ensembles before turning professional alongside the George Chambers Band, which captured the All Britain Dance Band Championships and appeared regularly on the BBC Light Programme throughout the 1950s. A dispute over Chambers’ pronounced frugality prompted Hazlehurst’s departure; he next worked with the bands of Nat Allen, George Elrick and Harry Payne, then completed his National Service playing cornet in a regimental band.

Once demobilised he worked as a freelance musician around Manchester, where Granada Television’s Peter Knight recruited him as assistant musical director for the quiz programme Spot The Tune—an engagement that followed Hazlehurst’s earlier tenure with Woolf Philips as conductor, arranger and deputy bandleader during a cabaret season at London’s Pigalle. When the Knight contract ended, Hazlehurst spent nine months operating a record stall in Watford market before joining the BBC as a staff arranger. In 1968 he advanced to Head of Music for BBC Television Light Entertainment. While at the corporation he supplied the signature themes for Are You Being Served?, Blankety Blank, Last Of The Summer Wine, Some Mothers Do ’Ave Em, The Two Ronnies and Yes, Minister. He also participated in the Eurovision Song Contest, directing the United Kingdom’s entry on seven occasions, and led the orchestra for the 1982 Royal Command Performance.

In the late 1990s Hazlehurst moved to Guernsey, where he remained for the rest of his life. The British Academy of Composers and Songwriters presented him with its Gold Badge in 1999.