Thanks for all your comments on the previous post.
We finally seem to be back online at home, against all the odds (Phil Collins). Using the Mac is going to take a bit of getting used to, so bear with me.
In the meantime, I’d like to send a big shout out to The Man Like Ronnie Hazlehurst, who died earlier this week.
Ron was responsible for all those instrumental TV themes where you were able to sing the programme titles along to the music:
The-Fall-And-Rise-Of-Reg-in-ald-Per-rin,
Blank-et-y-Blank, Blank-ety-Blank, Blank-ety-Blank (and cetera),
The-Last-Of-The-Sum-mer-Wine/Is-Ver-y-Nice/And-Ver-y-Fine (and cetera).
He was also responsible for the theme music from Are You Being Served? Pink Floyd nicked the idea of using cash till registers on Money from that track, the thieving bastards (possibly).
I’d never seen a picture of Ronnie before, but I always assumed he’d be a rather florid man with a jovial look about him. This seems to have been the case.
Rest in peace, Ron.
I’ll be attempting to navigate back to my *real* blog soon. Thanking you in anticipation of your co-operation …
Welcome back!
yay – Betty’s back!
I am very pleased indeed.
Hurray! You are back. Did you know that the piccolo theme tune of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em spells out the title of the show in morse code? Ronnie Hazlehurst was a genius. I loved all his theme tunes. And he conducted the 1977 British Eurovision Song Contest entry with an umbrella!
Yay! Betty’s back.
And Ronnie’s gone.
So long, Ronnie. I’ll be humming those damned tunes all day now.
Good luck getting back to the old Utility Room, Betty.
MJ – thanks. I’m still a bit delerious, but that could be down to having a stinking cold.
Spin – shucks. I’m sort of back, but a new set of problems have arisen for me to carry on complaining about.
Rockmother – I only recently found that out about the Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em theme. Now I’ll be thinking of Michael Crawford careering down the road in rollerskates for the rest of the day … shudder.
Kaz – back, but there are still problems with Blogger! Nice to know that life is one long struggle, isn’t it?
Dive – “good luck getting back to the old Utility Room”… ah, you spoke too soon. That could be a bit problematic, by the look of things.
And according to Wikipedia, he wrote Reach by the S Club 7. I suspect someone is making that up…
Yay! See you over in the utility room. I’ll bring jaffa cakes ….
I love the way most obits copied the Wikipedia content and didn’t even think about checking that S Club 7 thing. Except the Torygraph, who got it right.
Billy – come to think of it, there is a bit of Ronnie about that song. Mind you, I’ve got an awful cold and am a bit delirious at the moment, so don’t trust my judgement.
Llewtrah = the writers at the Torygraph wouldn’t have heard of S Club 7!
The writers at the Torygraph hadn’t really heard of Ronnie Hazlehurst either. He was a bit rock ‘n’ roll for them. They’re still trying to get their heads round polyphony.
Tim – I’m still trying to get my head around polyphony too. Probably because I didn’t know what it meant until a minute ago …
I had imagined Ronnie Hazlehurst looking like a made-for-tv version of John Barry: thin, whispy comb-over, head-to-foot polyester.
I think John Barry was the last live act I saw, at the Royal Albert Hall (well, I can’t really be seen down the front watching The Klaxons at my age … it would be a bit undignified). Anyway, he (and his orchestra) were bloody excellent. Geoff said that he wished he could have had a word with him backstage about his digestive problems …
ok wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. i just commented on this one somewhere else and now I’m here and it’s here but
*runs off sobbing*