Neil Richardson(1930-2010)
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Son of a Worcestershire clergyman, Neil Grant Richardson was born in
Stourport on 5 February 1930, and lived in the village of Hartlebury.
As a composer his main activity has been supplying material to stock
music libraries, notably KPM. He and several other KPM composers
(including Sydney Dale, Alan Moorhouse and Johnny Pearson) composed and
conducted under the joint pseudonym "Oscar Brandenburg." One of Neil's
music library pieces, "Approaching Menace," became extremely popular as
the title music to the long-running BBC television quiz
Mastermind (1972), although it was
used in other programmes around the world and even turned up in
Philippine horror movies such as
The Twilight People (1972).
Another of his pieces, "Scotch Broth," was used to accompany the
television test card. Surprisingly, Neil's credited work in films and
television has been mainly as assistant composer and arranger on series
such as
Poirot (1989)
and hit movies like
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).
From 1990 he decided to hyphenate his name to Neil Grant-Richardson.
