Joseph Elliott Needham Cooper,

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(7 October 1912 – 4 August 2001) was an English

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and broadcaster. He was best known as the chairman of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's long-running television panel game '' Face the Music''.

Early career

Cooper was born at

Westbury-on-Trym Westbury-on-Trym (sometimes written without hyphenation) is a suburb in the north of the City of Bristol, near the suburbs of Stoke Bishop, Westbury Park, Henleaze, Southmead and Henbury, in the southwest of England. The place is partly na ...

, near

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, England, the son of a bank manager. He was educated at

Clifton College Clifton College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the city of Bristol in South West England, founded in 1862 and offering both boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18. In its early years, unlike mo ...

, and then at

Keble College, Oxford Keble College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, University Museum a ...

, where he was an organ scholar. During the 1930s he worked initially as a church organist and piano teacher before joining the GPO Film Unit, where he wrote incidental music for documentaries, including ''Mony a Pickle'' (1938) and ''A Midsummer Day's Work'' (1939). Here his colleagues included

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, ...

and

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

. Cooper had already embarked on career as a

concert pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz, blues, and popular music, including rock and roll. Most pianists can, to ...

when the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

forced him to give up performing for the duration of hostilities. He resumed his career in 1946, studying briefly with

Egon Petri Egon Petri (23 March 188127 May 1962) was a Dutch-American pianist. Life and career Petri's family was Dutch. He was born a Dutch citizen in Hanover, Germany, and grew up in Dresden, where he attended the Kreuzschule. His father, a professi ...

, and making his London debut in 1947. As a concert pianist, Cooper made a number of successful recordings (including some for the

World Record Club The World Record Club Ltd. was a company in the United Kingdom that issued long-playing Gramophone records, records and reel-to-reel tapes, mainly of classical music and jazz— through a membership-based mail-order system during the 1950s and ...

), and also began broadcasting on radio. In 1946 he assisted

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

with the arrangement of '' Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra''.

Broadcasting compère

In 1954, Cooper accepted an invitation to work on the BBC radio quiz show ''Call the Tune''. In 1966, the show transferred to television under the title '' Face the Music''. Transmitted on

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

and repeated on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

, it ran until 1979 and was briefly revived in 1983–84. The show kept Cooper in the public eye, and the "Hidden Melody" round, a regular feature of the show in which he improvised in the style of a composer and cloaked a well-known tune in his elaborate extemporization, served as a vehicle for his pianistic talent. ''Face the Music'' also featured the Dummy Keyboard, in which Cooper played a well-known piano piece on a silent keyboard and the panel had to identify it. The music was gradually faded in for viewers at home. The panellists included

Joyce Grenfell Joyce Irene Grenfell (''née'' Phipps; 10 February 1910 – 30 November 1979) was an English diseuse, singer, actress and writer. She was known for the songs and monologues she wrote and performed, at first in revues and later in her solo show ...

Robin Ray Robin Ray (17 September 1934 – 29 November 1998) was an English broadcaster on radio and television, actor of stage and screen, and musician. The eldest son of the comedian Ted Ray, he was educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was ...

(who had an encyclopedic memory for

opus numbers In music, the opus number is the "work number" that is assigned to a musical composition, or to a set of compositions, to indicate the chronological order of the composer's publication of that work. Opus numbers are used to distinguish among com ...

), and occasionally

Bernard Levin Henry Bernard Levin (19 August 1928 – 7 August 2004) was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by ''The Times'' as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship t ...

. Cooper's work on ''Face the Music'' was captured on a recording by CRD Records, which was released in 1973. During the 1960s Cooper occasionally appeared as one of the presenters of ''Here Today'', a daily 15-minute light current affairs programme broadcast by TWW. He became known for his acerbic interviewing style and for regularly playing out the programme with a gentle piano piece. Cooper was appointed

in 1982. He was married twice, to Jean Greig (daughter of

Louis Greig Group Captain Sir Louis Leisler Greig, Order of the British Empire, KBE Royal Victorian Order, CVO (17 November 1880 – 1 March 1953) was a Scottish people, Scottish naval surgeon, rugby union, rugby player, courtier and a friend of King Georg ...

; from 1947 until her death in 1973) and then Carol Borg (from 1975 until her death in 1996). "He adored sailing (occasionally sailing down the Thames to the Festival Hall for a concert)" and church architecture. Cooper died at Ranmore, near

Dorking Dorking () is a market town in Surrey in South East England about south-west of London. It is in Mole Valley, Mole Valley District and the non-metropolitan district, council headquarters are to the east of the centre. The High Street runs ro ...

, leaving an estate valued at over one million pounds.

Sources

* ''Radio Times'', 1954–1984 * Obituary of Joseph Cooper, ''The Independent'', 15 August 2001

References

External links

* *''Independent'' obituary tex

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Joseph 1912 births 2001 deaths 20th-century English classical pianists 20th-century English classical musicians Alumni of Keble College, Oxford BBC television presenters English radio personalities English television personalities Greig family Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Clifton College People from Westbury-on-Trym