Leslie Osborne (1905–1990) was an English television and music executive and composer of
light music and themes for television and radio. As a composer, he wrote a number of lighter orchestral pieces such as ''Lullaby for Penelope''.
In 1976, Osborne worked for
ATV Music
Sony Music Publishing (formerly Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is the largest music publisher in the world, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021. US-based, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is itself owned ...
and was responsible for trying to get the company's catalogue airtime on
BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
radio programmes. In that role, he met composer
Simon May
Simon May (born 15 August 1944) is a British composer. He has composed many British television theme tunes, including '' EastEnders'' and '' Howards' Way'', and the music for the 1988 film '' The Dawning''.
Biography
Born in Devizes and a p ...
, who had then recently had a pop hit with his song "Summer of My Life". Osborne later introduced May to various other TV executives, and he was commissioned to write themes for ''
Skorpion'', ''
Cold Warrior
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because ther ...
'', ''
EastEnders'' and ''
Howards' Way
''Howards' Way'' is a television drama series produced by BBC Birmingham and transmitted on BBC1 between 1 September 1985 and 25 November 1990. The series deals with the personal and professional lives of the wealthy yachting and business com ...
''.
Because of his executive role, Osborne was able to secure a writer credit for the themes for ''EastEnders'' and ''Howards' Way'', despite, in reality, May being the sole composer. May says that Osborne "didn't write a single note... I could have possibly have insisted on retaining the copyright of ''EastEnders'' for myself, but if I had done so, I would have probably have lost the ''Howards' Way'' commission."
He also wrote the music for the hymn "Praise the Lord in the Rhythm of Your Music", featured in the popular children's hymnal
Come and Praise
''Come and Praise'' is a hymnal published by the BBC and widely used in collective worship in British schools. The hymnal was compiled by Geoffrey Marshall-Taylor with musical arrangements by Douglas Coombes, and includes well-known hymns such as ...
.
See also
*
EastEnders theme tune
The ''EastEnders'' theme tune was composed by Simon May. Leslie Osborne has a contractual composer credit, but did not contribute to the composition or recording.
The theme, which is written in the key of E-flat major, is largely based upon ...
References
External links
*
1905 births
1990 deaths
Light music composers
20th-century classical musicians
20th-century English composers
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