Composer of 'Brideshead Revisted' music has died

(PA )

The composer Geoffrey Burgon, who wrote scores for some of the most notable television shows of the last 30 years, has died, a spokeswoman for his publishers said.

The 69-year-old, who was born in Hampshire, wrote music for award-winning shows including Brideshead Revisited and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, for which he won two Ivor Novello awards. He also composed music for The Chronicles of Narnia, Doctor Who and Monty Python's Life Of Brian. He died on Tuesday.

More recently the composer won Bafta awards for his work on The Forsyte Saga and Channel 4's Longitude. James Rushton, of his publishers Chester Music, said: "Geoffrey Burgon was one of very few composers in recent times whose music has truly touched the hearts of the international public. The music and unforgettable melodies Geoff wrote for the great classic BBC and ITV series over the past 40 years have established themselves as standards, both within their genre and as pure music."

Burgon is survived by his wife, pianist Jacqueline Krofchak, their son Daniel, his ex-wife Janice Garwood and two children from that marriage, Matthew and Hannah.

Born in 1941 in Hampshire, England, he started learning the trumpet when he was 15 before enrolling at the Guildhall School of Music. His early compositions were largely for dance, for Ballet Rambert and the London Contemporary Dance Theatre. A breakthrough performance of his Requiem at the Three Choirs Festival in 1976 made his name and led to several major commissions, allowing him to pursue composition as a full-time career.