Death Announced Of Composer Of Inspector Morse Theme Tune

Barrington Pheloung wrote the music for popular TV show in Chiswick

Barrington Pheloung, who composed the theme for TV drama Inspector Morse, had a number of links with Chiswick. He died recently, aged 65, at his home in Australia.

Not only did he study music at the Chiswick Music Centre in the 1970s but he wrote the theme to the popular detective series at Paradise Studios in Chiswick and the central character was played by John Thaw, a long time Chiswick resident.

Australian-born, he came to London from Sydney in 1972 aged 18 and studied guitar, double bass and composition at what was then part of the Chiswick Polytechnic.

Barrington Pheloung left the school Chiswick to attend the Royal College of Music where he studied guitar under John Williams and Juliam Bream. He also studied conducting.

When he started to compose the theme music for the Inspector Morse series he reportedly asked his mother to post him over his old Scout Book of Morse Code from Australia. Using the book, Barrington was able to correctly add the string parts spelling out M-O-R-S-E in the theme music.

John Thaw and Kevin Whately who acted in the ITV series

Music for Inspect or Morse was recorded at Paradise Studios in Chiswick for the musical composition writing and electronic score parts, and at CTS Studios, Wembley, Middlesex for the orchestration.

He won a BAFTA for the music for Inspector Morse in 1991, and also composed the music for Lewis, and Endeavour, as well as Dalziel and Pascoe and the film Hilary and Jackie.

He became known for hiding clues in the score for the TV show, occasionally revealing the killer's identity in Morse Code.

His immense catalogue included fifty two ballet scores for many dance companies worldwide, numerous concerto's, scores for film, television, radio, theatre and new media.

August 9, 2019