Alan Hawkshaw: Composer Of Grange Hill And Countdown Dies Aged 84.

His agent said he was hospitalized this week with pneumonia and died in the early hours of Saturday morning. His wife Christian said: "It is heartbreaking to say goodbye to Alan, my 53-year-old husband and the love of my life." He added, "We have spent the last few hours looking at each other lovingly, holding hands without needing words.

"I told him we were together forever, and even though he hasn't been able to talk for the past two months, he did some "forever," and I know he's at peace.

According to his website, Hawkshaw has written music for more than 35 "uncountable" films and television programs. In the 1960s, Hawkshaw was in the rock and roll band Emile Ford & The Checkmates, who toured with the Rolling Stones. He joined The Shadows in the 1970s and worked as a music director, arranger, and pianist for Olivia Newton-John.

For Newton-John's "I Honestly Love You," he was awarded best arrangement by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Hawkshaw has played lead roles in many hits and has worked with Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones, Lulu, and David Bowie. "Hip-hop producers, in particular, have robbed the catalog of Alan's work, including the largest, Jay-Z with Pray, which appears on an American gangster album," he said.

"He also famously said of Streisand: 'Barbara kept this song of mine for eight years until I messaged her through one of her lawyers." He went on to record his song "Why Let It Go." In 2004 he find the Alan Hawkshaw Foundation with the Society for the Rights of Performers.

The scholarship program funds more than 70 scholarships at the Leeds College of Music, now the Leeds Conservatory, and the National School of Film and Television. According to his website, Hawkshaw, who is from Leeds, also signed a youth tennis tournament in Radlett, the small Hertfordshire town where he lives, and donated 10% of his income to less wealthy people.