Neil Richardson (composer)

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Neil Richardson (born 5 February 1930, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire) is an English composer, best known for "Approaching Menace", aka the Mastermind theme tune. He is also credited as Neil Grant-Richardson.

He is most famous for his library music; incidental music for use in films and television, which is where "Approaching Menace" was found. In the 1960s he often composed under the pseudonym "Oscar Brandenburg", a name he shared with Johnny Pearson and Alan Moorhouse, also well known in this area. He co-composed the famous test card piece "Scotch Broth". Another of his library music compositions, "The Riviera Affair" (aka "Prestige Production," from the 1970 KPM album Impact and Action, Vol. II), is best known to New Yorkers as the opening theme music for WOR-TV's late-afternoon movie program, The 4 O'Clock Movie, in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

He has also orchestrated and conducted some of Richard Rodney Bennett's film music, such as for the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral and Enchanted April.

[edit] See also

• Neil Richardson at the Internet Movie Database
• WOR-TV's The 4 O'Clock Movie opening with Neil Richardson's "The Riviera Affair" music