Ken Howard (born 26 December 1939 in Worthing, West Sussex) is an English songwriter, lyricist, author and television director.
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In the 1960s and 1970s, in collaboration with Alan Blaikley, Ken Howard composed the music and words for many international top 10 hits,[1][2][3] including two UK number ones, "Have I the Right?" (The Honeycombs) and "The Legend of Xanadu" (Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich).[4][5]
Among other performers for whom they have written are Petula Clark, Phil Collins, Sacha Distel, Rolf Harris, Frankie Howerd (the theme song for his film Up Pompeii), Engelbert Humperdinck, Horst Jankowski, Eartha Kitt, Little Eva, Lulu and Matthews Southern Comfort.
Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley were the first British composers to write for Elvis Presley, including the hit "I’ve Lost You" (1970) which he later performed in the film That’s The Way It Is.[6]
Howard and Blaikley’s ‘space cantata’, Ark 2 (1969), performed by Flaming Youth, drew the comment that Blaikley and Howard "have a wit, gaiety, dignity and melodic flair reminiscent of Leonard Bernstein...which suggest that pop is becoming the serious music – in the proper sense – of the age" [7]
Howard and Blaikley have also been responsible for theme and incidental music for several television drama series including The Flame Trees of Thika (1981) and By the Sword Divided (1983–1985), both subsequently aired in the US on Alistair Cooke’s Masterpiece Theatre, and the BBC's long-running series of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple (1984–1992)
Howard and Blaikley have written two West End musicals, Mardi Gras (Prince of Wales Theatre, 1976)[8] and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (Wyndham's Theatre, 1984–1986),[9] and two BBC TV musicals Orion (1977) and Ain’t Many Angels (1978).
As a British film maker Howard has worked extensively in drama, music and documentary films. These have included (for the BBC) A Penny for Your Dreams, John Lennon - A Journey in the Life, The Miracle of Intervale Avenue, Open Mind, Mr Abbott’s Broadway and Sunny Stories; (for ITV) South Bank Show profiles of the New World Symphony Orchestra, Danny Kaye, Frank Sinatra, Hakan Hardenberger, Johnnie Ray and Maxim Vengerov, EK-OK, and Will Apples Grow on Mars?. The BBC drama A Penny for your Dreams which he co-wrote, composed and directed won the Festival Award at the Celtic Media Festival in Caenarfon in 1988 [10] His BBC films Braveheart and Today I am A Man both won the Royal Television Society Best Children's Factual Award.[11] He is a director of Landseer Productions Ltd in London.[12]
He is also co-founder and director of Sophisticated Games Ltd,[13] having co-devised the best-selling board game of Sophie's World and publishing the million-selling Lord of the Rings board game as well as numerous other successful games including Ingenious and The Hobbit. His first novel, The Young Chieftain, aimed at a teenage audience, was published by Tamarind Books, a division of Random House in September 2010.[14] He is Chairman of The Casey Trust for Children [15]