Laurie Johnson

Laurence Reginald Ward ('Laurie') Johnson (born 7 February 1927, in Hampstead, England) is a British film and television composer, and bandleader.

Johnson studied at the Royal College of Music in London, and spent four years in the Coldstream Guards moving to the entertainment industry in the 1950s. One of his first major projects was as composer and music director in a musical adaptation of Henry Fielding's Rape Upon Rape entitled Lock Up Your Daughters (1959), which opened in Bernard Miles' Mermaid Theatre. The score, with lyrics by Lionel Bart, won an Ivor Novello Award. Johnson's stage work included music for the Peter Cook revue Pieces of Eight (1959), and The Four Musketeers (1967), starring Harry Secombe.

In 1961 Johnson entered the UK music charts with Sucu Sucu, the theme from the UK television series Top Secret. It was in this area of television scoring that he was to be most prolific. From the 1960s to the 1980s he composed over 50 themes and scores including the theme used on This Is Your Life (entitled Gala Performance) (1952), The Avengers (from 1965), Animal Magic (1962), Jason King (1971), The New Avengers (1976) and The Professionals (1977).

Johnson's film scores include The Moonraker, No Trees In The Street, Tiger Bay, I Aim at the Stars, Spare The Rod, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, First Men In The Moon, East Of Sudan, The Beauty Jungle, Hot Millions, And Soon the Darkness, The Belstone Fox, Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter and Diagnosis: Murder. Among his other works was the music for the television movie Mister Jerico, which involved many of the original Avengers team, including Patrick Macnee.

He was one of the founders (with Albert Fennell and Brian Clemens) of 'Mark One Productions', the television production company responsible for The New Avengers and The Professionals.

Johnson made several recordings on the Unicorn-Kanchana label. These included his own Symphony: Synthesis for a large ensemble comprising a jazz orchestra and symphony orchestra. The recording featured several famous jazz names including Tubby Hayes, Don Lusher, Joe Harriott, Kenny Wheeler and Stan Tracey as well as the forces of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He also recorded music from The Avengers, The New Avengers and The Professionals and a re-recording of Bernard Herrmann's suite for North by Northwest.

Since 1997 Johnson has toured with the band he formed, The London Big Band. He has also provided DVD commentaries on several of the series in which he has been involved.

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