Starting off with "Not the Nine O'Clock News", Howard Goodall has provided music for a steady stream of TV shows of the anarchic humour variety. Many of them seemed to feature Rowan Atkinson too, with the four "Blackadder" series following closely behind. Probably at the time of the first series, no-one would have suspected that it would continue as it did. Goodall took the original theme song, and arranged in in different ways to suit the period in which each series was set, from Elizabethan through the Regency period to the trenches of WWI. Blackadder and Baldrick were reunited for a special written for the Millenium Dome so again we had the opportunity for another arrangement of the theme tune. Then there were numerous series of "Red Dwarf", not with Atkinson this time but with a similar sort of British humour. Then there were further series with Atkinson in the shape of "Mr. Bean" and "The Thin Blue Line". The theme for "Mr. Bean" is suitably strange to match the weird introductory segments, and "The Thin Blue Line" is a humorous send-up of the plodding antics of the boys and girls in blue (or black!). Bean went on to super-stardom in a movie of that name, and the Bond spoof "Johnny English" also featured Atkinson. Although mostly scored by Edward Shearmur, the theme was co-written with Goodall.
When Howard Goodall is not writing TV themes and stage musicals, he also does much to promote music on the small screen. First he presented the non-fiction series "Choir Works" series which looked at styles of singing across the globe including Gospel choirs in the States, and singing traditions in Africa and Eastern Europe. A few years later he then presented "Big Bangs" which recounts the major events in the history of music which have shaped and accelerated its development. The story of these major turning points was expanded by Goodall in the book to accompany the series. He has also presented an edition of "The South Bank Show" looking at the state of music education in the UK today. In 2004 Goodall presented a television series called "Howard Goodall's 20th Century Greats" and the composers covered in the series include John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Cole Porter, Bernard Herrmann and Leonard Bernstein.
In 2006 Goodall was back on Channel 4 presenting a new series called "How Music Works". This looks at the key features of music regardless of whether it is Classical or Rock music, including Melody, Rhythym, Harmony and Bass. Although intended to be informative and educational, no doubt the presenter will also make it fun and enjoyable. It is clear from all these series that Howard Goodall is both knowledgeable and extremely passionate about a wide variety of music. See the following Channel 4 microsites about the series: Howard Goodall's 20th Century Greats and How Music Works, and also check out Howard Goodall's own website www.HowardGoodall.co.uk for more details about the presenter. When he is not presenting on television or writing TV themes, Goodall is writing music for the theatre. His musical "The Hired Man" which he wrote with Melvyn Bragg in 1984 has been recorded on a double album available at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com, and "Howard Goodall: Choral Works" is a collection of his choral music including tracks from his Mass "Missa Aedis Christi" at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com.
Goodall's latest project is "Eternal Light: A Requiem" which comes in two formats: a choral-orchestral work and a ballet. For more information about this unusual creation see the video on Amazon.co.uk or this site dedicated to the album www.EternalLightRequiem.com.
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