Robert Alan Braden (5 February 1927 – 6 April 2021) was an English composer and musical director who composed the theme tunes for several British sitcoms and light entertainment shows of the 1970s and 1980s.

Early life

Braden was born Robert Alan Braden in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. Together with his elder brother, Edwin Braden, he started performing on the stage as young as 5 years old and became a member of his brother's "Edwin Braden (Later Eddy and the HornBlowers) and the Royal Sequence Dance Band", playing in it until Edwin was drafted into the Army at the outset of war as a reservist Sgt. in the R. Engineers and served in Norway and through the Italy campaign.

Wartime

At the outbreak of war, Braden was only 13 years old but with his father, a railway signalman supervisor (a reserved profession), and his brother of fighting age, he found himself and his mother mostly alone. Already a very accomplished musician, he now found himself much in demand and spent many evenings playing gigs in and around Manchester. He joined the Air Training Corps (ATC) and found himself being prepared to become a navigator. He was duly drafted into the Royal Air Force and trained on Wellington/Lancaster bombers. The war in Europe ended before he was deployed and he was transferred to the Army Signals Corps and prepared for deployment in the Far East. Once again, the war ended before deployment and he was demobbed in 1946. Whilst in the services, he was much in demand as a musician and played in the

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...

band at Catterick training establishment. He recalled having met

Glenn Miller Alton Glen Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band founder, owner, conductor, composer, arranger, trombone player and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Arm ...

, describing him as the absolute cream of the bandleaders.

Post-war career

On demobilisation, he quickly returned to being a full-time musician, playing with many of the big bands of the time, including

Joe Loss Sir Joshua Alexander "Joe" Loss (22 June 1909 – 6 June 1990) was a British dance band leader and musician who founded his own eponymous orchestra. Life Loss was born in Spitalfields, London, the youngest of four children. His parents, Israe ...

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and

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, as well as forming and leading his own band which toured the UK. His son Stephen met up with a fellow booker in Southsea that had booked Alan in 1948. Ultimately, the lure of television and work from

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...

(Denmark Street publishing houses) brought him to London. Alan Braden was a much-in-demand session clarinetist and saxophonist as well as a talented arranger and composer, and it was not long before he got his first big break on television with the Rediffusion-produced ''Stars and Garters'', a show about a working class pub. of the same name, featuring Braden as the bandleader and starring

Kathy Kirby Kathy Kirby (born Catherine Ethel O'Rourke; 20 October 1938 – 19 May 2011) was an English singer, reportedly the highest-paid female singer of her generation. She is best known for her cover version of Doris Day's " Secret Love" and for re ...

, Clinton Ford and

Vince Hill Vincent Hill (born 16 April 1934) is an English traditional pop music singer and songwriter who is best known for his recording of the Rodgers and Hammerstein show tune "Edelweiss" (1967), which reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart (staying o ...

Television

Braden's work for television has included ''London Night Out'',

The Sooty Show ''The Sooty Show'' is a British children's television series, created by Harry Corbett, and produced for the BBC from 1955 to 1967, and then for ITV from 1968 until 1992. The show, part of the ''Sooty'' franchise, focuses on the mischievous adv ...

, Night Out at the London Casino,

The Two Ronnies ''The Two Ronnies'' is a British television comedy sketch show starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. It was created by Bill Cotton and aired on BBC1 from April 1971 to December 1987. The usual format included sketches, solo sections, seria ...

, The Chipperfield's Circus Specials,

Get Some In! ''Get Some In!'' is a British television sitcom about National Service life in the Royal Air Force, broadcast between 1975 and 1978 by Thames Television. Scripts were by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, the team behind sitcoms such as '' The Good L ...

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Up Pompeii ''Up Pompeii!'' is a British television comedy series broadcast between 1969 and 1970, starring Frankie Howerd. The first series was written by Talbot Rothwell, a scriptwriter for the ''Carry On'' films, and the second series by Rothwell and S ...

, Give Us A Clue, The Ken Dodd Laughter Show, Mike Yarwood in Persons, Billy Dainty Esq., The Tommy Cooper Hour, ''

Name That Tune ''Name That Tune'' is an American television music game show. Originally created and produced by orchestra conductor Harry Salter and his wife Roberta Semple Salter, the series features contestants competing to correctly identify songs being p ...

'' and the 1979 version of the classic comedy short film '' The Plank.'' In the early Sooty Shows the puppet characters were seen to "play" various musical instruments at the end of the show with his ''Sooty-Braden Showband''. Throughout his career, Braden worked with many of the big names of the time, including

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, Tom Jones, Tom O'Connor,

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and

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Personal life

Braden was married to Margaret Braden and had two sons, Stephen Alan Braden (born 1955) and Philip Robert Braden (1960–2019). He also had three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. His wife Margaret died in 2000, and he married Susan in 2003. He died in

Witney Witney is a market town on the River Windrush in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is west of Oxford. The place-name "Witney" is derived from the Old English for "Witta's island". The earliest known record of it is as ...

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in April 2021 at the age of 94.Primephonic: Alan Braden profile
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Theatre

*''Tom Brown's Schooldays'' (Cambridge Theatre, London 9 May 1972)

Recording

*"Dakota" by

The Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...

written by Alan Braden *"Listen with Us", sung by Clinton Ford with Alan Braden and his Orchestra *"Chocolate Soldier" / "Firefly" by Alan Braden and his Orchestra *"Thoroughly Modern Millie - Overture" by Alan Braden *"Bye Bye Birdie" with Syd James - conducted by Alan Braden

References

External links

*
Alan Braden artist page at Spotify
{{DEFAULTSORT:Braden, Alan 1927 births 2021 deaths English male composers English television composers Musicians from Manchester