Cyril Ornadel

Cyril Ornadel (2 December 1924 – 22 June 2011) was a British composer, conductor, and songwriter who worked primarily in musical theatre. Born in London, England, he studied at the Royal College of Music before building a career that spanned the West End, Broadway, television, and film. Over the course of that career he received four Ivor Novello Awards and was presented with the Gold Badge of Merit by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in recognition of his services to British music.

During the 1950s, Ornadel became widely known as the conductor of the orchestra for the television programme Sunday Night at the London Palladium. He subsequently served as musical director for several prominent West End productions, among them the first London staging of My Fair Lady and two productions at the London Palladium: The Sound of Music and The King and I, the latter starring Yul Brynner.

As a composer, Ornadel created a number of original musicals, several drawn from classic literary sources. Pickwick, which opened in 1963 with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and starred Harry Secombe, was adapted from the work of Charles Dickens and produced the song "If I Ruled the World," which earned Ornadel an Ivor Novello Award. He returned to Dickens for Great Expectations in 1975, starring John Mills, and also adapted Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island in 1973, a production featuring Bernard Miles and Spike Milligan. Both Great Expectations and Treasure Island, each with lyrics by Hal Shaper, were named Best British Musical at the Ivor Novello Awards. Pickwick transferred to Broadway, where it was performed under the title Mr. Pickwick, representing Ornadel's credited Broadway composition work.

Ornadel also achieved success as a songwriter outside the theatre. He composed "Portrait of My Love" with lyricist Norman Newell, which became a hit for Matt Monro in 1960 and won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically that same year. The song "At My Time of Life," drawn from Great Expectations, was recorded by Bing Crosby in 1976.

His television work encompassed a range of projects. He scored the 1974 remake of Brief Encounter, starring Richard Burton and Sophia Loren, and composed the music for Edward the Seventh in 1975, a production starring Timothy West in the title role that won a BAFTA. He also wrote the music for the British science-fiction television series Sapphire and Steel, which began in 1979. Additionally, Ornadel conducted the London Symphony Orchestra for The Strauss Family, a project for which he received a gold disc for sales; a notable occasion connected to that work was his conducting of the London Symphony Orchestra at Wembley Arena in 1973 with music from the same production.

Ornadel's film credits included Some May Live (1967), Subterfuge (1968), Wedding Night (1970), Not Now Darling (1973), and several films directed by Pete Walker, among them Man of Violence (1969), Cool It Carol! (1970), Die Screaming, Marianne (1971), The Flesh and Blood Show (1972), and Tiffany Jones (1973). He collaborated regularly throughout his career with television writer, director, and producer David Croft, as well as with Norman Newell and Hal Shaper. His autobiography, Reach for the Moon, was published by the Book Guild in 2007. Ornadel died on 22 June 2011 at the age of 86.