Barrington Pheloung

Barrington Pheloung was born on 10 May 1954 in Manly, New South Wales, Australia. He began playing R&B guitar in clubs, but his discovery of Bach in his late teens drew him to the classical repertoire. In 1972, aged 18, he moved to London where he studied guitar, double bass, and composition at the Chiswick Music Centre, then part of Chiswick Polytechnic (now Brunel University), before proceeding to the Royal College of Music to study composition with John Lambert and guitar under John Williams and Julian Bream. He also took instruction in conducting. In his second year, he received his first commission for a ballet score. He became known for hiding clues and red herrings in the score for the TV show Inspector Morse, occasionally revealing the killer's identity in morse code. The hypnotic title song also included a motif based on the letters M.O.R.S.E. He also composed for dance companies such as the London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and for events including the opening night of the Millennium Dome. He also wrote the theme music for the BBC television series Dalziel and Pascoe. His film work included Hilary and Jackie (1998), based on the life of the cellist Jacqueline du Pré, for which he was nominated for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music at the 52nd British Academy Film Awards. Other works include Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990), Twin Dragons (1992), Shopping (1994), Nostradamus (1994), The Mangler (1995), Touching Wild Horses (2002), Shopgirl (2005), Little Fugitive (2006) and A Previous Engagement (2008). He also composed the scores to Revolution Software's adventure games In Cold Blood and three Broken Sword video games. He died at home in Australia on 1 August 2019. His agent did not give a cause of death.¹²