Leeds-born musician and producer worked with artists such as Barbra Streisand and was sampled in numerous hip-hop tracks
Alan Hawkshaw, the musician and songwriter who composed some of the UK’s best known TV themes and was sampled across the hip-hop scene, has died aged 84. He had been admitted to hospital with pneumonia last week, and died early on Saturday.
Hawkshaw wrote the loping, almost reggae-like theme to Grange Hill (originally written years before and entitled Chicken Man), the motif for announcing the contestants’ time is up on Countdown, and the theme to Channel 4 News.
