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Howard Goodall (born 1958 in Bromley, South London) is a British composer of musicals, choral music and music for television. He also presents music-based programming for the television.

Contents 1 Works 1.1 Musical theatre 1.2 Television 1.3 Choral works 2 Presenting 3 Awards 4 References 5 External links

His prolific output of musical theatre works includes The Hired Man (1984),an adaptation of the novel by Melvin Bragg, which won an Ivor Novello award, Girlfriends (1986), Days of Hope (1991), Silas Marner (1993), The Kissing-Dance (1999), The Dreaming (2001), A Winter's Tale (2005) and Two Cities (2006).

He has written popular themes for, among many others, the television comedy series Red Dwarf, Blackadder, Mr Bean, The Thin Blue Line, The Vicar of Dibley and QI. It was as an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford that he met the actor Rowan Atkinson and the writer Richard Curtis, his collaborators on Not the Nine o'clock News, Blackadder and other projects.

Although mostly known for his television work, Goodall has a considerable body of new choral music to his name (the process of composing one of these works is noted in the book of his Big Bangs series), including "In Memoriam Anne Frank" (2001), "O Lord God of Time and Eternity" (2003) and settings of Psalm 23 and "Love Divine". Jason and the Argonauts (2004) was commissioned for the opening of the rebuilt organ at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

As well as presenting the BBC's Choir of the Year, Chorister of the Year and Young Musician of the Year, he has presented six award-winning series of television programmes on musical history, filmed by Tiger Aspect and broadcast on Channel 4:

• Howard Goodall's Organworks (1996) — history of organ music
• Howard Goodall's Choirworks (1998) — history of choral music
• Howard Goodall's Big Bangs (2000) — pivotal events in the history of music (also a book, published by Vintage in 2001, ISBN 0-09-928354-9)
• Howard Goodall's Great Dates (2002) — important dates in the history of music
• Howard Goodall's 20th Century Greats (2004) — exploring the divergence between classical and popular music in the 20th century
• Howard Goodall's How Music Works (2006) — analysing the fundamental components of music itself [1].

Goodall received a Royal Television Society award for Organworks and the 2000 BAFTA Huw Wheldon award for Big Bangs, which also won several international prizes.

Awards and honours include an honorary Doctorate of Music from Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln, a British Academy of Composers & Songwriters Gold Badge Award for exceptional work in support of his fellow British composers and a 2007 Making Music/Sir Charles Groves Prize for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. In 2007 Goodall was named by the Government as the "Singing Ambassador" as part of a £10 million package to boost music in schools^[1]

1. ^ Department for Education and Skills

• Howard Goodall's official website
• Howard Goodall at the Internet Movie Database
• London revival of Days of Hope