Christopher Gunning Obituary – Death: English Composer of TV and Film Music Dies Unexpectedly: According to an online obituary on Friday, March 24, 2023, Christopher Gunning has passed away unexpectedly. However, cause of death was not disclosed.
Mourning his passing, David_Suchet wrote; “The wonderful Christopher Gunning has passed away this morning. Such a gifted composer of TV and Film music. He composed the very well known and loved theme tune for POIROT. I am dedicating this matinée performance at Hampstead Theatre to him.”
Gunning was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where his tutors included Edmund Rubbra and Richard Rodney Bennett.
Gunning’s film and TV compositions have received many awards, including the 2007 BAFTA Award for Best Film Music for La Vie en Rose, as well as three additional awards for Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Middlemarch, and Porterhouse Blue. He has also won three Ivor Novello Awards, for the TV miniseries Rebecca, and the film scores for Under Suspicion (1991), and Firelight (1997). His other film scores include Goodbye Gemini (1970), Hands of the Ripper (1971), Ooh… You Are Awful (1972), the film version of Man About the House (1974), In Celebration (1975), Rogue Male (1976), Charlie Muffin (1979), Rise and Fall of Idi Amin (1981), Knights of God (1987), When the Whales Came (1989), Lighthouse Hill (2004) and Grace of Monaco (2014).
In the 1970s and 1980s, Gunning collaborated with rock musician Colin Blunstone and was responsible for the distinctive string arrangement on Blunstone’s 1972 hit “Say You Don’t Mind”. He also provided the haunting string arrangements on “Won’t Somebody Dance With Me”, the Ivor Novello award-winning song written and performed by Lynsey De Paul as well as another of de Paul’s hit singles “My Man and Me” and her 1974 album “Taste Me… Don’t Waste Me”.
Gunning’s scores for The Big Battalions, Wild Africa, Cold Lazarus and When the Whales Came also received nominations for BAFTA and Ivor Novello Awards, and his music for the Martini advertising campaign, heard around the world for thirty years, won three Clio Awards.
Gunning composed the music for nearly all of the Poirot TV films starring David Suchet, and worked on all three series of Rosemary and Thyme featuring Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris.
In recognition of Gunning’s contribution to music, he received a BASCA Gold Badge Award on 19 October 2011.
Gunning had four daughters and lived in Hertfordshire. One of his daughters is a professional oboist. Another runs the travel blog wanderlustchloe.com.
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