VALE | Channel 9 Musical Director and Midday star GEOFF HARVEY

Geoff Harvey, the composer who wrote the soundtrack to some of Australia’s most popular shows, has died at the age of 83.

Born in the United Kingdom he came to Australia after World War II and produced records for EMI.

He joined Sydney’s TCN9 in the early 1960s. He worked on variety shows like Bandstand, The Sound Of Music and The Tonight Show.

But it was his work on The Mike Walsh Show and its successor Midday that made him a household name in the 1970s through to the 1990s.

As Nine‘s musical director he composed the signature tune to various Nine programs but his most famous was the theme to The Sullivans.

He worked on The Don Lane Show and the TV Week Logie Awards. For almost twenty years he was the musical director for Carols By Candlelight.

Nine CEO Hugh Marks has paid tribute to Harvey:

“Geoff Harvey was a man of enormous talent as a musician and an entertainer.

He was funny and generous, entertaining Australians as the musical director of choice on so many of our programs across the decades, alongside the likes of Kerri-Anne Kennerley, Don Lane, Ray Martin and Mike Walsh.

As musical director at Nine he was the composer of memorable themes for A Current Affair and Today Show. Our condolences go out to his family and close friends at this sad time.”

Harvey was recently on a tour of Australia doing a show called Senior Moments and earlier this year he reunited with former Midday host Kerri-Anne Kennerley on Studio 10.

One tribute that Harvey may not have noticed receiving during his career was that in the Nineties sketch comedy show Big Girl’s Blouse, where “celebrity choreographer” Coralee Hollow (Gina Riley) and her husband Ross (Magda Szubanski) had their pet dogs named Geoff and Harvey.

GEOFF HARVEY | 1935-2019

This article was originally published at Televison AU