Matthew Strachan, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire theme tune composer, dies ‘suddenly’ aged 50

[Jojogu]

Music composer Matthew Strachan has died at the age of 50.

Strachan, who was best known for composing the iconic Who Wants To Be A Millionaire theme tune, is said to have died 'suddenly' at his home.

Confirming the news, a friend told The Sun: 'Matthew was a troubled soul but an incredibly gifted man.

'He was gentle and kind but endured an ongoing struggle with his inner demons. It is tragic he couldn't be at peace.'

Dirk Maggs, also a composer, paid tribute on Twitter and wrote: 'Goodbye dear friend and massive talent Matthew Strachan. A gentle, kind, talented and wickedly funny Prince.'

London Ambulance Service confirmed they were called to Strachan's home in Twickenham where his body was found.

'We sent an ambulance crew, two medics in cars, and a hazardous area response team,' a spokesperson said.

'Sadly, a person had died at the scene.'

A Scotland Yard spokesperson also told the publication: 'Police were called by the London Ambulance Service at 11:03hrs to a residential address… [in] Twickenham to reports of a sudden death.

'Officers and the LAS attended and a man, in his 50s, was pronounced dead at the scene. The death is not thought to be suspicious.

'A file will be prepared for the coroner.'

West London coroner confirmed they were conducting an investigation and that a post mortem had taken place. They are now awaiting toxicology and histology results and will 'hopefully be able to ascertain the cause of death' with the pathologist's report.

As well as WWTBAM, Strachan also contributed music to programmes such as the BBC's Question Time and Winning Lines.

In a 2014 interview with BBC Radio London, Strachan recalled how he came to compose the familiar WWTBAM theme tune.

He explained: 'Usually these days you're asked to pitch, on that particular occasion there were sort of unusual circumstances because a pilot had been made for the show and it was very unsuccessful, it just didn't work.

'The executive producer called everyone in and said we're going to have to throw the entire thing out and start again from scratch because if we don't ITV are just going to turn their back on us.

'So he actually called my dad first because we wrote it together and said, "you've got to get in a meeting with us, this is extremely important".'

He added: 'We looked at the show and talked to the director and it was eventually decided that there needed to be 95 pieces of music in the whole thing to cover every eventuality…

'It's a particularly good piece of television.'

Strachan revealed that he and his father wrote the music for the game show, which was hosted by Chris Tarrant before Jeremy Clarkson took over, as well as the iconic theme tune in eight days.

Man who wrote Who Wants to Be a Millionaire theme tune dies suddenly aged 50

A friend announced the news on Wednesday.

metro.co.uk

 

[Mr2005]

Damn he was in his twenties when he composed that. He lived fast and died young in his own way