Celebrating the achievements of Howard Goodall

Howard Goodall moved to Thame in 1964 when his father, Geoff Goodall was appointed headmaster of Lord Williams’s School.

He was very active musically throughout his school life.  At the age of 16 he composed his first musical, “ The Midnight Folk”, and soon after composed his second musical play, “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, performed in December 1976, both in conjunction with David Carr, Head of Lower School West

His third musical, ‘The Last Battle’, was written in his last year at school, again with David Carr. The musical was performed at the School after he had gone to university at Christ Church, Oxford. He returned home to accompany the performances with a band that included Rowan Alkinson, whom he met at university, and who is mentioned in the 1980 Thamensian magazine. Seen below with Richard Curtis.

Howard has composed musicals, choral music and music for TV and film, including some of the best-known TV theme tunes of the last 45 years, including Mr Bean, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, Q.I. and The Vicar of Dibley. He has won many awards, in May 2009 he was named “Composer of the Year” at the Classic BRIT Awards and from 2009 to 2016, he was “Composer-in-Residence” with the UK radio channel Classic FM.

We are very grateful to Howard for kindly donating his personal items, including two pages of his handwritten music score and several photographs.
 

This display replaces the Secret Cupboard which has been put in storage.