Neil Richardson

Neil Grant Richardson (5 February 1930 – 8 October 2010) was an English composer and conductor.

Richardson composed "Approaching Menace" (the Mastermind theme tune) and "The Riviera Affair". During the 1960s–1990s, he was an arranger and conductor of various BBC Radio Orchestras, working on programmes such as String Sound and The Radio Orchestra Show. He was a prolific composer of library music for companies such as KPM, and his music has been used in numerous TV, film and radio productions. Aged eight, he went to become a chorister at Westminster Abbey. For example, he co-composed the test card piece "Scotch Broth".

Another of his library music compositions, "The Riviera Affair" (aka "Prestige Production", from the 1970 KPM album Impact and Action, Vol. II), is best known to New Yorkers as the theme music for WOR-TV's late-afternoon movie program, The 4 O'Clock Movie, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The song was also used as part of a homage of The 4 O'Clock Movie in the opening logo sequence for the 2007 heist film, Ocean's Thirteen. NFL Films also used some of his compositions in its American football highlight films. His library theme "Another Happening" was used for the 2012 BBC Scotland series Britain on Film, which featured footage from the Rank Organisation's 1960s Look at Life newsreels.

Richardson also orchestrated and conducted some of Richard Rodney Bennett's film music, such as for the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral and Enchanted April. He also appeared as conductor in the 1980 album A Sure Thing, featuring Bennett's arrangements of Jerome Kern songs, alongside Bennett as piano soloist and French horn player Barry Tuckwell. He was also an arranger for numerous television productions including Agatha Christie's Poirot and The Charmer.