"THERE WAS THE TUNE":

In 1987, the Australian composer Barrington Pheloung, who has died aged 65 of respiratory failure, provided the haunting theme and incidental music to the ITV crime drama series Inspector Morse. The combination of the complex, grumpy detective, played by John Thaw, the Oxford setting of the underlying novels by Colin Dexter and the 100-minute length of each episode created scope for a very distinctive approach.

As Bazz (or Barry, or Bazza) recalled: "Morse is a very melancholic character, so the tune had to be melancholic, and he was a lover of classical music, so it should be an orchestral score and not a synthesiser. He has a very cryptic mind, he loves doing crosswords; we came up with the obvious idea - his name is Morse and we use Morse code in the music." The spelling out of his name fitted into a rhythm that suggested a harmonic structure: "I picked up my guitar and there was the tune."

Over the course of 13 years, 33 episodes of Morse were broadcast, and Bazz also provided the music for a sequel, Lewis, later Inspector Lewis (2006-15), with Morse's sergeant (Kevin Whately) moving centre stage. He did the same for a prequel, Endeavour (2012-17), with Shaun Evans as the young Morse.

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