The family of Carl Davis has announced the composer’s death of a cerebral haemorrhage on 3 August. He was 86.

“We are so proud that Carl’s legacy will be his astonishing impact on music,” said the family statement. “A consummate all-round musician, he was the driving force behind the reinvention of the silent movie for this generation and he wrote scores for some of the most loved and remembered British television dramas.”

Carl Davis was born in Brooklyn, New York City in 1936. As a young man he studied composition with Paul Nordoff and Hugo Kauder, and subsequently with Per Nørgård in Copenhagen. His early work as a conductor included engagements with the New York City Opera and the Robert Shaw Chorale.

In 1959, the revue Diversions, which Davis co-wrote, won an off-Broadway award and played an Edinburgh Festival season in 1961. There, Davis met the English writer and broadcaster Ned Sherrin, who asked him to compose music for the British satirical TV program That Was the Week That Was. His UK career was launched.

Davis’s scores for British television include the documentary series The World at War (1973) and dramas such as The...