Twenty years later he played for Max Wall in the same role.When BBC2 was launched in 1964, Blezard was one of the musical directors for the innovative children's programme Play School with Johnny Ball and Brian Cant. Anne Reay, who was a producer, says, "His job was to improvise music to the action of the presenters – anything from a storm at sea to ice-cream melting. His interpretation was always exuberant." He also worked on the 1970s adult literacy programme On the Move with Rolf Harris.In 1965 he took over from Burt Bacharach as Marlene Dietrich's musical director and toured with her worldwide "We had a row in every Hilton in Europe," he said. "But she always made up for it in champagne afterwards." At one London show, Robert Morley was sitting in the front row. As Blezard came to the end of the opening national anthem, Morley leant forward and said, "So far, so good." Blezard was accompanying Dietrich in Australia in 1975 when she broke her leg on stage, her final performance.In 1983 Sheridan Morley engaged Blezard in 1983 as musical director for No?and Gertie, which began its long run with Joanna Lumley at the King's Head, Islington.

Lumley recalls: It was a tiny cast in a tiny theatre with no dressing rooms but Bill helped make it one of the happiest jobs I ever did. He was a life-enhancer who treated every performance as if it was the Wigmore Hall.For Patricia Hodge in the next cast, Blezard was "the musician's musician": Even under the spotlight, he was oblivious to anything other than the music and he wouldn't let you get away with a mistimed quaver. When my first son was born, he wrote him a lullaby for clarinet and piano, and sent us both the sheet music and a recording."Bill Blezard was the one composer who could capture that Coward style," said Morley: He was one of the last gentlemen artists Singers adored him because he never wanted to be a star He knew his place, which was on the piano stool. With his wild hair he looked like Beethoven, but inside lurked a naughty schoolboy. I have never seen anyone else play while lying on their back under the piano, so all you could see was his fingers.Blezard was musical director in 1986 for the musical Caf?uccini with Nicola McAuliffe, and then played for Honor Blackman in The Life and Times of Yvette Guilbert and Dishonorable Ladies Blezard and Blackman worked together for the next 10 years "William was my staunch support and brilliant accompanist.

No one, but no one will ever be as good," Blackman says.His CD recordings include The Piano Music of William Blezard (2001) played by Eric Parkin, with a second volume due out this year; Battersea Park Suite on the collection British Light Music Discoveries, 4 (2001); the orchestral overture Caramba from 1966 released on British Light Overtures (2002); Two Celtic Pieces on English Oboe Concertos (2001), played by the English Northern Philharmonia; and Duetto (1951), played by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia on English String Miniatures, Vol 3 (2001).Blezard never stopped working to improve his technique, says his son Paul. He worked equally hard, too, although not ashamed of his humble background, to lose his boyhood stammer and his broad Lancashire accent – and "to overcome his personal demons of doubt and worry".He and his family lived in a rambling house just off Barnes Common, the living room dominated by his grand piano. Whenever he wanted to emphasise a point, he would leap up to demonstrate on the keys. He never retired and the night before he died he was performing at a charity concert in Barnes..