Editing Ron Grainer (section)

===London===
In 1952 Grainer left Australia for London<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-guide/the-space-pirates/|title=The Space Pirates ★}}</ref> with his wife Margot and 10-year-old stepdaughter Rel. He managed to find a three-month engagement playing piano in a nightclub along with other occasional jobs, the worst of which became a twelve-month stint with a touring Australian comedy act called "The Allen Brothers and June." This required the classically trained Grainer to be hit on the head nightly by a falling grand piano lid and then to topple over into the [[orchestra pit]], an experience he later said was even harder to do than a day's fencing in the Australian outback.<ref>"Music from Paradise" New Idea 29.1.66 p49</ref>

At one stage, to pay the rent on their room, Grainer and his wife had to work as caretakers of a large block of London flats where he stoked two large boilers, morning and night, whilst Margot washed stairs and cleaned rooms.<ref>"ABC on the Trail of Inspector Maigret" Australian Women's Weekly 27 June 1962 p42"</ref>

To increase his public profile Grainer had two attempts at song contests: "England's Made of Us" (1956), an entry with lyricist [[David Dearlove]] for the First British Festival of Popular Song, which received the score of no points from the judges <ref>Gordon Roxburgh "Songs For Europe" Telos Publishing Denbighshire p. 53–60</ref> and, the following year, "Don't Cry Little Doll" (1957) (also written with David Dearlove), which reached fourth place in the British [[Eurovision]] entry decider heats.

Grainer's most dramatic pre-success music involvement was with ''Before The Sun Goes Down,'' a TV play which caused audience panic and questions to be raised in the British Parliament when it was shown on 20 February 1959. Taking inspiration from [[Orson Welles]]' 1938 radio drama of ''[[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|The War of the Worlds]],'' the production used a similar format in which a regular programme broadcast was interrupted by a fake public service announcement. In this instance it was about a mysterious and "terrifying" satellite seen hovering over the city of London.<ref>{{citation |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1959/mar/16/television-bogus-news-broadcast#S5CV0602P0_19590316_HOC_407 |title=Television (Bogis News Broadcast) |publisher=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]] |work=Common Sitting HC Debates |date= 16 March 1959 |volume=602 |quote=cc 161–72}}</ref>