WEST Malvern's Paul Farrer is one of the biggest winners in the runaway international TV success of BBC quiz show The Weakest Link.

Every minute of Anne Robinson's show is precious to the 28-year-old professional composer as he created the music which is now heard by millions of people worldwide.

Mr Farrer has composed for film and TV since leaving school. He was asked to write the music for The Weakest Link when it was in its early stages and started work on it in March last year.

"I've always been into music," said the former Dyson Perrins pupil, who is amazed at the show's success.

"It all came out of nowhere really. It was a daytime pilot when it was commissioned, then it moved from BBC2 to BBC1 and went every day. Then it went to primetime - the whole thing has just snowballed."

The show premiered on US station NBC on Monday (April 16), and was an instant hit with the audience. It is now shown in 18 countries around the world, and Mr Farrer's music is featured in all versions.

"They're determined to make every element of the show the same," said the 28-year-old, who lives with his wife Anita in West Malvern.

The music, set and style of presenter have been retained, with many countries finding their own redheaded dominatrix presenter, although Mr Farrer described Anne Robinson as "really charming".

Mr Farrer earns royalties from the show, each time it is aired.

"I got my first cheque last week, it was a bit scary," he said. "I get paid for every minute that it's shown."

The music for the show was complicated, with Mr Farrer sending various different ideas to the show's producers.

"I had quite a lot of ideas, some dramatic, some not so dramatic," he said, "There was a lot of fine tuning going on.

"The timing on the show is very important, the music goes all the way through the whole 45 minutes. You've got the background music, as well as the strings, and the music changes as the clock counts down. It was quite a complicated project."

Since the success of The Weakest Link, Mr Farrer has been approached to compose themes to more TV programmes.

He wrote the music to BBC1's Dog Eat Dog show, fronted by a similarly aggressive Ulrika Jonsson, as well as Infested, an ITV drama starring David Jason, which runs next month.