A top events manager has watched his career working with big stars soar into a career involving iconic aircraft.

Francis Rockliff, 60, from Oxford, has worked with TV and film stars while scoring theme tunes and soundtracks, and has produced music for large events during his wide-ranging career.

Now he is the producer of Fly to the Past, an airshow supported by the Oxford Mail, which will take place at Oxford Airport on September 1 and 2.

Mr Rockliff, who was brought up in Liverpool, says he almost took another career path after being discouraged from the entertainment industry by his father.

He said: “My father did not like my music at all. He never allowed me to play music, perform or entertain.”

But then his mother, who had been married five times, broke the news that the man Mr Rockliff had thought was his father was in fact not.

Mr Rockliff said: “When I realised the man who had brought me up was not my father I left behind my commercial life and got into entertainment.

“Feeling quite abandoned and not really belonging to a family has given birth to these charity and community-led events.”

His career took him from producing the scores for BBC shows including Cruel Train, Holding On and Births, Marriages & Deaths alongside his colleague Nick Bicât to films including Stella Does Tricks.

His scores began to be noticed and he was soon working alongside ‘the fifth Beatle’ Sir George Martin on charity fundraising events and later on the musical direction and promotion of events including Oxford’s Millennium festivities and Cornbury Festival.

Among the stars he has worked with is Yusuf Islam, who sold some 60 million albums as Cat Stevens.

Mr Rockliff’s Fly to the Past began life as an airshow at Blenheim Palace, in 2003 and attracted 9,000 people in its first year. It went on to attract 23,000 people.

Last year his spectacular moved to Oxford Airport and attracted a sell-out audience of 10,000.

This year the festival has expanded to two days. It will include flyovers telling the history of aviation, from simple biplanes through to fighters from both world wars and modern-day jets.

Oxford Mail readers can get exclusive two-for-one tickets to Fly to the Past by visiting oxfordmail.co.uk/ flytothepast