The theme was composed solely by May. Executive Leslie Osborne was given a 'writer' credit because he was responsible for "getting the gig", but May says that he "didn't write single note". May says, "I could have possibly have insisted on retaining the copyright of "EastEnders" for myself, but if I had done so, I would have probably have lost the "Howards' Way" commission." May actually began writing the music that was used for the theme tune when he was seven years old, around 34 years before "EastEnders" first aired, and based it on the scales that his music teacher had taught him.