The home of the musician who composed the theme to television's Name That Tune has been wrecked by a gas explosion, after workmen moved his cooker to lay a new carpet.

Alan Braden, 70, of St Mary's Mead, Witney, was in Burford when he learned of the explosion yesterday.

The force of the blast blew out windows and lifted the ceiling at his freshly decorated house.

The two workmen escaped without serious injury, but were treated for shock at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Just before the explosion, the workmen had phoned Mr Braden to ask where the gas stop tap was. Minutes after that call, his son, Stephen, called him.

"He said I had better get back because my house had blown up," said Mr Braden, a retired musical director for Thames TV.

Mr Braden wrote the theme tunes for Name That Tune, the Mike Yarwood Show, Give Us a Clue and Wish You Were Here.

Mr Braden, a widower, has lived in the house for ten years. He said the explosion has caused more than £50,000 damage.

He is now staying with friends in Witney and will be unable to move back for at least three months.

He said: "I am absolutely devastated. My lovely little house has been ruined -- and it has just been decorated. Fortunately, the men were okay. But there was glass everywhere and neighbours told me they were shaken in their homes by the explosion."

Witney's two fire crews were called out and had to wear breathing apparatus to put out a blaze centred on a cooker in the kitchen.

The blast ripped through the ground floor, blowing window glass in all directions and shattering a small conservatory at the front of the house.

Witney fire station officer Steve Fletcher said the two workmen were working in the kitchen shortly before the blast. Pipes became disconnected when they went to move the gas cooker.

"The place is wrecked," he said. "When we arrived the kitchen was well alight, but we soon got it under control.

"The two guys who were in there are lucky to come out without serious injury."

A spokesman for the company which employs the two workmen said they did not want to be named. "They have been treated for shock. We will look into what happened," he said.

Engineers for Transco, the gas supply company, were making investigations and making the home safe.