Born in Devizes and a pupil of Dauntsey's School, May was a choral scholar at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in modern languages in 1965.
[3] Following the publicity Smike attracted, May was contacted by the BBC, who televised the play in 1973, starring Beryl Reid and Andrew Keir.
Stephanie de Sykes reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart in 1974 with the subsequent "Born With a Smile on My Face",[5] which was used within a storyline on the show.
[3] Kate Robbins performed another of May's songs for Crossroads: "More Than in Love," which was co-written by Barry Leng and reached number 2 in the UK in 1981.
Tony Holland and Julia Smith commissioned May to write the theme to EastEnders after being impressed by his work on spy-thriller Cold Warrior.
[8] Don Black put lyrics to the popular theme, and Anita Dobson (who portrayed Angie Watts in the show) reached number 4 in the UK in August 1986 with "Anyone Can Fall in Love".
Nick Berry ("Wicksy") topped the charts with "Every Loser Wins", which he co-wrote after plugging it in EastEnders (a storyline which Holland openly hated).
[citation needed] May wrote "Peggy's Theme" for Barbara Windsor's exit episode from EastEnders screened on 10 September 2010.
Following their collaboration on EastEnders, Julia Smith and Tony Holland commissioned May to write the theme tune for the new Eurosoap Eldorado.
May reworked a song called "When You Go Away" which he had written for his ill-fated musical Mefisto, based on Goethe's Faust, adding Spanish guitars to make it more relevant to the Eldorado project.
May is visiting professor at the Faculty of Media, Arts and Society, Southampton Solent University who in 2015 conferred on him the degree of Honorary Doctor of Music.