The Lost Art of the TV Theme

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BBC Radio 4 Extra - The Lost Art of the TV Theme

Comedian and musician Richard Morton recalls the heyday of the classic TV theme.

4 Extra Debut. Richard Morton laments the demise of the instantly-recognisable TV themes of the 60s and 70s. What made them great? From 2015.

Few people who grew up in the 1960s could not now hum you the tunes from:

The Persuaders, University Challenge, Panorama, Crossroads, Dave Allen At Large, The Avengers, The Onedin Line, Blue Peter, Department S, Top of the Form, Tomorrow's World, Grandstand, Dad's Army, The Saint, Sportsnight – the list goes on and on. 

The 1970s gave us:

Fawlty Towers, Colditz, Mr & Mrs, The Two Ronnies, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served, The Goodies, The Wombles, Blake's Seven, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em – and Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads, whose theme tune perfectly captured the affectionate nostalgia of the comedy. 

The melodies became so iconic that those shows which survived into the 21st century – Coronation Street, Mastermind, Match of the Day – have never ditched the theme music familiar to generations of viewers. And we haven't even mentioned Doctor Who, whose pulsing theme generated by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1963 has since regenerated itself many times over, and inspired enough new music to provide a programme for an entire Prom.

Rich Morton acknowledges that his age defines his taste in themes, as in so many other things. As a composer of very plausible tunes for TV shows and films which never existed, he favours the thrilling, brassy action themes of the 1960s or the jaunty hipster tunes of the 1970s. 

Yet his suspicion is that programme makers in the 1980s – perhaps as a result of squeezed budgets - stopped commissioning specially-written music and turned instead to cheaper alternatives, such as adapting instrumental extracts from pre-existing pop records.

Rich argues that, while there are still memorable themes around, far too many shows now have bland or generic music which would defy most people's attempts to hum it, let alone remember it in 50 years' time. 

In an age when many viewers access TV shows from Netflix, iPlayer or YouTube, the need for an instantly-recognisable theme as a clarion call to gather round and watch no longer applies.

Rich sets out to ask what it was that made those old themes so memorable, but is it now a Mission Impossible? Have TV themes diminished in importance as an art form? 

Featuring some of the great practitioners of classic TV themes - Tony Hatch and Alan Hawkshaw, and one of the most successful TV composers of today, Debbie Wiseman.

Producer:  Paul Bajoria 

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2015.

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