The Sound of TV with Neil Brand

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Music

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Documentary series about the history and use of music in television.

Three-part documentary series that explores the history and use of music in television.

Series 1

BBC Four HD

Neil Brand

David Prichard

Ian MacMillan

Roy Ackerman

The Sound of TV with Neil Brand: Series 1: Episode 1

Episode 1

BBC Four - The Sound of TV with Neil Brand, Series 1, Episode 1

Neil Brand looks at the enduring power of the television theme tune.

Documentary series about the music used in television. Neil Brand explores the enduring power of the television theme tune, from Coronation Street to Game of Thrones.

In the opening episode, Neil Brand looks at the enduring power of the television theme tune and the way in which it has acted as the ‘nation’s jukebox’ for over 60 years. On the streets of an iconic television landmark, Coronation Street, he encounters a brass band playing the music that has announced the start of each episode of the show since it began. 

Following the trail of the soap opera world, he meets composer Simon May, creator of the EastEnders theme tune. Neil shows how our deep connection with TV music starts in childhood by revisiting some of his own bygone favourites and listening to the folk tunes of Bagpuss composers Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner. 

He then travels to the streets of Merseyside to celebrate the endurance of the theme from Z Cars, and traces the cop/detective genre through the music of 60s legend John Astley. We discover the little-known world of library music with obsessive collector Jonny Trunk, seeing how tunes from library records went on to brand long-loved staples such as Mastermind and Grandstand.

Finally, Neil travels to the US to talk with Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, to uncover how its orchestrated theme music is a homage to classic TV of the past. Neil also visits the studio of Ramin Djawadi, the composer behind the epic sound of one of today’s biggest blockbuster series, Game of Thrones.


The Sound of TV with Neil Brand: Series 1

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