It was good, but disappointing, not just that Keith Mansfield (composer of the classic Grandstand theme, but also the classic Granada TV opening and closedown tunes) only had a brief passing mention, but also that Ronnie Hazlehurst wasn't mentioned at all.
I remember the ridiculous Wikipedia edit wars, where people were removing it, then other people were putting it back because "they has sources to cite it", even though said sources got it from the rogue wikipedia edit to begin with.
People are more focused on Ronnie Hazlehurst's magnum opus- Reach by S Club 7
You know, I was thinking about that the other day, after forgetting it for years
How did they not fact check?
They presumably thought they were fact checking.... by going on Wikipedia! Highly embarrassing.
Yes disappointing not to mention Ronnie Hazlehurst (though someone did mention Some Mothers Do Ave Em). Not least his trick of including the title of the programme in the melody- Are You Being Served, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin etc.
It was good, but disappointing, not just that Keith Mansfield (composer of the classic Grandstand theme, but also the classic Granada TV opening and closedown tunes) only had a brief passing mention, but also that Ronnie Hazlehurst wasn't mentioned at all.
There's another 3 episodes!
Keith Mansfield's passing mention was because he was part of the event organised by Johnny Trunk, doesn't mean he won't be mentioend again
Simon May was on there, and I hadn't realised he'd had hits before the TV music world.
Simon May was actually part of the band Rain, who recorded (along with vocalist Stephanie de Sykes) the track Odyssey (aka Life is a Beautiful Book), used as ATV’s startup track in the early 70s.
Of all the ITV openings I have found on the interweb (and that I remember from the time), these two ATV ones are by far and away the most uplifing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPrfRWwyK5g The second film shows the Midlands I grew up in - and the lines to "Life is a Beautiful Book" sung over the smoking chimneys and shots of Spaghetti Junction leading to a sunrise is quite something. Pity the IBA weren't so impressed!
I hate to take anything away from a programme that actually gets a brass band on the outdoor set of Corronation Street, but.
This is a 90 minute per episode, 4 week series, squeezed right down. You want more, you know they can make more but it's totally strangled on arrival by it's running time and number of episodes.
To do this subject justice, give the audience an understanding of the art of theme composing, it needs to be broken down into genres, and decades - to show the evolving nature of each genre. Not, as we are seeing, swerving all over the place from Mastermind to Game of Thrones, via Eastenders and Steptoe and Son.
And, it would be really great to see a full version of the Kay Pea Emm Allstars concert at the British Musuem. A fair few go-pro camera angles set up there so coverage would be no problem.
I know there are fragments of it on You Tube, but it really deserves a full big screen HD Stereo airing on BBC Four.
