TV shows that completely changed their theme tune

Well, it had been axed and it was the final series. So I don't judge them too much for being nostalgic and using the original theme. Though I agree that the 90s theme was much better.

I think just because it was live, of some
length and an " event ". Didn't they sometimes introduce Grandstand with the clock too?

There's clips online from the late 60s with Blue Peter being introduced by the clock too.

Poking about on YouTube it appears that T-Bag for whatever reason changed its (closing) theme tune after Series 7 (Rings of Olympus) and didn't stick with a constant one for the rest of its run.

Here's what the original theme sounded like (this show didn't use an opening theme, so skip to 19:35) which was used for up to and including Rings of Olympus but naturally got shorter as credits ran quicker:


From Series 8 and the clumsily-named "T-Bag and the Sunstones of Montezuma", skip to 19:35 again):


And finally, series 9's Take off with T-Bag, skip to 19:35:

It begs another question - did other well known themes that were library music have alternative arrangements and versions produced at the time?

Yes, I'd forgotten about Grandstand - I imagine you're right in that they're both event television that take over the channel for several hours.

Four different themes, actually, as the first Paul Merton series had a HIGNFY-soundalike theme that was swiftly binned.



I've said this before but I never liked that era's titles, because the point of the House Party is that surely it's a fantasy world and the house can be whatever they want it to be and expand whenever required, so it seemed stupid to show shots of an actual real house.

SuperStore was introduced off the back of the clock as well.

Going Live was proceeded for the first few series by "Saturday Starts Here", a block of CBBC that was not branded as such and was produced by the Going Live team from around TV Centre. Often Peter Simon would present it, or Trevor and Simon, but sometimes Phillip and Sarah did, according to Genome. Not sure whether it was live or not, I would have thought the TC7 gallery had better things to do before Going Live went on air.

I'm clearly not alone on this forum in preferring Peter Moss's Grange Hill theme tune to Alan Hawkshaw's.

That said, Hawkshaw's tune and the "flying sausage" titles went together perfectly.

And speaking of Hawkshaw and long-running shows that have never changed their theme tune...



What's more, the current recording of this tune has been in use for 21 years, and the current recording of the clock music for 28. (Though of course, there was the short-lived "extra intensity" version in 1996, which even Richard didn't like.)

This was still the best arrangement of the theme tune...

Must give a nod to Chucklevision which used the same theme tune more or less throughout its whole on screen life (apart from a slight re-score when the track was mixed from mono into stereo). Of course the titles remained the same from their introduction in 1989 right up until the shows cancellation in 2009, 20 years. Series 1 and 2 had the clips and target titles. The only difference in the 1989-2009 titles were them being adapted for widescreen around 2001.

I remember catching the series by chance in 2009 (used to watch it in my childhood around 1994-1995) and was a) surprised to see the show still going and b) thinking the titles needed an urgent revamp as they looked so dated, Paul and Barry's 80s hair cuts being the giveaway.

Actually, is that true?

Now you've brought it up I have a vague memory that the show did have a different theme song in the beginning. Am I wrong?

Yeah, WR going to Scotland didn't make sense. The pupils wouldn't move in real life, and they don't do GCSEs in Scotland, which means they were doing the wrong curriculum.