TV shows that completely changed their theme tune

Long running series Countryfile has also had several themes.

Original theme


Second version (which sounded just a mess!)


Third theme by David Lowe


And the current orchestral arrangement of the third theme by David Lowe again (in my view, not as good as the original!)

Let's not forget The Bill- which also co-incided with changing pretty much every other aspect of the show beyong recognition.

I'm also surprised no one has mentioned Top of the Pops yet - although that's quite an obvious one!

One that has been brought up previously is The Krypton Factor which I think has had at least five theme tunes

The original theme by Mike Moran which was reworked in the early 1980s.


The third theme, also by Mike Moran


Most famous theme by Art of Noise (still amazing!)


The short-lived revamp using a re-worked Art of Noise arrangement


The version brought back with Ben Shepherd

Then you have the strange thing were there were two periods the show didn't even have a theme tune! There were no titles at all between 1974-1981, and between 1977-80 there was no theme tune at all as the show opened with a chart rundown and they ran a song from somewhere in the charts over it, then during 1980-81 they bought Whole Lotta Love back over the chart countdown, but it was moved to later in the show. In fact there was a short period in early 1981 where it literally opened straight into the first link, then they added a very short, silent, animation for the months leading up to the Yellow Pearl titles being introduced.

Then there was the 1997-98 period were again there was no theme tune, instead they ran the intro to the first song of the episode over the titles.

Not since the late 90s but BBC News,
Also Newsround, Wolfblood, from the US there was later episodes of ER.

Another tune that people always assume was the same was Happy Days

The first two seasons used Rock Around the Clock by Bill Hailey and the Comets (although Happy Days was actually used over the closing credits if I remember rightly)


Season 3 onwards used the Happy Days theme that everyone tends to remember:

There was also that period of a few months around 2008 when Blue Peter used the Sailor's Hornpipe instead of Barnacle Bill!

Not strictly a totally new theme but a very re-imagined version of the original was the Red Dwarf opening tune.

Series 1 and 2:


Series 3 onwards:

Does You & Me count? Not a complete change, but apart from the lyrics UB40's late 1983(?) revamp was totally different:

Original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6L_0YSeOsU

UB40, with bonus intro from Andy Cartledge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlDZgvvaUsE

BBC Schools' " Watch "

The 70s / 89s fondly remembered Prima Ballerina :



The late 80s / 90s :

Winner Takes All had several themes - the 70s theme being my personal favourite: