Credit where Credit’s due

Posted by Hannibal

November 26, 2008

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I have a great love for TV theme tunes. I find these little 1minute gems stay in the mind and heart for years, reminding me of TV shows I loved and could no longer see up until the advent of home video. Now, with most TV series being available as DVD box sets, no matter how obscure the show, it’s good to revisit and see if they still stand up to the test of rose coloured remembrance.

The art of the theme tune seems a dying one. I blame J.J. Abrams. Alias only had a 30 second intro, now Lost has spent so much money filming in Hawaii they can’t even afford opening titles. Admittedly, of the newer shows, Battlestar Galactica does have a theme but it sounds like a Maori haka before a rugby match.

But it isn’t just a great theme tune that sets older series apart from what’s on now. It’s the actual opening title sequences themselves. There are a myriad of wonderul themes from the past forty years; Starsky and Hutch – Lalo Schifrin and Tom Scott versions – The Persuaders, with a John Barry tune that seemed to be slumming it a little once you actually watched the show. Not that I have a problem with thick slices of cheese; I do own the box set. Any of the Gerry Anderson themes by Barry Gray; the iconic Thunderbirds March, the end title music from Captain Scarlet, (not the vocal version by The Spectrum though), Space: 1999, (whose opening credits showed the new Galactica how to start a show – bits from the pilot then a flash cut edit of the latest episode), and UFO – the end title music of which always gave me the collywobbles as a six year old.

However, all of these series did that slightly lazy thing of just using bits of episodes under the opening titles.

What I’m going to list here are my five favourite specifically created opening title sequences with the most memorable music.

In no particular order;

from my childhood – The Tomorrow People. With a 1970’s futuristic synthesizer score by Doctor Who’s Dudley Simpson, the opening titles are a simple but memorable montage of photo stills animated on a rostrum camera. An early classic and typically British – striking but cheap.

Next, from the man who brought us the music to Doctor Who and The Prisoner, Ron Grainer; Man In A Suitcase. Again, simply animated, but tells you everything about McGill’s character. Except how he manages to hang to the cigarette in his mouth during all the fight scenes.

*Not the proper one

From the much missed Laurie Johnson – and I had to make myself pick only one here – not the Avengers or the New Avengers but The Professionals. Enough wow wow guitar to fuel the entire 1970’s and more macho than a year’s subscription to Nuts magazine. Where now are the TV shows whose creators think, “Hmm. How do we open this…? I know, let’s hurl a huge car through a plate glass window for no particular reason.” Magic.

Sticking with cop shows; Harry South’s The Sweeney. More still frame animation, and not even in full colour. Perfectly captures the show in 60 seconds. And Britain in the 1970’s.

Finally, one of the most sinister of all show openers. Stewart Copeland’s Equalizer. Again it promises more than the series ever delivers – just the second of a hand laying a weight on a balance seemed to hint at dark, almost Punisher-esque possibilities – but at least he provided the full score for the majority of the episodes. The music was always performed by Copeland’s long time producer Jeff Seitz and some of it was recycled from his vanity project film The Rhythmatist, but it remains the reason I love the series. And of course bought the box set.