Classical themes to TV and radio programmes
December 2025
You cannot say we do not ring the changes with our presentations: the final meeting of the autumn season was no exception. Called ‘Are you sitting comfortably?’ David Davies played a range of theme tunes to favourite TV and radio programmes.
Most were familiar although trying to match the music to the programme was not always easy especially those which are no longer broadcast. Fauré for example provided the music to ‘Listen with Mother’ (and the title for the presentation) and the programme lasted from 1950 to 1982.
William Walton provided the theme for Cat & Dog and another English composer, Elgar’s Chanson de Matin for Norman and Henry Bones which ran for around 20 years on Children’s Hour and starred Charles Hawtry.
Bach was featured on another popular radio classic ‘Animal, Vegetable or Mineral’ on the radio. Surprisingly, it didn’t run for that long, only 7 years, but one of its starts was Mortimer Wheeler who did a lot to bring archaeology into the limelight.
Many may remember ‘Top of the Form’ which ran for many years. Initially, only between boys’ schools but girls came later. Sign of the times eh. Several themes were used including one by Debussy.
An extremely memorable theme, played on trumpets, is that for the Open University which introduced many lectures in the early years. Few might know it was composed by Leonard Salzedo who despite his name is another English composer albeit of Spanish descent. For those of us who were OU students at that time, it is an extremely evocative and a reminder of watching a lecture on physics say at 1 o’clock in the morning. A reminder.
Other extremely popular and familiar themes include those for the Eurovision Song Contest – in the news recently concerning Israel’s entry into the contest. Few will be able to name the composer who is in fact Charpentier and it is an extract from one of his settings of Te Deum.
Mozart provided the theme for the Horse of the Year Show another long-running favourite starting in 1949 no less. Talking of sport, ‘Nessum Dorma’ was much in evidence in the 1990 World Cup of course.
Most programmes seem to use existing music but from time to time new works are commissioned. An example is the music for Pride and Prejudice. Howard Goodall was mentioned who has a long range of credit to his name including ‘Mr Bean’ and ‘Not the Nine O’clock News’.
It is noteworthy that many themes were composed by established classical composers and it is difficult to think of much popular music used in this way. Sopranos is an exception as are some of the themes to Scandi Noir series like ‘The Bridge’.
It is almost certainly true to say that many people’s first experience of classical music is through theme tunes. Producers have gone to some trouble to select something that matches the drama and which is memorable to the viewers. Unfortunately, if you want to know who the composer was, the credits often will not mention the actual composer but whoever it was who arranged it or added incidental music. The music for ‘Tom and Jerry’ cat and mouse capers for example were heavily influenced by Bartok and Schoenberg but their names never appeared on the credits, rather Scott Bradley.
An entertaining evening and the last of the first half of our programme. We resume on 26 January 2026.
Peter Curbishley
Salisbury Recorded Music Society 