MY 50 TOP TV THEME TUNES! #31

Number 31: Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons:
spoken intro and
theme tune.
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson brought me so much joy throughout my boyhood with their feats of ‘Supermarionation’. For a kids’ show in those days, this was marvelously dark. I was also never sure whether Captain Scarlet or his nemesis, Captain Black, was the principal heroic figure for me. I remember the cruel and unusual punishment to which I was subjected after some childish indiscretion when I was put to bed early and not allowed to watch Captain Scarlet. Never was such an injustice known theretofore! I can remember lying there in the darkness, listening to the theme tune from downstairs.
Barry Gray, sadly no relation, enthusiast for experimental electronic music, wrote all the title and incidental music that was undoubtedly a great part of the show’s branding and success.

MY 50 TOP TV THEME TUNES! #32

Number 32: The Sopranos
I’ve always enjoyed gangster movies and have often joked that my ambition to become a consigliere to a capo was why I did a degree in Italian all those years ago.
The Sopranos learned from that rich tradition and played around with it to great effect. James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, and Michael Imperioli were all magnificent but they had great support from a huge cast of talented actors and brilliant writers.
Then David Chase torqued up the heat in the opening titles by backing them with a song performed by three Brits. Rob Spragg and Jake Black of the Alabama 3 wrote the song about Sara Thornton stabbing her husband in 1996 after being abused by him for twenty years.
Incidentally, went out with a friend week before last and turned out she had spent New Year’s Eve in Brixton with these blokes who are local boys.

MY 50 TOP TV THEME TUNES! #33

Number 33: Deadwood
Al Swearengen! Sheriff Seth Bullock! Calamity Jane! Wu! So beautifully written and marvelously performed, with such splendid attention to detail in the visuals. And the theme was perfection too, jangly but still wistful and with sparks of romance.
Written by David Schwartz, who was nominated for a grammy for his music for Northern Exposure, years ago.
You may have gathered from some items in this list that I have a soft spot for the Western as a form, or certainly did when I was younger, and Doris Day in Calamity Jane has always been one of my favourite film performances. Just the idea of this show: injecting a bit of historical and psychological realism into the story of those early days in that part of the West, when it was still quite brutally Wild, was bound to hook me. But, beyond that, its execution was outstanding and it fulfilled its promise. David Milch wrote practically all of it and created something extraordinary. I was bereft when they stopped the show after the third series.
Always reminded me of The Doobie Brothers’ Black Water.

MY 50 TOP TV THEME TUNES! #34

Number 34: Magpie
"One for sorrow
Two for joy…"
Learning that doggerel as a child trapped me into years of saluting magpies and other nonsensical superstitions. When I converted to being a fundamentalist Dawkinsist, I banged all of that on the head.
The theme tune was played by the Spencer Davis Group and written by guitarist Ray Fenwick. It sounds like Stevie Winwood singing but it was actually Eddie Hardin, who had replaced him in the band by then.
I always felt that my parents disapproved of this big brassy kids’ show on ‘commercial telly’ and would rather I watched Blue Peter. I did enjoy the starchy old Beeb show but not their jaunty hornpipe. I much preferred the phantasmagorical titles and poppy, upbeat opening to Magpie. Their boy presenters were always sexier too.

MY 50 TOP TV THEME TUNES! #35

Number 35: Casey Jones
I can’t remember anything about this show except that I used to love it as a child and would sing its theme song endlessly. Still do in idle, unguarded moments. Word perfect still, fifty years later! So, as theme tunes go, it was a good one. Even more memorable than the show that featured it.
Other little boys played with toy soldiers and cars. I played with dolls and trains. I used to dream of having a tiny train track that would run all round the walls of the house, carrying messages and food and whatever from room to room.
My granny took me to the picture house for the first time when I was five and I saw a film that I think must have been “Santa Fe” starring Randolph Scott and I thought I’d died and gone to Heaven. Thereafter, I was hooked on the cinema and also on trains. Still love traveling on trains. Only form of transport I feel any fondness for.
There was a real train driver called Casey Jones who became a hero in 1900 when he sacrificed himself to save the lives of his passengers in a famous train crash. ‘The Ballad of Casey Jones’ was written about him and survives in countless versions, including this one.

MY 50 TOP TV THEME TUNES! #36

Number 36: The Wire (Season Two)
I was one of those tiresome Wire-heads who gorged on the box sets of this and then bored the pants off everyone they knew who hadn’t seen it. It was marvellously Dickensian in its immense ambition and I was bereft when I got to the end of Season Five. The music throughout was cleverly used and although it was always Tom Waits’ “Way Down In The Hole” they used to open the show, they used four cover versions as well as this, the original. This was my favourite version, used throughout Season Two which was also my favourite of the five, dealing with the workers and gangsters in the port area of Baltimore and featuring Ziggy and his duck.

MY 50 TOP TV THEME TUNES! #37

Number 37: Fame
Written by Michael Gore, little brother of Lesley.
I gather they remade the film recently but I haven’t bothered to see it. I don’t know that I could even watch another episode of the spin-off 80s TV show but, at the time, it did the job and this tune was emblematic of the show’s youthful energy. Schmaltzy, plodding plots were interrupted by sudden musical numbers that stopped whole streets and had people dancing on the bonnets of cars. By the end of the show, I always wanted to listen to more loud music and go dancing somewhere. With poor, misunderstood, troubled Leroy. I also walked around town wearing leg warmers for a while. Perfect New Romantic fashion. *blushes*
Can’t bear to listen to this now but must give it some recognition because of what it meant once upon a culturally challenging time. Glee, Fame’s bastard child, is an insipid thing in comparison.