The London Marathon on Sunday afforded a rare and welcome sighting of that once all-conquering beast, the Epic TV Signature Tune.
The BBC seems to have used that same stirring, rousing piece of orchestral pomp every year since the race began. Back then it was but one of many similarly uplifting and spirit-stirring themes which resounded across the nation. Now it’s more or less the only one of its kind, and only trotted out once a year at that.
Whither the triumphalist tunesmithery of yesteryear? The sparkling reveille that was BREAKFAST TIME…the all’s-well-with-the-world symphony that was ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL…the urgent call-to-arms that was WHICKER’S WORLD…even the full-kitchen-sink carnival that was the closing theme to HOWARD’S WAY.
All blood-stirring, spine-tingling epics. All echoes of a distant, diminished age.
FeedbackReport
April 23, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Don’t forget the ridiculously overblow eight-million-mile-an-hour-strings-tearing-through-the-speakers styling of the old skool Gardener’s World theme. One of the most disproportionate theme tunes ever, along with Pebble Mill At One.
Andy Elms
April 26, 2007 at 10:16 pm
File next to Rock Revolution and Dragster (pre-remix). We shall not see their like again.