Write The Theme Tune, Sing The Theme Tune - The 60s.

I have a confession to make, I can quite happily pass an afternoon on YouTube watching the opening credits of various TV shows. Done well they are an genuine art-form that can tell us the back story, tone and atmosphere of a show all with the aid of a tune you can whistle. I'm going to be looking at various decades and picking some of my personal favourites while trying to explain just what makes them so great.

 So first of all the 60s. Now obviously there are a lot of iconic openings and themes that come from this time but I've stuck to the first three that came to mind.

Doctor Who (original)

Lets be honest the scariest thing during this era of Doctor Who is still the opening. Delia Derbyshire's truly alien arrangement of Ron Grainer's theme introduces electronic music to a generation, as weird shapes move and swirl round the screen. It tells us nothing about the characters or the setting but it does tell us that whatever we're about to see will have an element of the alien too it. After all you don't go from something so strange to a kitchen sink drama. 


The Avengers (Series 5)

 So we now move away from the strange to the sophisticated in what might be the most flirtious opening credits in history. While like Doctor Who it doesn't give us anything in terms of back story it does totally establish the relationship between Steed and Ms Peel, the are they/aren't they flirting and heavy alcohol dependency. We also see them with weapons and pulling some fighting moves so we know that the drama probably doesn't revolve round AA meetings. It totally sets the tone of the whole show, stylish, laid back with just a hint of danger and it makes me proud to be British.

The Prisoner

While the previous two examples have been great in setting tone and atmosphere The Prisoner is a brilliant example of how to tell the audience everything they need to know in terms of back story. In the first part of the sequence we see that Patrick McGoohan/Number 6 is resigning from some high level job in government and he's pissed off about it, he's then followed home by a hearse, gassed and wakes up in a holiday village in Wales. All this without a single word of dialogue. The second half then sets up the basic conflict at the heart of the series, not only do we see the truly weird world of The Village we see Number 6 running round looking defiant all the while arguing with whoever is Number 2 that week and it ends with one of the shows most iconic lines 'I am not a number I am a free man' which is met with sneering laughter week in week out. Even if you've never seen an episode before all it's all set up so beautifully that despite just how unusual the show is you'll still enter an episode with all the knowledge you need.

 The next instalment will be the 70s, so we're pretty much assured some funk based themes to look forward too.