Wednesday 30 April 2014

SMALL SCREEN THEME TIME (Part 4 of 12)


Like some crazy TV balloon being pumped full of theme tunes, this latest blog series is growing and growing. Fear not though, it's all under control and there's no danger of the whole shebang exploding in some catalysmic event: I've filled in all the Risk Management forms and marked out all the danger areas with appropriate warning notices. And there's just so much fascinating material emerging both from the research I've been doing and the feedback that's been coming through: sufficient material to ensure at least a dozen parts to this blog and possibly, it may yet creep up to more than that. Who knows, it might even get commissioned and end up on the TV itself.

This time, I continue the look at the past 60 years of television theme tunes here in the UK: I've been focusing on three key programme genres - Drama, Sport and Comedy - and in this fourth episode, we continue our look at Historical and Western dramas. We've reached the 1980s, a time when ITV fought back against the BBC monopoly on historical drama - and a time when the Western had almost faded away into the ether. Taking that as our platform, I'll then leap off in next week's episode to the changes and developments that have taken us through to the present day.

To bring yourself up to date, here are the first three episodes:


So, remote at the ready, a video cassette installed - and away we go.

DRAMA: HISTORICAL & WESTERNS - 1980s Onwards


Was "American Movie Classics"
- now produces its own
drama
The last thirty years have not only seen the expansion and fragmentation of TV services - many more channels, less shared viewing - but they've also been witness to a huge increase in the number of drama shows. Today, we have a real mix of formats: one-off series, recurring series and ongoing series. We have a multitude of platforms that we can view them on - and our viewing habits are changing as we binge through 13 or more episodes of a show in one go courtesy of streaming services such as Netflix. But, has the quality of the dramas themselves - and the theme music used - changed for the better? There is more money around and in many ways, you get what you pay for. Network TV in the USA is still quite prudish about nudity and language - and yet, over on the new specialist networks like AMC and Starz, pretty much anything goes. 

TV dramas galore
Streamed to you when you want them
So, as the focus of this blog is music, I have a large task in front of me to do real justice to the huge variety of historical drama that's been screened since 1980. (It's a pattern that will be repeated in future episodes when I look at Science Fiction & Fantasy dramas - and then again when we get to comedy programming). Clearly, an endless blog of progarmme titles and pictures might prove a little challenging for you, dear reader, as much as it would be to me - but I have done the research and drawn together some thematic strands which will illustrate the changes we've seen in the past 34 years. To cater for this wider range of programming - and just for the next three weeks - I've adopted a slightly different format to the episode design. I'm sure you'll let me know if it all works.

 The 1980s - in some ways - is the decade that ITV fought back against the BBC, a time when they discovered that sumptuous programming would bring in the viewers and keep the advertisers happy. In many ways, the BBC almost shot itself in the foot with its first big drama of the decade: this was a ten-part version of The Borgias, co-produced with Italian network RAI and featuring overseas locations and excellent cinematography. But, the scripting, the acting and the almost (unintentionally) comic nudity did little to endear it to the critics. Set in 15th century Italy it starred Adolfo Celi as the head of the Borgia clan, a clan who had many secrets and intrigues along the way before he ended up as Pope Alexander VI. The nail in the coffin - if one was needed was ITV's screening of its new series at the same time: Brideshead Revisited. Based on the famed Evelyn Waugh novel and set at the tail-end of the Second World War, everything that was wrong with The Borgias was right in this production. A stellar cast, a top quality script, superb locations - and huge critical success: Granada - the producers - won a slew of awards as a result and the scene was set for ITV to be seen as the home for television drama.    
The Borgias
BBC/RAI co-production (1981)
Expensive - and not a success 
Brideshead Revisited
Granada TV (1981)
How a classic novel should be translated to the small
screen - and award-winning too.


















Jewell In The Crown
Granada TV (1984)
As if to underline this, a second Granada production - 1984's The Jewell In The Crown - also enjoyed much success and critical acclaim. Set at the tail end of the British Raj in India and filmed on location, its thirteen episodes provided a broad sweep of the decline of the Raj and the movement towards independence for what was to become the world's largest democracy. Based on the Raj Quartet novels of Paul Scott, it too won plenty of awards and is fondly remembered all these years later.  

  • Theme Tune:  Not currently available

The Flame Trees Of Thika
Euston Films for Thames TV (1981)
Not to be outdone, Thames TV's drama unit Euston Films produced an acclaimed version of the 1959 Elspeth Huxley novel The Flame Trees Of Thika, a drama set in East Africa just before The First World War in 1913. Filmed on location in Kenya and Uganda, this seven-part story looked the business and was nominated for three BAFTAS in 1982. It starred Hayley Mills, Holly Aird and Ben Cross.







To Serve Them All My Days
BBC (1980/1981)
The BBC - of course - did produce other worthy dramas in the early 80s and three quite different approaches were taken for a clutch of shows which debuted in 1981. Whilst the finance might not have been as generous as ITV - which had been seeing something of a big resurgence in advertising income - they were every bit as inventive and interesting. The BBC - funded by the licence fee - has to cater for all tastes, and this can lead to some niche dramas that don't get wide approval - and yet, they do bring in the viewers. First up was an adaptation of a 1972 historical novel by R L Delderfield To Serve Them All My Days, set in a boys' public school and starring John Duttine as a wounded WW1 officer who turns up at the school as its new history teacher. The Headmaster, wonderfully played by Frank Middlemass had his time cut out keeping his aged staff on side with this new, youing upstart. It ran for two series and in its own way, was evocative of its chosen era.




Nanny
BBC (1981)
Next up was a 1930s drama called Nanny, set in London and starring Wendy Craig as a divorced woman who, having no income, becomes the nanny (of the title) to a well-to-do family. It was all quite gentle stuff, but it ran for three series and again, depicted its era well and concluded during the early years of World War II. It hasn't been shown since first broadcast, although there was a video release some years ago.






  • Theme Tune: Not currently available

Tenko
BBC (1981 - 1985)
The final one is perhaps the best remembered: Tenko. Another drama with a wartime theme, only this one was a grim tale of a group of British women in a Japanese Prisoner Of War camp in 1942. They had been captured following the fall of Singapore and the series nicely contrasted their former privileged existence with the tough - and sometimes barbaric - treatment they received in the camp. It ran for three series - and a reunion special - and starred such fine actresses as Stephanie Cole, Stephanie Beacham and Louise Jameson.





Overseas interlopers during this period were Shogun, made by ABC and filmed on location in Japan and set there in the early 17th century; North & South (ABC), a drama in  three tranches (1985/1986/1994) which was set against the back-drop of the American Civil War in the 1860s and The Thorn Birds (also ABC), starring Richard Chamberlain and set on a 1920s sheep station out in Australia. These were all examples of the mini-series genre, a handful of shows, often stripped across consecutive nights when broadcast in the USA and created with decent budgets and location filming.


Shogun
ABC (1980)







North & South
ABC (1985 - 1994)
The Thorn Birds
ABC (1983)




















The UK saw its fourth TV channel - Channel 4 - launch in 1982, although their first major historical drama didn't launch until 1983. This was a joint enterprise with RTE in Ireland - The Irish RM, a series starring Peter Bowles as a Resident Magistrate in early 20th century West Ireland when it was still part of the United Kingdom. It was a gentle comedy drama that ran to three series, coming to an end in 1985. During its run, two other distinctive series arrived - one on the BBC and one on ITV. The BBC production was a version of the 1935 children's fantasy novel The Box Of Delights by John Masefield: it starred one-time Doctor Who Patrick Troughton and ran for six episodes in late 1984. Over on ITV, a series which would run for a little bit longer than that - and a series based on an even more famous set of literary works: this was The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett in the title role. A special "Baker Street" set was built at Granada TV studios in Manchester - and of the 60 Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan-Doyle, 42 of them were adapted for the series and many fans view it as the definitive TV representation of the famous sleuth. 

The Irish RM
(Channel 4 - 1983 - 1985)



















The Box Of Delights
BBC (1984)





Jeremy Brett as the titular sleuth
The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes
Granada TV (1984 - 1994)
Amongst other mid-80s offerings, the BBC returned to tried and trusted "classic" adaptations with a trio of Dickens' novels: Dombey & Son in 1983 - and then in 1985, Bleak House. This latter work ran to eight episodes, and had an all-star cast with Diana Rigg, T.P.McKenna, Peter Vaughan and Denholm Eliott. That same year also saw The Pickwick Papers - not quite as packed with stars, but at twelve episodes and a suitably quirky signature tune by Carl Davis to match the style of the novel, it too was very well received. ITV ran with a couple of its own dramas, both a little light-hearted and both good ratings winners for the channel. It launched Shine On Harvey Moon in 1982, a comedy drama starring Kenneth Cranham as a recently de-mobbed RAF pilot who has to adjust to a very changed world back at home. Written by Lawrence Marks and Marcus Gran (who would later create Birds Of A Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart) and produced by Central TV, it ran to 41 episodes across five years. The theme music was Shine On Harvest Moon, first written back in the early 1900s by Nora Bayes and Jack Norworth. It came to an end in 1985. Meanwhile in 1983, Granada TV had launched Brass. This comedy drama was set in the 1930s and pretty effectively parodied a number of the worthy costume dramas of earlier years - particularly Hard Times. It starred Timothy West (who had appeared in Hard Times) as the head of a wealthy dynastic family (The Hardacres) and Barbara Ewing as the rebellious head of a poor, working class family who worked in a factory owned by West's character. It ran to 31 episodes across three years. 


The Pickwick Papers with Nigel Stock as the eponymous
founder of The Pickwick Club.
BBC (1985)


Shine On Harvey Moon
Central (1982 - 1985)

Timothy West and Caroline Blakiston as the wealthy
Hardacre Family in Brass
(Granada - 1983-4/1990)


There are three more drama series that need to be looked at before the 1980s draws to a close. One is an original drama produced by the BBC whilst the other two - one each from the BBC and ITV - turned out to be iconic shows in more ways than one.

The District Nurse
BBC (19841987)
The first BBC offering was The District Nurse, a drama set in the industrial and mining areas of South Wales in the 1920s: pre-NHS and pre-war, Nerys Hughes (as the District Nurse) fought hard with limited resources to try and make the *lot* of the local people a better one. The odds were often against her and it proved to be popular, running to three series with 36 episodes through to 1987. The third and final series was relocated to a Welsh coastal town in the 1930s: the 12 episodes were expanded to an hour in length and The District Nurse was now working with a father and son medical practice. 

The District Nurse was created by Tony Holland and Julia Smith who would shortly move on to an even more "gritty" television enterprise: Eastenders.  





So: these iconic shows. Both were based on a series of crime novels by Agatha Christie - the BBC opted for adapting the works based on Miss Marple (in 1984) whilst ITV acquired the books based around the Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (from 1989). Miss Marple took each of the books and produced twelve two-hour dramas from them. Marple - the octogenarian *detective* - was played by Joan Hickson who seemed to fit the role like a glove. Right from the start, the critics loved the series and the BBC sold the show to a wide range of countries around the world. The last show was broadcast in 1992, although a re-boot of the character starring Geraldine McEwan was launched in 2004 on ITV and we shall return to that later on. Poirot was altogether a more ambitious enterprise and was launched in 1989 by London Weekend Television. Poirot was played magnificently by David Suchet and it seems unbelievable, but some 70 episodes (many feature length) were made across the years, the last one only being aired as recently as 2013. By this time, the series was being produced by an independent company - Agatha Christie Productions - on behalf of the now unified ITV network.

The signature tunes were clearly aimed at the period in which the two series were set, the BBC Miss Marple theme being written by Ken Howard and almost a slowed down version of that used in All Creatures Great And Small. Poirot had a slightly more upbeat and mysterious theme by Christopher Gunning as probably befits the nature of the Belgian detective. 

Miss Marple - BBC (1984-1992)


David Suchet (left) as Poirot
LWT/Granada/Agatha Christie Productions (1989-2013)


And so, the scene is set for the fin de siecle, the final decade of the 20th century, the 1990s. With a gradual increase in the range of TV channels, the introduction of broadcast stereo sound and the adoption of the 16:9 ratio aspect on picture size (much more rectangular and better suited to more cinematic work), the technology was there to support the networks' creativity.

What would be the result?

Join me next week for the inside story.

Alan Dorey
7th May 2014














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