成人论坛

Our sitcom season is underway with screenings of and  complimenting a new selection of comedies for 成人论坛 Two and Three. You can find out more about the season in we published a few weeks ago. 

There is one element in the sitcom which is overlooked - the signature tune. Evocative 30 second sequences of tightly-composed music which set the tone for the half-hour which follows. Without you realising it, that signature tune embeds itself in your psyche. From now until the end of your life, that tune will be a shortcut to the time when that sitcom made the first and greatest impact on you. 

But take a closer listen to the signature tune and they reveal themselves as a surprisingly complex (or simple) creation. The greatest exponent was the much-loved 成人论坛's Head of Music, Television and Light Entertainment, Ronnie Hazlehurst. Other greats have followed, some of which I've included in this post. It's not exhaustive by any means, but it is brimming with adoration.

Are You Being Served? 

Ronnie Hazlehurst’s most well-known musical creations is a classic of the genre. Jazz, soul and funk influences ooze from the signature tune to Are You Being Served?

The funk-powered bass line crawls effortless around as though in its own blissful world, momentarily interrupted by gentle trumpet calls. Heard in Matt Berry and his band’s live rendition at the 02 in Islington (below), it gives the entire number an air of much-overlooked sophistication.

What transforms the opening titles soundtrack is the sound-effect of the cash register and the eerie but strangely reassuring lift-announcement. It is as bizarre as it is beguiling, and at 24 seconds it’s also a breathtakingly efficient creation.

Butterflies

‘Love Is Like A Butterfly’ was originally a hit from 1974. 

In Hazlehurst’s arrangement of the song for the opening of comedy Butterflies, the song takes on more a dreamy quality.

A soft bass line (considerably less ‘oompah-pah’ than the original) underpins Clare Torry’s gentler vocal style. The inclusion of three flutes playing in close harmony adds a sense of sun-kissed abandon to the proceedings.

I always found it left me with a vague sense of something awful about to happen to the central characters, though this might be an over-active imagination on my part.

Dear John 

Another Hazlehurst arrangement, this time of a song written by the sitcom’s writer John Sullivan (him of Only Fools and Horses fame). Dear John wasn’t a favourite comedy of mine, but it did expertly establish the premise within a short space of time.

The overall effect of the alto sax responding to the wispy vocals of Joan Baxter was that of a fading memory disowned by all parties. Wendy – wife of the central character Ralph Bates’ who announces her intention to split with him in a letter – immediately annoyed me whenever I heard the tune.

Perhaps that was the point. Within 30 seconds we were made to feel sympathy for the lead character. Unfortunately for me, he also reminded me of my geography teacher at school. 

Don't Wait Up

Nick Ingman (also known for Keeping Up Appearances) wrote the signature tune for the tea-time sitcom about father and son doctors who lived together in ‘domestic bliss’. The middle class chintz wasn’t far from my own as a teenager (I’m happy to admit that – it wasn’t my fault), and there was also something vaguely aspirational about young Doctor Latimer’s good looks and floppy hair.

Don’t Wait Up and the lives of the two Latimers made the prospect of adulthood exciting and dynamic, projecting a positive image my potential future working life with my Dad (he is a photographer who ran his own business and at that stage in my life I thought I was destined to work with him – it didn’t quite work out that way).

Ingman’s music underpins that sense of excitement with a broad sweeping melodic line punctuated with a mid-tempo beat. The overall effect is unashamedly middle of the road, but the 40 second introduction is tight and strangely satisfying.

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

On a personal level, Reginald Perrin is Ronnie Hazlehurst’s best creation. 

Taut, efficient, and evocative, the sparse ensemble consists of two flutes, characteristic Hazlehurst-bass, a tortured horn melody, a mournful counter-melody in the cello, and an electrifying ride cymbal. 

There is a manic quality to the 35 second intro which begins each half hour episode with so much musical tension that the final chord (in the major key) is a much-needed but often over-looked release. A masterful composition.

Game On

Like Butterflies, Game On's signature tune had a previous life. US 'power pop group' Gigolo Aunts' When I Find My Heaven was first released in 1993. It was re-released in 1995 to coincide with the song appearing in the film Dumb and Dumber, before making it to the opening sequence of the 成人论坛's late 90s sitcom about three twenty-something flat-mates. 

Cut with the video clips, the opening sequence catapulted me back to university at the same time as acting as a TV representation of the working life I had just embarked upon in my twenties. Me, and two other contemporaries in my new workplace would regularly sit to watch the sitcom, (sort of) picturing ourselves in the fictional scenario. I was the agrophobe.

Gimme Gimme Gimme

Strictly speaking, Gimme Gimme Gimme, is a hybrid signature tune like Game On. It’s origins as an ABBA song are obvious, but it’s the arrangement for Jonathan Harvey’s brilliant comedy which sets the tone for the entire programme. 

Hearing it now reminds me how perfect the entire package – script, actors and set - seemed to me when I first saw it in 1999. A sitcom I never thought I needed, but now I’ve seen it I can’t imagine it not being in my life. I even wanted to know someone like Kathy Burke’s Linda La Hughes and (secretly) wanted to be a bit like James Dreyfus’ withering Tom Farrell. 

The strained vocals in the signature emphasised the close bond the two characters had in the drama. Don't tell my ABBA-loving partner, but I think I probably like the sitcom version of the band's classic song more than their original. 

Ever Decreasing Circles

I was surprised to discover that the signature tune to Ever Decreasing Circles was in fact a Prelude written by . It's not as fiendish to play as it might sound - it was part of the Associated Board's Grade 7 repertoire for 2015/16.

The music's quality echoes the darkness of the comedy itself. Martin Bryce is an order-loving bureaucrat with an insatiable appetite for committees, Gesteteners and in-trays.

But Martin was a man on the brink - aware enough of the impact his needs had on himself and on others around him. One small step from mental oblivion. He always struck me as a man ever so slightly out of shift with everyone else, someone who needed just the tiniest of nudges to get on track.

And that is reflected in the way in which Shostakovich's seemingly sweet, innocent and childlike melody subtly gets out of control and veers into something a little bit twisted.

Keeping Up Appearances

Another creation by composer Nick Ingman. The opening titles of Keeping Up Appearances saw my first exposure to the importance of and joy to be found in carefully laid out envelopes. As a teenager I rather appreciated the way Hyacinth measured the exact position of the stamp and, by doing so, introduced me to the joys of margins and gutters.

The music underlined the folly of all that attention to detail. A sprightly march punctuated by a pompous-sounding bassoon, over which a sprightly self-important melody tries to convince us that everything Hyacinth does really matters, if only we’d take time to notice the detail.

The effect is hollow and meaningless, only serving to remind us of how equally meaningless all that dusting and enunciation is too.

Some Mothers Do Av' Em

Yet another Hazlehurst creation. His most inventive. Two piccolos bash out a melody set to the rhythm of Morse Code that spells out the show's title. Simple. Playful. Effortless. What a way to make a living.  

Sorry!

Keyboards and saxophones and rich range of percussion instruments make the never-ending quality of Sorry!’s signature tune dark and ever-so-slightly depressing at the same time.

It sounds fun, but the musical ‘sorry’ hook has a feeling of resignation about it all. The music is constantly trying to resolve into something in the major key (when it does there’s a much-needed feeling of relief because it brings things to an end).

It is a marvellous creation, but like a thick sauce, I can only take a little of it without feeling a little sick.  

Vicar of Dibley

The internet is awash with opening credit clips of sitcoms and television dramas. That was one of the motivating reasons for penning this blog post in the first place - internet search results can sometimes reveal a previously unacknowledged appetite for content previously overlooked. 

The Vicar of Dibley opening titles are surprisingly difficult to find. This might indicate the music's popularity outside of the series. Composer set Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd for boy treble originally for the series but .

It is a delightfully lyrical number which deftly establishes a mood almost at odds with the comedy which follows. The melody's apparent simplicity may also help explain its popularity with choirs up and down the country: its accessibility makes it's relatively straightforward to sing.

Goodall was also responsible for the signature tune to ITV's Mr Bean and the theme from Blackadder.  

Miranda

Sweet, straightforward, and uncomplicated with a hint of shabby-chic. Miranda's a favourite of mine because it's so jaw-droppingly punctual. 

Terry and June

John Shakespeare’s signature tune for the Purley-based Terry and June is a fitting creation.

The combination of high flute, trumpet and bass clarinet and saxophone is a strange one. The horn responses give the piece some much-needed depth, while the off-beat tambourine lends an air of absent-minded lounge-based ‘jigging about’ of the kind I did catch my mother doing in our lounge whenever Terry and June was on television.

If music can conjure up an era of synthetic fabrics, shampoo and sets, and over-bearing flower prints, then Shakespeare’s composition is the blueprint.

I like it, but I’m also slightly terrified by it at the same time. It’s as though the melody is threatening to go on until the end of time and cannot be stopped by anyone or anything.

Jon Jacob is Editor, About the 成人论坛 Blog

• Head of Comedy Shane Allen's Blog introducing the 成人论坛 Landmark Sitcom Season.
  
• The 成人论坛 Landmark Sitcom Season features revivals on 成人论坛 One, new comedies on 成人论坛 Two, new comedy feeds on 成人论坛 Three and lost sitcoms on 成人论坛 Four. See all of the programmes . 
  
• A of programming can be found on the sitcom season website.
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