Theme Time: The Word - 808 State

Ah yes it's time to look at that enfant terrible of Channel 4 in the 1990s, The Word

Love it or hate it, you cannot deny how influential and important The Word was. It's almost twenty-five-years since the last episode aired and yet almost everything The Word pioneered has now become absorbed by other shows and accepted into the mainstream.

Remember 'The Hopefuls' those shameless glory hunters who gave up their dignity by eating worms and sheep testicles (among other more disgusting stunts) because, as they would each gamely say to camera "I'll do anything to be on TV" Remember how offended and disgusted people were? They're all fairly quiet now when watching celebs eat the very same thing as part of an I'm a Celebrity bushtucker trial aren't they?

It wasn't just gross stunts though; The Word provided a platform for some of the best music of the day (often breaking new bands) and some brilliantly candid, off-the-cuff interviews with famous figures from the world of music, acting, sport and the arts, and the kind of through-the-looking-glass exposes of the weird and wonderful life in America that Louis Theroux would later mine. It was The Tube via a kind of X-rated Tiswas - perfect for the laddish, baggy, grungey, britpoppy 1990s.

Described by Wikipedia as 'a mayhemic mixture of pop music and teen attitude' The Word was must-see post pub viewing on a Friday night for some 49% of the viewing public at that time. It ran from 1990 to 1995 and featured presenters such as Amanda de Cadenet, Mark Lamarr, Dani Behr, Hufty and Katie Puckrick, the one constant being it's main presenter, Mancunian motormouth Terry Christian whose book, My Word, is an eye-opening, candid and funny read of his time with the show.

The theme tune was entitled Olympic, provided by Madchester's own 808 State.

Some full episodes of The Word are available on YouTube, whilst a series of compilations can be viewed on All 4. They're well worth watching, whether you simply fancy a bit of nostalgia or whether you just want to see some cutting edge tele before it become so diluted. Chris Evans was only just around the corner, and he had obviously been paying attention.

Theme Time: Billy Connolly & Phil Coulter - Super Gran

"Stand back Superman, Iceman, Spiderman, Batman Robin too. Don't wanna cause a ruckus but BA Baracus have I got a match for you"

Those opening lyrics alone should give you an instant rush of nostalgia, for it's the theme tune to the one and only Super Gran sung by the equally inimitable Billy Connolly!

Based on the books by Forrest Wilson about a grandmother with superpowers, this kids TV series was adapted by Jenny McDade for Tyne Tees Television and ran from 1985 to 1987. It starred Gudrun Ure in the titular role, with Iain Cuthbertson as her nemesis, Scunner Campbell. The show attracted several guest stars including George Best, Spike Milligan, Roy Kinnear, Patrick Troughton, Geoff Capes, Charles Hawtry and um, Gary Glitter. The least said about him appearing in a show for children, the better.

This was a firm favourite of mine as a kid but I'm surprised it ran for just two series and one Christmas special. Apparently there were plans for a third series and even a movie, but the kibosh was put on it all when Tyne Tees decided to focus their budget on daytime quiz shows such as Chain Letters instead. What a stupid decision!

In 2003, The Glasgow Herald conducted a poll to find The Most Scottish Person in the World, with Super Gran coming a respectable seventh. At around the same time the show was a huge ratings hit in Cuba, where it was dubbed into Spanish.

Theme Time: Fiona Bevan - Age Before Beauty

Drawing to a close last night was the BBC drama Age Before Beauty. Written by Debbie Horsfield, the Making Out and Cutting It creator who brought Poldark back to our screens, the programme starred Polly Walker, Kelly Harrison (stealing the show at every turn), Robson Green, James Murray, Madeleine Mantock, Lisa Riley and Sue Johnston and told the story of the complex lives and loves of a Manchester based, family-run beauty parlour.

The theme tune heard over the closing credits was something of a sweet sounding hidden gem. Entitled Slo Mo Tiger Glo, it's a track from a 2015 album entitled Talk to Strangers by Suffolk born singer/songwriter Fiona Bevan and had previously been used in an advertising campaign for HSBC in the UK and Ireland.

Now, because I am 39 this year I hadn't heard of Bevan - a woman who co-wrote Little Things, a worldwide smash for One Direction with Ed Sheeran - before so it was only by looking at the programme's closing credits that my ignorance could be halted. Here is the song performed in full...

Theme Time: Bad Manners - Educating Marmalade

Bad Girl Warning! Bad Girl Warning! Bad Girl Warning!

Alright cock? Today's Theme Time concerns the worst girl in the world, Marmalade Atkins who first came to life in Andrew Davies' 1979 children's novel Marmalade and Rufus about a badly behaved little girl and her horse. Davies went on to pen several adventures for his juvenile heroine (see here) and two classic ITV series, Educating Marmalade and Danger! Marmalade at Work, which saw the late, great Charlotte Coleman bring Marmalade wonderfully to life.  

The title track was performed by the utterly suitable Bad Manners

Theme Time: Amanda Palmer - Drifters

Sometimes, I have to admit I get things wrong.

In 2013, I watched the first two episodes of the E4 sitcom Drifters and hated it so much I posted a scathing review on here.

However, a friend whose opinion I value, recommended I give it another try and I'm currently halfway through the second series and I'm struggling to see why I found it so objectionable after all. Certainly the first two episodes - indeed much of series one overall - aren't exceptionally good, but I do feel that Drifters slowly finds its feet and it is quite endearing and funny thanks to the performances of the central trio Jessica Knappett (who created and wrote the series), Lydia Rose Bewley and Lauren O'Rourke.

So this post is by way of an apology for my earlier criticism and a chance to share the theme tune, the ramshackle glory of Amanda Palmer's Leeds United

Theme Time: The Sanderson Pitch - Man Stroke Woman

This takes me back. Man Stroke Woman was a fine BBC3 sketch comedy series featuring an impressive ensemble cast consisting of Nick Frost, Daisy Haggard, Nicholas Burns, Amanda Abbington, Ben Crompton and Meredith MacNeill. The series was directed by Richard Cantor and produced by Ash Atalla, who had just come from The Office. The show ran for two series from 2005 to 2007 and was innovative and fresh enough to break away from most sketch show conventions by containing no laugh track or studio audience and centring mostly around a general theme of relationships, as the show's website put it:

Some people think men are from Mars and women from Venus. Well, this show pits the two together and turns it into sketch comedy. Acted by a troupe of 20 to 30 somethings, the situations all strike close to home, but with a more extreme and comedic bent.

I recently picked up both series on DVD quite cheaply for plenty of laughs and nostalgic feels. Chief among those feels was the show's beautiful theme tune from an unsigned band called The Sanderson Pitch. Back when the show was airing in the mid 00s, the band had a Myspace page and I got quite friendly  with them, chatting back and forth and professing my love for the theme tune, which was entitled Dive. It really is a beautiful song...

Unfortunately, The Sanderson Pitch never got the big success they clearly deserved. The cast of the show have fared much better though, with Amanda Abbington and Nick Frost having both gone on to become household names (though admittedly Frost had already done Spaced and Shaun of the Dead prior to making the show). The rest of the troupe all continue to work regularly; Daisy Haggard continues to be a familiar and beautiful face on our screens, most recently having starred in the hit comedy series Episodes, whilst Nicholas Burns has appeared in Benidorm and in the title role of Nathan Barley, as well as the films The Lady In The Van and The World's End, which reunited him with Frost. Meredith MacNeill starred in the films Confetti and FAQ About Time Travel and appeared as Merry in Peep Show before returning to her native Canada where she now stars in the all-girl Baroness Von Sketch Show. Meanwhile Ben Crompton has starred in several seasons of Game of Thrones as Eddison Tollet, appeared in Ben Wheatley's cult film Kill List and was most recently in an episode of BBC2's very funny Motherland. For me however, he'll forever be Colin, the scally who is perpetually on probation in the BBC3 sitcom Ideal. 

You can check out several sketches from Man Stroke Woman on YouTube, including this one which also features a pre-fame Miranda Hart

Rodney Bewes, Mike Hugg and Jimi Hendrix? A Theme Time Special

Following the death of Rodney Bewes yesterday, an anecdote he once shared with Richard Herring has surprisingly come to light; did he once jam with Jimi Hendrix?

As you'll see from Herring's Metro article (click on the link above) Bewes - admittedly no stranger to embellishment - claimed that Hendrix poked his head around the studio door that housed Bewes and Likely Lads songwriter Mike Hugg and asked if he could join them and play on the theme to Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? It's a great story, but it's impossible as not only was Hendrix was dead by then, Bewes wasn't even involved in the theme tune anyway. But, as Herring argues, had Bewes misremembered? Was he really thinking of the psychedelic theme he and Hugg wrote for his overlooked sitcom Dear Mother...Love Albert?

Dear Mother...Love Albert was a sitcom written by Bewes himself based on the letters he wrote his mother back home in the north of England. Bewes starred as Albert Courtney (a nod to his good friend Tom Courtenay?) who moves to London to work in a confectionery company and shares a flat with two girls, finding love with Doreen (played first by Liz Gebhardt and later Cheryl Hall). His letters home are prone to exaggeration (as was Bewes himself in real life, as we have seen). The series ran from 1969 to 1972, but only three series exist as the first was wiped by Thames TV. Hugg and Bewes' theme tune was memorably groovy with the leading man relying on a bottle of port to give him the confidence to get the vocals down. But was Hendrix really there? Have a listen and see what you think...

Theme Time: Robert Farnon - Colditz

Running for two series between 1972 and 1974, Colditz was an impeccable production and a jewel in the BBC's crown during that illustrious, prolific decade. Loosely based on former Oflag IV-C POW Major Pat Reid's 1952 memoir, The Colditz Story (which had been made into the film of the same name in 1955), the series - devised by Brian Degas and Gerard Glaister - Colditz told the story of the brave and plucky Allied POWs, including Captain Pat Grant (Edward Hardwicke, playing a thinly disguised Reid), Flight Lieutenant Phil Carrington (Robert Wagner), Flight Lieutenant Simon Carter (David McCallum), Lieutenant Dick Player (Christopher Neame) and the Senior British Officer, Lieutenant Colonel John Preston (Jack Hedley), who each pitted their wits against their German captors, the Kommandant (Bernard Hepton), Hauptmann Ulmann (Hans Meyer) and Major Mohn (Anthony Valentine) and dared to escape from the seemingly escape-proof Colditz Castle.

My own particular favourite from the cast was McCallum's Carter, a hot headed  RAF officer that was a world away from the usual 'chocks away' urbane charmer. Carter had a chip on his shoulder, and often found himself frustrated by the escape council and the formalities of captivity. As a result, this quick temper and a fervent passion to return home meant that he was more often than not found in solitary confinement or punished by the guards. As with many of the characters presented in the drama, Carter was based on a real person; Flight Lieutenant Dominic Bruce. Alongside the impressive regular cast the series boasted some fine guest performances from the likes of Patrick Troughton, Ian McCulloch, Jeremy Kemp, Geoffrey Palmer, and Willie Rushton. Most memorable of all however was Michael Bryant's BAFTA nominated turn as Wing Commander George Marsh who feigns insanity in a bid for freedom in the brilliant, unforgettable episode 'Tweedledum' by writer John Brason.

Unsurprisingly, Colditz was a huge hit for the BBC with a real cross generational appeal. Children were utterly transfixed by the brave exploits each week whilst their parents and grandparents, who experienced the war first hand, were equally as absorbed. The success led to numerous tie-in novelisations, an atmospheric effects album (Colditz Breakpoint) and even a popular board game, Escape from Colditz.

Robert Farnon's theme music was the perfect accompaniment to the series. Those bombastic doom laden and fear inducing opening chords immediately conjure to mind the perceived might of the Nazi foe and the confines of the imposing, legendary castle, before breaking into a more reassuring and familiar militaristic march that offers hope and the suggestion of escape and victory. 

Creators Degas and Glaister would go on to strike gold again at the BBC later that decade with Secret Army, their dramatisation of the experiences of the French Resistance that is just as highly regarded and shared many of the same cast.

Theme Time: David Pomeranz/Jesse Frederick/Bennett Salvay - Perfect Strangers

How's this for an '80s nostalgia rush? Yes, it's the theme to Perfect Strangers

This was a US sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1993 and was quite a favourite in our house. It was shown over here fairly quickly, with screenings on Saturday evenings in early 1987 before settling down in the post Wogan 7:35 slot on Monday evenings. I also have memories of reruns in the early '90s on Friday mornings during the summer holidays, but as far as I'm aware it hasn't been repeated since and despite being popular, the series is not available on DVD here in the UK. 

The series starred Mark Linn-Baker (who starred opposite Peter O'Toole in the film My Favourite Year) and Bronson Pinchot (who had appeared as Serge in Beverly Hills Cop) as distant cousins, Wisconsin born Larry Appleton and Balki Bartokomous, a shepherd from the Mediterranean island of Mypos, who each attempt to strike out in Chicago. The series was created by Mork & Mindy creator Dale McRaven who was inspired by the renewed patriotism he felt in America after the 1984 Olympics and wanted to write something about a couple of people who dream they can make it in a big city. The show's theme, written by Jesse Frederick and Bennett Salvay and performed by David Pomeranz encapsulates that bright, optimistic, empowering American Dream vibe with effortless, catchy and utterly '80s ease... 

And if you don't like that, then you've no poetry in your soul!

A consistent hit across its eight seasons in America, much of the success of Perfect Strangers came down to the great chemistry between Linn-Baker and Pinchot, a chemistry that thankfully seems to exist in real life too (how refreshing is it to find actors from a favourite '80s show who genuinely get on with one another? Yes Moonlighting I am looking at you) The pair perhaps haven't reached the peaks of success they deserved once the show concluded, but they continue to work extensively to this day, with Linn-Baker even appearing as himself in the recent HBO series The Leftovers, which looks at the inexplicable disappearance of 2% of the world's population. In the show, it's revealed that the entire cast of Perfect Strangers where amongst those who 'departed', but Linn-Baker is actually revealed to have faked his disappearance. 

Perfect Strangers had its own spin-off in the sitcom Family Matters and was even remade for Russia television in 2006.

Theme Time: Barry Gray - Space 1999, RIP Martin Landau

Sad to hear that the great Martin Landau has died at the age of 89.

In tribute to the Hollywood veteran, here's Barry Gray's bombastic theme for Gerry Anderson's Space: 1999

Starring alongside his then wife Barbara Bain, Space: 1999 ran for two seasons from 1975 to 1977 and as John Koenig remains, certainly on this side of the pond, as one of Landau's most enduring starring roles. Only that of Rollin Hand in TV's Mission Impossible could match it. Landau was, along with Steve McQueen, the only applicants out of 500 to enter the acclaimed Actors Studio in 1955 where he was tutored by Lee Strasburg and Elia Kazan to name but a few and would go on to become an executive director with the Studio. His films include Hitchcock's North by Northwest, Cleopatra, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Nevada Smith alongside Actors Studio contemporary McQueen, Empire State, Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream, for which he earned an Oscar nomination, Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanours, which earned him a second nomination, and Tim Burton's Ed Wood which finally bagged him the Oscar. 

RIP

Theme Time: Ron Grainer - The Prisoner

September 29th this year will mark the 50th anniversary of Patrick McGoohan and George Markstein's iconic, innovative yet utterly incomparable cult TV series The Prisoner, one of my absolute favourites

And here's Ron Grainer's superb theme tune...

Be seeing you 

Theme Time: Elvis Costello - Scully

The death of Tony Haygarth reminded me to blog about Scully today.

King of the scallies, Franny Scully remains scouse playwright Alan Bleasdale's most enduring character. Initially created to entertain the kids he was teaching, Bleasdale realised he was on to something and began to write the character's (mis)adventures in series of short stories which he submitted to BBC Radio Merseyside. The station loved them, and Bleasdale was subsequently invited to read them on air. From there, a Scully story was read out on the BBC2 arts series 2nd House, before he became a stage play, the subject of two novels, a recurring character in the Saturday morning kids TV show and regional TISWAS replacement The Mersey Pirate, the subject of a BBC Play For Today (Scully's New Year) and finally, a full length Granada TV series for Channel 4 in 1984.

If you can get past the fact that by 1984, Andrew Schofield was a very obvious 26-year-old playing the eponymous 16-year-old schoolboy, and that all his schoolmates were of a similar vintage too, then there was much to enjoy in Scully. On initial inspection, Scully seemed like a much needed bout of light relief for writer Alan Bleasdale following his searing masterpiece Boys From The Blackstuff just two years earlier. Light relief for many of the cast too, who returned for fresh roles here. But there's a dark undercurrent that runs through Scully beneath the humourous japes, the rites of passage tropes and the commentary on teenage life. The lack of opportunities awaiting the likes of Scully in the impoverished and neglected Liverpool of Thatcher's Britain are often alluded to and seemingly embodied by the Scully's recurring vision of his idol Kenny Dalglish during his everyday life - is this seemingly funny and surreal Billy Liar-esque device actually an example of serious psychosis borne from his relationship with his environment? As the series progressed things turned darker and more serious, leading to an extended finale that sees Scully's dreams of one day playing for Liverpool in tatters. It's a world away from some of the amusing slapstick elsewhere in the series and is deeply emotionally affecting. But that's not to say that the show wasn't very funny too, providing an authentic and endearing depiction of working class teenage life that is probably just as relevant today as it was back in 1984.

And the series boasted a great theme tune too - Turning the Town Red - from Elvis Costello, who also plays Scully's train obsessed simpleton brother, Henry (pictured above). It played over the opening credits which saw Scully training with Liverpool FC, before pulling on the Number 7 shirt and running onto the Anfield pitch to the cries of 'There's only one Francis Scully!' from the Kop faithful.

Theme Time: Corinne Bailey Rae - Stans Lee's Lucky Man

Tonight saw the return to Sky One of Stan Lee's (yes, he of Marvel Comics fame) Lucky Man

This is the second series of the action crime drama starring James Nesbitt as Harry Clayton, a Detective Inspector in London's Murder Squad with a serious gambling addiction whose luck changes when a mysterious and beautiful stranger (Sienna Guillory) gives him an ancient bracelet that bestows upon him the gift of profound luck. The show is created by Neil Biswas, based on an original idea by Stan Lee, who once answered fans that his most wished for super power would be luck. 

I'd love to say I'm a big fan of the show, but the truth is for all its Stan Lee credentials, I find it a bit old fashioned and reminiscent of '90s Saturday action drama Bugs (which is perhaps unsurprising when you consider both programmes share a production company in Carnival Films) and I mostly amuse myself by calling it 'Jammy Bastard' rather than Lucky Man; adopting a Monkfish style trailer narration (from The Fast Show) that goes along the lines of "James Nesbitt is tough, uncompromising DI Jammy Bastard..."

But I do love the title theme tune, Lucky One, provided by the mellifluous vocals of Corinne Bailey Rae. Unfortunately, you can't really find a full length official cut of the theme, but this fan made one is the closest we have to it so far.

Out On Blue Six: Al Jarreau, RIP

Sad to hear of the death of Al Jarreau, whose beautiful voice sang the theme to Moonlighting, my favourite show as a child.

The 7 time Grammy award winner was 76. It feels like a little part of my childhood has died. 

RIP

End Transmission

Theme Time: The Shadows - Radio 2's Sound of the 60s

Normally my Theme Time posts are related to TV programmes but I can't let what has happened this week pass by without marking it in some way, and so today I'm sharing The Shadows' 1963 hit Foot Tapper, the theme from Radio 2's Sound of the 60s, the long running Saturday morning series that has been a mainstay of the station since 1983.

The reason I'm sharing it is because the time has come for the show's legendary presenter, the warm and mellifluous toned Brian Matthew, to hang up his headphones of the show at the age of 88 due to recurring ill health.

Matthew had presented the show for twenty-six years, taking the baton from previous presenters such as Keith Fordyce and Simon Dee in March 1990. He continued to present the show each week right up until the 19th of November last year when a fall at home took him off the air. Since then, the show has been hosted by Sir Tim Rice and yesterday it was announced by Radio 2 that the production company that makes the show and Brian both agreed that it was "the right time for Brian to step off the weekly treadmill of presenting the show", and that they hope that Matthew will be well enough to present special one-off programmes for them in the near future. However, Matthew told The Telegraph that this version of events was "Balderdash" adding "I was ready, willing and able to go back, and they've just said that they are going to put the programme in the hands of other people" If that is really the case, then this is the most shoddy way to treat a national institution and the voice of several generations - but not unexpected given the BBC's track record with its talent.

Brian Matthew joined the BBC in 1954, hosting the Saturday Skiffle Club on the Light Programme in 1957, which became Saturday Club the following year and Easy Beat, interviewing the very best of the music world in the 1960s. By the '70s, Matthew was hosting My Top 12 on Radio's 1 and 2, before becoming the presenter of Round Midnight on 2 from 1978 to 1990. He received the Gold Award at the Sonys in 2008, a fitting tribute to the man whose catchphrase was "That's your lot for this week, see you next week"

It's a shame we won't now.

Theme Time : Pet Shop Boys- The Clothes Show

Some shows are so etched in the memory that the moment you hear the theme tune you are transported back in time. Like the themes to Last of the Summer Wine, Bullseye, Bread and Howards Way, I only have to hear the Pet Shop Boys In The Night Mix, the theme to the BBC's The Clothes Show and I'm instantly back top those Sunday evenings as a kid in the '80s and '90s, when I had to tolerate watching a load of waffle about fashion because my sister wanted to watch it.

The Clothes Show made its debut on BBC1 on October 13th, 1986 (just six days before 7th birthday, of which I remember a nice cake with a Worzel Gummidge figure you could place a candle in) and its mix of catwalk reportage and tips on how to get the catwalk look on a budget was originally hosted by designer and former Mr Sandie Shaw, Jeff Banks and the classy hostess of BBC's Breakfast Time, Selina Scott. Later, i-D Magazine's editor Caryn Franklin joined the show, taking over from the main co-presenting duties with Banks once Scott left. 

The show ran for fourteen years and a series of hosts appeared alongside Banks and Franklin including Margherita Taylor, Brenda Emmanus, Richard Jobson and Tim Vincent. In 1989 the success of this teatime Sunday evening programme saw the launch of Birmingham NEC's annual Clothes Show Live, still held to this day, and even an accompanying magazine. The show's annual modelling competition boasted finds such as Jamie Theakston and Cat Deeley, whilst guest roving reporters included the inimitable Leigh Bowery, a character who completely bemused the childhood me at the time. 

Despite its success and loyal audience, The Clothes Show's time on the BBC came to a close in 2000, though it subsequently returned on the cable and satellite channel UKTV Style in 2006 and can now be seen on Really on weeknights since 2009. Hosts on this new incarnation have included former girl band member and premier WAG Louise Redknapp and the show's stalwart Caryn Franklin.

Whilst it is the Pet Shop Boys track which will be forever associated with the show, the series original theme was in fact a Shep Pettibone remix of Five Star's Find The Time, which had reached number 7 in the UK charts in July of 1986.

Saint Etienne were also asked to produce a theme tune for the show, but it was subsequently turned down. Poor St Etienne - they not only had their theme for the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies knocked back, but also The Clothes Show. The band subsequently released it on their album Built on Sand, a compilation of rarities from 1994-'99. "Imagine our horror," they wrote in the sleevenotes, "when we turned on to discover our 'theme' has been relegated to incidental music for the part of a programme called Wild About Wool. Hey ho. Feel free to use this theme for your own TV extravaganza"

Well I can't use it for that purpose, but as someone has kindly uploaded the entire album on YouTube, I can post it here and you'll be able to hear the band's proposed theme immediately, as it is track one...

Theme Time: The Rembrandts - Friends

One of the most popular and enduring shows of all time, Friends ran for ten years from 1994 to 2004 and starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer as Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross. 

An immediate success, Friends appeared in the UK on Channel 4 in 1995 and was repeated ad infinitum on there and its sister station E4 until 2011 when the station Comedy Central took the rights and continue broadcasting episodes to this day, virtually every day. Its likely that at any given moment of the day an episode of Friends is being broadcast somewhere in the world - so just imagine the royalties The Rembrandts must get for their theme tune!

I came very very late to Friends. In the '90s I was a bit snobby about US sitcoms that weren't Cheers, The Phil Silvers Show or The Larry Sanders Show. Friends seemed to fall into that category of lessons learned, everyone hugs that Seinfeld (a show I had yet to discover) worked so hard at eradicating. Friends just seemed too glossy, too perfect and I preferred homegrown British sitcoms and shows anyway. Friends was so big, it felt like more than a sitcom, it was an aspiration, a lifestyle choice - especially when Jennifer Aniston's hair became the most desired hairstyle amongst women. I struggled to see Aniston as anything other than a haircut at the time, preferring instead Cox and Kudrow's looks. That has come to change of course, thanks to Aniston's seemingly secret pact with Eternal Youth.

It wasn't until the year Friends came to an end (2004) that I actually started to watch it - Channel 4, on Sunday mornings, used to broadcast a strand called T4 that seemed to centre on the teen to twentysomething audience with Friends, Futurama and the Hollyoaks omnibus. It was a canny move from 4 as it was the perfect breakfast TV for anyone with a hangover who wanted to spend the morning in bed, which certainly included me and my then girlfriend in her dorm in Liverpool. I come to appreciate Friends, its humour and its brilliant characterisation through this repeats and have probably caught up with a great majority of each series in the intervening years. Now if you'll excuse me, there's an episode on Comedy Central right now that I want to watch...

Theme Time : Matumbi - Empire Road

The BBC has done much across its channels to mark Black History Month this November with a wealth of programming, but it's a real shame that it didn't find space in its schedules to raid the BBC archive for long unseen programmes made specifically by or for black audiences. I'm thinking specifically of course of Empire Road which ran for two series on BBC2 from 1978 to 1979.

Created by Michael Abbensetts, the show depicted the life of Afro-Caribbean, East Indian and South Asian residents of a street in Birmingham. Ostensibly a drama in the soap opera tradition, Empire Road was written, acted and directed predominantly by artists who identified with being part of the ethnic minority within the UK. As such, this enabled the series to tell things totally and accurately from the perspective of the multicultural communities of the country. 

It starred future Desmond's star Norman Beaton as Everton Bennett, a West Indian who had arrived in the UK and built a business as a residential property landlord and the owner of a minimart. Bennett was seen as the neighbourhood's 'Godfather' figure, and if you had a problem, Everton Bennett was the man to go to, using his wisdom, experience and common sense to resolve matters. This is perhaps best exemplified in a storyline featuring Rudolph Walker (Love Thy Neighbour, EastEnders) as a Rachman-style slum landlord, Sebastian Moses, with his eye on buying property in Empire Road. Seeing both his patch and his neighbours potentially threatened, Bennett sets about a series of stings that publicly humiliate Moses, and a feud between the two men develops.

Made by the BBC's legendary Pebble Mill studios and with location work in the Handsworth district of Birmingham, Empire Road starred a host of talented actors including the aforementioned Beaton and Walker, along with Corinne Skinner-Carter, Joseph Marcell, Wayne Laryea and a young Julie Walters. The series theme tune was by reggae group Matumbi who were well known in the Rock Against Racism movement. It was released as a single in 1978 and went on to become the title of a best of collection for the band in 2001.

EDITED TO ADD: Sadly news reaches me today that Empire Road's creator, Michael Abbensetts passed away on 24th November, just two days before I made this post. Read his Guardian obituary here RIP

Theme Time: Jay Gruska - Lois & Clark: New Adventures of Superman

With Doctor Who seemingly consigned to TV history, Saturday teatimes of the 1990s were all about a family friendly, fantasy action drama imported to the BBC from the US; The New Adventures of Superman

Entitled Lois & Clark in America, the series was devised for television by Deborah Joy LeVine as a modern, relationship-centric revision of the DC Comics legend, taking its cue from comic book writer and artist John Byrne who was charged with rejuvenating the superhero with a modern origins story that depicted Clark Kent as the true personality and Superman the disguise. The show starred Dean Cain as Clark and Superman, and Terri Hatcher as Lois Lane, making the previously unknown pair household names all over the world. And yes, I did crush on Hatcher - I was a teenage boy after all. The show ran from 1993 to 1997, spawning tie-in novels and a soundtrack CD from the composer Jay Gruska, including his stirring, wonderful theme tune...

Here in the UK, the series made its debut Saturday 8th January 1994 and became one of the regular building blocks of the Saturday night schedule alongside Noel's House Party, Casualty and later, the National Lottery. The BBC renamed the series The New Adventures of Superman and held the rights to the first three seasons, before Sky One stepped in to broadcast the fourth and final season first in the UK, with BBC1 playing catch up a few weeks later. Repeats were still being broadcast on the BBC as late as 2002 in the CBBC Saturday morning schedules and on BBC2 weekday teatimes.

Just hearing the theme gives me a huge nostalgia rush!

Theme Time : Martin Phipps & The Medieval Baebes - Victoria

I can't say Victoria, ITV's sumptuous new period drama exploring the reign of the young Queen Victoria as played by Jenna Coleman, has gripped me really - I think my problem is I found it rather redundant after the relatively recent 2009 film Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt - but I cannot deny how exquisite the theme tune is.

Entitled Alleluia, this haunting piece is composed by Martin Phipps with vocals provided by the classical choral group The Medieval Baebes (pictured above; the group had previously worked with Phipps in providing the memorable score to the BBC's The Virgin Queen, a 2006 drama concerning that other female crown, Elizabeth I) Executive producer of the ITV drama Dan McCulloch has said of Phipps' work; "He wanted to scores something that literally came from the heart...you can hear a beat that's a lot like Victoria's heart thumping away"

Victoria came to an end yesterday evening, but will return to ITV for a second series next year.