Election Night with Arthur

 

If you watching what is sure to be an exciting night of election results coverage this week and you opt for BBC One, then you might like to know that Arthur is back. I am at this point obliged to say that other election night programmes are available on television and radio (see note).

So who or what is Arthur? It’s the track that’s been used as the opening theme for the Beeb’s election results programmes since 1979. Written by Rick Wakeman it’s the first track on his 1975 album The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

The BBC first used Arthur for their Decision 79 programme with David Dimbleby on 3 May 1979. It cropped up again in 1983, 1987, 1992, 1997 and 2005 but was dropped in 2001, 2010, 2015 and 2017. Arthur was back in 2019 with a David Lowe make-over and David has arranged it again for the 2024 version.

Needless to say, as this is a radio blog, there is also a radio connection and that’s because Arthur falls into that rare category of theme tune, one that has done double duty and been used for more than one programme. In the case of Arthur it was also the theme for the four-part radio comedy Hordes of the Things, a 1980 parody of Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings written by Andrew Marshall and John Lloyd.

Here’s how it started:

There are some other notable pieces of music that fall into this category. Off the top of my head I came up with these:

The Alan Hawkshaw library track Chicken Man for both Grange Hill and Give Us a Clue

John Dankworth’s Beefeaters for Rediffusion TV’s 1964  series Search for a Star was later appropriated by Tony Blackburn

More library music, this time Bell Hop which has done double sitcom duty for both Terry and June (BBC1) and Never Too Late (Radio 4)

The wonderful The Hell Raisers by Syd Dale was originally used for Rediffusion’s Orlando (1965-68) and, in the 1970s for the World Service news programme Outlook

Note

The radio election night coverage includes:

BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live with Rachel Burden and Nick Robinson

LBC with Andrew Marr, Shelagh Fogarty, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall

Times Radio with Matt Chorley, Andrew Neil, Kate McCann, William Hague, Ayesha Hazarika, Ed Vaizey and Calum Macdonald

Radio News Hub with Jonathan Charles via NewsRadioUK.com