40 TV Theme Tunes at the BBC

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2026

Music
Arts and culture

Summary

Archive performances of songs from popular TV shows that made the charts, sometimes performed by members of the cast and sometimes featuring recognisable tracks from the big names of the day. Including the theme tunes from Friends, The Office, Derry Girls, Absolutely Fabulous, Twin Peaks, Peaky Blinders, The Sopranos, Happy Valley, Mash, Hill Street Blues, Doctor Who and even Top of the Pops

Review

Mark Braxton

Just to be clear, this isn’t a thrashed-out, all-time greatest list – so you won’t find Thunderbirds, Hawaii Five-O or Rainbow (just me?); more a case of signature tunes performed on Top of the Pops, Later and the like. But series producer Simon Goretzki and his “At the BBC” team have curated another Saturday-night nostalgia-blast.

There are some big-name composers here, from Irving Berlin to Ennio Morricone. And both monster TV hits (M*A*S*H, Minder) and semi-forgotten gems (Brush Strokes, Crocodile Shoes).

Many tracks could head up a decent chill-out album: Twin Peaks’ floaty Falling sung by Julee Cruise, for instance, or the otherworldly Theme from Harry’s Game by Clannad. There’s an amusingly impromptu rendition by Will Smith of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. And the show exits on a high, with an out-of-this- world, future-proofed classic.