58 Best British Sports TV Theme Tune

[jno]

Many themes have featured in sport shows over the years - but which did you think best suited the programme they were used with, or which were your favourites?

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PICK THREE!

BBC Darts:



Grand Prix:



Cricket Theme:



Grandstand:



Channel 4 Racing:



THE Big Match (1974-1980):



The Big Match (1980-1986):



Match of The Day



Pot Black



Rugby Special



Ski Sunday



BBC Snooker



Sportsnight



Superstars



World of Sport (Classic)



World of Sport (1983-1985)

[Zimbo]

The 1970s Big Match one that goes "bum, titty, bum, titty, bum,bum,bum, ..."

[jno]

Superstars - this is superb and sounds like it should be in some 70s blockbuster action film.

I opted for Superstars, skiing and snooker. That Darts theme would have been fourth though.

[daz]

The best has to be the Cricketing one, Soul Limbo by Booker T and the MGs. That is just a sublime tune.

Ski Sunday and Pot Black are my other two favourites, with Sportsnight being a very fine tune in my opinion.

One of my favourites, but not on the list as it was for Scotland only, was the Sportscene theme tune, somebody once told me it was a Pink Floyd song, but I cannot confirm this.

After the tune watch the start of the football to see the pitch! Morton V Rangers, Greenock is not a place for the faint hearted.

[Arch Stanton]

Cricket
Snooker
Ski Sunday

In that order.

[minderfan84]

What about the golf theme ?

[jno]

Golf - apologies, best click 'Other'.

[ace5150]

Apart from the darts, these are ALL brilliant, apart from the Grand Prix theme as its Fleetwood Mac!
Why no Horse Jumping one? That's one I remember watching hoping Harvey 'no nonsense Yorkshireman' Smith would give the Vs to the TV camera. Great theme if I remember.

Edit, this is it, but labelled Horse of the Year show, but WAS used as the equestrian theme.

[minderfan84]

Jul 2, 2016 4:43:37 GMT jno said:

Golf - apologies, best click 'Other'.

no problem wasn't being a know it all just pointing it out

[mauricemichaelson]

Here are a couple of good ITV regional football themes:

Kick-off Match - Granada



Tyne Tees - Shoot!

[jno]

Shame on me ... how could I forget this?

[ace5150]

Jul 2, 2016 16:12:30 GMT mauricemichaelson said:

Here are a couple of good ITV regional football themes:

Kick-off Match - Granada

Tyne Tees - Shoot!

ATV (Central) had Star Soccer with the unfortunately named Hugh John (Huge on - Fnarr Fnarr)
This is the theme.

[Zimbo]

Here's another Granada Kick Off Match titles...

[Portland Road]

There were lots of good themes on sports shows.

But the 'World Of Sport March' (which I think was recorded in 1965) was sublime for the time.

A lot of the football show themes were lively as well.

[jvz]

Sounds familiar. :-)

[larchlapriley]

It has to be Sportsnight in first place for me. Memories of being allowed to stay up late in the days when there wasn't so much sport on TV. Lots of great sports themes but I voted for Snooker and the original World of Sport theme because they also bring back happy memories of the late 70s and early 80s.

[Portland Road]

I hadn't heard 'Star Soccer' (ATV) before  . I was in the Tyne Tees region. We had 'Shoot'.

This appears to be the only Shoot theme tune on YT: 





Though there was a better one (less jaunty but rousing, as per The Big Match themes) in the late 70s.

[ace5150]

Dawned on me as a huge boxing fan, that the sport hasn't been included here, so here you go. A blast from the past before Sky took it away from normal TV.

[jno]

Wow, nice blast from the past there ace5150 - not heard it for years, but was able to sing along. Is it me or is there something VERY 'Crimewatch' theme about this tune?

Love it!

[wayne2467]

Superstars  and the cricket music were  good as well as "Star Soccer" as it was known in the West Midlands- this is also one of my favourites- the BBC boxing theme music
Take a look at this video on YouTube:


Take a look at this video on YouTube:

[barrythebook]

Ski Sunday theme is good but the music used during the programme was far better.

'Things That Dreams Are Made Of' by The League Unlimited Orchestra.

[bodiesstuntdouble]

I went for The Big Match (74-80) plus "other" - I liked TBM theme prior to 74 as well , plus my current fave is from the cricket highlights on Channel 5 - seriously good Mod Hammond organ groove in the style of Brian Auger Trinity !

[Zimbo]

Jul 10, 2017 9:36:05 GMT bodiesstuntdouble said:

I went for The Big Match (74-80) plus "other" - I liked TBM theme prior to 74 as well , plus my current fave is from the cricket highlights on Channel 5 - seriously good Mod Hammond organ groove in the style of Brian Auger Trinity !

I'm thinking you're referring to the original Big Match theme...


Rather than this one, which sounds like it should have belonged to a sitcom starring Richard O' Sullevan


Granada Kick Off also had a comedy style theme too.

[bodiesstuntdouble]

Good find sir - the better of the two was (I think ?) the original theme from 68-72 - The Young Scene by Keith Mansfield. The other was Cheeky Bird (brilliant title !) and only used for one season - and as you quite rightly point out could have easily been an alternate theme tune for Man About the House ! Lol

[Arch Stanton]

The cool thing about that Granada Kick Off credits is that it shows no football stars of the game at all. Mostly just pics of scarves and old footballers. Can you imagine them doing that now on a Premier League highlights show?

Out of the two Big Match themes the first is best. The second one is too busy for it's own good.
The music is pants, you're right it does sound like a 70s sitcom, and who's idea was it to overlay images like that?
It's like it's showcasing what it would be like if you got hold of a pair of someone's jam-jar bottomed bins, and the images you'd see if you ran around a football pitch before dying of a heart attack.
It's absolutely absurd.

[Portland Road]

I didn't realise that the original 'Big Match' theme (by Keith Mansfield) had a comparatively short life (1968-72?).

As mentioned, it was replaced by a sitcom-type theme. Thankfully a better, more contemporary theme was soon adopted from 1974-80.

[gustav]

A lot of the themes are really evocative of the particular sports shows but the best themes are of shows I would never watch - so I have voted Ski Sunday, Test Match and Darts. All good tunes but I'd never watch any of those three sports.

[Portland Road]

 I am a bit surprised that the 'World Of Sport' (classic) theme is not one of the joint winners.

It proves that there has been a lot of strong sport show themes.

[I used to think I was a parrot]

I voted for the ITV boxing theme. It reminds me of that time in the late 80s/early 90s when ITV had boxing like the whole card of Tyson-Spinks on live for free!! And Sportsnight where they would have some British boxing and things like the international football qualifiers highlights. And the last one is the BBC cricket theme. which will be used again on tv as BBC have some live cricket and the highlights again in a few years.

The later World of Sport tune sounds like one from an 80's action show from someone like Stephen J Cannell.

[flyingsquad]

I voted Big Match (1974-80) and Snooker (Drag Racer). I also voted Other as there are 2 other themes I like which are the London Marathon music (the theme to the film 'The Trap') and the other Snooker theme used in the 80s which is To The Unknown Man-Vangelis.