World in Action opening titles early/mid 1980s

[caxtonman]

You'd expect the four horsemen of the apocalypse to burst through your TV set when the theme music started!!!

[chuckieegg]

I thought Justice had stolen this for "Civilization", and added some distorted bass.

[CrassOldBoy]

The band is "MOUNTAIN" the song is called " NANTUCKET SLEIGHRIDE" ........Enjoy !!

[StevieWasp]

@CrassOldBoy No it's not. It's Jam for World in Action and is usually credited to Jonathon Weston, though the American musician Shawn Phillips disputes this. He has posted his claim of authorship on YouTube. Nantucket Sleighride was the theme tune for Weekend World on ITV (1972-1988).

[CrassOldBoy]

@StevieWasp Yep ! You're absolutely right buddy ! I got these two mixed up BIG TIME !! LoL !! Aw never mind though...both are great chunks of music ;-)

[LouisEdwardsWrongun]

This music made me have a heart attack, literally.

[oobigdaveoo]

Monday nights and it always made me think "its bed time soon"

[Sheila1932]

Horror film music

[regan373]

belfastgav buddy you have made my day i remember this tune as a kid

[tomness64]

This was documentary film making at it's very best, hard hitting no holds barred. Anyone remember the three parter called "johnny come home" about runaways coming down to london and the perverts that prey on them atound kings cross. Channel 4s dispatches is ok but too pc.

[RM1859]

I always remember watching this bit as a kid, never got any further though! Time for bed son! Very powerful intro.

[lukequixotesanjose]

@RM1859

LOL. Same here, 'Off to bed son.'

I think it was that hard hitting that parents would send kids off to bed, so they didn't have nightmares about the world they were living in. I got to watch a few of them, and they were quite depressing. The end music just made the whole experience of watching even more somber. I wish they would bring this back.

[nbp10000]

Top Hammond

[dougemack1]

What is the name of the picture of jesus on the cross used in the opening credits?

[seonidh]

@dougemack1 sureI can do that, its a world famous drawing by da Vinci called Vitruvian Man.

[discoverydavid]

@dougemack1 The Mona Lisa

[crjhartman]

I miss programs of this quality.

[IrrepressibleGuile]

this used to creep the **** outta me when I was a kid

[MonkeymagicsMum]

If my memory serves me correct, it was always either about the IRA or the miner's strike.

[keef71]

like with the sweeney, the opening theme was hard hitting, in yer face, but the closing theme was infinitely more downbeat. just the thing to cheer you up on a monday night...........

[oakesy68]

I think this usually signalled bedtime when i was a kid aways remember the music tho

[crjhartman]

Takes me back - I used to love watching this program, Hard hitting documentries.

[biuliano11]

it's Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man that makes this piece so haunting - wonderful

[morrismagic08]

I can here my mum saying, ''Right, time for bed''

[animatetime]

@morrismagic08 So can I. Probably didn't want me to know about what was happening in the Borstal down the road. Probably was pretty gross.

[zaftra]

pretty sure this use to go out 7 pm mondays before coronation street.

[keef71]

@zaftra i always had it as 8.00 or 8.30. even to a kid just into double figures, WIA meant a really heavy, ultimately depressing report on the state of britain in some way. still gives me the heeby-jeebies!

[zaftra]

@keef71 According to wiki it ran from 1963 - 1998, maybe it moved it's time slot a bit. Still, great theme and very good program, shame they don't have it for kids now, but then probably they wouldn't be interested.

[keef71]

@zaftra you're right, they probably wouldn't! given this was a serious programme about serious issues, it was a bit heavy for a kid to be watching in them days! nowadays you can see a lot worse, instantly, on t'internet. iirc, corrie would be 7.30-8.00, comedy/sit-com 8.00-8.30, WIA 8.30-9.00 and the prime-time prog like 'minder' 9.00-10.00? anyone got an old TV Times? lol

[brucedanton]

Many thanks for the posting!

World In Action was, of course, made by Granada tv and ran on the ITV network from 1963 to 1998, when it was so sadly cancelled, to make way for the dross ever since up until now! Shame on ITV, I feel.

[bhamboy05]

I thought I was the only one who used to get goosebumps watching this and hearing it! Still gives me goosebumps now at 34, but I love it.

[atrainhxdotcom]

@bhamboy05

Me too. Strangely haunting theme. Love it.

[bithot2nite]

Sadly, we can't put it on anymore....just in case we "offend" a culture, or some other group.

[madviolet]

agreed

[wigglespie]

Weren't they forced to change this tune as it haunted too many people (easy to see why) it's still brilliant

[101111010010011]

pure elp

[waiting4george]

all tv channels cater for the kids today...they dont want to see documenteries. Us adults suffer!!

[poodledreams]

This was an amazing show, nothing like it exists today. This opening sequence and music gives me chills even now at the age of 42.

[traffic71]

@poodledreams absolutely right. i remember watching the intro and sometimes the programme with my dad before going to bed.

[ian21stfox]

that takes me back

[Laura041974]

The Tales of the Unexpected music was written by Ron Grainer who also wrote themes for Dr Who and Steptoe & Son. I think the picture box music is by Peter Howell. Called "Merry go round" it uses a synth and tape echo and is on the 1979 LP "BBC Radiophonic Workshop-21". Peter Howell did the third Dr Who theme in 1980 and also on this LP his "Greenwich Chorus" with vocoder had such an effect that the BBC was swamped with calls from viewers.

[zootius]

@Durbot999 So true, also add the tomorrow's world 80s theme tune

[ollie705]

One of the greatest documentary series...and possibly the greatest intro music...but seems such a long time ago.

[Durbot999]

i wonder if anyone has ever studied why these tunes scare the crap out of u as a kid - Picture box and Tales of the unexpected are the big 2 for me - love listening to them again - Praise Youtube

[randomvideo]

@Durbot999 I totally share your fear of the Picture Box tune. I expect that's what I'll hear when I die.

[randomvideo]

@Durbot999 I totally share your fear of the Picture Box tune. I expect that's what I'll hear when I die.

[Laura041974]

@Durbot999 The Picture box music is "Merry go Round" by Peter Howell. On the 1979 LP BBC Radiophonic Workshop-21. Uses synth and tape echo. Tales of the Unexpected theme was by Ron Grainer who wrote the Dr Who theme.

[RaeRae914]

What was this show actually about ?

[pipkin1973]

Ha! 6 music just played this and it freaked me out totally!!! I hadnt heard it since the 70's and yes it scared me too... Weird but oddly gorgeous at the same time. Masochist perhaps?

[bluefreefall]

Always found this depressing - along with the Mastermind theme - mainly because i had school the next day!

[shanemc25]

always thought this music rocked!!!

[john111257]

@shanemc25 great...but what is the tune....never known

[shanemc25]

@john111257 It's called I believe 'jam for world in action' its by Jonathan Weston but this has been questioned and Shawn Phillips claimed to have wrote it. I dunno, i just know I like it!!!!

[Hobditch]

Thanks to Shawn Phillips and some hippy at Granada for commissioning this bespoke pant-pappin' theme, replete with apocalypitic organ. Which 'world' are they referring to? Asgard?

[LadyMezzo]

It doesn't much matter what this music is called - it scared the shit out of me as a kid, and still does now. Can't seem to stop listening to it though.....

[pufferfishish]

@LadyMezzo Me too- it made me literally cry with fear when I was about 3 years old. I'm angry right now thinking about it.

[davesmith20092009]

@pufferfishish me too

[pufferfishish]

@davesmith20092009 Seriously dude it should never have been allowed. That music epitomised tragedy with a liberal dash of devastation thrown in for good measure.

[iangarfield]

@LadyMezzo Same for me, just watched this after gaud knows how many years and it still terrifies the crap out of me. And I'm 30 tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LadyMezzo]

It doesn't much matter what this music is called - it scared the shit out of me as a kid, and still does now. Strangely though - it's quite hypnotic in that, once you listen to it, you can't can't help but listen to it again (even if it does scare the shit out of you).

[creeball]

@LadyMezzo: has a weird quality to it, doesnt it? never scared me as much as tales of the unexpected, tho...

[robdowling123]

Wow - the blood red radar on Leonardo's Vitruvian Man just says 'seriously well researched hard-hitting current affairs'.

Incredible music to go with the image too. They just don't make 'em like they used to.

[5010m0n]

Finally got it straight now - I've been confused. This tune is "Jam For World In Action" by Shawn Phillips. Nantucket Sleigh Ride by Mountain was the theme tune to Weekend World of the same era and with similar impact :)

[5010m0n]

Actually, it would seem jurrasiccoast is right for this particular example. Perhaps the theme tune changed around this time? I'll bet anyone Reading this thread, on hearing the end of Nantucket Sleigh Ride, will have goose pimples! It'd be great if someone can confirm whether this NSR was an earlier/later version of this theme tune.

[pufferfishish]

@5010m0n Yeah I seem to remember that Weekend World's theme tune had the same general vibe to it. Sunday lunchtimes in the dim and distant past. Bleeeuurgh. :(

[5010m0n]

I searched obsessively to figure out what this tune was a few years ago. With a bit of judicious googling I discovered it was by Mountain and its called Nantucket Sleigh Ride. It's an epic tune and this is just a small excerpt from it. I think this intro sequence moved a multitude of children at the time - I know it made a significant impression on my impressionable mind at the time. I wear a vitruvian man tattoo with pride and I largely put it down to this footage!

[mascha47]

Thanks for that, I always wondered what song that theme came from-its brilliant, love it-youve made a 70s kid very happy!

[phunboy]

Does anyone know who composed the awesomely proggy theme tune?

[MegaDave1973]

Bring back World In Action

[carbiify]

If you were well known and up to no good you had to watch your back with this program. World in Action was proper journalism. Unlike the cost cutting shit they have today.

[salvadormarley]

All those brilliant theme tunes from the seventies.

What the hell happened? Today's stuff is crap.

The adverts were a million times better then too.

[stevebritgimp]

I remember this on ITV as a kid, it really kind of blows your mind. This just says 'hard-hitting current affairs' and it doesn't fuck around.

[brilad001]

bloody terrifying to a 7 year old kid. The bit where it zoomed in on his face used to make me feel sick.

[fifthof]

so true, todieisgod.

[toadieisgod]

In the days when ITV was a proper Tv channel and actually made decent current affairs shows

[Andrewjk73]

I remember as a kid closing my eyes and covering my ears when this theme came on TV, it scared the shit out me. I remember it come on after a comedy with Thora Hurd. This was around circa.1980

[sunderlandgent]

The comedy with Thora Hird in it was called IN LOVING MEMORY.

[Andrewjk73]

That was it, she helped run an undertakers or something. Strangely enough I like this WiA theme now. The London Programme's openign theme is still the best of programmes of this genre.

[roryfromlondon]

yeah that's a hammond. you dont get news programs sounding like 70s prog rock groups now!

[neil73]

Great to hear again after so many years. I always thought it was a church organ playing the theme, but i can tell now its most likely a good old Hammond B3!

[caxtonman]

Great! I forgot how this intro sounded, makes the ones now seem a bit lame..!

[mcgazz]

We need more heavy documentaries with prog rock theme tunes!

[rhodrimarsden]

@mcgazz Not as good as Weekend World, dude.

[DodgeDriverFFS]

two extremes World in Action FAN-TAS-TIC ...............and CRAPORATION-SHYTE that bleery sicopandic REDICULAS portration of tripe, fed to fixated bored out of their lives "viewers" SCRAP Craporation Shyte , Bring BACK World in action inject reality !

[theEvo77]

Have to agree with two other comments posted already- I had a love/hate thing going on with this programme. Thought the tune was great and the mans willy rather funny, yet it also scared me to death at the same time, with all the I.R.A stuff going on.

[geraberl]

The most pivotal 30 seconds of my life. The theme tune to this got me into music, the titles inspired me to get into graphic design.

Not bad for 30 seconds.

[tompo010101]

cool man...i loved the opening too

[mikeswimming]

I got into graphic design but this didn't inspire me....I don't know what did...

[wayzotoichi]

probably talent? :p

[wayzotoichi]

amazing story...yeah this was a dramatic opening theme tune, along with the very different SOUTH BANK SHOW (LWT) and ON THE RECORD (BBC)...some of the most breath taking tv themes were created in this time.

[potato73]

This reminds me of sitting in my pyjamas, watching the title sequence and thinking "ooh you can see that mans willy" and then having to go to bed because it was school the next day.

[tompo010101]

hahahah

[moomin12]

Ace. Me too!

[insut07]

But 'THE TOMORROWS PEOPLE' intro music kicked ass!

[testcardgirl76]

One of the best theme tunes and openings ever, not to mention an excellent programme. Oh ITV, what has happened to you?

[insut07]

testcargirl76... sOo true but do you know the current affairs programme which had that crazy 70's Rock tune with the brilliant drumming and guitar rift?

[testcardgirl76]

insut27-I do believe you're thinking of the theme tune to Weekend World-another great and much missed ITV programme. Song in question was 'Nantucket Sleighride' by Mountain. Riff-tastic! :-)

[insut07]

testcardgirl76...thanks so much, just checked up and found it. I heard it on BBC radio London the other week by that guy which does the 3pm show, 'forgot his name'... then all the memories came flooding back. This one i think is my fave though. Not being too morbid but the World at War series was the most emotional ever, that tune with those black/white images comming through the flames... brugggh! 70s TV rocked.

[dstuart82]

there is something incredibly mysterious about that intro, i felt that way as a young boy watching it and i still get that feeling watching it again years later, i cant really put it into words!

[GeorgeASFTHM]

World in Action was to The Guardian what This Week was to The Times of current affairs programmes.

Now it's Tonight With Trevor McDonald - the Daily Mail of current affairs programmes...

[bithot2nite]

Brilliant, just brilliant. Who wrote the theme? Whats it called?

[matelot95]

Jam for World in Action by Shawn Phillips

[bithot2nite]

Thanks dude :-)

[CLAYTONATER]

used to scare the shit out of me this opening title. An it AWAYS seemed to be about the IRA...?????

[MQsCues]

A World in Action investigation was responsible for the re-trial and quashed convictions of the Guildford Four - perhaps their most significant documentary of all. But I know what you mean - I guess the IRA did dominate the news in the UK back then. And, being produced in Manchester, it was closer to being half-way between London and Belfast...

[Stratoszero]

You said it mate, used to creep upstairs to bed as a kid when this came on.

[morgansifer82]

ITV does not produce documentaries of anything any where near the quality of World In Action today. The nearest we have is Tonight with Trevor Mcdonald, which is brief and almost tabloid-uesque in its outlook. The same accusation can be levied at ITN news now, once a proud bastion of investigative journalism, it is a shadow of its former self. ITV all over these days really.

[smailer07]

Dedicated to Carol Brumfitt.

[creeball]

this intro used to give me nightmares as a child. the multi-limbed man and the theme tune used to (and stil does) remind me of some kind of satanic worship.

[creeball]

does anybody remember the cook report? roger cook was a fearless fuck. investigative journalism with xtra balls!

[cheapy2006]

i think the first time i became aware of john pilger was via world in action. 'nuff said.

i don't watch tv any more, but i can just imagine what they've replaced this fine show with-something about jade goody getting a makeover in order to get voted onto/off of a desert island full of antique auctioneers whose chief is noel edmonds!

the people get what the people will settle for-it was true in the case uf pilger's old paper the mirror, and it's true of the tv

[robbo1978]

it's a shame there's nothing like this on itv now, just loads of reality crap and make over shows.

[imcadam121]

Yeah it was unrelenting in it's quest for the truth.

Like regional itv,sadly it no longer exists.

[RobinCarmody]

I've always thought that the very *sound* of the music sets out the programme's stall - its timbre itself hints at radicalism, a determination to ask questions and not accept the official line.

No wonder it doesn't exist anymore.

[troublemaker1973]

You are so right. Those were the days when there was true investigative journalism on TV, the type of journalism that really sought to upset the applecart. I miss this sort of TV so much now. Actually, I got so fed up Britain that I left!