Flying Pickets - Porterhouse Blue (Original TV theme)

[Fcutdlady]

is this the first and only song the original flying pickets sang to a backing track of music .

[FourPart]

@Fcutdlady

Not quite true. If you check out the Alan Parsons Project album, Freudiana, Tracks 6 (Funny You Should Say That) & 8 (Far Away From Home) are both Lead Vocals by Flying Pickets, with some impressive instrumental backing.

[CarryOnQuack]

Great theme for Porterhouse Blue. It went with the TV series perfectly. Loved the book by Tom Sharp, but my favorite was Wilt. I give this video a big Quack.

[alecbg919]

Gentleman is gentleman.

[tokeytowells]

porterhouse blue was actually made in 1987 and not 1981- get your facts straight for crying out loud.

[tokeytowells]

a haunting theme

[hyphz]

There aren't lyrics for the second verse because I'm the one who cobbled together the wikianswers translation from various net sources and nobody had ever heard the second verse at the time! Plus, the fact that it's "fake latin" makes translating it difficult. Here's a starting attempt... it seems to start with "allegatores, stupatores" - or it could be "ah, legatores". "Allegatores" is a word that might have been used in Latin but its meaning isn't clear. "Ah, legatores" would mean...

[hyphz]

.. "ah, those who leave legacies", or it might be dog latin for "ah, law-makers". "Stupatores" is an actual Italian word for a type of trader who worked with merchant shipping, but it might be dog latin for "stupid people".

The next line sounds like "sequivor semper bellus mores". "Semper bellus mores" are all correct latin words, and mean "always good manners". Sequivor or sequivur, however, doesn't seem to be findable anyway. It _could_ be "se quibor"..

[hyphz]

.. which would mean "they are able to have good manners, always" but that doesn't fit with the last line. The next two lines, though, I can't really make out, as the girl singer really mixes up the sounds. It sounds like "quienium hoc Chaucum" but "quienium" makes no sense - it could be "qui enium", since "qui" means "who", but "enium" is then a bizarre misfit that can't possibly mean anything in Latin..

[c824767]

i could never find it. my husband loves it. thank you utube. they should make more episodes, it was the BEST. nice to see a reasonable discussion. thanks for remarking on that raherecolston

[c824767]

i could never find it. my husband loves it. thank you utube

[KP371]

How wonderful to hear this again, haven't heard it in about 15 years. I followed the Pickets for many years. Probably the last great Pickets record before the personnel started changing every few months. Line up was Rick Lloyd (who also co-wrote it), David Brett, Gareth Williams, Hereward Kaye, Gary Howard and I believe Ken Gregson was still on board at the time. Rick won a BAFTA for it. He always played "Mr. Cool" but I think he was pretty proud of it.

Thanks for posting. Good memories.

[b3a5t1e]

A shame all the pictures are of the wrong line up for the Pickets, except a few at the end.

[upsidedownninja]

Was it really 1981? but great to hear it again....made the hair on the back of my neck stand up! Jason at his very best!

[liamfoley]

Was the theme ever released on vinyl, tape, CD or MP3?

[markh5682]

@liamfoley

This was originally released on a 7" vinyl single, and has since featured on some TV theme compilation CDs.

It is more than likely to have been included on a Flying pickets album as well.

[KP371]

@markh5682 It's never been on any Flying Pickets albums to my knowledge. There was only one by this line up at the time and it wasn't on that, and I don't know of it being an any later compilations - probably due to licensing/copyright issues.

[throovest]

SHEER BRILLIANCE. Great music. Great series

[veritascrusader]

Great series so perceptive with uncanny resemblece to real varsity life. Jason at his best.

[robwwww]

Bring back the 80s...

[throovest]

A brilliant piece. A super series, too. David Jason at his absolute best. And Ian Richardson! Classic stuff

[AchtungEnglander]

Fantastic thanks !

[Backfire757]

Flambards? Period drama, galloping horses...

[bronith]

@Backfire757 Yes it was indeed Flambards thank you so much. I have been reacquainting myself with that haunting theme music again after two decades of wondering what it was. Thanks to you and Signcarash. cheers

[LazyD2]

Can any one provide a translation to the 2nd verse?

[chisacat]

" Of course you would know this sir , if you was a proper gentleman "

Scullion , head porter

[phsyochild]

And a big thanks to Tom Sharpe.

[bondie45]

Thank you very much markh, if it was not for people like you,we would not get to hear great music such as this. Once again a BIG thank you.

[bronith]

Thanks for thinking of it but No it wasnt the Adventures of BB - it was fey and the accompanying view was a herd of galloping horses . . .

[bronith]

I too had thought I would never hear it again. So thrilled. Who remembers a UK television series in 1981 also with haunting theme music - there were horses galloping and it was a period drama. Would love to hear that again. anyone remember?

[markh5682]

The adventures of Black Beauty?

[pirateofthecarabiner]

@markh5682 Black Adder, the original?

[chisacat]

Brideshead Revisited

[tjamassey]

@bronith It being shown on seesaw - every episode.

[Kenta19191919]

@bronith

I was only 16 learning English when Porterhouse Blue came on air. It was a brilliant TV series. The humour elements in the story is impossible to translate into Japanese.

[bronith]

@Kenta19191919 Konichwa Kenta thank you for your reply. I can imagine it was difficult - but your English is pretty good now. I lived in Fukuoka for three years - now home in New Zealand. Where are you?

[Kenta19191919]

@bronith

You lived in Fukuoka for three years? It is such a minor town in Japan. I wonder what you were doing there. Yes, it was rather difficult to understand what was being said in the programme. I think it was sometime in the first half of 1987 when the series came on air on Channel 4. I started learning English at a language school in Harlow in Essex on in Jan of that year.

[Kenta19191919]

@bronith

I am in Tokyo now.

[signcrash]

@bronith Or maybe you're thinking of "Flambards."

[bronith]

@signcrash Thank you so much xx it was indeed Flambards. I just had to listen to the opening two notes to recognise it again! cheers

[davedefeet]

@bronith it was called folly foot

[edditheseahorse]

Thank you SO much for posting this. I'd given up hope of ever hearing it again!

[MacJaxonManOfAction]

I actually started singing this at work today. But don't tell anyone.

[raherecolston]

Thanks for posting this Markh. What a great series this was. The late great Ian Richardson and Charles Gray , AND David Jason too!

What a pleasant change to see some learned and erudite discussion ;not the usual YOUTUBE bickering and badmouthing. Good vid ,thankyou

[funbunnymate]

only two good things ever came from the east riding,and here are five of them!

AWSOME!

[jaxwells1]

love this sooo much! loved the programme too! brilliant!

[ghughesarch]

It is real(ish) Latin, and the first word of the second line is "epula" - banquet or feast, not "saecula", hence the second line should be "always feasting" - as the Porterhouse Blue is a stroke caused by overindulgence, this is entirely appropriate.

[Kenta19191919]

Well pointed out.

[timjfoot]

'dives' is actually an adjective, so the title actually means rich in everything, not wealth in everything.

Perhaps 'extravagant in everything' would be the best translation.

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Brilliant! haven't heard this in years! I really enjoyed the TV series and have fouind the theme going through my head from time to time ever since. Thanks for posting.

[johnknight100]

The Flying Pickets were not the only singers here.Boys from Jack Hunt school in Peterborough are on it too,singing soprano.I know that to be a fact;the school is 4 minutes walk from where I live

[ryanramsey]

@johnknight100 isn't that where Aston Merrygold went to school?

[johnknight100]

@ryanramsey Yes,it was,and a right arrogant big head he was too. I doubt if he's changed. I don't mean to be harsh or unkind,but it's the truth; just ask anyone who knew him.

[tich302001]

does Porterhouse Blue have the scene in the quadrangle when (David Jasons character) has an umberella (or something) and he's trying to pop the condoms someone had blown up like balloons for a joke and he's trying to pop them to get rid of them. Thats the only scene I saw because I was too young to watch I heard my parents laughing and it woke me up and it was that scene I saw.

[funkynosejob]

yes thats the one

[c824767]

where is the second part of the lyrics

[subby631]

Wonderful, thanks for posting. Dives in omnia....Money/Wealth is everything.

How true.

[chel3SEY]

Set in a fictional Cambridge College, although the depiction is not as much of a parody as one might think...

[raysondetra]

Any latin scholars out there who can translate this-Ive been wondering for over 20 years !!!!!!!

[raysondetra]

oh yeah.silly me thanks v much..

[grumpygeezertype]

"Porterhouse Blue" was set in a Cambridge College.

[agemangirl1919]

It was 1987 when I saw it on TV. I just started learning English at the time.

[3Deity]

Lorks alordy, what a find - Well done, first rate old chap!

[cartimand]

Great to hear this iconic theme tune again after all thos years! Thanks for posting!