Buy Song on iTunes : John Scott - 'The Good Word' Memories of a gravel-voiced Mike Barratt, Sue Lawley ( not gravel-voiced ) and all the others who made Nationwide so fondly remembered by so many people.
Over four decades later I still can't fathom why the BBC suddenly decided to pull this popular and successful programme. What have we got now? The fucking One Show.
according to a bbc doc a few years ago, it was pulled after pressure from the thatcher gov't following the famous belgrano interview where a member of the public repeated asked thatcher why she sank it. - i guess it must've been live. footage is kicking around somewhere. awks.
We only had three channels back then but television was about quality and not quantity . Proper news programme s that only lasted fifteen minutes but gave viewers the information they needed without all the froth . Soaps were shown two or three times a week and not every day and had more believable storylines. It was still possible too make comedy shows without people getting offended or traumatised. Sport was free too view for everyone instead of costing the earth i really miss those days ,,
Stirs so many memories... great piece of music. Those slightly clashing trumpets/brass. Love it. I always think some session musician probably just went in for half a day and recorded this, and it is now a treasured and iconic tune for so many.
For once it _isn't_ a Ronnie Hazlehurst (if in doubt, for many British TV themes over several decades, you're on fairly good grounds if you guess him!), but Johnny Scott; it's called The Good Word.
The bit no one recognises, is the hook they would use if the network was running early. Back in the day when TV was broadcast live to the nation, if they needed extra time to "opt in" to all the regional stations, they could extend the opening credits. This happened quite a few times, over the years.
They stopped using it. 1977. Out of the blue, they just actually stopped using it, and suddnely it was gone and you weren't going to hear it again. I mean, this theme, they actually stopped using. Actually stopped. Have you ever seen the like? Threw it away, took it out of our lives, changed it.
This music is 'The Good Word' by The Scottmen - I've looked for it here on RU-vid but can only find it under 'Nationwide Theme' - Great track and sublime horns!! Class music :)
She had just got engaged when I met her as a 6 year old kid. Sat on our living room floor doing her first ever TV interview! 1972. Showed us all her engagement ring. Very nice girl. I have a copy of that footage of her first ever interview in 1972 but not sure if the BBC would let me put it on here.
Reminds me of early evenings on dad's knee watching it as a child in a house in Blackburn Lancashire with the old Rayburn loaded with coal and wood till mid 70's when the Rayburn's were ripped out and replaced with Baxi Bermuda gas fires and central heating which were nicer.
Hearing this brings back so many memories. Does anyone remember that in 1981 one of the Nationwide reporters, Tony Wilkinson went undercover and lived as a homeless person and it was show within Nationwide as a series called Down and Out. I thought it was very very good. Sadly I have seen no footage of it since. It was repeated in 1982 and never heard of again. I have the book that accompanied the series.
Yes, he had a massive "hidden camera" in a sports bag and was attacked in an underpass. I was 9 at the time, but that item has stuck with me ever since...
I do indeed remember that. He assumed the name Tony Crabbe as I recall. A piece of journalism that is still as relevant as ever I feel. I also remember James Hogg living rough off the land on a remote Scottish island for some time and being cheered and applauded by the locals. Obviously memorable TV for some of us. Also in 1983 after the format of NW was changed Margaret Thatcher getting a verbal handbagging from a woman over the Falklands/Belgrano incident during a question and answer interview with the Great British public.
Even though I was only a kid I remember Nationwide. Main news,then the regional news,in our case Midlands Today with Tom Coyne,Alan Towers or Kay Alexander et Al. Back to Bob Wellings or Michael Barrett and stories around the region's.
It's played by the John Scott Orchestra- like many other famous BBC or other theme tunes it was probably a piece of library music produced by e.g KPM, deWolfe, Chappell or similar 😊
The opening chords are exactly the same as Paul Simon's opening to Me and Julio down by the schoolyard . ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1cs6U097kNQ.html
When reporting was honest and tv themes were fun...:) oh loved the 'southbank' show theme too. My son was born in 2002...later i told him 'relight my fire' was not a 1st time song by 'take that' but moreso in dan hartman ' around 79......after he saw the truth he believed my honesty from ther on in....lol
SiLoJayLo: Happy to report that Mike Barratt is still very much with us - aged 84 and living in Buckinghamshire. And on 22 February he'll be at the NFT in London talking about Nationwide!
That's more to do with the corporate takeover of Britain (thanks, City of London) than being stuck in the arranged marriage called 'the union'. As for knife gangs, I think they're still around.
Proper blokes with big jaws, and wide lapels.. going out into the world with their hush-puppy shoes and foam microphone-covers.. Like an army of secondary-school geography-teachers.. Not like the pasteurised ponces seen on the goggle nowadays..!
Same vintage. Of course, "Jessica" was a real song and this was basically library music- but the standard of much library music in the late 60s and 70s was usually quite high, because they didn't want to lose out to pop/ rock tracks all the time when the Beeb, ITV and the other TV companies were looking for theme music.
Very early memories for me of The Wombles, Magic Roundabout and Crossroads at teatime on dark evenings. I don't remember the programme at all except for the gravelly voiced presenter. Apart from the main trumpets theme the bit that's always stuck in my memory has been the soft fading 'dum-da-dum...dum-da-dum...dum-da-dum... ' as the credits ended, for some reason.
The first episode of the second series of 'End of Part One' (where Nationwide is lampooned as Nationtrite) has ruined my enjoyment of this clip to some extent (now unable to see these titles with a straight face). Even so, the joy of hearing the theme music in full is much appreciated.
Because they were so awful. Not the Nine O'Clock News showed that perfectly - "Can I just interrupt for a moment please - well I'd just like to say hello to my auntie Betty, and I'd like to say hello to my brother Donald too, who's currently serving with the Welsh Socialist Republican Army in Newport. It's just that this station's never been nationwide before, you see"
I distinctly remember watching such items down here in darkest Buckinghamshire and I would guess roughly proportionate per capita to the overall population.
YES! & Frank Bough as well - remember? That helicopter is a Brantly B2 if my memory serves me well. They hired freelancers in those days to do aerial work. LOL 'TJ the DJ' xxxxxx
I was aged 11 to 25 when it was on the air. I didn't like the show, it lived in London and South East. Most of UK forgotten about. South Today had to opt in and out. Today the show stands alone.
When I was a kid there was an April Fools BBC TV News report on a mad scientist who had created a dinosaur at his remote countryside compound - I can't find any mention of it these days. It was the 80s because I was rushed off to cub scouts when I wanted to watch the full report. Sure I didn't dream it!
I remember an interview with Tom Baker, talking about his leaving Doctor Who, this was in 1982, though he did leave the show in 1981. Can anyone else remember this? I am sure it was around September 1982, Tom Had a beard.
+Andrew Dexter I don't remember the incident but Tom was probably promoting a new play he was starring in, and the question about leaving Dr Who naturally came up.
+PopeLando Thank you for your comment, it may also have been when he was about to appear as Sherlock in ''The Hounds of the Baskervilles'' that was transmitted in the October of 1982.
Yes i remember the interview with Saville on here no problems with birds on trains planes you name it he said wonder if they dug that out for the inquiry
Hitler, Hindley & Brady did worse, I'm not condoning Hall or Bough's behavior but let's not forget that it happened & learn from the past & not hide it.