Will the Take Off With Bradley And Holly theme tune compete with the gameshow gems of the past?

It’s been a while since a classic game show landed with a genuinely memorable theme tune, so the pressure is on for the next big offering from the BBC, Take Off With Bradley And Holly. Back in the heyday of gameshows during the 1970s and 80s, theme songs used to be a huge part of the package and sometimes even more memorable than the show itself, but we haven’t had one of those in a long time.

However, the BBC is putting out a couple of new shows in the coming months, so we’re pretty hopeful that at least one of them will deliver the kind of catchy tune that cuts through all of the noise of modern day TV. Take Off With Bradley And Holly is arguably the biggest contender for this with Bradley Walsh and Holly Willoughby hosting the show, which will be a festive special going out during the Christmas holidays.

The idea is that families compete in the one hour show to win a trip to Lapland to celebrate the festivities with a host of games and quizzes take part in along the way. All of this should combine to deliver an epic jingly bells style theme song with more than a little Christmas cheer wrapped up in it’s tinsel-laden confines.

The only potential cautionary tale is that it’s a one-off show created especially for the Christmas holidays, so it’s possible that it won’t have enough time and space to be able to deliver a genuinely impactful theme tune. However, with such big names in heartsease hot seat and a big transmission target around the Christmas holidays you’ve got to imagine that the BBC will be throwing everything into it.

If Take Off With Bradley And Holly works well for its one-off Christmas special, we wouldn’t write off it going on to be picked up for more episodes going forward, but time will tell. If it doesn’t land with a truly impressive theme song, the other contender coming up is First And Last hosted by Jason Manford, who continues his efforts with the BBC following on from the success of sitcom Scarborough. It’s a 6-episode show for its opening run, and with Manford’s music love and nostalgia for the 70s and 80s it could be given the cheque book and pen treatment for its theme song. You can see more from the BBC on its Twitter page at https://twitter.com/BBC.

Why the modern day gameshow theme tune isn’t as impactful as those of yesteryear?

One reason you might think of in terms of why modern day gameshow theme tunes aren’t quite as memorable as they used to be is that they no longer have lyrics. Looking back there was Blankety Blank and Going for Gold, but for some reason their legacy hasn’t managed to cut through to influence the game shows that are coming out these days.

However, there were a number of prominent shows from back in the day that didn’t have any singing in either with the likes of Bullseye, 3-2-1, Blockbusters and Treasure Hunt being the most popular music-only themes of the 70s and 80s. In all fairness there are a few gameshows on at the moment that have decent enough tunes with Pointless being the most prominent, but there’s definitely a dearth of great songs at the moment.

There are probably just a couple of reasons for this with the first being that gameshows don’t really get as much love as they used to do with the advent of reality TV. With less prominent time slots they end up getting a little less attention, so there’s less exposure for the the opening title track.

The other big reason is that theme tunes in general don’t get as much attention as they used to do. Hopefully, shows like Take Off With Bradley And Holly and First And Last will make them more prominent once again with great musicians and maybe a few lyrics thrown in for good measure.

Take Off With Bradley And Holly will air at Christmas and you can check out Holly Willoughby’s Instagram page at https://instagram.com/hollywilloughby to see more on the gameshow in the build up.