Might be a US-born/raised person, but this was definitely something engraved into my childhood memories. Watched a lot of Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, and BanannaMan on Nickelodeon growing up. Thanks for preserving something from my childhood.
I totally have nostalgia for this title, but for the life of me, I don't know what show it was attached to. All the shows people say they know it from American TV, I never watched. Such a weird feeling.
Thames Television was the definition of fantastic television. From documentaries to sitcoms, investigative journalism to children’s programming, nobody did it better or can do better than Thames.
No amount of spectacular modern day CGI or the creativity it breeds could ever create something as memorable as this. It's burnt into the retinas of people of a certain age.
If Cartlon didn't exist, the fate of regional programs is much slower (thanks to 1990's Brocasting Act now Thames and most of other regional TV are being bought by 2005(possible), expect Ulster TV (now called UTV), Channel Television, Scottish Television and Grampian Television.
I emigrated to canada in 2007 and to see that again even thought its long gone, makes me miss the UK and think back to my childhood thanks for the memorys
Saw this a lot back in Australia my favourite memory of it was at the start of Big League Soccer which was produced by Thames TV. So many wonderful matches back in the 1980s and memories of Brian Moore R.I.P.
As an American you would often see this intro just before a British Comedy such as Fawlty Towers, Allo Allo , Are you Being served , Benny hill or Danger mouse would come on the local PBS or Public Broadcast Station many evenings around 6 -8pm . Great memories; they dont make intros like this on tv anymore.
Saw this on Australian TV in the 70s & 80s with shows like The World at War, Man About the House, Minder and Kenny Everett. My wife says when she first visited the UK in the 80s (doing the Aussie working holiday thing) she was disappointed to find all those iconic London landmarks weren't actually that close together!
@Elitist20: Well that is artistic licence for you, but they a not that far apart either though. The Telecom Tower [ or BT tower now ]seen in the background next to the first bell tower of St Pauls, isn't that far from Big Ben.
_Castle Duckula, home for many centuries to a dreadful dynasty of vicious vampire ducks - the counts of Duckula!_ _Legend has it that these foul beings can be destroyed by a stake through the heart, or exposure to sunlight. This does _*_not_*_ suffice, however, for they may be brought back to life, by means of a secret rite, that can be performed once a century when the moon is in the eighth house of Aquarius._ _The latest reincarnation did not run according to plan._
In the heart of Transylvania In the vampire hall of fang, yeah There's not a vampire zanier than (Duckula) He won't bite beast or man, 'cause he's a vegetarian (Aah!) And things never run to plan for (Duckula) If you're lookin' for some fun, you can always count upon The wild and wacky one they call (Duckula) Duckula: Heh heh, *Count* Duckula, heh heh heh heh *Thunder crash*
Thames Tv , best broadcaster and production company, ever! Really sad what happened in 1991/92 but so glad Fremantle is keeping the Thames brand alive... thanks so much
This intro instantly reminds me of watching the Benny Hill show on Saturday nights at 11 on KTVU channel 2 in Oakland, CA. Creature Features would follow at 11:30. The 80s was an amazing time to be a kid.
I replied to another comment with this explaining the relationship between Thames and ITV in the UK, but it would be quite hidden away so I thought I’d paste it here as well as there are quite a few people not from the UK who remember Thames. ITV was a network of 14 geographic regions and in those, 15 companies (London had two companies in the one region) were contracted to serve those regions to the programme guidelines laid down by their regulators the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and the Postmaster General. These regions were decided on a balance of geographical/cultural divides in the UK and transmitter coverage (as radio waves don’t obey the rules of cultural boundaries!) Most parts of the country had one ITV franchisee but London and the surrounding counties had two (to offset any influence of them covering the region with the largest population would have on advertising income and therefore on national ITV programming policy). Thames served London weekdays with London Weekend Television (LWT) doing exactly as its name implies. These contracts were not permanent (the terms of the contract and the winner being decided by the IBA) and the companies had to reapply for them along with new applicants every 6 to 11 years (the lengths of the contracts varied over time). This is how Thames both started and ended. It won the London Weekday franchise from Rediffusion Television in 1968, re-applied and won its franchise in both 1974 and 1982 but re-applied and lost to newcomer Carlton Television in 1993. Each ITV region would be expected to make a certain quota of hours of programmes per week intended specifically for its own region, but the “big 5” (these changed over time but using the 70s and 80s model of Thames, LWT, ATV/Central, Granada and Yorkshire) also had additional responsibilities of attracting the big talent and making shows to be shown across the ITV network, not always on the same days and times (more of that in a moment) because they covered the largest population areas so earned the highest advertising revenue to fund making such expensive programmes. Smaller regions like Southern, Anglia and Tyne Tees could get their programmes shown nationally but to do so usually had to either approach each company to show them when they had spare time left over after the big 5 had commandeered the prime time slots and majority of daytime and late night slots or had to wait for a big 5 company to have spare slots they were committed to fill on the ITV network but no shows of their own to fill them. Southern’s successor TVS did the latter a lot with LWT in the 80s. LWT had network slots with the other ITV companies they had to fill but had not enough original British programming of their own, so TVS - who wanted to turn the big 5 into the big 6 - approached them. The ITV companies each decided their own schedules and this would almost daily lead to some series starting later in some regions than others, episodes of series being shown more frequently in some regions than others, some shows only being part-networked, some being shown in all regions at the same time (mostly the same episodes but very occasionally different episodes of the same series at the same time) and all manner of other variations. Programme sources not made by any ITV company (imported programmes and films, mainly, as there were few programmes made by the nascent independent production company sector) were each purchased and scheduled individually by each ITV company, not as a network. Primetime shows tended to be networked across ITV, it was less common (though not impossible) for there to be regional variations in primetime, the ITV companies made the most profit from advertisers (which were always booked on a regional basis) during these hours so wanted to spend less money paying the GPO/BT (as they were called after privatisation in 1984) on booking extra programme distribution circuits around the country additional to the ones being used to feed networked programmes. That way the companies could use the profit they made in these hours to subsidise other loss-making ventures like minority programmes or booking additional lines for regional variations, which were more often seen in daytime hours or in late night slots. All the regional variations really ended in 1991 with the establishment of the ITV Network Centre, who decided that all ITV regions must take networked programmes at the same episode, same day, same time, with dedicated slots for each region to put their regional variations in. Since then the homogenisation of ITV has been a slow process, as of 2022 only STV in Scotland is a regional ITV contractor in its own right, all the others having been bought out and merged into a single ITVplc.
Probably one of the most iconic Idents of British regional television. Watched by millions everyday from 1969 until the loss of the franchise in 1992. "This is Thames Television" Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/FMarchives
TBH, London street traders used to adapt that to whatever they were selling, they’d change the last word to “or-an-ges”, “clem-en-tines”, “rasp-ber-ries” etc. Anything that had 3 syllables was ripe for using.
@Araptorofnote: It was called "Salute to Thames" written by the late Johnny Hawksworth whom also wrote and composed the theme tunes to Man about the House and its spin off, George and Mildred which were made and distributed for the ITV network by Thames Television.
Mr Bean anyone? I saw this on Mr. Bean the Whole Bean DVD series I rented from Netflix back in 2006 this logo appeared when I watched the episode The Curse of Mr. Bean.
I suddenly had this fanfare going through my head as if the last 25 years had never happened. I thought that playing this clip here might cure me, but no luck.
I know this is an older video but I was wondering if you could confirm a story I heard. The music that was finally decided upon is based on the traditional street vendor song 'won't you buy my sweet violets' or lavender etc. and was was adapted by Johnny Hawksworth for the ident called 'Salute to Thames', Is there any truth to this?
@@arthurvasey The night time version was also seen at the start of a Christmas TV movie that Thames produced called Quincy's Quest which starred Tommy Steele.
Might be a US-born/raised person, but this was definitely something engraved into my childhood memories. Watched a lot of Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, and BanannaMan on Nickelodeon growing up.
Thanks for preserving something from my childhood.
I watched Button Moon (A forgotten 1980’s show) and this was at the very start.
I am from Spain and this theme is one of my childhood memories as well.
I totally have nostalgia for this title, but for the life of me, I don't know what show it was attached to. All the shows people say they know it from American TV, I never watched. Such a weird feeling.
Not Benny Hill?
Bananaman wasn’t from Thames, it was originally on the BBC
Wonderful childhood memories - i used to love that intro i knew my favorite program would be coming on next! miss you Thames!
That is 100% pure joy, the sound of great tv programmes coming up, I could listen to it a million times and still be happy.
Thames Television was the definition of fantastic television. From documentaries to sitcoms, investigative journalism to children’s programming, nobody did it better or can do better than Thames.
Other itv channels did great shows like LWT did on the buses and Yorkshire tv did rising damp
No amount of spectacular modern day CGI or the creativity it breeds could ever create something as memorable as this. It's burnt into the retinas of people of a certain age.
My childhood memories! My favorite program would be coming next- Benny Hill show!!!
also in Poland the same :)
i have 5 y old :)
I miss Benny Hill.
@oldcomputers69 I am so pleased you enjoyed the clip. All the best ThamesTv
No way the @ThamesTV just commented on this I loved Danger mouse when I was younger
takes me back when times were better 😊❤️
You guys were the best. Carlton should have NEVER replaced you for the ITV London Weekday franchise.
If Cartlon didn't exist, the fate of regional programs is much slower (thanks to 1990's Brocasting Act now Thames and most of other regional TV are being bought by 2005(possible), expect Ulster TV (now called UTV), Channel Television, Scottish Television and Grampian Television.
I had those last 4 notes in my head for over a month now, and I've finally found it!
Brings back the memories...
I hear 8 notes …
Alt title:
Opening Logo - Danger Mouse: Classic Collection
@@G6JPG last 4 :)
It’s the Benny Hill Show!
I emigrated to canada in 2007 and to see that again even thought its long gone, makes me miss the UK and think back to my childhood
thanks for the memorys
Saw this a lot back in Australia my favourite memory of it was at the start of Big League Soccer which was produced by Thames TV. So many wonderful matches back in the 1980s and memories of Brian Moore R.I.P.
Cry all you like💀
"This is Thames Television, operating on the London transmitters of the Independent Television Authority"
Growing up in the suburbs not too far from NYC....Also born in 1974.... I remember seeing this intro as a kid 100s of times...
Born on Long Island in 1979. This logo is forever linked with Benny Hill on WOR-9 in my memory.
My Parents both born in the 70s grew up with this and I just get a massive smile on face
Rainbow brought me here. Best memories growing up listening to this come on air ❤️
Don't forget The Bill
This is part of my childhood that I cherished. Danger Mouse is coming on!!!
I'm a Canadian and grew up watching a lot of British shows. This theme song is burnt into my brain and is something I shall never forget.
Me too ✋🏻 and I best 👍🏻 remember this logo from Benny Hill and Mr. Bean.
and now it's time for Rainbow with Zippy, George Bungle and Geoffrey.
@Christopher Drennan: They were all high on Cannabis and nobody cared.
My mom was a big fan of Rumpole of the Bailey when I was growing up. I remember hearing this little tune all the time.
There aren't many idents I'd put in my favourites list. This is one of the few.
As an American you would often see this intro just before a British Comedy such as Fawlty Towers, Allo Allo , Are you Being served , Benny hill or Danger mouse would come on the local PBS or Public Broadcast Station many evenings around 6 -8pm . Great memories; they dont make intros like this on tv anymore.
MTV's The State parodied this in their intro during 1993-1995. Maybe as a tribute to a childhood or because they liked Danger Mouse and Duckula.
I remember that
Surely Benny Hill.
Saw this on Australian TV in the 70s & 80s with shows like The World at War, Man About the House, Minder and Kenny Everett. My wife says when she first visited the UK in the 80s (doing the Aussie working holiday thing) she was disappointed to find all those iconic London landmarks weren't actually that close together!
@Elitist20: Well that is artistic licence for you, but they a not that far apart either though. The Telecom Tower [ or BT tower now ]seen in the background next to the first bell tower of St Pauls, isn't that far from Big Ben.
Not forgetting the most popular one of all, Benny Hill.
9 seconds of perfection
Whenever I hear this logo, the first thing that comes to my mind is the Benny Hill Show.
Im from Spain and this remember me my English lesson when the teacher show us some British program during the class.
Wow, massive flashbacks of childhood TV!!!
This tune became very famous in the Spanish TV during the '70s and '80s.
Of course
The beginning of Kevin Brownlow’s magnificent ‘Hollywood’ documentary! And so many more classic British television programs!!
_Castle Duckula, home for many centuries to a dreadful dynasty of vicious vampire ducks - the counts of Duckula!_
_Legend has it that these foul beings can be destroyed by a stake through the heart, or exposure to sunlight. This does _*_not_*_ suffice, however, for they may be brought back to life, by means of a secret rite, that can be performed once a century when the moon is in the eighth house of Aquarius._
_The latest reincarnation did not run according to plan._
In the heart of Transylvania
In the vampire hall of fang, yeah
There's not a vampire zanier than
(Duckula)
He won't bite beast or man, 'cause he's a vegetarian (Aah!)
And things never run to plan for
(Duckula)
If you're lookin' for some fun, you can always count upon
The wild and wacky one they call
(Duckula)
Duckula: Heh heh, *Count* Duckula, heh heh heh heh *Thunder crash*
Danger Mouse brought me here :)
+John Cadwallader benny hill too!
@@moxie96 Also seen before Give Us A Clue, Minder & The Bill.
Duckula brought me here.
CITV Old School Weekend bought me here!
I first saw this when Nickelodeon in the USA ran Danger Mouse. It was also a reason I'd watch Benny Hill reruns at weird hours.
Yes, its the Benny Hill Show!!
Was walking past someones house earlier. This tune played, and instantly knew it was the Thames TV intro
Good old days in London.
Thames Tv , best broadcaster and production company, ever! Really sad what happened in 1991/92 but so glad Fremantle is keeping the Thames brand alive... thanks so much
Benny Hill and Duckula
This intro instantly reminds me of watching the Benny Hill show on Saturday nights at 11 on KTVU channel 2 in Oakland, CA. Creature Features would follow at 11:30. The 80s was an amazing time to be a kid.
Remember this vividly. Watched Count Duckula as a kid
I used to love looking at this as a kid. Though I always expect Rainbow to start.
Excellent 1984 Thames television video!
I replied to another comment with this explaining the relationship between Thames and ITV in the UK, but it would be quite hidden away so I thought I’d paste it here as well as there are quite a few people not from the UK who remember Thames.
ITV was a network of 14 geographic regions and in those, 15 companies (London had two companies in the one region) were contracted to serve those regions to the programme guidelines laid down by their regulators the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and the Postmaster General. These regions were decided on a balance of geographical/cultural divides in the UK and transmitter coverage (as radio waves don’t obey the rules of cultural boundaries!) Most parts of the country had one ITV franchisee but London and the surrounding counties had two (to offset any influence of them covering the region with the largest population would have on advertising income and therefore on national ITV programming policy). Thames served London weekdays with London Weekend Television (LWT) doing exactly as its name implies.
These contracts were not permanent (the terms of the contract and the winner being decided by the IBA) and the companies had to reapply for them along with new applicants every 6 to 11 years (the lengths of the contracts varied over time). This is how Thames both started and ended. It won the London Weekday franchise from Rediffusion Television in 1968, re-applied and won its franchise in both 1974 and 1982 but re-applied and lost to newcomer Carlton Television in 1993.
Each ITV region would be expected to make a certain quota of hours of programmes per week intended specifically for its own region, but the “big 5” (these changed over time but using the 70s and 80s model of Thames, LWT, ATV/Central, Granada and Yorkshire) also had additional responsibilities of attracting the big talent and making shows to be shown across the ITV network, not always on the same days and times (more of that in a moment) because they covered the largest population areas so earned the highest advertising revenue to fund making such expensive programmes. Smaller regions like Southern, Anglia and Tyne Tees could get their programmes shown nationally but to do so usually had to either approach each company to show them when they had spare time left over after the big 5 had commandeered the prime time slots and majority of daytime and late night slots or had to wait for a big 5 company to have spare slots they were committed to fill on the ITV network but no shows of their own to fill them. Southern’s successor TVS did the latter a lot with LWT in the 80s. LWT had network slots with the other ITV companies they had to fill but had not enough original British programming of their own, so TVS - who wanted to turn the big 5 into the big 6 - approached them.
The ITV companies each decided their own schedules and this would almost daily lead to some series starting later in some regions than others, episodes of series being shown more frequently in some regions than others, some shows only being part-networked, some being shown in all regions at the same time (mostly the same episodes but very occasionally different episodes of the same series at the same time) and all manner of other variations. Programme sources not made by any ITV company (imported programmes and films, mainly, as there were few programmes made by the nascent independent production company sector) were each purchased and scheduled individually by each ITV company, not as a network. Primetime shows tended to be networked across ITV, it was less common (though not impossible) for there to be regional variations in primetime, the ITV companies made the most profit from advertisers (which were always booked on a regional basis) during these hours so wanted to spend less money paying the GPO/BT (as they were called after privatisation in 1984) on booking extra programme distribution circuits around the country additional to the ones being used to feed networked programmes. That way the companies could use the profit they made in these hours to subsidise other loss-making ventures like minority programmes or booking additional lines for regional variations, which were more often seen in daytime hours or in late night slots.
All the regional variations really ended in 1991 with the establishment of the ITV Network Centre, who decided that all ITV regions must take networked programmes at the same episode, same day, same time, with dedicated slots for each region to put their regional variations in. Since then the homogenisation of ITV has been a slow process, as of 2022 only STV in Scotland is a regional ITV contractor in its own right, all the others having been bought out and merged into a single ITVplc.
YES! It's the Benny Hill show!!
Помню эту заставку, хоть и из России, ее показывали перед Бенни Хиллом и Ветром в Ивах! Одна из лучших заставок!
The composition is the tune of Aussie jazzman Johnny Hawksworth. Who also wrote the them to Man About the House
+Demetrius Romeo And George & Mildred
I connect this so hard with comedy that I start to laugh by just hearing the tune😂
When I see a video of Thames TV, I always put like.
Mr bean brought me here. My childhood memories! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
When I was young and first went to UK, I saw this on TV . It was early 1985.
So many wonderful memories. I’m thinking danger mouse and the wind in the willows. Simpler times
This is thames...from london!
Probably one of the most iconic Idents of British regional television. Watched by millions everyday from 1969 until the loss of the franchise in 1992. "This is Thames Television"
Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/FMarchives
Good old days.
It's based on the old London street cry 'Who will buy my sweet lav-en-der'.
TBH, London street traders used to adapt that to whatever they were selling, they’d change the last word to “or-an-ges”, “clem-en-tines”, “rasp-ber-ries” etc. Anything that had 3 syllables was ripe for using.
@Araptorofnote: It was called "Salute to Thames" written by the late Johnny Hawksworth whom also wrote and composed the theme tunes to Man about the House and its spin off, George and Mildred which were made and distributed for the ITV network by Thames Television.
I'm not saying this is a bad logo, but I used to find this logo scary because the fanfare was too noisy for me.
*This is Thames, from London*
Time for Count Duckula
This reminds me of Danger Mouse
Funny enough, but i remember this, though i'm russian. Probably because this bumper was shown every time before the Benny Hill show (yeah, we had it)
Takes me back to watching Nickelodeon and seeing Danger Mouse and Count Duckula. Why is the music so creepy though?
Also The Tomorrow People that was aired on Nickelodeon too.
Count Duckula!
Proud to be British 🇬🇧
I love this logo
Just realised the opening 4 bars of this sound just like Jean-Michael Jarre's "Fourth Rendez-vous"
I remember as a little kid I'd see this just before Danger Mouse started on Nickelodeon.
Mr Bean anyone?
I saw this on Mr. Bean the Whole Bean DVD series I rented from Netflix back in 2006 this logo appeared when I watched the episode The Curse of Mr. Bean.
I suddenly had this fanfare going through my head as if the last 25 years had never happened. I thought that playing this clip here might cure me, but no luck.
Ah yeah Count Duckula is on.
this is a certified hood classic
That logo always makes me laugh knowing that the Benny Hill Show is about to start
When I used to watch Danger Mouse as a kid, I must admit that this logo did slightly creep me out. However, it's a really good logo.
**sighs** Just my luck, spots on my chin for the first day of the new year!
Yes Rainbow brought me here.
I have a song that is based on this Thames Music ** SINGING ** I JUST LOVE YOU - THE WAY YOU ARE 😉
That’s some crappy comment💩💀
Everytime I see Thames I think The Benny hill show getting ready to come on lol
I still wonder what instruments were used to make the first few notes before the horns came in?
Every 80s boy in the U.S. knew what this identification meant what was coming next...
The old Sooty Show brought me here :)
The goodies are on!
Now Benny Hill please!
Timeless
Time for "Rumpole of the Bailey"!
Benny Hill and early Mr. Bean episodes.
Benny Hill!
#BennyHill forever!
Sooty brought me here
This logo appears on Danger mouse, Button Moon, the Benny Hill show, and rumple of the bailey
Danger Mouse on Nickelodeon!
jaguar skills.....Jaguar Skills.....JAGUAR SKILLS
Benny Hill baby!
I know this is an older video but I was wondering if you could confirm a story I heard. The music that was finally decided upon is based on the traditional street vendor song 'won't you buy my sweet violets' or lavender etc. and was was adapted by Johnny Hawksworth for the ident called 'Salute to Thames', Is there any truth to this?
I'm sure you had a nightime ident. Can you upload that?
They didn’t have one as such - but a night time version was used before Armchair Thriller!
@@arthurvasey The night time version was also seen at the start of a Christmas TV movie that Thames produced called Quincy's Quest which starred Tommy Steele.
@@AllenJeremy I believe so - or something like it!
What was the show were they played the flute a bit like Jethro Tull around the same time anyone ?
From an episode of “Rainbow”.
Ready for the Benny Hill show
el conde pátula!
This would come on just before "Rainbow" lol
Reminds me of rainbow
The best .
This reminds me of Sid James and Kenneth Williams…