Should Radio 4’s theme tune be scrapped?

As I only arise at a horribly early hour of the morning for someone very special I associate the tune with good things. I also think it is a cracking piece and early mornings will be by far the poorer without it. I have already chosen Sailing By for my funeral, I would be very disappointed to lose both tunes from Radio 4. Alison Ward, Maidstone, Kent

Is our British identity so fragile that not hearing this tune at dawn can be damaged by it? I’ve never heard it, does this make me less British? If people simply can’t live without it, they should tape it and set the alarm on their hi-fi instead of their radio. Simon Clark, London

Lilliburlero gets my vote. The so-called “UK theme” is just derivative and naff. Rachel Mawhood, London

The Radio 4 Theme tune makes a worthy transition from the previous hours, when the the transmitters carry BBC World Service. It marks, very rightly the move back to the domestic and national issues of the day. Long may it continue. Duncan Tribute, East Molesey, Surrey

Tired is a good description for it after so many years. If supporters of abolition would email me on kcrook@rmplc.co.uk I will form a petition to counter the hysteria about dropping a rather boring piece of music. K Crook, Hitchin

When a group of people who objected to the UK theme being abandoned were asked if they actually listened to it only a few said they did.

All this anger is just being worked up by people who do not like change and hate the BBC. If I have to get up at 5.30 I like to hear the news and newspaper summary. If I wanted to hear music I would tune to something else. Dennis Wake, London

The Radio 4 UK theme is a pleasant little medley. If it must be replaced, please do not replace it with a piece of pop music. There is already far too much pop on Radio 4 and this is very irritating to the station’s traditional audience, and merely serves to jeopardise the BBC’s hard won reputation as the world’s finest broadcasting service. Robert Dunn, Edinburgh

Until I retired a few years ago I used to find that Fritz Spiegl’s medley raised my spirits and cheered my heart. It is a wonderful evocation of all that is best back home. Heaven preserve us from these johnny-come-lately busybodies who truly know the value of nothing. Graham Riley, Brussels

Please don’t scrap these theme tunes. When I lived abroad the wake-up call was a very welcome link with home and started the day on the right footing. Sailing By told me it really was time to stop whatever I was doing and go to bed. Change just for the sake of change is not a good thing. Linda Davies, North Wootton, Somerset

The Radio 4 theme should stay. Just a few minutes of easy listening that marks the change over from World Service to daytime Radio 4. What next? Sailing By? That would be sacrilege. Also, please bring back Lilliburlero to World Service. George Doherty, Truro, Devon

I am very annoyed by the Radio 4 controllers desire to remove the theme and to replace it with more cheap news content from, no doubt, the US. There is a surfeit of news already and Radio 4 must remain different. This little corner is and I hope remains part of it. Gordon Brown for once has my vote on this. Mark Lewis, Northallerton

Scrap it and sooner the better. Actually I don’t listen to it nowadays but pure mention of that tune, four years after retiring, brings back memories of early mornings preparing to face the stresses and strains of a job where many people were out to make life as difficult as possible, and if only I could have slept on to a more reasonable time when I may have felt more able to face it all. I have great respect for Fritz Spiegel’s radio work and music, but not that particular medley. John Audsley, Ashford, Kent



I have been fed up with this musically naive rag bag of melodies for a long time. It is just a set of mismatching tunes overlaid a few at a times and the bits glued together with drum rolls. I long for the days when we had the air from Handel’s Water Music. Ed Ball, Manchester

A theme tune is a statement about the programme that proceeds it (and ends with it). The five minutes of Fritz Spiegl’s arrangement is known all over the world so why mess with such a recognisable tune? The only reason why the BBC has decided to replace it is probably because one of their executives has suddenly got a strop on and wants to make his mark. Instead of changing the song the BBC should replaced the “brains” that wanted to have it replaced. All faults within the BBC are caused by brainless wonders that have nothing better to do that annoy others (mainly the license holders). Glenn Renshaw, Newbury

Mark Damazer seems to think that “being over 30 years old” is adequate reason for doing away with what I feel is a fascinating sample of British traditional tunes - I’m rarely listening at 5.30 a.m., but whenever I do happen to catch Fritz Spiegel’s piece, it evokes a lot of what Gordon Brown claims to want to encourage. And as someone herself well over 30, I must admit I dread Mr Damazer’s urge for modernisation becoming too widespread. Jean Marson, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

I can remember singing these songs at school, I enjoyed them then and now and always thought it a clever way to package up some national pride and remembrance in six minutes. It cheers me as it wakes me up. If you feel strongly about this matter get onto the BBC web site and grumble through their complaints system. I have - I’m fed up with being a member of the Silent Majority Party. Jackie Christensen, Bucks

It never was Radio 4’s “theme tune”. The original Radio 4 theme, used until around the late 1970s, was A Skipping Tune, used before Mr Spiegel’s overblown, notorious “baroque” jingles of the late 1970s. When they were axed after an outcry by listeners and Radio 4 migrated to long wave, a short-lived jingle based on Rule Brittannia was used, then no jingle at all since. Go back to the original Radio 4 theme, it was much better than the corny Spiegel medley. You might suggest replacing it with Sailing By, but that was inherited from Radio 2 when it occupied the long wave signal. A Skipping Tune it is. Sacha Hill, Laleham

BBC liberalist ideologues like Mark Damazar will continue to ‘disappear’ British history and culture in this way unless and until the democratic majority of licence fee payers overthrows the BBC as an institutional dictatorship by replacing it with its own democratically elected set of governors, with these latter ensuring that the new Democratic Broadcasting Corporation (DBC) serves the will of the democratic majority, instead of the liberalist, democraphobic minority (as at present). Democratise the BBC dictatorship. Terry Daly, London

I’m a bit bleary when the theme tune is on, but isn’t Barbara Allen in there somewhere? I’ve mixed feelings about the loss of the theme, it’s anodyne and familiar, and clever in places. But it depresses me, I have to get up at 6.30 and I’ve woken an hour too early! We should remember Fritz Spiegl as a clever and committed composer, but change happens. Jack Hughes, Brixham

I remember with very fond memories the theme tune during my days at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, where this was the first noise that greeted my ears every morning, Radio 4 being the only permitted radio station for officer cadets. I could not imagine a day without it, especially with what was to follow on occasion. The positive and patriotic feeling carried one through the day. I am sure Mr Damazar is correct and there will indeed be some protest. George Triplow, London

We really must not allow some anonymous “Fat Controller” to axe something that has been enjoyed for over 30 years. There is enough “pacy” news about and it isn’t on Radio 4. Jeremy Paxman had it exactly right last night - long may Newsnight champion the cause. Peter Bartram, Twickenham

It is so terribly depressing to see another part of our way of life being discarded without as much as a by your leave from the BBC. I cannot imagine a more unifying and patriotic start to the day and I am sure that most immigrants aspire to become good citizens of the United Kingdom as represented by this stirring music. Edward C. Fennell, Birmingham

No, No, No! Don’t let THEM scrap the UK Theme. Is nothing in this world sacred? Harriet Bredehoft, Arlington, Virginia

British by choice rather than accident of birth, perhaps Fritz Spiegl was ideally placed to condense one of the many facets of the elusive concept of Britishness in a five-minute piece of music. Certainly the soon-to-be-axed medley says more to me about what it means to be British than Gordon Brown’s proposed national holiday, spun from the best synthetic fibre, ever would. Having been a BBC employee all my working life, I know there are still plenty of intelligent, sensitive people about. The trouble is, for several years now the clueless seem to have acquired greater buoyancy and keep floating to the top. For reasons of space I’ll spare you the list. Antonio R. de Carvalho, BBC Chief Sub (retd)

Could not Mark Damazer be replaced rather than the Radio 4 theme tunes? That at least would give more pleasure to listeners. N. Hayes, address withheld

Perhaps Mr Brown will have something to say about this when considering his “Britishness” initiative. This is indeed another example of the BBC being in absolute full control of the non essentials. Tom McGarry, Hyde, Cheshire

When first heard, decades ago, the theme seemed an original and enjoyable start to the day. However, like all things that are “clever” and endlessly repeated, it has become tedious. Fritz Spiegl’s piece should be remembered with gratitude for the contribution it once made to our waking moments but now stood down. Now let’s get to grips with the ghastly muzak of Sailing By. Well done Mark Damazer! Name and address withheld

Why is it that everything British is apparently now regarded as politically incorrect? Where will it end? Perhaps our National Anthem is next in line! Bernard Parke, Guildford

“I believe the bulk of the audience will be better served by a pacy news briefing, read by one of Radio 4’s team of newsreaders.” Thank you Mr Damazer; obviously 6am isn’t early enough for him to commence his daily task of dumbing down the nation’s mentality with the piffle that passes for news and topical comment on Radio 4. At least there’s still The World Service. Michael Smith, Southampton

It was only a matter of time. The BBC is run by people who despise Britain and the British, cannot tell the difference between patriotism and racialism, and who believe that the BBC is there to give a voice to everyone except the indigenous population. How often do you hear British folk songs on the BBC? Is there a national broadcaster anywhere else in the world that holds its own folk culture in such contempt? Thomas Moon, St Albans

This five minutes’ Austrian mixture of nine British songs is very hard to endure and inconsistent with the best non- music radio programme in Europe. Instead, the BBC could use the Morse sign of the 22nd letter of the alphabet ...- (= V), as a world renowned sign of approval. Gerrit Veenma, Yde, The Netherlands

What wonderful news to hear that this is being replaced. It was too long and after a first hearing pretty dismal, even if quaint. Earlier, more complete shipping forecast and new headlines, etc, are much much better. J. D. Best, address withheld

Constant erosion of the British position and its sense of pride seems to have been the aim of the BBC and Labour Government. I for one am glad to have left Britain for ever. I am a middle-of-the-road family man who has had enough of Blair’s experiment in the anything goes, lowest-common-denominator society. I really used to enjoy the Radio 4 theme tune when I was an HGV driver in the UK Shame on you, BBC. David Booth, address withheld

I frequently rise at 5am and the Radio 4 theme tune is always a welcome accompaniment to my half-asleep preparations to go to work. I was trying to think of some pithy comments, but the eloquent Mrs Spiegel has done a far better job than I can. As she said, “We need another news bulletin like we need a chocolate fireguard.” When was the last time you heard a BBC director say, “This is all going well, nothing wrong here, no need to change anything”? This is change for change’s sake, to be seen to be doing something. If this is the best contribution a BBC director can make, perhaps we should be getting rid of him rather than the theme tune. Chris Carter, Birmingham

What is wrong with having a bit of continuity? I know that if Sailing By was to disappear, too, I would be very upset. Falling asleep to that and the subsequent shipping forecast is a much needed pool of reassurance amid life’s heavy rollers. Leo Whetter, London

They should leave it as it is. It’s the audio equivalent of a cup of tea - British, civilised and the perfect way to start the day. What’s next on the controller’s hit list? No Sailing By before the shipping forecast? Getting rid of the National Anthem at closedown? Please BBC, don’t annoy the people who think Radio 4 is reason enough for the licence fee. James Betteridge, Oxford

Why, when we are debating our national identity, is the BBC planning to axe the UK Theme, a piece of music that at 5.30 in the morning reminds you where you are and makes you proud to be British. John Walsh, Sheffield

I suppose I shouldn’t be commenting as I’m never listening at 5.30am, or even 6.30am, being in France, but if the Beeb has got something sensible to replace it with, maybe it’s time to move on. Traditions are not set in concrete, although there is no point changing something just for the sake of it. I’d be up in arms, however, if they suggested updating The Archers theme tune. Now that IS sacred! Sarah Hague, Montpellier, France

Bring back Lilliburlero, played by a proper band (not a string quartet) and played OFTEN, as the signature tune of the World Service. You would bring joy to listeners all over the world. J. D. Hummerstone, Torrington

I’m a potential convert from Radio Five Live - heard the theme for first time last year after a bout of insomnia. Was convinced at first it was an April Fool’s joke. If it was heard at a more accessible time of day it would have gone at the end of the 1960s. The phrase “National Embarrassment” springs to mind. It is the absolute worst of Radio 4 (and by extention the UK as a whole), elitist, tired, ancient, condescending and thoroughly stuck in its own time warp. Get rid of it before The Daily Show notices it. Chris Hodgson, Barnstaple

I suppose there is an argument for replacing it with a precis of news and daily issues, but it seems a shame for such transient items to be the cause of our doing away with a harmless and rather pleasant tradition. Our obsession, in this country, with getting rid of the old order is all very well, but isn’t it about time we found something worthwhile to replace it with? Why not leave it in there - it only takes six minutes! Tom Renwick, London

I have been using this tune to get me out of bed for several years. It may not be my favorite, but it does the job it was written to do as far as I am concerned. At 5.30 in the morning I want a news update slightly less than a hole in the head. The BBC is giving me more and more reasons to switch off - and perhaps it’s time that customer dissatisfaction translated into lost income - as in the real world! Martin Bennett, Oswestry, Shropshire

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