Who doesn’t love the BBC News theme tune? For many of us it ranks amongst our earliest musical memories, signalling ‘bedtime’ to small children as forcefully as a lullaby, even if its familiar melody is somewhat more stirring than most lullabies. Given the place that this music holds in our affections, it’s no wonder that some of us have tried reinventing it. Here are three of the most successful revamps of the BBC News theme tune.
1.Owain Wyn Evans
‘When they said “working from home, I didn’t know they’d expect me to do the music too’ joked BBC Northwest Weather Forecaster Owain Wyn Evans about this video that went viral during the pandemic. It features him doing an epic drum solo to the famous theme tune after presenting the forecast from his living room.
2. Dua Lipa
It turns out that Dua Lipa’s Hallucinate is a perfect match for the BBC New theme tune as Twitter user Ben Howell discovered in April 2020. His re-mix caught the attention of BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James, who messaged the BBC on Twitter: ‘Ben’s made you a new theme tune and it’s a certified banger. Please change with immediate effect.’
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3. Bill Bailey
‘If there ever was an “end credits” to the BBC as a whole (like the end of their era) this should be their final broadcast,’ commented one user on YouTube after seeing this video. That’s because Bill Bailey’s take on the theme tune, which effectively turns it into something from a rave party, is nothing short of epic.