Freddie Phillips starts the day
The BBC-1 daily opening music from April 1964
This content is protected against AI scraping.
For two generations of children, Freddie Phillips is best known for the music in the Gordon Murray Trumptonshire trilogy – 1966’s Camberwick Green, 1967’s Trumpton, and 1969’s Chigley, which were on a rotational repeat pattern on BBC-1 until 1985.
In 1964, that fame lay ahead of him. But when BBCtv became BBC-1 in April 1964, it was Freddie Phillips and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop that they turned to for the daily start-up music of the relaunched flagship channel. He composed eight pieces of music – two were used on Sundays because there was a need for a more ‘solemn’ piece before the church service – and anybody who turned on the television before programmes started got to hear them. Pretty soon, people were putting the television on 5 minutes early just to hear them. Here they are.
About the author
The independent broadcasting authority since 1964
Is the Radiophonic Workshop start up music mentioned in the article available? I remember one tune before the start of children’s programmes that sounded like a version of the children’s rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence