EastEnders

Give Us A Clue for some reason used the same theme as Grange Hill (a different recording of the same tune), even though it started over a year after the teen drama.

Chicken Man!

Lasted longer on Grange Hill than Give Us A Clue though by a long shot, by best part of about eight years

Give Us A Clue originally went like this:


Grange Hill I believe used the original version which went like this:

Everytime I go on the Central Line, and the PA says 'This train terminates at Grange Hill' , it just triggers off that bloody tune in my head

Remixed version of the theme tune on today's episodes, not going to the effort of checking if the episodes are in stereo though. Wondering if this is the point where they moved out of Elstree C and stopped using the EMI 2001s from the late 60s. That move happened in July 1991, and today's episodes are the 13th & 15th August, so it will be around this point we'll be seeing it on screen.

Can't be long until the length of the credits is cut down either, that certainly happens before the end of 1991.

They are indeed in stereo. Makes sense as NICAM officially launched on BBC1 and BBC2 on 31st August and the first stereo episode after that (as in, listed in the Radio Times) was on 3rd September.

Nice to finally hear this short-lived theme in good quality. It has extreme stereo separation on some elements (drum machine) and the strings sound quite a bit more dramatic than in the original. I'm guessing Simon May re-recorded the theme as the original was only in mono, but someone was unhappy with it, and they went back and remixed the original recording for stereo instead. It apparently only lasts until the end of 1991.

I presume these episodes must have come from Stage One rather than Elstree C then, as I presume they wouldn't have refitted studio C for stereo when EastEnders were moving out. Though TOTP did move into that studio a couple of months later and it would have to have beem stereo for them, though I imagine a big refit would have taken place in that time while the studio was empty.

The picture quality doesn't look any different if these episodes were made from the new studios with the new cameras though.

Both of today's Drama episodes (27th & 29th August 1991) had the shortened version of the theme tune over the credits, presumably this was the point it was introduced. Suprised they didn't introduce the remix and the shortened credits at the same time, rather than have 2 weeks with the remixed theme tune but still full length credits.

I notice they've just updated the phone boxes on the set to the new BT logo as well, earlier this week we saw Nick in one of them still with the old yellow dotted T.

The episodes from Friday seemed to have much crisper audio and picture quality to me. It was like watching in HD for the first time after the fuzz of those old cameras.

Finally got around to watching the September 1991 episodes, yes, the difference in picture quality really is noticable. Those EMI2001s probably were on their last legs. Even the location work looks better, so I'm assuming they must have changed the cameras they were using for that as well.

Reported today that former EastEnders actor Nicky Henson has died at 74 after battling cancer for 19 years. He appeared in EastEnders for less than a year in 2006 but was better known outside of that, appearing in various television roles, including guest roles in Fawlty Towers, Minder, Boon, A Touch of Frost, Heartbeat, After You've Gone, Lovejoy and Doctors. Once joked that despite his 50 years of professional acting, his tombstone will probably read "Here lies Nicky Henson – he was in one episode of Fawlty Towers".

We got the 'Brought to you in 2019' credits this evening.

Bit early considering there's still quite a few episodes before the years out.