Talk:Week Ending

Theme tune

If the theme music was changed when there was a new British Prime minister...how is this "frequently"? — Gary Kirk // talk! 15:09, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't think this can be true because 'Party Fears Too' is a 1982 hit and Thatcher became PM in 1979. Nineteenthly 11:34, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

On both these grounds, have deleted the sentence in question. Flapdragon 12:01, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

The theme tune fact is correct, but I agree that "frequently" was incorrect. I have added a section on the theme tune as clarification StephenBuxton 12:03, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

What about the point about 'Party Fears Two'? I listened fairly solidly through the 80s and seem to remember one change in tune, well after Thatcher's accession. Flapdragon 14:22, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

I can't comment on that, I'm afraid. I only started listening to it back in 1992 or 1993, when Major was in power. My understanding is based on the evidence presented during the final episode (i.e. the comments made by the various Prime Ministers), and then listening to some of my old recordings, where Blair was PM, and they still had the John Major theme tune. When I first heard the Blair theme tune, I didn't equate it with PM changes, it was only later that I found out about the changes. StephenBuxton 15:53, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Fair enough but I don't think we have any evidence that the theme tunes were supposed to be associated with different prime ministers. Radio Haha says that "The show also had four different theme tunes in its lifetime (although the last two were used for only a couple of years each)", which would imply changes in 1982 at the earliest (see above), 1994 and 1996, and which doesn't begin to tally with prime ministers (Thatcher 1979, Major 1990, Blair 1997). Naturally long-running shows tend to change their sig tune every so often. To be honest the sketch you describe doesn't really seem notable enough to relate, let alone devote a heading to. Flapdragon 16:16, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

A confusing point, but I've done some research on the theme tune. There was a fixed piece used from 1970 - 82 and then Party Fears Two thereafter. I'm not sure when that stopped being used, but I do have editions from 1991 which still use it, several months after Thatcher's departure. They started to fiddle in 1992 with the position of the music in the show but I'm not sure on exactly when PFT was dropped altogether. Iangreaves 11:50, 17 April 2007

Further strangeness in recent updates, with references to Clinton's arrival coinciding with the change of theme tune. This isn't true. Although 'original research' is poison to Wiki, I have checked dozens of episodes from the early Nineties as well as music reporting for the forthcoming published history of the series. The relaunch was September 1993, some eight months after the new president's inauguration. The last episode before the summer break retained Party Fears Two as did all previous. (Iangreaves (talk) 17:58, 9 September 2008 (UTC))

There was a BBC Radio 4 programme that used an instrumental version of The Undertones' You've Got My Number (Why Don't You Use It?) as the intro [1] but whether it was Weekending or not I cannot remember. If so, it would have been around 1979-80. It was one of the satirical comedy programmes though IIRC, broadcast Friday at 6:30pm and then repeated on Saturday lunchtime at 12:30pm. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.7.147.13 (talk) 17:00, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Jeremy Hardy

Jeremy Hardy worked as a scriptwriter in the 1980s, but I don't understand the order in which the names are listed. It certainly isn't alphabetical. JezGrove (talk) 21:37, 2 February 2019 (UTC)

References