The Music Of ITC (1962 - 1979/British Action TV Soundtrack Compilation/Network U.K. Import CD Set)

 

Sound: B     Music: B+

 

 

NOTE: This CD set is only available in the U.K. from our friends at Network U.K., plays on all CD players worldwide of course and can be ordered exclusively from them at the links below.

 

 

In addition to their great DVD releases and now Blu-ray releases, Network U.K. has been in the soundtrack business for awhile and especially where overly neglected television music is concerned.  Of course, it has been of a series of British TV classics, most of which they carry on DVD to begin with.  Among those titles are the cycle of great action TV series Lord Lew Grade produced for nearly two decades through ITC and now, Network has created a terrific compilation of that music for The Music of ITC collection.

 

The double-CD set offers the main themes and key related music to 16 hits series, most of which we have reviewed from several companies elsewhere on this site.  The selections include:

 

CD One:

 

Tracks 1 - 6) Danger Man (half-hour version)

7 - 13) Danger Man (hour version, no Secret Agent Man here though)

14 - 15) Gideon’s Way

16 - 22) The Baron

23 - 31) The Saint

32 - 37) Man In A Suitcase

38 - 44) The Prisoner

45 - 53) The Champions

54 - 61) Department S

 

 

CD Two:

 

1 - 6) Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)

7 - 13) Strange Report

14 - 17) The Persuaders!

18 - 25) Jason King

26 - 33) The Protectors

34 - 36) The Adventurer

37 - 44) The Zoo Gang

45 - 52) Return Of The Saint

 

 

Composers of the above include Edwin Astley (Danger Man, Gideon’s Way, The Baron, The Saint, Department S, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) and The Champions with Tony Hatch (also on The Persuaders!) & Albert Elms (also on Man In A Suitcase, The Champions, The Prisoner)), Ron Grainer (Man In A Suitcase, The Prisoner), Roger Webb (Strange Report), John Barry (The Persuaders!, The Adventurer) and Laurie Johnson (Jason King).  Other composers include Jackie Trent and Ken Thorne also working on The Persuaders!, Mitch Murry & Peter Callander, plus John Cameron on The Protectors, Thorne with Paul McCartney & Wings on The Zoo Gang and several new names on Return Of The Saint; Brian Dee & Irving Martin on the theme song et al, John Scott on more great instrumental music and the bizarre unused theme song with vocal by Guido & Maurizio de Angelis.

 

Recently, the Persuaders! theme song was a chart hit in the U.K. decades after the show’s short run.  Most of the songs are not as well known in the U.S., though some will be familiar.  The Saint with Roger Moore ran so long, the theme song was rearranged several times and four examples are in the suite included here.  Man In A Suitcase is underrated, are The Adventurer, Department S and Jason King.  Despite somewhat of a Disco backbeat (not unlike Marvin Hamlisch’s Bond 77 instrumental theme for the soundtrack he composed for the 1977 James bond hit The Spy Who Loved Me), the theme from Return Of The Saint offers more in its clever use of the original Saint signature arrangement that goes back to the RKO films and was all over the Roger Moore series.

 

As I listen, it is not merely nostalgia but a legacy of some of the greatest music ever composed for television and with theme songs rolled back and too many composers today just dallying on a keyboard or with drum machines, this is rich music that extends the narratives of the shows, defines their characters and suggests the worlds they live in.  You will not get that from hardly any TV show on either side of the Atlantic today and sadly, most feature films today either.  That is how low standards have fallen.

 

Lord Grade put more and more money in his series and that is why so many were international hits, hiring the best composers he could.  This included several geniuses and having a collection like this is a great resource for all serious film and television music fans.  As many soundtrack collector’s know, TV soundtracks are the kind most likely to go out of print (Sanctuary’s The Avengers & Other Top Sixties TV Themes (2000) CD set is a fine example) and many on vinyl (like Roald Dahl’s Tales Of The Unexpected with other Ron Grainer theme music) never see reissue in any format.  That is why The Music of ITC is so especially welcome.  The greatest television music is still not getting the respect it deserves.  Sets like this help to change that.

 

 

The PCM 16/44.1 2.0 sound ranges from monophonic sound on the earliest tracks to stereo towards the end.  After suffering through these songs in bad fidelity over TV and mixed results in Dolby Digital 2.0 (or even 1.0) Mono over the years, it is nice to hear them sounding better than they should.  Some have more distortion than others of course, but Network has done a good job on the transfers, especially considering the circumstances.

 

Of course, some of these tracks have been on CD before and others on vinyl.  A few even made old audio cassette tape, but that was rare and Hi-Fi (at best, if available) on old VHS and Beta tapes of the episodes could not compete with CD and would wear out sooner or later.

 

 

 

As noted above, you can order this British CD import set exclusively from Network U.K. at:

 

http://www.networkdvd.net/

 

or

 

www.networkdvd.co.uk

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo