So much so that the Panorama staff frequently receive e-mails enquiring not only about the name of the piece used in the theme tune, but also whether it is available to buy. The latest incarnation of the theme was done by David Lowe, a composer/arranger whose previous credits include the BBC News music, Wildlife on One and the current Horizon theme. On being entrusted with the task he says "It was an honour, and a bit scary to be asked to arrange the Panorama tune - such a brilliant and famous piece of television music.
I used the original theme as the base, literally taking the original recording, and laying new orchestral parts and rythm arrangements over the top. The idea was to give it a warmer fresher and more current sound, which felt like a different part of the main theme." The Panorama theme tune has never been commercially released, although it is available on a couple of compilation CDs.
However, the music that you hear on today's Panorama, is not the music which was used on the original programme 50 years ago. In fact, there have been several other pieces of music which have also been known as "the Panorama theme tune". The original theme tune, which was featured in the first ever broadcast on November 11, 1953 was an extract from Jean Sibelius' Pelleas and Melisande.
This piece of music has remained more or less unchanged over the past three decades. One notable exception came in 2001, when the producers used for an 80s remix version of the music for a special programme about the life and times of Jeffrey Archer. The Dallas-esque theme tune was actually reworked by two music librarians within the BBC, who worked on the special piece in secret after hearing that the programme was hoping for famed 1980s musician Paul Hardcastle to remix the music.
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