New Tricks, same old theme tune

It’s excellent news that the BBC has announced the commissioning of another series of popular detective show New Tricks, which ended its fifth series last night with a healthy 7.8 million viewers and an average share of 31%.

Part of the appeal of the fifth series has been Alun Armstrong’s ever-watchable turn as Brian Lane, the obsessive fact-hunter and social misfit who has struggled, and in last night’s episode failed, to stay on the wagon.

It was a typically downbeat end to a series which tends to walk an uneasy path between jocular slapstick and social realism. Given the quality of the central cast, it’s no real surprise that the whole show actually works better when the subject matter gives them something to get their teeth stuck into. The final moments of last night’s episode, as Brian’s wife (playd by Susan Jameson) found her husband completely intoxicated, was heartbreakingly played by both. In recognition, the end credits rolled with a suitably pensive sound track, eschewing the normal jauntiness of the New Tricks theme as sung by fellow cast member Denis Waterman.

And how much better that ending was. What a shame that the start and end of each episode is normally drowned out by the atmosphere-sucking rubbishness of that theme. It may suit a sitcom, but as an introduction to a drama which despite its lighter moments explores some really dark places, it is completely inappropriate.

Let’s cross our fingers and hope that when New Tricks returns for a sixth run, it can be heralded by some far more suitable music. Although I fear people have been wishing for that since its first series…