My Music (radio)
| Genre | Musical Humorous panel game |
|---|---|
| Running time | 30 mins |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Home Service and BBC Radio 4 |
| TV adaptations | BBC2 (1979-1983) |
| Starring | (Chair) Steve Race (1967-94) (Panellists) Frank Muir (1967-94) David Franklin (1967-73) John Amis (1974-94) Denis Norden (1967-94) Ian Wallace (1967-94) |
| Creator(s) | Tony Shryane and Edward J. Mason |
| Producer(s) | Tony Shryane, Bobby Jaye, Pete Atkin, Richard Edis |
| Air dates | 3 January 1967 to 24 January 1994 |
| No. of series | 29 |
| No. of episodes | 520+ |
| Opening theme | 1. 1967-75 Composed by Graham Dalley 2. 1976-82 Composed by Graham Dalley; arranged by ? 3. 1983-94 Composed by Graham Dalley; arranged by ? |
My Music was a radio panel show which premiered on the BBC Home Service on 3 January 1967. It was a companion programme to My Word!, and like that show featured comic writers Denis Norden and Frank Muir. The show was last recorded in November 1993 and broadcast in January 1994. It was also broadcast via the BBC World Service. There was also a television series on BBC2 which ran for eleven years between 1977–88.
My Music followed My Word!'s pattern of two teams of two competing in a series of challenges, based this time on music rather than words. Again, the quiz element was subordinate to the entertainment. In later years, each episode featured a final round in which each contestant was required to sing a song, regardless of his vocal ability. Initially, this was a genuine test of whether the contestants knew the songs, but later the songs were always ones that they were certain to know. Indeed, towards the end Denis Norden decided what song he would sing, supplying some rather bizarre ones. Many of these were written by the English music hall songwriters R. P. Weston and Bert Lee.
The teams were
- 1967–1973: Ian Wallace and Denis Norden versus David Franklin and Frank Muir
- 1973–1973: Ian Wallace and Denis Norden versus Owen Brannigan and Frank Muir
- 1974–1994: Ian Wallace and Denis Norden versus John Amis and Frank Muir (these four participants also contested the TV series)
The show was hosted for its entire run by composer Steve Race, who also set the challenges (after an early period in which they were set by series creator Edward J. Mason) and provided piano accompaniment where appropriate (except in the first five series, in which accompaniment was provided by Graham Dalley on mellotron). Neither Race nor Wallace missed a single one of the more than 520 episodes broadcast.
Graham Dalley, the series' first accompanist, also composed the signature tune,[1] and his original mellotron version was used from 1967 to 1975.[2] A new arrangement of the theme, featuring trumpets, bass guitar, electric guitar, conga drums, and cabasa,[3] was used from 1976,[2] and was succeeded in 1983 by an arrangement for piano and harpsichord.[2]
Producers of the series included Tony Shryane and Pete Atkin.
In the United States, the show was syndicated on the WFMT Fine Arts Network until 1 October 2013, when BBC ended US distribution.[4]
References
Further reading
- Race, Steve (1979) My Music; with the contributions of Frank Muir, Denis Norden, Ian Wallace, John Amis and David Franklin; drawings by John Jensen. London: Robson ISBN 0-86051-072-7 (Based on the radio and television program My Music, "the panel game originated by Edward J. Mason and Tony Shryane.")
External links
- My Music by Steve Race (1980)
- My Music - WFMT (at Internet Archive)
