THEME FROM ITV SCHOOLS SERIES "PICTURE BOX" - "MANÈGE" BY JACQUES LASRY
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 5 сен 2011
- Probably the best-remembered theme to Granada's 'Picture Box' programme for schools, used from I think the mid-70s until the programme's relaunch as part of Channel Four Schools in 1993.
The tune is called 'Manège' and is by the French composer Jacques Lasry. It is played on a 'cristal baschet' (or crystal organ), a musical instrument that produces sound from oscillating glass cylinders.
Alan Rothwell was the presenter during the 'Manège' era.
All copyrights dutifully acknowledged. 
Видеоклипы
The opening titles were a bit like Tales of the Unexpected for kids. Eerie, menacing and instantly memorable.
Ha ha ha absolutely spot on
I thought the same
Enchanted me, lodged into memory.
I vaguely, vaguely remember this at school in the early 80s when they wheeled the kids into the color TV room with that big tv on those big wheeled trolleys with the shelf at the bottom with the VCR. Surreal times they were !
Tommy'sgirl14. Yeah. Well put.
They say kids are programmed with TV nowadays, but so many of us have themes like this stuck in our brains like a splinter decades later. You often see people searching for tunes from kids programmes in the 70’s and 80’s.
This tune is definitely one of them for me. Programmes back then often had a sinister creepy vibe.
Remember the theme from The Tomorrow People?
Definitely getting 'Scarfolk' vibes from this
its more creepy now!
Agreed. Often kids meeting strange old men or women in the woods for adventures.
Usually unsettling flute 🪈incidental music - in minor notes.
100% well said I just watched how we use to live😂
I used to love this, I found it very calming. Reminds me of being 7yrs old, lying on the couch with tonsillitis, a sticky bottle of lucozade by my side.
Glass bottle with the orange cellophane wrap. Tasted so much better.
@@l228spn Exactly right.
Lucozade!! You must’ve been posh!!
You were skiving, own up! 🤒 😂
Same here I guess most of us only ever watched it when we were off school sick the big bottles of lucozade and 10p back when you returned the empty bottle 👍
Aaaarggh! The memories, its so provocative and poignant. Sitting down crossed legged on the floor bumping each other for room watching this crappy telly on 5ft stilts that was wheeled out once or twice a week to a group of kids who had never even seen a calculator yet. Happier days.
Hahahaha Brizzy Oz that is such a funny comment!!
How could I forget being made to sit in our assembly/gym school hall watching ITV Schools and Colleges, shown on a tiny television on 5ft stilts!
Yes, happy days
Crappy tv ?. Not sure about that best tv was in 70s and 80s so much more for kids today tv utter shit
@@topbanana8438 I think he means the tv set was crappy.
I see this post has attracted all the clever interesting excentrique types. Good-oh. :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D dot dot dot et cetera et cetera and stuff lyke that and so on and so forth have an absolument fantabuloso day/knight :-) ;-) :-D
Absolutely nailed the bejeebus out of it.
I played this to my Missus and it almost made her cry. The power of nostalgia!!
Yes it’s powerful 1:59
Memories of been off school ill and watching schools programmes from 9am till 12. Also reminds me of a wet Tuesday morning in Februray for some bizarre reason.
Wow listening to this takes me back maybe 50 years now! Sitting on the carpet with other classmates watching as the clock counts down to the programme starting on a tv high up on a trolley. Big hugs to everyone here who has the same fond memories of a more innocent time.
Indeed,good memories, most likely the huge television up on the stand in the classroom would have been either a Ferguson or as in the case of my class Baird, before all the Hitachi this,Toshiba that.... indeed I count myself very lucky and privileged to have grown up in that gentler more innocent time..(born in 1973)in my humble opinion pre Internet life was a more wholesome happy life,very little amused us kids back then.....
Ps I say huge television but in reality the viewable screen was most likely no bigger than a square 21" ,how indeed life has changed...📺
By God this brings back memories from my childhood..Still sends shivers down my spine and makes the hairs standup on my arms and neck...
We actually had a "Televison Room" at our school where we all went to watch the programmes. ( and what's more, the TV had lockable shutters over the screen, so no chance of sneaking in to watch "PEBBLE MILL AT ONE or "BAGPUSS" in the dinner hour)...
It's crazy how music makes you travel in time...
What's that's kids show theme
music with the horses running
through the water?
@@malarki5 think it was called 'white horses'. Either that or 'Silas'.
@@stephenmcconnell1000 Another one that stuck with me eternally was the theme from WildTracks which turned out to be a cover of a song from Midnight Cowboy. A really mature film about a homeless guy and a gigolo.
Just bizzare.
It took me years to track that one down. Eventually I made a quick and dirty cover version of it so I could play it to people and someone recognised it.
Luv and Peace.
FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have this tune in my head for YEARS!!!!!!! now I kow THE RELIEF!!!!!!!
Makes me so emotional. Ah, I miss my childhood so much.
If I listen to a bunch of these things, I get SO depressed. I've even cried when I first heard this again. Sheesh. Wish I had a time machine to go back...
Know what you mean. Happy days.` I love white horses theme
george my life is great. I just miss my childhood.
george Yours clearly is.
We got very excited in school when they wheeled the TV into the room. We had to watch this with the windows blacked out, sat cross legged on our mats. I almost stopped breathing when I first heard this recently. And it reminds me of being off school sick, and having that bright yellow medicine that was kept in the fridge. This would be on, play school, and ‘Tales of the Unexpected.’ Another creepy weird show! Look that up and see if it does the same to you as this does...I’ll pop the link for that below... x
ruclips.net/video/Oc46Gk-6qrA/видео.html
Music is being played on a "Crystal Bachet". Very strange musical instrument involving glass, water, and some big amplifying horns! Fascinating and haunting sounds to give you goosebumps! And yes - I remember this from my childhood! :)
You sure its not a Glass Harmonica
How did you learn that - it now sounds like you're right, I thought at the time when I was likkle that it was steel drums, me :-y Oop
(/^v^)\...
I always thought it was played on steel drums
@@adamgregory5274 That's entirely understandable, because in a Cristal Baschet - believe it or not - it's actually the metal resonator, NOT the glass rods, which vibrates to create the sound.
This TV program actually started in 1966, I remember watching it in the Junior school before 1970 when I went to secondary school. Listening to this haunting music takes me back in time nearly 50 years
Im not being smart Dan but what the fuck was in the programme, the music is pure class
OK thanks
@@dermot51 unlike your language.
A haunting discordant melody. I love it!!
The theme tune that the show is mostly remembered for was performed on a glass harmonica (aka a glass harmonium) and was "Manège" by the Baschet Brothers.
As beautifully haunting as ever, love this piece of art.
I'm so glad to see that I'm not the only 40 something who finds this music scary. I just remember sitting in front of that big TV set on long legs with wheels(on the floor with crossed legs) waiting for whatever educational program was about to be forced on us.
I remember watching this - and other school tv programmes - in the late sixties and early seventies. I liked the theme music for 'Picture Box' ' didn't find it atall scary. It was played some sore of special instrument I believe.
I find it fascinating that a tune that once genuinely scared me I now find nostalgic.
Forced upon us? what nonsense!!! you have a choice to watch it or not and even if you didn't at least it's far more educational that the tripe on tv nowadays, I don't suppose they do any of this in schools now, pathetic tbh, let's just let the kids have knives and drugs instead, unreal!!!
It was and still is creepy and unsettling. Went straight through me
Oh so right I'm 55 now and have exactly the same memories
This takes me back... the 70's, a time of bliss and happiness.
What's that's kids show theme
music with the horses running
through the water?
The '70s were the best time to be alive
@@malarki5 black beauty?
@@malarki5 probably Black Beauty ruclips.net/video/hasBJ1Gkjy8/видео.html but White Horses was similar - both great themes.
@@wildyone172 I dont think
so. The horse(s) weren't
black.
I swear back in school that little crystal box with the ruby velvet spinning used to nearly put a spell on you,it never ever left my psyche, I remember the relief when I remembered the name and found it again in RUclips, it came back to me instantly,I always remembered one episode was all about Venice,it had such an effect on me I decided to visit Venice some almost 40 years later,funny how some things really get stuck in your consciousness/memory, I remember the opening credits and the music like I'd just heard it an hour or two ago.....isn't the human mind fascinating???
It is indeed. Great comment ☺️👍🏻
Loved this program especially when I was off school with a cold.
this reminds me of when I used to skive off work in the 70`s & watch programmes for schools & colleges.
Haha. I did that in the mid 1970s too.
Used to scare me this music, just found out after 40+ years that this is played on a Cristal baschet a musical instrument that produces sound from oscillating glass cylinders. The Cristal Baschet is also known as the Crystal Organ, and composed of 54 chromatically-tuned glass rods. The glass rods are rubbed with moistened fingers to produce vibrations
ruclips.net/video/XXec9ggTha0/видео.html
The song would go down a treat with a steelband. Don't you all agree?.
Raymond dymond Yep.
Notting Hill carnival fare, with a joint in your gob while playing those upside down dustbins in a caribbean stylee on the back of a motorised 18 wheeler float
dermot51 upside down dustbins ha ha ha. Great description.
This theme instantly takes me back to infants school. I loved Picture Box and it's theme. I've been listening to Delia Derbyshire radio interviews and heard her speak on Structures Sonores Lasry-Baschet so. Searched on youtube and it brought me here. I still love it.
I always remember it from 1972. It was shown at 11.30am on a Tuesday, and after it was over, I'd head home for my dinner. I can just picture my mum cooking it. Haha.
What's that's kids show theme
music with the horses running
through the water?
Wow takes me right back to primary school in 1966-67 in the staff room where the T.V was. Thank you. Quite emotional now.
Brings back memories of being off school sick and half term - great times
This music always scared the bejaysus out of me - 40-odd years on, it still does.
I was both fascinated and terrified of this music and the oscillating glass music box...
The music was hot. The guy that would show up was a creep.
Elizabeth Frazer of Cocteau Twins MUST have heard this as a child!
Her or her evil twin sister
My daughter at 17 got a record player for Christmas so I got some of my old singles out and played Ice Blink Luck for her. She look at me like I was mad
@@hunglikeamaggotseyelash Are you beginning to suspect that she was right to look at you that way though?
@@banjopink4409 😂
@@hunglikeamaggotseyelash Hmmm. I'll take that as a 'maybe'.
Reminds me of being laid out under a quilt on the Sofa snotting and snorting with a bad case of Flu off my face on Venos stinking of Vicks surrounded by a wall of used hankies feeling very light headed because of the aforementioned Venos and this comes on to totally freak my fevered young mind out as if I didn’t feel mankey enough and afterwards that bloody music would still be echoing around inside my snot filled brain unable to find a bloody way out.......God it was Awful but at least I got to miss Maths class.
Omg all i read to start with was "I remember being laid out"..yep it's that kind of music lol
Reminds me of music David Lynch put's in his movies.
Picture Box was never shown at my school but I remember it very well from half-term repeats. I used to find the music, the rotating gold and glass box and Alan Rothwell appearing against the blue background all very creepy...
sweet baby Jesus & the orphans. ive been transported back to 1979. This tune really creeped me out as a child (still does) Now ive got an ear worm
I have just seen an advert on telly, as soon as i seen the fella on the advert, I said his names Alan off picture box !! Sadly my Mrs cannot remember this from her school days.
... the soundtrack to nightmarish trip through an abandoned Victorian ‘fun’ fair, whilst being stalked / pursued by a leering Trump-a-like decked out in a sort of silken boy-sailor’s suit.
Strawberry mivvi anyone?
well said!
😂😂😂
I always found it quite charming! Now, if you want "jarring", then look no further than the opening of Children Of The Stones, and for that matter, The Changes. But I'm fond of it all - looking back, tv was pitched at a higher level to children than it is today. They usually had evocative theme tunes as well. Included on my channel playlist 'Music for Bunking Off in the 1970s'
people talking here a lot about how creepy and scary the theme was. It's memorable and it evokes a lot of images from my memory as a kid. I love it.
.....but would it really be good to continue to have this shown to kids today? I'm sure there are kids who were genuinly unsettled and probably hate this music.
It’s brilliant though, such an amazing sound with no electronics at all and really spooky and atmospheric. I used to be hooked on each episode just from that music.
Oh yes, thank you for uploading this. This is a real trip - and I got to hear it at school as a four year old. I think this tune has shaped my entire life. I love it. I never remembered the story, I only ever remembered the opening music and the glass picture box. Brilliant - the old days were the best.
Damn we used to experience some messed up yet wonderful things as kids, lol
Before the days of everything having to be bright and cheerful and saccharine soaked...
Wow, it’s incredible how music can transport you back to that moment in time.
I have been doing a bit of reminiscing today. All ready watched a bit of the Banana Splits & Campbell Wick Green! 😂
Great, innocent times.
Got to go, just going to build a go cart out of one of my granny’s prams!!!
The instrument used to produce this music is a Cristal Baschet. It was an innovative device of fifty-six chromatically tuned glass rods, and was invented by François and Bernard Baschet.
In 1962, a young TV producer approached the Baschet Brothers to ask them to arrange the music for a new programme she was working on, but they were too busy, so Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was the first musician to arrange the Doctor Who theme.
"Wow! This tune still
Haunts me to this day and probably will till my ending
And I'm 62!😂
This reminds me of bunking of school...
You bunked off school to watch schools programmes?
Me too! I watched it when I bunked off for being sick or pretended to!
This would frighten you back to class love it
The irony eh! but Scene was brilliant too and the only way you could see it was well bunk off school basically
Some really wonderful music was around for our generation while we were growing up , many a time my kids have been charmed ( shouting Dad please stop it ! ) by my rendition of the theme from 'Mr Ben ' played upon the teeth and pencil or sometimes fingernails but, these wonderful peices of music along with ' snowy white horses ' will always make me me have that lil ole nostalgic glow : )
Thank you sooo much more making this gem available, God bless you and yours x
The theme was burned into my mind, yet I can't remember anything that the TV show was about at all!
Such fantastic memories of innocence. Man I’d give anything to be sat in that room with the orange brown and beige curtains watching this.
The theme tune that the show is mostly remembered for was performed on a glass harmonica (aka a glass harmonium) and was "Manège" by the Baschet Brothers.
Never knew a crystal organ was used to make this theme never knew that existed but a very unusual sound
most scary piece of music ever written
What's that's kids show theme
music with the horses running
through the water?
2nd most scary! Everyone knows that the Tales of the Unexpected theme takes the 1st prize.
@@Midlandsgoat That’s not particularly scary, I was more scared by the Witch from Chorlton and the Wheelies.
@@jane1975 She was scary !
But not as much as Raggity from Rupert the Bear 😱
We had a top loading VHS at our school. Teacher pressed 'eject' and the tape deck would levitate mysteriously up with a whir, Kids would always go 'Ooooh'. God, we were easily impressed back then. :)
I loved this as a kid.
I remember this well. Looking at it now it seems really spookey and odd..almost "Clockwork Orange" like...thanks for posting.
I remember this as a kid. Tried to find it for a ringtone so I could freak out my son! 😂
Used to watch this on Monday morning as broadcast as school didn't have a VHS back then, always thought was an odd themed programme.
Over 30 year iv had this tune in my head and iv finally founf it x
Alan Rothwell who previously played the role of David Barlow in Coronation Street presented Picture Box for ITV Schools.
Jesus Christ it still scares the crap out of me 40 years later!
Stunningly beautiful. I remember listening to this back in the day. A more modern take would be something like the pet shop boys - memory of the future.
Boy Trent Not sure, this music was actually taken from a French 1950's LP by Jacque Lasry and performed on unique acoustic instillations made from copper, glass, water and various other things.
This was the sound of my primary school years. The teacher would wheel out this big TV on wheels and put this on. The theme tune brings back memories of sitting crossed legged on the coconut mat carpet looking up at the screen and getting painful indentations in my legs and my arse from the mat. Oh the 70s. Special times.
Use to watch this as a kid with my feet up sipping Lucozade..
Am suddenly transported back to school days in the UK 70S when times were good, Hope this finds you all well,
I dont think anybody in history has ever said times were good in the 1970s!
Good if you were a kid with not a care in the world,not so great for our parents trying to scrape by
Wow, to think we rushed into the school gym/dinner hall to watch this on the Tele, which was tiny and mounted on a 4 legged towering stand,lol. Those were the days, sore arse on the floor though.
And not a care in the world....... 👍 Where does the years go? I'm 48 this April and I guesstimate I watched this in school when i was about 8
(1981) sometimes I feel time is almost a figment of our imagination and it ain't real......
There’s a great mention of this in the Pete Paphides book, Broken Greek - like many kids show of the 79s there was a real creativity involved & quite unlike anything much since!
This is exactly why I'm watching this now. A wonderful book.
Imagine waking up at night and a clown standing next too your bed with this music playing and the box spinning on his head 🤡 👻.
It really is scarey tune, reminds me of another child's show. Children of the stones. What did they do to us as kids.
Brought back my schools day love it. Thank you for sharing.
Wow this takes me back
Reminds me of childhood lying on the couch with German measles, the music spooked me!
Two episodes stick in my mind. The Red Balloon and Tumbleweed. Marcel Marceau seemed to also be in a few episodes. Good memories.
This the most sinister piece of music ever recorded.
REminds me of a theme playing when any acid induced CIA mind re-programming is happening to some poor sucker in a movie.
They played this to kids???
Brutal
This is etched in my memory from before school.
It used to some on after Rainbow at lunchtime.
Used to totally burst my 4 year old Rainbow high...
:-)
Luv and Peace.
MK Ultra mind control. They had us at such an early age
this soooooooooo reminds me of being a kid at school during the 70's.
The longer you watched and the more Alan aged presenting it was a creepy experience. With the music it was well scary. Still gives me the shits now and I'm 54!
Could not have put it better brizzy oz,brilliantly said & takes me back a long long time ago,good times.
I love the discordant music.....so nostalgic...
Wish I had played this song in my daughters wedding when I had to give her away to her groom in Church
Awesome ❤
I still have nightmares I'm 44 in may
This brings back so many memories !!! : )
Wheel the telly in !
This 50 year old is smiling.. finally found it.
Yup used to scare the hell out of me when I was a kid in the early 80's that ans the fuzzy felt moomins!
I miss the 70s and early 80s
"Structures Sonores" by "Lasry Baschet".
+Nicky Naic Thanks, that is the answer to the question that brought me here : )
This piece is actually called Manège (meaning roundabout) and is from the 10 inch LP
Structures Sonores no 4 by Lasry-Baschet on the BAM label from 1965
Thanks for the correction. I will amend the title.
Is it played on one of these? ruclips.net/video/cVqqNigImtU/видео.html
@@JibletParade No, its this instrument, similar concept but using rods and resonators ruclips.net/video/BOUB2jNwJS4/видео.html
@@CaptainSiCo Hi there. I finally got around to remastering this from the original LP. It's a bit clearer, and I added some notes in the description. ruclips.net/video/RUP4oBDtGt8/видео.html
@@GordonHudson Thank you Gordon. That is quite a bit clearer and less crackly than my upload!
Does anyone know exactly what makes this so creepy, from a music theory point of view? I'm not a musicologist, these are just some random ideas. Would be interested in an expert opinion.There are certain key spooky elements I think. Firstly the actual sound itself, like nothing on earth. It sounds quite muffled and disembodied, like it's coming up from underground. There are all these strange whistley harmonics. Then there's the composition, it has these loud, surprising and unexpected "jump notes". Ma-ma-ma, ma-ma-ma, ma-ma-ma, ma-ma-ma, MAAAAARGH!!! Each "rotation" sees the jump notes become gradually more dissonant. There's the change in pace, where it gradually slows down to a deathly crawl then suddenly speeds up. And you have what sounds like a nice jaunty major key section switching to a minor, descending finish, the musical equivalent of a clown turning nasty! Would be fascinated in anyone else's analysis of this amazing piece of music.
I'm not able to explain it as I'm no music expert but I reckon there's a few black notes in there.
It’ll be in some weird mode involving tritones
Well to me the box being shown doesn't help, it reminds me for some reason of a Victorian funeral parlour. All those silks, red satins and dark velvets.
@TheRenaissanceman65 fascinating. merci beaucoup c:
sounds like a diminished scale. A scale made from a tone,semi-tone,tone ,semi-tone...etc
This music is imprinted in me from a child.
another LSD inspired TV music theme - no wonder us kids of the seventies grew up anxious and dysfunctional.
Don’t agree with that, that would be more relegated to today’s Generation Z not the Generation X.
If I was a serial killer this is the tune I would play in the background as I did the deed.
Same thoughts as most of the comments on here, the presenters face used to scare me and the music was dire and haunting....like a haunted house tune. Reminds me of being ill from school or watching at school ,memories.
It was always a Ferguson TX and you could "Push from this end only" for some reason
90% of the time yes,the other 10% it was Baird (think it was all one company) complete with big monstrous top loader vcr, and not a care in the world..... 👍
@@waynecrothers2012 Ferguson now lost to the ether - I believe they got bought out by the French (Thomson - the same Frenchies who also manufacture gear under the RCA brand) I'm actually surprised we haven't seen suitcase record players under the Ferguson brand.
Baird now serves as BrightHouse's own brand of all things and to think this was the company started by the inventor of television.
I've got this music as my ringtone
Wonderful memories.
I remember thinking of ghosts and skeletons dancing around to this.
Sounds like an Ice Cream Van on L.S.D. ( and I don't mean Pound, Shillings and Pence )
Spooky as..... usually saw this during school holidays/or off sick.
I remember those school tvs in the late 60s , had big brown doors to open to reveal the screen then this music would play to the count down clock.
Wow great tune
❤❤❤ epic loved it
Imagine being woken from a beautiful dream to find yourself locked in a vaguely musty darkened room full of old victorian bisque dolls with this playing.
Matron bring the clean underwear !!!!