RECORD BREAKERS
Kicking off in 1971 when the tap dancing trumpet playing record was broken for the first of many times, the long-running Guinness Book of Records-referencing 'infotainment' show "Record Breakers" gifted us with not one but two classic theme tunes. Not surprisingly, both of these were written and performed by trumpet-toting frontman Roy Castle. Sounding like the track on which Jamiroquai have based their entire career, the opening theme was a propulsive slice of 1970s jazz-funk with some truly memorable lyrics. Not only did it extol the virtues of being "the best, the worst, longest immersed, the face, the ace, furthest in space", there was also the promise that if you should set a record then "the McWhirters, mmm, they would record it". The closing theme was more of a trad jazz affair, and a large percentage of the population know it back to front, but just for the record (sorry) here's those lyrics in full: "Dedication, dedication, dedication's what you need, if you wanna be the best, and you wanna beat the rest, wu-huh-ho dedication's what you need". This was followed by a vigorous improvised trumpet solo, and finally by an ad-libbed line encapsualting all of that week's featured standard-setting feats: "Dedication's what you need, if you want to be a tap dancin', trumpet playin' record breaker, mmm!".

RAGTIME
In the early 1970s, for some unknown reason, money was flooding into the "Play School" production office at a rate of knots. Not only was there enough spare cash lying around to allow for the creation of that legendary Saturday afternoon party games and nonsense songs extravaganza "Play Away", there was still sufficient small change left after that to fund an entire new 'Watch With Mother' show. Using the offcuts from the manufacture of "Play School" mainstay Humpty to create a seemingly infinite number of new puppets, "Ragtime" was so glaringly multicoloured that it was difficult - if not completely impossible - to make out stereotypically 'seventies-clad presenters Maggie Henderson and Fred 'BBC Micro' Harris among the sea of cloth creations. One of said creations was a dinner-jacketed pianist, who could be seen every week 'playing' along to the jubilant banjo-driven Scott Joplin-like theme rag, which presumably came about as a result of someone somewhere taking the clever wordplay of the title a little too literally.

THINK OF A NUMBER
Meanwhile, "Play School" presenter Johnny Ball had other fish to fry. Years of experience as a childrens' TV presenter coupled with his own keen interest in all things mathematic led to the offer of his own teatime slot in 1977, and the result was "Think of a Number". Possibly the only enjoyable "making learning fun" series ever made, "Think of a Number" explained away the mysteries of arithmetic with the aid of giant prop multiplication signs and (for some reason) a lot of swinging bags of salt. The comedy Korg synth tones that introduced "Think Of A Number" were later joined by the blatant rewrite of Vangelis' "Pulstar" that was the theme to "Think Again" (non-mathematical everyday puzzles), and the Hendrix-like sensory assault of "Think Backwards" (mind-boggling lateral thinking epic that started with Ball saying 'goodbye' and ended with him saying 'hello'). Sadly, despite her cool 'indie' status and marriage to Norman 'Fatboy Slim' Cook, Johnny Ball's daughter Zoe has failed to continue the family tradition of synth experimentalist signature tunes.