This for me is a gloomy, sunday night in early 80s UK. Single-paned, rain-drizzled windows. IRA trouble, strikes, picket lines, bearded, brown-flared reporters; softly spoken but hard-hitting.
Good grief, the brown flares. I had almost managed to forget. And the huge eye-glasses. And the soggy biscuits. The stuff we went through. Young people these says, they have no idea.
Yes, gloomy stuff indeed, but you got the feeling that the reporters were genuine journalists on the ground, soaking up the atmosphere rather than salaried university graduates writing whatever their editors told them to sitting in their London office.
I remember watching tv in the lounge with my Dad, dark cold winter evenings, coal strikes, power cuts, the darkest 1970's- kids today never had it so good
I'm 57, Dad was a Painter and Decorator and sign writer, mum a dinner lady we lived in Derby. Labour voters, Trade Union members. They'd been kids in WW2, ,70s was a good era in my working class neighbourhood, terraced houses. My Dad still lives in the same house I grew up in. Neighbourhood now full of Smack Heads and lowlife. We had hope in the 70s.
@ianmorris3084 I'd argue that it was the economic deprivation of the late 70's that led to the terrible things today's youth are dealing with. There was certainly more sense of community then, but it's easy to look back with perhaps to much nostalgia for the Era. Remember we had to deal with the horror that was flares.
I was born in he early 50s and rhe 70s is still fresh in my mind; a tine of strikes, shortages, police corruption, the cold way and many other depressing events. Today's world isn't perfect but it's a whole lot better the five decades ago
@@admiralcraddock464 The tories were in for half of the decade don't forget ans prices were rising sharply under both Heath and Thatcher too. The prices actuslly started to rise sharply when Heath was in for 2+ years, not Wilson. Heath in 1970 actually inherited a low inflation rste from Wilson. 1966 to 1970 inflation remained low throughout the Wilson labour government. The 3 dsy week alao happened under the tories in 1973 when Heath was PM. Inflation rising sharply now in 2022 under Johnson, that's certainly not the fault of the 1997 to 2010 labour government.
Born in 73 and I know exactly what you mean,brings so many flashbacks of my youth,my parents,family,the way the world was back then.....it intrigues me how music takes over your whole being......another one that does this is the old school programme"the picture box" powerful stuff!
@@Willsey Summers really transformed the bleakness of the UK. I got out in 1982 and have never lived there since. Great piece of music; reminds me of Greenslade, one of the best prog-rock groups of the time.
Any comment about the world in action theme being written by Shawn Phillips, is utter bullshit. I played the B3 Organ parts over a descending chord progression that Phillips came up with. It was a 50/50 collaboration between he and I, and I am utterly pissed off with this charlatan claiming or being credited with having "created" the entire thing. What happened was that Shawn came to me and said that he had been asked to compose some theme music for a T.V. programme, and that he had come up with a chord progression, but needed help with putting some melody lines to it, and would I be interested in collaborating with him to complete it. So, I came up with some vaguely Bachish melody lines and we spent an evening in Trident studios in Wardour Street, London, recording several segments of varying lengths of my melody lines, and Shawn's chord progression. We were told by the Granada people, some of whom attended the recording sessions, that the music would become the property of Granada, and that we would be paid M.U. scale session fees for the evening's work, which at the time were nine quid an hour. Not only has my contribution to this music (not to imply that the stuff is a work of magnificent art) never been acknowledged, but I never even received my session fees. Not only that, I had to take the tube to Piccadilly Circus to get to the studio, and was never reimbursed, so, as well as never having been credited, financially or otherwise, with my participation in the project, I am down the fucking tube fare. I was young and easily conned in those days, but to be worked over by a fellow musician is especially galling. I think Shawn is somewhere in South Africa now, no doubt crediting himself with being something he isn't. Good luck to him, and even better luck to his "believers."
I have been fucked over as well on stuff as have a lot of people, as you know. The best thing is that the track is known known as a dual credit, I guess. The 180 quid or whatever it was is obviously lost. So, it's Phillips/Weaver composition for me.
A bottomlessly superb and appropriate Hammond melody to a programme I recall being slated for its left-wing journalism. Real world investigations about real people. We need more of these programmes.
sadly it seems like the world really does not care any more, in reference to the theme i remember a group called mountain doing a track called nantucket sleigh ride around 1971?
There was one episode about kids born after their mothers had taken thalidomide. I remember the end credits making me really sad with video of the kids and that melancholy music 😢
This music is like returning to my childhood, it’s a musical time machine , I feel 10 again , what a brilliant peace of music and what a great program when they actually made great programs …🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵
Apparently these types of programmes are too costly to produce. That along with those targeted, far more willing to tie the producers in litigation for years doesn't help.
I can't stand it any longer. My name is Mick Weaver, and I played the B3 on the World in Action theme music. Shawn Phillips gets all the bloody credit. Yes, he came to me with a descending chord progression, I did the rest. We spent an evening in a recording studio in the west end of London putting together segments of different lengths, and Granada T.V. used it for 20 plus years. Not only did I not receive one word of credit, I didn't even get the session fee. Phillps gets the musical credit, Jonathon Weston got the money, and I am down the price of the tube fare I payed to get to the bloody studio. Makes me fucking SICK.
It's a sad story surrounding such a beautiful track Mick. I'd love to get hold of a vinyl version if ever it gets sorted out, and hopefully give you some much deserved royalties. It's a pleasure to talk to the legendary Wynder K Frogg by the way!
So sorry to hear this. I can empathise with how you feel. I remember this music vividly from when I was young, even though I was too young to really understand the programme, important though it will always be. For what little I appreciate this comment is ultimately worth; Thank you from me for creating this piece of music, and from all those who would thank you if they knew the truth.
Mick Weaver You are a legend I cannot tell you how grateful we are for your work Your brilliance has touched a lot of people If Shawn and Jonathan are reading this, you need to do the right thing and pay Mick Mick's fans demand it! The campaign starts here!
Good God this takes me back. I was about 8 when my dad used to watch this. Never got to watch much of it as it was bed time, but it always seemed quite grim. It was always dark, never summertime. Anyway, the tune is amazing.
@@41778055 hi mate. Thanks for the reply. Funny how certain things take you back. I can even remember seeing the graphic above at the start of the programme along with the music. I always thought it actually looked like my dad ( from the early 70’s anyway) - big hair and full beard and tache. I loved the intro music and he only ever let me watch that as it was always bedtime. I imagine mum was always busying herself somewhere in the house as my dad always watched those types of programs. Takes me back to a happy childhood…..playing in the street with mates…..actual seasons every year(seemed to be more fog back then?!) ….simple toys, but actually playing with them and enjoying them,…..only 3 channels on the TV but great cartoons after school…….never seemed to see homelessness or poverty, probably too young to notice it anyway.
Remember watching this when we had investigative journalism on our tv and not the dumbed down crap we get now. Is it any wonder our children dont know shit about politics, current affairs or the world we live in but they know the Kardashians favourite lipstick colour.
John Maddin Completely agree John but isn't this a "Chicken and Egg" scenario? TV co.s have given the public what they wanted and both parties are rewarded. The fact that most people want The Kardashians over programmes requiring thought says something very sad about the selfish, self obsessed society in which we live. People gorge on food because they enjoy it. They also know of the consequences of obesity but they continue to gorge.
VERY well said John Maddin. Such a shame ITV is now two merged franchises lauding it over all they've bought out and dumbing the masses down into ever conceited, brainless bastards more interested in the fucking vapid, talentless sewage who call themselves "celebrities". Oh how ai wish ITV would be broken up once more with closer adherence to the older business models, refranchised, with great dramas and documentaries...
+Chris Coppola because of the nature of the subject"s they dealt with, ie-child cruelty, old peoples homes where the old folk were being abused, some of the best reports where no body else wanted to tackle, interviewing the ira, the national front etc. bring this back(even repeats), they don"t make them like this anymore do they?.
Could be Peter Nicklin, it was a bloody depressing, but informative, program. The music in itself though, does make you feel anxious.. it's the way it builds up, gets your blood boiling lol
The perfect theme tune to the 70s, when the world appeared to be going to hell in a handcart. Little did we know we would look back on them as a golden time in comparison to the days that were to come...
This is one of two great news TV themes of its day - the other being the 'Nantucket Sleighride' instrumental excerpt used on Weekend World. RIP Brian Walden.
Reminds me of the time when we only had three TV channels but, paradoxically, the best TV in the world. Nowadays, we have access to hundreds of channels, the vast majority of them showing crap.
I would watch this program with my dad as a school boy - the grey texture of 1970’s Britain with all of the issues it faced. This music transfixed me then as it does now - just incredible
@@thepub245 Journalism for journalism's sake no longer exists. It's about the "journalist's" 'truth' or that of their paymasters, not the actual truth, something which is often unpalatable and asks questions many would rather not be asked, never mind try to answer them truthfully and deal with the issue at hand.
This really takes me back. When this theme music started. As others have said, I can hear my mum saying it’s time for bed, school in the morning. Great times
Haunting, powerful and thought provoking music. Perfectly matched to the programme. ITV has slipped so far as a station when the "X-factor" theme tune is so simplistic and frankly, shite,
Shocking that ITV today would never put on hard hitting documentaries such as World In Action or TV Eye at peak time weekday evenings. Bring them back.
Tv companies don't want hard hitting programmes that might tell the inconvenient truth a bout an advertisers products; an advertiser who might ve spendibg millions on a TV campaign .
Yes, so much nostalgia , seem to remember the programme was all doom and gloom and the world falling apart, I heard the first few seconds and I was back in the 80’s it was a school night and my parents were still alive.
I was born in 76' and VIVIDLY remember this iconic piece of music throughout the 80's!!! Thanks so much for sharing, reminds me how television used to be worth watching!!!!
As others have said, this conjures so many memories of my childhood in the '70s and, only now at 51, do I fully realize what a brilliant piece of music it is.
Music that kinda let you know that serious journalism was about to go down. Perfectly matched to the content and quality of the programme. Modern journalism isn't fit to polish the boots of the World in action team.
I have great respect and admiration for world in action. I was born in July of 1969 and it evokes powerful memories of what we went through and how we lived back then. don't get me wrong I loved the 70s to me a age of opportunity and possibilities with world war two still fresh in the minds of our grandparents and parents. it's a great social documentary of the way we lived. let's face it, my kids still can't believe I didn't have a mobile phone when I was eight.
We look back with rose-tinted specs - yes we have more hope when we are younger thats what gets us through - then life happens and erodes this . We should acknowledge that hope is different from expectation - the latter often leads to disappointment but hope springs eternal . The trouble is the world *has* been made worse - and what hasn't been made worse *feels* worse for those of us who have been around awhile because we expect improvement - and its caused by people purporting to make things better - " The road to hell is paved with good intentions " : misguided well-meaning people being manipulated by misplaced guilt and pandering to " underdogs " - ie identity groups lead by self-appointed tribunes , who indulge egotistic self-pity who are coming from a " bad place " - they seek reckless revenge not justice ; they are not concerned with advancing standards of humanity by which all are protected *AND* held accountable to : they are perpetrating divide and rule tactics for self-serving purposes . That's why it's like a furnace here .
I was born in 1965 and remember this theme as you did.As you say the war was associated with our parents and grandparents.In my case my grandfather fought the Turks in Gallipoli in 1915/16 and my uncle was in the navy in ww2 .My father was too young for ww2. The point I would like to make is that despite my relatives direct involvement the world wars as I recollect even back in the 70s were as distant as the crusades
What a stunningly powerful and beautiful piece of music! I grew up hearing this regularly in the dim and distant 70's. All hail the sublime Hammond B3... \m/ (:o)
Tom George Agreed! If only we could go back with the knowledge we now have of just how wrong we have done things, and do them differently. Although, it does make me wonder if we would! The human race can be so stupid, usually brought about by greed for one thing or another. Sad, really... \m/
The sombre end to this superb piece of music was the perfect accompaniment to the parting comment- and/ or film shots as the credits rolled. For me, the best use was in the late John Pilger’s powerful WIA 1970 video of the mutiny of troops in Vietnam.
This takes me back, when the world was an interesting place to live, no dumbed down tv, just real journalism. This is the programme that got me hooked on world affairs.
I always liked this theme tune. As others have commented, its a very haunting, melancholy piece. The intro being intense and foreboding while the second part is really quite mournful. Powerful music and very fitting for the often profound nature of the programme.
I loved the way that the programme would close. A summary of the main points of the investigation and the inevitable unsatisfactory conclusion "...and so while the rhetoric in Whitehall continues to go back and forth yet more bodies fall on the streets of Belfast and the longed for peace process continues to elude the people who need it the most..." as the distant and haunting Hammond would slowly fade in...
Always on a Monday night, mom would send us to bed and watch some really serious report on World in Action. This track still sends shivers down my spine.
Shit this blows my mind...Always remember watching this as a kid with my mum, Never really understood the programme back then but watching it now i truely get it and how the world has changed.........Chlidhood classic.!!!!
Very haunting tune. Probably one of the best things ever written. Brings up memories of the early 70's, tucked up in bed, parents must have watched it.
I was a teenager in the 70's, not interested in current affairs but I still knew that if it was on World In Action it was serious and worth paying attention to.
Fantastic piece, as a youngster it meant something boring was about to be on TV. Now I can appreciate it! I once contacted the BBC (I think) I was told it was a one off piece and was not available to the public. The wonders of you tube, it's not all evil and advertising!
World in Action STILL puts Panorama to shame, the BBC still peddle it out but it's all put together in such a disjointed way and I often lose the thread halfway through. WIA had structure, it communicated, delved, challenged, fought and exposed, whereas P comes across as the presenters personal indulgence. The WIA theme is an extension of the overall high production values. Class from Granada which goes down in television history. What the fuck has happened to UK television today??
The best of British tv even through the 80s was still amazing, Granada also produced Jewel in the Crown, Brideshead revisited, the regional element of Itv was so strong, bit harsh on panorama though..if you are 30 or less you would not understand
Kailash Patel Panorama's investigations into alleged horse-race fixing and bungs taken by football managers turned out to be nonsense and unsubstantiated hearsay.
To Simon Woods (because I can't work out who is supposed to be replying to who with these stupid You Tube changes) The theme tune for Weekend World was Nantucket Sleigh ride by Mountain not World In Action. Easy mistake! both great tunes! Take care.
MrBlueSky474 Yes, both great tunes and yes, what is it with You Tube making these stupid changes? Good point. Classic music from yesteryear (and I would guess that you share my love of ELO) and now even You Tube ain't what it used to be...
It was one of those shows which had a raucous attention-grabbing opening theme and a more reflective closing tune. Only other British TV show I've known do this is The Sweeney.
Brilliant piece of music brings back memories of my childhood,three day week power cuts miners strikes Ted heath as prime minister, it was hard times for people back in the 1970s ,kids have it easy these days.
My all time favorite TV theme, I remember when they covered the Thalidomide scandal, when the outdo came on under the VO of the presenter as they just showed film of kids destroyed by it, I cried my eyes out.
This is SUCH a great composition. And, like everyone else growing up in the 70s and 80s, it used to make me feel pretty grim! Listening to it now- that Hammond organ, fed through a Leslie, it wouldn’t have been out of place on a Deep Purple album. I call it Smokers Cough Keyboard.
This may be the first time I have listened to this piece in it's entirety, it is very good. When this tune played you knew there was some serious TV coming up, sadly nothing as forthright today. World in Action is there anything to equal it nowadays?
Well Mick I like it anyway. I absolutely love this music. It is so sad. It makes me think of all the things that have gone wrong in the world. Very emotional. I used to play this on the guitar.
Indeed. Well said. Seems the corporate media doesn't welcome hard-hitting journalism. We live in a pathetic version of democracy. Eyes wide open, folks.
Remember this creepy, thought provoking tune and T the effect it had on me growing up in the 1970s. Ghost stories could have been read by it at bedtime and you would literally crap yourself.Terrific programme, classic music score. Will endure forever as a testament to its era.
Independent, investigative journalism has been killed off by the commercialisation of the networks. The basis of the film 'Network'. The truth doesn't matter anymore. All that counts is that people have enough to eat , drink and wander around the entire day plugged into their IPhone. Even if you were to tell them what was going on a) they wouldn't believe you and b) even if they did they wouldn't care. Perhaps it was always this way and only now is it becoming transparent through the advent of social media.
Like others, as a child of the 60’s/70’s I found this music both haunting and disturbing but can now appreciate what a wonderful soundtrack this is. Also enjoying reading the comments just as much.
I remember this from the late 70's early 80's I was a kid, it was always frightening, cos of the subject matter of the program... and the vitruvian man picture... investigative journalism at its best.
World In Action and this theme music always reminds me of the IRA and the troubles. World In Action was a proper serious programme, some of the reporters used to get themselfs in some right dangerous situations.
This is one of my favourite pieces of music of all time and i want to acknowledge the great Mick Weaver for his work on this masterpiece. Thank you Mick, we are truly grateful
Haunting music from my childhood when there was only four channels to watch, BBC1/2 or ITV Channel four. Brilliant theme, although sometimes depressing news stories (from a 14 year olds point of view) Current affairs program it's part of my childhood and brings back memories. Thank you Mick Weaver, your up there with the best of them, even if the score was copied from you. I would be pissed off if somebody else got the credit for this theme tune when I wrote it. It's a masterpiece.
Weird to find someone looking up this theme as I did today, 9 years since this video was posted! The internet is formidable! I agree with your sentiment, this was one of those themes that stick with you after all these decades.
The Cubes being being taken off the box, so to speak and that smug geordie dickhead has fucked off to rehab after nearly wiping out a family of three while driving his car pissed , he wont be back on TV for a long time, if ever. World in Action was a brilliant current affairs, the chord of D minor has never sounded so good. What do we have now for news? Murdochs empire and fat money hungry American cunts not being able to make it to their social climbing, gold digging daughters weddings in Windsor due to eating too many big macs, thats what!
Ant is gonna be "away" for a long time after crashing that car into that family pissed out of his brain and that cube shit has been axed, people don't seem to want to be informed anymore and it suits the powers that be perfectly got them where they want them, politically sedated and under the thumb ,welcome to Britain 2018, Jesus fuckin wept.
I come back to this time after time....this tune is up there with A Whiter Shade of Pale....2 of the greatest Hammond tunes EVER to be recorded....only wish I had a recording of this "World In Action"...to add to my collection of Mick Weaver albums & CDs. Hope your well Mick.
This wonderfully lugubrious piece of music sums up the shit show we are currently 'living' through. I'd give anything to go back to the 70s, 80s and 90s despite their problems. They were paradise by comparison.
Amazingly bleak and terrifying theme - I seem to remember one about asbestos when I can only have been 6 which frightened the life out of me - got scared of my Mum’s ironing board which had a sheet of asbestos.
This for me is a gloomy, sunday night in early 80s UK. Single-paned, rain-drizzled windows. IRA trouble, strikes, picket lines, bearded, brown-flared reporters; softly spoken but hard-hitting.
It was always broadcast on a Monday night in the region where it was made, Granada.
+ a corduroy jacket!!
Good grief, the brown flares. I had almost managed to forget. And the huge eye-glasses. And the soggy biscuits. The stuff we went through. Young people these says, they have no idea.
Yes, gloomy stuff indeed, but you got the feeling that the reporters were genuine journalists on the ground, soaking up the atmosphere rather than salaried university graduates writing whatever their editors told them to sitting in their London office.
Hard hitting is the right description.
I remember watching tv in the lounge with my Dad, dark cold winter evenings, coal strikes, power cuts, the darkest 1970's- kids today never had it so good
I'm a child of '66 too. It certainly was bleak on Tyneside, and many other places. Today's youth do have there own sets of issues mind you.
I'm 57, Dad was a Painter and Decorator and sign writer, mum a dinner lady we lived in Derby. Labour voters, Trade Union members.
They'd been kids in WW2, ,70s was a good era in my working class neighbourhood, terraced houses. My Dad still lives in the same house I grew up in. Neighbourhood now full of Smack Heads and lowlife.
We had hope in the 70s.
@ianmorris3084 I'd argue that it was the economic deprivation of the late 70's that led to the terrible things today's youth are dealing with. There was certainly more sense of community then, but it's easy to look back with perhaps to much nostalgia for the Era. Remember we had to deal with the horror that was flares.
Nostalgic sounds from somewhere in the back of my mind, takes me back to my childhood, people born in the 60's or 70's will understand ! 😎
I was born in he early 50s and rhe 70s is still fresh in my mind; a tine of strikes, shortages, police corruption, the cold way and many other depressing events. Today's world isn't perfect but it's a whole lot better the five decades ago
@@admiralcraddock464
The tories were in for half of the decade don't forget ans prices were rising sharply under both Heath and Thatcher too. The prices actuslly started to rise sharply when Heath was in for 2+ years, not Wilson. Heath in 1970 actually inherited a low inflation rste from Wilson. 1966 to 1970 inflation remained low throughout the Wilson labour government.
The 3 dsy week alao happened under the tories in 1973 when Heath was PM.
Inflation rising sharply now in 2022 under Johnson, that's certainly not the fault of the 1997 to 2010 labour government.
Very true anyone born as you said in those decades yet the early 90s will know this tune.
Exactly! Nice to hear the whole piece too 👍
Born in 73 and I know exactly what you mean,brings so many flashbacks of my youth,my parents,family,the way the world was back then.....it intrigues me how music takes over your whole being......another one that does this is the old school programme"the picture box" powerful stuff!
This music really sends shivers down my spine; remembering as a young boy the desolate/cold/barren days of 1970's
What about the fantastic summers
@@Willsey Summers really transformed the bleakness of the UK. I got out in 1982 and have never lived there since. Great piece of music; reminds me of Greenslade, one of the best prog-rock groups of the time.
@@Willsey 1976 and 1977 were the greatest summers ever
@@dkizxpt-su3ze actually 1975 was probably the best summer. 1976 was just too hot. Your right, 1977 was also good
@@Willsey Yes 1976 was very hot. An almost mythical summer in British lore. 1975 was ideal.
To me this is like the anthem of the gold standard of TV journalism.
never a truer word spoken
So-called journalists of today watch and learn and stop selling us all out!
Perfect summing up Oliver.
Fantastic investigative journalism John Pilger, Paul Foote etc now a job sadly for duplicitous lying scum
100% on the money.
Any comment about the world in action theme being written by Shawn Phillips, is utter bullshit. I played the B3 Organ parts over a descending chord progression that Phillips came up with. It was a 50/50 collaboration between he and I, and I am utterly pissed off with this charlatan claiming or being credited with having "created" the entire thing. What happened was that Shawn came to me and said that he had been asked to compose some theme music for a T.V. programme, and that he had come up with a chord progression, but needed help with putting some melody lines to it, and would I be interested in collaborating with him to complete it. So, I came up with some vaguely Bachish melody lines and we spent an evening in Trident studios in Wardour Street, London, recording several segments of varying lengths of my melody lines, and Shawn's chord progression. We were told by the Granada people, some of whom attended the recording sessions, that the music would become the property of Granada, and that we would be paid M.U. scale session fees for the evening's work, which at the time were nine quid an hour. Not only has my contribution to this music (not to imply that the stuff is a work of magnificent art) never been acknowledged, but I never even received my session fees. Not only that, I had to take the tube to Piccadilly Circus to get to the studio, and was never reimbursed, so, as well as never having been credited, financially or otherwise, with my participation in the project, I am down the fucking tube fare. I was young and easily conned in those days, but to be worked over by a fellow musician is especially galling. I think Shawn is somewhere in South Africa now, no doubt crediting himself with being something he isn't. Good luck to him, and even better luck to his "believers."
I have been fucked over as well on stuff as have a lot of people, as you know. The best thing is that the track is known known as a dual credit, I guess. The 180 quid or whatever it was is obviously lost. So, it's Phillips/Weaver composition for me.
I've loved this tune since I was small, I wish this was available on disc. Thank you for enriching us with your music
It's a very memorable, distinctive theme. Scared the shit out of me as a kid. Don't know if that was the intention...
A bottomlessly superb and appropriate Hammond melody to a programme I recall being slated for its left-wing journalism. Real world investigations about real people. We need more of these programmes.
sadly it seems like the world really does not care any more,
in reference to the theme i remember a group called mountain doing a track called nantucket sleigh ride around 1971?
0:26 the way that the music used to fade in at the end of the program was incredible. Mesmerised me as a kid
Snap...💜
There was one episode about kids born after their mothers had taken thalidomide. I remember the end credits making me really sad with video of the kids and that melancholy music 😢
Same
This music is like returning to my childhood, it’s a musical time machine , I feel 10 again , what a brilliant peace of music and what a great program when they actually made great programs …🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵
Mountain Nantucket Sleighride will bring back more memories if this did
@@manxmark
Yes Sunday lunchtime wow
@@markmeade2937the smell of Sunday lunch cooking... brilliant memories
What has happened to British TV that we no longer have programmes of this quality any more?
Reality TV and soaps are standard prime time viewing now.
Apparently these types of programmes are too costly to produce. That along with those targeted, far more willing to tie the producers in litigation for years doesn't help.
I found this music really sinister as a child but now…. Wow powerful! Love it👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
legendary tune. this rattles everyones mind who would be old enough to remember it
Indeed.
A distinct feeling of sadness when I listen to this. I remember it well.
Yes, my friend - feelings of sadness.
I can't stand it any longer. My name is Mick Weaver, and I played the B3 on the World in Action theme music. Shawn Phillips gets all the bloody credit. Yes, he came to me with a descending chord progression, I did the rest. We spent an evening in a recording studio in the west end of London putting together segments of different lengths, and Granada T.V. used it for 20 plus years. Not only did I not receive one word of credit, I didn't even get the session fee. Phillps gets the musical credit, Jonathon Weston got the money, and I am down the price of the tube fare I payed to get to the bloody studio. Makes me fucking SICK.
It's a sad story surrounding such a beautiful track Mick. I'd love to get hold of a vinyl version if ever it gets sorted out, and hopefully give you some much deserved royalties. It's a pleasure to talk to the legendary Wynder K Frogg by the way!
Mick Weaver Mick, you created one of my favourite pieces of music of all time.
I couldn't possibly have more respect for you.
You are a total legend.
+Mick Weaver Take solace in the fact so many people love this piece & its always remembered, IL remember u now I know !
So sorry to hear this. I can empathise with how you feel.
I remember this music vividly from when I was young, even though I was too young to really understand the programme, important though it will always be.
For what little I appreciate this comment is ultimately worth; Thank you from me for creating this piece of music, and from all those who would thank you if they knew the truth.
Mick Weaver You are a legend
I cannot tell you how grateful we are for your work
Your brilliance has touched a lot of people
If Shawn and Jonathan are reading this, you need to do the right thing and pay Mick
Mick's fans demand it!
The campaign starts here!
This music is like a time machine. Upon hearing it I am transported back to the past. Amazing.
Agreed.
Good God this takes me back. I was about 8 when my dad used to watch this. Never got to watch much of it as it was bed time, but it always seemed quite grim. It was always dark, never summertime. Anyway, the tune is amazing.
Wow I have this exact same memory
@@41778055 hi mate. Thanks for the reply. Funny how certain things take you back. I can even remember seeing the graphic above at the start of the programme along with the music. I always thought it actually looked like my dad ( from the early 70’s anyway) - big hair and full beard and tache.
I loved the intro music and he only ever let me watch that as it was always bedtime. I imagine mum was always busying herself somewhere in the house as my dad always watched those types of programs.
Takes me back to a happy childhood…..playing in the street with mates…..actual seasons every year(seemed to be more fog back then?!) ….simple toys, but actually playing with them and enjoying them,…..only 3 channels on the TV but great cartoons after school…….never seemed to see homelessness or poverty, probably too young to notice it anyway.
….unemployment, bin strikes, power cuts, terrorists hijacking planes …….ah, happy days 😬👍.
Remember watching this when we had investigative journalism on our tv and not the dumbed down crap we get now. Is it any wonder our children dont know shit about politics, current affairs or the world we live in but they know the Kardashians favourite lipstick colour.
U ARE SO FUCKING RIGHT
John Maddin fully agree john...
John Maddin Completely agree John but isn't this a "Chicken and Egg" scenario? TV co.s have given the public what they wanted and both parties are rewarded. The fact that most people want The Kardashians over programmes requiring thought says something very sad about the selfish, self obsessed society in which we live. People gorge on food because they enjoy it. They also know of the consequences of obesity but they continue to gorge.
John Maddin
EXCELLENT POST
VERY well said John Maddin. Such a shame ITV is now two merged franchises lauding it over all they've bought out and dumbing the masses down into ever conceited, brainless bastards more interested in the fucking vapid, talentless sewage who call themselves "celebrities". Oh how ai wish ITV would be broken up once more with closer adherence to the older business models, refranchised, with great dramas and documentaries...
I remember when I was a little boy listening to this tune and always feeling that It was the saddest thing I ever heard.
Me too... and listening to it again now, after all these years, I got that same feeling of sadness.
I wonder why that most people feel sad listening to this? Amazing!
true! same here
+Chris Coppola because of the nature of the subject"s they dealt with, ie-child cruelty, old peoples homes where the old folk were being abused, some of the best reports where no body else wanted to tackle, interviewing the ira, the national front etc. bring this back(even repeats), they don"t make them like this anymore do they?.
Could be Peter Nicklin, it was a bloody depressing, but informative, program. The music in itself though, does make you feel anxious.. it's the way it builds up, gets your blood boiling lol
The perfect theme tune to the 70s, when the world appeared to be going to hell in a handcart. Little did we know we would look back on them as a golden time in comparison to the days that were to come...
I know, how the fuck did that happen?
Terrible, but fantastic wonderful years all at the same time glad I was a kid in the 70s best music best telly best fucking everything.
Agreed reality today is insane compared with the 70's
You probably said this time around BREXIT vote. I think it fits more 2 years of later in 2020s global pandemic.
The 70s were a desperate time for the economy. Socialism at its worse. If we don’t remember this we will be destined to repeat it.
This is one of two great news TV themes of its day - the other being the 'Nantucket Sleighride' instrumental excerpt used on Weekend World. RIP Brian Walden.
Best theme i ever heard.Proggy,ethereal an absolute masterpiece.
I remember laying in bed aged about 8, hearing this tune at night, and it creeping me out! Now I realise what a classic it actually is!
This is one tune that always reminds me of my dad! As he watched it religiously and I knew bedtime was on the horizon, great memories 👍
Reminds me of the time when we only had three TV channels but, paradoxically, the best TV in the world. Nowadays, we have access to hundreds of channels, the vast majority of them showing crap.
Look up the Fry and Laurie "choice" sketch that covers exactly this point, and predicts where things would eventually go.
I would watch this program with my dad as a school boy - the grey texture of 1970’s Britain with all of the issues it faced. This music transfixed me then as it does now - just incredible
Takes me right back to the 70s, Monday night Itv just before the Sweeny or Minder or Special Branch. Bliss.
childhood heaven
@@davidsingleton1371 Absolutely
When it came on ..we knew the shit had hit the fan somewhere usually northern island very evocative
Yes 👍
Proper, gritty and hard hitting tv in those days.
Listen to this music on a rainy day on a sunday evening out in the countryside and you will be transported back in time my friends
Play this at my funeral. It encapsulates everything about my 80s childhood.
We need this series back on TV more than ever! (March 2022).
No chance of that all we get now is crap like Love Island, Celebrity Master Chef, and Strictly Dancing.
Some impartial journalism required these days. Not piers morgan raving and carrying on with his Pro murdoch BS
That would require first rate investigative journalism, which doesn't exist anymore. An audience interested enough and unbiased producers.
@@thepub245 Journalism for journalism's sake no longer exists. It's about the "journalist's" 'truth' or that of their paymasters, not the actual truth, something which is often unpalatable and asks questions many would rather not be asked, never mind try to answer them truthfully and deal with the issue at hand.
Seconded June 2024, just weeks before we elect someone with the same policies as their opponent.
When I was a kid having nightmares about The Nukes dropping, this is what was playing in the background.
Still give me chills.
This really takes me back. When this theme music started. As others have said, I can hear my mum saying it’s time for bed, school in the morning. Great times
Haunting, powerful and thought provoking music. Perfectly matched to the programme. ITV has slipped so far as a station when the "X-factor" theme tune is so simplistic and frankly, shite,
'D minor' (Ebm) has never sounded so good, brilliant composition.
The X Factor theme is shite to match the content of the programme
Shocking that ITV today would never put on hard hitting documentaries such as World In Action or TV Eye at peak time weekday evenings. Bring them back.
Tv companies don't want hard hitting programmes that might tell the inconvenient truth a bout an advertisers products; an advertiser who might ve spendibg millions on a TV campaign .
Yes, so much nostalgia , seem to remember the programme was all doom and gloom and the world falling apart, I heard the first few seconds and I was back in the 80’s it was a school night and my parents were still alive.
I remember this superb, foreboding theme, of what is to come, brilliant keyboards. Takes me back to my youth.
Imagine this played in a huge church or warehouse! The reverberance would be amazing.
Gonna have a bash at this tune later sometime on my concert key board in church,pipe organ mode, should be awesome dude.
@@andrewhatton8900did you do it?
I was born in 76' and VIVIDLY remember this iconic piece of music throughout the 80's!!! Thanks so much for sharing, reminds me how television used to be worth watching!!!!
Scary theme when I was a child. Now it is a fantastic tune. Probably will chime with a lot of people.
Same! This used to creep me out!
quite possibly ne of the best pieces of music ive heard in my 48 years
As others have said, this conjures so many memories of my childhood in the '70s and, only now at 51, do I fully realize what a brilliant piece of music it is.
Music that kinda let you know that serious journalism was about to go down. Perfectly matched to the content and quality of the programme. Modern journalism isn't fit to polish the boots of the World in action team.
I have great respect and admiration for world in action. I was born in July of 1969 and it evokes powerful memories of what we went through and how we lived back then. don't get me wrong I loved the 70s to me a age of opportunity and possibilities with world war two still fresh in the minds of our grandparents and parents. it's a great social documentary of the way we lived. let's face it, my kids still can't believe I didn't have a mobile phone when I was eight.
class...
We look back with rose-tinted specs - yes we have more hope when we are younger thats what gets us through - then life happens and erodes this .
We should acknowledge that hope is different from expectation - the latter often leads to disappointment but hope springs eternal .
The trouble is the world *has* been made worse - and what hasn't been made worse *feels* worse for those of us who have been around awhile because we expect improvement - and its caused by people purporting to make things better - " The road to hell is paved with good intentions " : misguided well-meaning people being manipulated by misplaced guilt and pandering to " underdogs " - ie identity groups lead by self-appointed tribunes , who indulge egotistic self-pity who are coming from a " bad place " - they seek reckless revenge not justice ; they are not concerned with advancing standards of humanity by which all are protected *AND* held accountable to : they are perpetrating divide and rule tactics for self-serving purposes .
That's why it's like a furnace here .
I was born in 1965 and remember this theme as you did.As you say the war was associated with our parents and grandparents.In my case my grandfather fought the Turks in Gallipoli in 1915/16 and my uncle was in the navy in ww2 .My father was too young for ww2. The point I would like to make is that despite my relatives direct involvement the world wars as I recollect even back in the 70s were as distant as the crusades
What a stunningly powerful and beautiful piece of music! I grew up hearing this regularly in the dim and distant 70's. All hail the sublime Hammond B3... \m/ (:o)
+klistarf so haunting and sad, a lament to a world gone wrong...
Tom George Agreed! If only we could go back with the knowledge we now have of just how wrong we have done things, and do them differently. Although, it does make me wonder if we would! The human race can be so stupid, usually brought about by greed for one thing or another. Sad, really... \m/
Very powerful indeed, stirs my guts and stands my hairs
klistarf Makes me think of Deep Purple.
Not dim and not too distant thank you very much !!!
Makes me think of men with beards and donkey jackets standing round a fire on some wasteland.
But then that's socialism for you. Those men now can't afford the rubbish to burn.
Under Theresa we will all be half starved from foodbanks...
Get a fucking job mate. It helps.
sounds exactly like Shoreditch on a Saturday night
everyone has a job under the Tories (mostly shit jobs)
The sombre end to this superb piece of music was the perfect accompaniment to the parting comment- and/ or film shots as the credits rolled. For me, the best use was in the late John Pilger’s powerful WIA 1970 video of the mutiny of troops in Vietnam.
This takes me back, when the world was an interesting place to live, no dumbed down tv, just real journalism. This is the programme that got me hooked on world affairs.
world in action used to frighten me. the theme tune still creeps me out a bit. fantastic piece of music though.
Brilliant piece of music also the programme was fantastic.
I always liked this theme tune. As others have commented, its a very haunting, melancholy piece. The intro being intense and foreboding while the second part is really quite mournful. Powerful music and very fitting for the often profound nature of the programme.
Profound is the perfect word
I loved the way that the programme would close. A summary of the main points of the investigation and the inevitable unsatisfactory conclusion "...and so while the rhetoric in Whitehall continues to go back and forth yet more bodies fall on the streets of Belfast and the longed for peace process continues to elude the people who need it the most..." as the distant and haunting Hammond would slowly fade in...
The only bit of music that ever gives me chills. I absolutely adore this piece. Even today it makes the hairs on my neck stand up.
Always on a Monday night, mom would send us to bed and watch some really serious report on World in Action. This track still sends shivers down my spine.
It's Mum not Mom unless you're American 😂
😂, I'm so happy I wasn't the only one.
Many in the comments had the creeps from it
Goosebumps every time. Really paints the dark image of 70’s and 80’s HELL
bring WIA back !
Seems like heaven now.
Brilliant show, and very informative! Wish it was still on tv nowadays.
This track is pure Prog Rock! I fact I’m convinced that 70’s TV theme music on my infant mind, started my love of Prog that has never left.
Yes, it sounds like ELP written this theme
Shit this blows my mind...Always remember watching this as a kid with my mum, Never really understood the programme back then but watching it now i truely get it and how the world has changed.........Chlidhood classic.!!!!
A fantastic piece of music.
This should be available on download.
fantastic music could listen to that on a loop ❤
Memories of Monday nights, in the 70s.
Very haunting tune.
Probably one of the best things ever written.
Brings up memories of the early 70's, tucked up in bed, parents must have watched it.
Love this and the theme to "Weekend World" , Groovy 70s music
Its an ever descending progression in a minor key. Like some freaking musical Esherian staircase. Love it.
D minor all the way through. Diddle dah!
I was a teenager in the 70's, not interested in current affairs but I still knew that if it was on World In Action it was serious and worth paying attention to.
This song makes me cry..
All your memorys coming back?
Minor key my fiend.
A tortured soul is this
I know exactly what you mean.
When humanity dies, this theme will be the last man made theme the whole world will hear.
When the missiles are in the air, this will be my goto tune.
Makes me think of my childhood in the 70's. Difficult and disturbing. Great piece of music, etched in my mind forever.
This week trajic haircuts and annoraks
When you heard this tune, you just knew someone was in the sh1t.
Haha! Brilliant.
Yeah
haha That's ace.
world in auction
true dat
Fantastic piece, as a youngster it meant something boring was about to be on TV. Now I can appreciate it! I once contacted the BBC (I think) I was told it was a one off piece and was not available to the public. The wonders of you tube, it's not all evil and advertising!
World in Action STILL puts Panorama to shame, the BBC still peddle it out but it's all put together in such a disjointed way and I often lose the thread halfway through. WIA had structure, it communicated, delved, challenged, fought and exposed, whereas P comes across as the presenters personal indulgence. The WIA theme is an extension of the overall high production values. Class from Granada which goes down in television history. What the fuck has happened to UK television today??
Some of Panorama's reporting has gone to the dogs...
The best of British tv even through the 80s was still amazing, Granada also produced Jewel in the Crown, Brideshead revisited, the regional element of Itv was so strong, bit harsh on panorama though..if you are 30 or less you would not understand
Kailash Patel Panorama's investigations into alleged horse-race fixing and bungs taken by football managers turned out to be nonsense and unsubstantiated hearsay.
To Simon Woods (because I can't work out who is supposed to be replying to who with these stupid You Tube changes) The theme tune for Weekend World was Nantucket Sleigh ride by Mountain not World In Action. Easy mistake! both great tunes! Take care.
MrBlueSky474 Yes, both great tunes and yes, what is it with You Tube making these stupid changes? Good point. Classic music from yesteryear (and I would guess that you share my love of ELO) and now even You Tube ain't what it used to be...
This music frightened as a kid, and on the rare occasion we saw some of a programme they were bleak, strikes, war etc.
How can this get a thumbs down? It's a masterpiece.
Greatest theme ever written. Agitprop, Time Out magazine, The Sweeney. We didn't know it then but they were great days
I can’t stop listening to it. Brilliant!!
Towards the end of life and thoughts of what could have been.
That's what this music invokes in me.
Never heard the full version, this is epic. All I need is a joint
I don't need anything..but just listen to Mick playing the B3....fabulous player.
Should have been released...to ad to my Mick Weaver collection.
It was one of those shows which had a raucous attention-grabbing opening theme and a more reflective closing tune. Only other British TV show I've known do this is The Sweeney.
Spot on!
Yep. The sweeney and Crown court.
@@michendo1 and Joe 90
I can’t believe how awesome this music is
The 60s and 70s had a magical vibe to them . Glad I experienced that
Brilliant piece of music brings back memories of my childhood,three day week power cuts miners strikes Ted heath as prime minister, it was hard times for people back in the 1970s ,kids have it easy these days.
My all time favorite TV theme, I remember when they covered the Thalidomide scandal, when the outdo came on under the VO of the presenter as they just showed film of kids destroyed by it, I cried my eyes out.
Yeah! early sixties, '62 was my date of birth ,terrible thing to happen
This is SUCH a great composition. And, like everyone else growing up in the 70s and 80s, it used to make me feel pretty grim!
Listening to it now- that Hammond organ, fed through a Leslie, it wouldn’t have been out of place on a Deep Purple album. I call it Smokers Cough Keyboard.
The World in Action theme is as rare as Jon Lord's Grabsplatter!
This may be the first time I have listened to this piece in it's entirety, it is very good. When this tune played you knew there was some serious TV coming up, sadly nothing as forthright today. World in Action is there anything to equal it nowadays?
LiveLeak on the net? Heh.
Luis Lara You're right of course the internet, but I was talking about TV, current affairs programmes in particular.
Pogol Swood Internet killed the video star.
Stephen Armourae Thatcher RIP
'Frontline' (P.B.S. Television) in, of all places, USA, is very good.
great tune but as a kid it scared me.
As a kid... it showed you the real big world outside your own homely comfort bubble. And it wasn't nice.
great iconic theme tune... allso agree with many one of the great programs lost...
wow this is emotive ,being a child in the family home around 830 in the evening,,,allways winter? Wow just wow
Contentious days, im not saying my old man was lazy but he thought the three day week was compulsory,... ill get me coat
@Arcadia Deus and summer evenings too !
Oh Yes
Exactly. Always winter.
What year ?
Well Mick I like it anyway. I absolutely love this music. It is so sad. It makes me think of all the things that have gone wrong in the world. Very emotional. I used to play this on the guitar.
Idi Amin, Beirut, Hooliganism, Combat 18, Vietnam, Political corruption.... Why don't we have programs like this any more...
Indeed. Well said.
Seems the corporate media doesn't welcome hard-hitting journalism. We live in a pathetic version of democracy. Eyes wide open, folks.
Remember this creepy, thought provoking tune and T the effect it had on me growing up in the 1970s. Ghost stories could have been read by it at bedtime and you would literally crap yourself.Terrific programme, classic music score. Will endure forever as a testament to its era.
Independent, investigative journalism has been killed off by the commercialisation of the networks. The basis of the film 'Network'. The truth doesn't matter anymore. All that counts is that people have enough to eat , drink and wander around the entire day plugged into their IPhone. Even if you were to tell them what was going on a) they wouldn't believe you and b) even if they did they wouldn't care. Perhaps it was always this way and only now is it becoming transparent through the advent of social media.
I think that people know what's going on. They've just been brainwashed into thinking it's normal.
Because of the feminisation of society.
Like others, as a child of the 60’s/70’s I found this music both haunting and disturbing but can now appreciate what a wonderful soundtrack this is. Also enjoying reading the comments just as much.
Thank you sincerely for this gem.
This one, Nantucket Sleighride by Mountain used on Weekend World and Picking The Blues by Grinderswitch used by John Peel all those years.
I remember this from the late 70's early 80's I was a kid, it was always frightening, cos of the subject matter of the program... and the vitruvian man picture... investigative journalism at its best.
World In Action and this theme music always reminds me of the IRA and the troubles. World In Action was a proper serious programme, some of the reporters used to get themselfs in some right dangerous situations.
Your right John it reminds me of the troubles and some African civil war...my father and his shaving soap stick and safety razor.
***** :)
have to agree with that. bbc or itv wouldnt do this stuff now.
reminds me of british massacres in the north of my country
Hard to choose between this and Mountain's Nantucket Sleighride - used for Brian Walden's Weekend World. So let's just love both!
Or Finladia by Sibelius, the intro to ‘This Week.’
This is one of my favourite pieces of music of all time and i want to acknowledge the great Mick Weaver for his work on this masterpiece.
Thank you Mick, we are truly grateful
@@toddblanks That was Blue Weaver.
tyreburster he was on “ grave new world “ by The Strawbs too.
Haunting music from my childhood when there was only four channels to watch, BBC1/2 or ITV Channel four. Brilliant theme, although sometimes depressing news stories (from a 14 year olds point of view) Current affairs program it's part of my childhood and brings back memories. Thank you Mick Weaver, your up there with the best of them, even if the score was copied from you. I would be pissed off if somebody else got the credit for this theme tune when I wrote it. It's a masterpiece.
Weird to find someone looking up this theme as I did today, 9 years since this video was posted! The internet is formidable! I agree with your sentiment, this was one of those themes that stick with you after all these decades.
As some have said haunting music takes me back to childhood
Certainly is haunting alright ! 😆
the last refuge for investigative journalism
We used to have this great show,, now we have Ant and Dec .... OH, and the CUBE..
The Cubes being being taken off the box, so to speak and that smug geordie dickhead has fucked off to rehab after nearly wiping out a family of three while driving his car pissed , he wont be back on TV for a long time, if ever. World in Action was a brilliant current affairs, the chord of D minor has never sounded so good. What do we have now for news? Murdochs empire and fat money hungry American cunts not being able to make it to their social climbing, gold digging daughters weddings in Windsor due to eating too many big macs, thats what!
Ant is gonna be "away" for a long time after crashing that car into that family pissed out of his brain and that cube shit has been axed, people don't seem to want to be informed anymore and it suits the powers that be perfectly got them where they want them, politically sedated and under the thumb ,welcome to Britain 2018, Jesus fuckin wept.
Bread and circuses. Plus ca change...
I come back to this time after time....this tune is up there with A Whiter Shade of Pale....2 of the greatest Hammond tunes EVER to be recorded....only wish I had a recording of this "World In Action"...to add to my collection of Mick Weaver albums & CDs. Hope your well Mick.
This wonderfully lugubrious piece of music sums up the shit show we are currently 'living' through.
I'd give anything to go back to the 70s, 80s and 90s despite their problems. They were paradise by comparison.
totally agree, and it's not just the nostalgia talking.
wow,this music brings back soooo many childhood memories,what a really good listen.
Amazingly bleak and terrifying theme - I seem to remember one about asbestos when I can only have been 6 which frightened the life out of me - got scared of my Mum’s ironing board which had a sheet of asbestos.