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TVTitles

ITV opening titles

ITV accounts for 110 shows here, running from 1959 to the present, and 118 opening title sequences between them.

Drama leads with 24, then comedy with 23.

Seven of them rebuilt their titles at least once — most of all The Bill, with three distinct sequences.

110 shows · 118 sequences · oldest first

8 of these moved between networks during their run and appear under each one.

Still from the opening titles of Ivor the Engine1 sequence

Ivor the Engine

1959–1977ITV / BBC OneAnimation

A Welsh locomotive who wants to sing in the choir, drawn in pencil and cut out by hand.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Coronation Street2 sequences

Coronation Street

1960–ITVDrama

The longest-running television soap in the world, opening on rooftops and a cornet ever since 1960.

  • Season 1
  • Season 31
Still from the opening titles of Danger Man1 sequence

Danger Man

1960–1968ITVDrama

Patrick McGoohan as John Drake, the series he left to make The Prisoner.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of University Challenge1 sequence

University Challenge

1962–ITV / BBC TwoDocumentary

College Boy by Derek New, and a split screen that has stacked two teams on top of each other since 1962.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Ready Steady Go!1 sequence

Ready Steady Go!

1963–1966ITVDocumentary

"The weekend starts here" — the British pop programme that put the Beatles, the Stones and Motown on the same stage.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Stingray1 sequence

Stingray

1964–1965ITVSci-Fi

"Stand by for action!" — the first British series filmed entirely in colour, and it opens by saying so.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Thunderbirds1 sequence

Thunderbirds

1965–1966ITVSci-Fi

Five, four, three, two, one — the countdown, the launch bays, and Barry Gray's march. Probably the most quoted title sequence Britain has produced.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of World of Sport1 sequence

World of Sport

1965–1985ITVDocumentary

ITV's answer to Grandstand, which is remembered now almost entirely for the wrestling at four o'clock.

  • Season 20
Still from the opening titles of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons1 sequence

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons

1967–1968ITVSci-Fi

Anderson's darkest supermarionation series, opened by two rings of light moving across a wall.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Prisoner1 sequence

The Prisoner

1967–1968ITVSci-Fi

Thunder, a Lotus Seven driven hard past Parliament, a resignation letter slammed onto a desk, and then gas under the door of a man's own flat. Two minutes that explain the entire premise without a narrator, and end with the only line the show ever needed: I am not a number.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Department S1 sequence

Department S

1969–1970ITVDrama

An Interpol unit for cases nobody else can explain, which gave Jason King his own spin-off.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)1 sequence

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)

1969–1970ITVCrime

A private investigator and his dead partner, who only he can see, in a white suit.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of UFO1 sequence

UFO

1970–1971ITVSci-Fi

Anderson's first live-action series, set in a 1980 that never arrived, with purple wigs and a Barry Gray theme.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Persuaders!1 sequence

The Persuaders!

1971–1972ITVDrama

Roger Moore and Tony Curtis as bickering millionaires, opened by John Barry's most-covered television theme.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Upstairs, Downstairs1 sequence

Upstairs, Downstairs

1971–1975ITVDrama

The Edwardian household drama that Downton Abbey is, by its own creator's admission, a direct descendant of.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Emmerdale2 sequences

Emmerdale

1972–ITVDrama

A Yorkshire Dales farming serial that dropped Farm from its name in 1989 and kept the landscape.

  • Season 27
  • Season 49
Still from the opening titles of Rainbow1 sequence

Rainbow

1972–1992ITVComedy

Zippy, George and Bungle, and a theme about a paintbox in the sky that ran for twenty years.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Tomorrow People1 sequence

The Tomorrow People

1973–1979ITVSci-Fi

Children evolving telepathy in a Thames Television series remade twice since.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Thriller (1973)1 sequence

Thriller (1973)

1973–1976ITVHorror

Brian Clemens' anthology of feature-length suspense plays, sold to America as a late-night staple.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Rising Damp1 sequence

Rising Damp

1974–1978ITVComedy

Leonard Rossiter as a boarding-house landlord, and the most successful ITV sitcom of the seventies.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Space: 19992 sequences

Space: 1999

1975–1977ITVSci-Fi

The most confident opening Gerry Anderson ever made: a burst of brass, then a rapid-fire montage of clips from the episode you are about to watch, so no two broadcasts were identical.

  • Season 1
  • Season 2
Still from the opening titles of The Sweeney1 sequence

The Sweeney

1975–1978ITVCrime

The Flying Squad in a Ford Granada, and the series that made British police drama violent.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Chorlton and the Wheelies1 sequence

Chorlton and the Wheelies

1976–1979ITVAnimation

A happiness dragon in Wheelie World, from the studio that went on to make Danger Mouse.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Jamie and the Magic Torch1 sequence

Jamie and the Magic Torch

1976–1979ITVAnimation

A torch that opens a hole in the bedroom floor down a helter-skelter into Cuckoo Land.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Muppet Show1 sequence

The Muppet Show

1976–1981ITV / SyndicationComedy

An opening that changes every week by design: Statler and Waldorf get a new heckle, Gonzo gets a new way to fail the closing note, and the arch fills with whoever is in that episode.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Jesus of Nazareth1 sequence

Jesus of Nazareth

1977RAI / ITVDrama

Zeffirelli's six-hour life of Christ, cast so deeply that the titles are mostly name cards.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Robin's Nest1 sequence

Robin's Nest

1977–1981ITVComedy

The second Man About the House spin-off, with Robin running a bistro in Fulham.

  • Season 2
Still from the opening titles of The Krypton Factor1 sequence

The Krypton Factor

1977–1995ITVDocumentary

A general knowledge round, an assault course and a mental agility test, opening on a rotating wireframe grid that was expensive in 1977.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Professionals1 sequence

The Professionals

1977–1983ITVCrime

Two CI5 agents and the controller who points them, in the ITV action series that spent a decade being complained about.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Sandbaggers1 sequence

The Sandbaggers

1978–1980ITVDrama

British intelligence run as an office job, with the operations mostly discussed rather than shown.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Minder1 sequence

Minder

1979–1994ITVComedy

Arthur Daley and his minder, and a theme song sung by Dennis Waterman about Dennis Waterman.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Only When I Laugh1 sequence

Only When I Laugh

1979–1982ITVComedy

Three men in a hospital ward who are not especially ill, and the registrar who cannot discharge them.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Sapphire & Steel1 sequence

Sapphire & Steel

1979–1982ITVSci-Fi

Two operatives who are not people, sent to repair breaks in time, explained to the audience only by a narrated list of elements.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Tales of the Unexpected1 sequence

Tales of the Unexpected

1979–1988ITVHorror

A dancing silhouette, a spinning roulette wheel and Ron Grainer's theme — an anthology opening far more unsettling than most of the stories that follow it.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Worzel Gummidge1 sequence

Worzel Gummidge

1979–1981ITVComedy

A scarecrow who swaps heads for different moods, played by a former Doctor Who.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Button Moon1 sequence

Button Moon

1980–1988ITVAnimation

Puppets made of kitchen utensils flying to a moon made of a button, with a theme sung by Peter Davison's wife and later covered by him.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Hammer House of Horror1 sequence

Hammer House of Horror

1980ITVHorror

Hammer's one television anthology, made after the films had stopped and shot on the same estate.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Metal Mickey1 sequence

Metal Mickey

1980–1983ITVComedy

A robot in a suburban family sitcom, directed by Micky Dolenz of the Monkees.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Brideshead Revisited1 sequence

Brideshead Revisited

1981ITVDrama

Geoffrey Burgon's theme over an English country house — eleven hours of television that changed what British drama believed it could spend money on.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Bullseye1 sequence

Bullseye

1981–1995ITVDocumentary

Darts and general knowledge, and a cartoon bull who throws better than the contestants.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Stig of the Dump1 sequence

Stig of the Dump

1981ITVDrama

Clive King's boy in a chalk pit and the person living at the bottom of it, adapted by Thames.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet2 sequences

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet

1983–1986ITVComedy

Seven British builders sharing a hut on a Düsseldorf site, written as a comedy about not being able to find work at home.

  • Season 1
  • Season 2
Still from the opening titles of Reilly, Ace of Spies1 sequence

Reilly, Ace of Spies

1983ITVDrama

Sidney Reilly across twelve parts, and the serial that gave Sam Neill his first lead.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Bill3 sequences

The Bill

1983–2010ITVCrime

A London police station shot at ground level, under a rule the programme kept for twenty-seven years: no scene an officer is not present for.

  • Season 1
  • Season 4
  • Season 5
Still from the opening titles of Robin of Sherwood1 sequence

Robin of Sherwood

1984–1986ITVDrama

The Robin Hood that put a horned god behind the legend, scored throughout by Clannad.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Sherlock Holmes (1984)1 sequence

Sherlock Holmes (1984)

1984–1994ITVCrime

Granada's adaptation, played on a Baker Street built outdoors in Manchester and continued until Jeremy Brett could no longer work.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Spitting Image1 sequence

Spitting Image

1984–1996ITVComedy

Latex puppets of everyone in public life, opening on the workshop that built them.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Trap Door1 sequence

The Trap Door

1984–1986ITVAnimation

Plasticine creatures in a castle basement, with a theme built from a voice going "don't you open that trap door".

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Thomas & Friends1 sequence

Thomas & Friends

1984–2021ITVAnimation

Model locomotives shot a frame at a time on a table in Britain, narrated for the first two series by Ringo Starr.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends1 sequence

Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

1984–2021ITVAnimation

Model railway engines shot at eye level and narrated by Ringo Starr, from the Awdry books.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Dempsey and Makepeace1 sequence

Dempsey and Makepeace

1985–1986ITVCrime

An American detective seconded to London and the aristocrat he is partnered with, who married in real life.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Boon1 sequence

Boon

1986–1995ITVCrime

A retired fireman on a motorcycle, in the ITV drama that ran nine years on the strength of Jim Diamond's theme.

  • Season 5
Still from the opening titles of Catchphrase1 sequence

Catchphrase

1986–ITVDocumentary

Say what you see, and a golden robot called Mr Chips who was the reason anyone watched.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Knightmare1 sequence

Knightmare

1987–1994ITVSci-Fi

A blindfolded child walked through a bluescreen dungeon by teammates who can see it — the first television format built on a video game's logic.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Ruth Rendell Mysteries1 sequence

The Ruth Rendell Mysteries

1987–2000ITVCrime

Rendell adapted for thirteen years, mostly as Wexford and occasionally as the standalone novels.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Hale and Pace1 sequence

Hale and Pace

1988–1998ITVComedy

Two former schoolteachers doing sketch comedy for ITV for a decade.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of This Morning1 sequence

This Morning

1988–ITVDocumentary

Daytime television broadcast from the Albert Dock, with a weather map floated in the water outside.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Agatha Christie's Poirot1 sequence

Agatha Christie's Poirot

1989–2013ITVCrime

Art Deco geometry and Christopher Gunning's theme — a title sequence that establishes the period, the register and the fastidiousness of the detective in one gesture.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Birds of a Feather2 sequences

Birds of a Feather

1989–2020BBC One / ITVComedy

Two sisters in Chigwell whose husbands are both in prison.

  • Season 1
  • Season 10
Still from the opening titles of Press Gang1 sequence

Press Gang

1989–1993ITVDrama

A school newspaper written by Steven Moffat, which is why the dialogue is faster than the format.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of TUGS1 sequence

TUGS

1989ITVAnimation

Model tugboats in a 1920s harbour, made by the Thomas the Tank Engine team and considerably darker.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Art Attack1 sequence

Art Attack

1990–2007ITVDocumentary

Neil Buchanan making things out of household rubbish, and the big art laid out on the floor at the end.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Jeeves and Wooster1 sequence

Jeeves and Wooster

1990–1993ITVComedy

Wodehouse played by Fry and Laurie, who had spent the previous decade writing sketches together.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Mr. Bean1 sequence

Mr. Bean

1990–1995ITVComedy

A man dropped from the sky in a spotlight while a choir sings about him in Latin, every week, for a character who never explains himself.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Rosie and Jim1 sequence

Rosie and Jim

1990–2000ITVComedy

Two rag dolls on a narrowboat who come alive when the adult is not looking.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Upper Hand1 sequence

The Upper Hand

1990–1996ITVComedy

Who's the Boss? remade for ITV, and one of the few American formats that worked coming the other way.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Prime Suspect1 sequence

Prime Suspect

1991–2006ITVCrime

Stephen Warbeck's theme over London at night — spare, cold, and entirely without the reassurance the genre usually offers.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Soldier Soldier1 sequence

Soldier Soldier

1991–1997ITVDrama

A fictional infantry regiment and the families attached to it, which made two of its cast into pop stars.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Darling Buds of May1 sequence

The Darling Buds of May

1991–1993ITVComedy

H. E. Bates's Kent farming family, and the series that made Catherine Zeta-Jones a household name inside a fortnight.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of A Touch of Frost1 sequence

A Touch of Frost

1992–2010ITVCrime

David Jason as a Denton detective who is right and insubordinate in roughly equal measure.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Gladiators1 sequence

Gladiators

1992–2000ITVDocumentary

Contenders ready, gladiators ready — a Saturday-night format built entirely out of its own catchphrases.

  • Seasons 1–8
Still from the opening titles of Heartbeat1 sequence

Heartbeat

1992–2010ITVDrama

A Yorkshire village policeman in the 1960s, opened by the Buddy Holly song the series is named for.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Men Behaving Badly1 sequence

Men Behaving Badly

1992–1998ITV / BBC OneComedy

Two flatmates and the phrase the British press attached to a decade.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Cracker1 sequence

Cracker

1993–2006ITVCrime

Nineteen seconds, and no attempt to make its criminal psychologist look like someone you would want to meet.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Sharpe1 sequence

Sharpe

1993–2008ITVDrama

A rifleman commissioned out of the ranks in the Peninsular War, filmed for its first runs in Crimea.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Sooty & Co1 sequence

Sooty & Co

1993–1998ITVComedy

The Sooty puppets moved to a shop, in the ITV series Matthew Corbett handed over at the end of.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Tots TV1 sequence

Tots TV

1993–1998ITVComedy

Three rag dolls with a bag, one of whom only speaks French, from the studio that went on to make Teletubbies.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Wycliffe1 sequence

Wycliffe

1993–1998ITVCrime

A detective superintendent working Cornwall, filmed largely on the coast it is set on.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Kipper1 sequence

Kipper

1997–2000ITVAnimation

Mick Inkpen's dog animated at the pace of the picture books, which is to say slowly and on purpose.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Midsomer Murders1 sequence

Midsomer Murders

1997–ITVCrime

A theremin over English villages — the single most incongruous pairing of instrument and setting in television, and the reason the show is recognisable in four notes.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Where the Heart Is1 sequence

Where the Heart Is

1997–2006ITVDrama

District nurses in a Yorkshire town, which ran nine years on almost no incident.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Hornblower1 sequence

Hornblower

1998–2003ITVDrama

Forester's naval officer, made not as a series but as eight television films spread over five years.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Worst Witch1 sequence

The Worst Witch

1998–2001ITVSci-Fi

Jill Murphy's boarding school for witches, filmed a year before the first Harry Potter book was published in America.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?1 sequence

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

1998–ITVDocumentary

Keith and Matthew Strachan's music, which unusually runs continuously under the questions rather than only over the titles — one of the few game shows scored like a thriller.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Bad Girls1 sequence

Bad Girls

1999–2006ITVDrama

A women's prison wing written by two of Prisoner Cell Block H's admirers, and ITV's answer to it.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Big Brother (UK)2 sequences

Big Brother (UK)

2000–Channel 4 / ITVDocumentary

The eye, and a theme built out of the sound of the house — the format that made surveillance into a light entertainment brand.

  • Season 1
  • Season 8
Still from the opening titles of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!1 sequence

I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!

2002–ITVDocumentary

Celebrities in an Australian jungle, and one of the few formats whose titles are remade from scratch every series.

  • Season 24
Still from the opening titles of Mr. Bean: The Animated Series1 sequence

Mr. Bean: The Animated Series

2002–2019ITVAnimation

The character animated, which suits him — he barely spoke in live action either.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Rosemary & Thyme1 sequence

Rosemary & Thyme

2003–2007ITVCrime

Two gardeners who keep finding bodies in the borders they have been hired to replant.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Agatha Christie's Marple1 sequence

Agatha Christie's Marple

2004–2013ITVCrime

The ITV Marple, which adapted novels Miss Marple was never in by writing her into them.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Doc Martin1 sequence

Doc Martin

2004–2022ITVComedy

A London surgeon with a blood phobia relocated to a Cornish village that will not leave him alone.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The X Factor1 sequence

The X Factor

2004–2018ITVDocumentary

Simon Cowell's format after Pop Idol, opening on a spotlight sweep and a fanfare rebuilt every few series.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Dancing on Ice1 sequence

Dancing on Ice

2006–ITVDocumentary

Celebrities skating in pairs, judged by Torvill and Dean, who had won the thing for real.

  • Season 7
Still from the opening titles of Benidorm1 sequence

Benidorm

2007–2018ITVComedy

An all-inclusive Spanish resort and the same British families returning to it for ten series.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Britain's Got Talent1 sequence

Britain's Got Talent

2007–ITVDocumentary

The variety format that exported itself to seventy countries, and the theme it kept for its first four series.

  • Seasons 1–4
Still from the opening titles of Primeval1 sequence

Primeval

2007–2011ITVSci-Fi

Anomalies in time opening across England and letting prehistory through, in ITV's answer to the revived Doctor Who.

  • Season 3
Still from the opening titles of Law & Order: UK1 sequence

Law & Order: UK

2009–2014ITVCrime

American scripts reshot in London with the two-part structure intact, and the chung-chung kept.

  • Season 6
Still from the opening titles of Whitechapel1 sequence

Whitechapel

2009–2013ITVCrime

Modern police work in the streets the Ripper murders happened in, with each series restaging an old case.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Downton Abbey1 sequence

Downton Abbey

2010–2015ITVDrama

A dog's back, a bell board and a house — thirty-one seconds establishing an entire social order without showing a single face.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Penn & Teller: Fool Us1 sequence

Penn & Teller: Fool Us

2011–ITV / The CWDocumentary

Magicians performing one trick each for two men who will say afterwards whether they worked out how it was done.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Vera1 sequence

Vera

2011–ITVCrime

Northumberland coast and moorland in twenty seconds, with no detective visible in any of it.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Endeavour1 sequence

Endeavour

2012–2023ITVCrime

The Morse prequel, which quotes Pheloung's Morse-code motif in its own theme without repeating it.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of The Bletchley Circle1 sequence

The Bletchley Circle

2012–2014ITVCrime

Four women who broke codes during the war, using the same habits on a murder afterwards.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Broadchurch1 sequence

Broadchurch

2013–2017ITVCrime

Dorset cliffs and a beach, filmed as beautifully as a tourist board would want and used for the opposite purpose.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Mr Selfridge1 sequence

Mr Selfridge

2013–2016ITVDrama

The American who opened a department store on Oxford Street and spent everything keeping it.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Vicious1 sequence

Vicious

2013–2016ITVComedy

Two actors who have lived together for fifty years, insulting each other in front of a studio audience.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Unforgotten1 sequence

Unforgotten

2015–ITVCrime

Two detectives working cold cases old enough that the suspects have built whole lives since.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Jericho (2016)1 sequence

Jericho (2016)

2016ITVDrama

A shanty town thrown up under a Victorian railway viaduct in Yorkshire, and ITV's attempt at a British western.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Victoria1 sequence

Victoria

2016–2019ITVDrama

The young queen's first years, opened by a jewelled monogram assembling itself.

  • Season 1
Still from the opening titles of Too Close1 sequence

Too Close

2021ITVDrama

A forensic psychiatrist and the patient who will not stay on her side of the table.

  • Season 1