Ballykissangel
An English priest posted to a village in Wicklow, and the BBC's most watched Sunday drama of the late nineties.
Ballykissangel rebuilt its titles: two distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 1 and 6, running between 35 and 41 seconds.
It arrived on BBC One in 1996, when A Question of Sport, Grandstand and This Is Your Life were also on the network.
Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; Ballykissangel did so once.
All 2 opening title sequences
Season 1
41sThe first series' titles, from a channel that posts each series separately.
Season 6
35sThe sixth series', six seconds shorter than the first.
More drama opening titles from the 1990s
1 sequence
The Sopranos
Ninety seconds of a man driving home from the Lincoln Tunnel to North Caldwell. No cast montage, no highlights — just the commute, which turns out to be the whole show.
- Seasons 1–6
2 sequences
Twin Peaks
A bird, a sawmill blade and a waterfall, over Angelo Badalamenti at a tempo no network would approve today — ninety seconds of a town being described before anyone in it speaks.
- Seasons 1–2
- Season 3
2 sequences
ER
James Newton Howard's theme over sliding doors, gurneys and light — the template every medical drama since has either copied or deliberately avoided.
- Season 1
- Season 10
1 sequence
Dawson's Creek
Paula Cole over a Massachusetts creek — a theme so tied to the show that its absence from the streaming release became a story in itself.
- Season 1
2 sequences
The West Wing
Oil portraits, flags and W.G. Snuffy Walden's brass — an opening that treats the executive branch as a cathedral, which is the show's entire register.
- Season 1
- Season 5
1 sequence
Beverly Hills, 90210
Freeze-frames of a cast grinning at the camera over a synth-brass hook — the template every teen drama of the decade copied.
- Season 1