Blackadder

The medieval original, and the odd one out: shot on location, scored for lute and recorder, and played completely straight over illuminated-manuscript lettering.

Elizabethan, and the point at which the show found its shape. The theme is rearranged for harpsichord and viol, and the credits move indoors to portrait miniatures.

Regency. The same melody again on fortepiano and strings, over engravings — a century on and a class down, with Blackadder now the servant.

The trenches, as a military march on snare and brass. The joke of the arrangement stops being a joke here, which is the whole of what the final series does.