Grandstand
1958–2007BBC OneDocumentary
Five hours of live sport on a Saturday afternoon, held together by a man at a desk and the teleprinter behind him.
Grandstand rebuilt its titles: two distinct opening sequences are catalogued here across seasons 23 and 33, running between 49 and 98 seconds.
At 98 seconds at its longest, it opens well above the 37-second median for documentary sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on BBC One in 1958, when This Is Your Life, The Sooty Show and Captain Pugwash were also on the network.
Only 139 of the 2,618 shows catalogued here changed their titles at all; Grandstand did so once.
All 2 opening title sequences
Season 23
98sFan upload of the 1980 titles; counting a season per year from the 1958 launch, that is the twenty-third.
Season 33
49sFan upload of the 1990 titles; counting a season per year from the 1958 launch, that is the thirty-third.
More documentary opening titles from the 1950s
2 sequences
Blue Peter
The world's longest-running children's programme, opening on a ship in full sail and a hornpipe.
- Season 45
- Season 64
1 sequence
The Lawrence Welk Show
Champagne music, bubbles in the titles, and thirty-one years of the same band leader counting in.
- Season 1
1 sequenceTo Tell the Truth
Three people claiming to be the same person, and the line that ends it — will the real one please stand up.
- Season 1
1 sequencePanorama
The longest-running current affairs programme in the world, and a theme borrowed from Rachmaninoff.
- Season 30
1 sequenceTruth or Consequences
A radio stunt show that reached television in 1950 and persuaded a New Mexico town to rename itself after it.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Sky at Night
The longest-running programme with the same presenter in television history, opening on Sibelius' At the Castle Gate.
- Season 1