Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased) - Edwin Astley

[1969]

The brilliant theme tune by Edwin Astley. So 60s, so soundtracky, so damp, so English, so good with its moody harpsichord, deluxe sinister horn and string arrangement and downtempo beats. 

Unlike his contemporaries like John Barry, Edwin Astley (Virginia's dad) was quite under-documented for a top notch 50s & 60s British tv composer until 2008 when Network started issuing a series of soundtrack cd compilations. Still a lot of his film work has never seen light of day.

The original British opening credits to this unique occult detective fiction series ie. a show about the antics of a private eye and his ghost-y partner and his lovely widow. Hopkirk being a ghost gives the show a similar madcap quality to shows like I Dream Of Jeanie and Bewitched. The supernatural element lends itself to delicious comic situations.

The American opening credits. 

Here's My Late Lamented Friend And Partner the first episode of Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased) from September 1969. It's a good fun show with great cars, vintage interiors, classic furniture and choice locations. I love the bit where they obviously had no budget to be smashing up cool expensive cars so they just parked an un-dinted car up to a pole and opened the bonnet to depict it had crashed. Can you imagine getting empty London streets to film in these days. The time capsule of a London that's never coming back... 

Imprint recently reissued a box set of the entire series on blu-ray.