| The Rock 'n' Roll Years | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
The Rock 'n' Roll Years was a BBC television programme aired between 1985 and 1994. Each week's half-hour episode featured news and music from a given year, starting with 1956 and ending with 1989. The idea of combining a year's news reports and music was adapted from the 1980 BBC Radio 1 series 25 Years of Rock .
The programme consisted mainly of archive clips of news and current affairs, whose original soundtracks were crossfaded with music hits of the time. Archive music performances also featured, mostly from BBC programmes such as Top of the Pops . Without presenters or voice-overs, the only non-archive additions were explanatory subtitles.
For instance, the programme on 1960 featured the Sharpeville massacre, the Soviets shooting down two US spy planes, the advent of stiletto heels and the election of John F. Kennedy to the White House, set to music by Adam Faith, Duane Eddy and the Rebels, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, The Everly Brothers and Roy Orbison. [1]
The first three series were first aired over July and August in consecutive years: the first in 1985 covered the years 1956–63; the second in 1986 covered 1964–71, and the third in 1987 covered 1972–80. The fourth series, aired in March and April 1994, covered 1981–89.
The theme tune to the early series was a medley of riffs from various popular songs, including for example "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones and "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos. For the fourth series, a similar medley was created using extracts from 1980s hits such as "Like a Virgin" by Madonna, "Radio Ga Ga" by Queen, "Every Breath You Take" by the Police, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid and "The Look of Love" by ABC.
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "1966" | 3 May 1984 |
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | "1956" | 7 July 1985 |
| 3 | 2 | "1957" | 14 July 1985 |
| 4 | 3 | "1958" | 21 July 1985 |
| 5 | 4 | "1959" | 28 July 1985 |
| 6 | 5 | "1960" | 4 August 1985 |
| 7 | 6 | "1961" | 11 August 1985 |
| 8 | 7 | "1962" | 18 August 1985 |
| 9 | 8 | "1963" | 25 August 1985 |
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 1 | "1964" | 30 June 1986 |
| 11 | 2 | "1965" | 7 July 1986 |
| 12 | 3 | "1966" | 14 July 1986 |
| 13 | 4 | "1967" | 21 July 1986 |
| 14 | 5 | "1968" | 28 July 1986 |
| 15 | 6 | "1969" | 4 August 1986 |
| 16 | 7 | "1970" | 11 August 1986 |
| 17 | 8 | "1971" | 18 August 1986 |
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | 1 | "1972" | 29 June 1987 |
| 19 | 2 | "1973" | 6 July 1987 |
| 20 | 3 | "1974" | 20 July 1987 |
| 21 | 4 | "1975" | 27 July 1987 |
| 22 | 5 | "1976" | 3 August 1987 |
| 23 | 6 | "1977" | 10 August 1987 |
| 24 | 7 | "1978" | 17 August 1987 |
| 25 | 8 | "1979" | 24 August 1987 |
| 26 | 9 | "1980" | 31 August 1987 |
| No. overall | No. in series | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | 1 | "1981" | 2 March 1994 |
| 28 | 2 | "1982" | 9 March 1994 |
| 29 | 3 | "1983" | 16 March 1994 |
| 30 | 4 | "1984" | 23 March 1994 |
| 31 | 5 | "1985" | 30 March 1994 |
| 32 | 6 | "1986" | 6 April 1994 |
| 33 | 7 | "1987" | 13 April 1994 |
| 34 | 8 | "1988" | 20 April 1994 |
| 35 | 9 | "1989" | 27 April 1994 |
Other programmes with similar formats are:
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