As far as TV show theme tunes go, Countdown is arguably one of the most memorable after starring on daytime TV for more than 40 years.
But it turns out the theme tune to the innocent Channel 4 quiz show has a less than desirable story behind the creation of its now legendary theme music.
Carol Vorderman first show to fame when she appeared on the hit game show alongside late host Richard Whiteley when it premiered on the airwaves back in 1982.
READ MORE: Countdown fans concerned as Anne Robinson misses vital element on her final episode
And now the Welsh sweetheart has revealed the inspiration behind the music after composer Alan Hawkshaw was caught short with next to no time to write it.
(Image: Channel 4)
Ahead of her appearance on the Celebrity edition of Gogglebox, the blonde bombshell shared a behind-the-scenes clip of her sat beside her close pal Gyles Brandreth while they discussed this history of Countdown.
While the sat on the neon orange sofa watching the latest TV shows that have gripped the nation over the past seven days, Carol shared some inside knowledge after working on the show for 26 years.
She told the television historian: “Alan Hawkshaw who wrote the music [for Countdown] was sitting on his toilet, suddenly remembered – this is the truth – suddenly remembered that he’d forgotten to write the theme to this new quiz show.
“[It was] called something like Countdown and he heard ‘de de, de de, diddly de, splosh’ [and that was the inspiration]. I swear to you on my life.”
(Image: PA)
Gobsmacked at the revelation, the former politician, 74, asked: “He was sitting on the toilet? That’s the origin of the Countdown music? Well now I can remember it – how does it go?”
As the pair sang the now infamous theme tune, Gyles chuckled as he added: “Oh that’s hilarious.”
In the mathematician’s 2018 autobiography, Carol Vorderman: It All Counts, she went into more detail behind the show’s famous theme tune.
(Image: Channel 4)
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The mum-of-two wrote: “Alan had almost said no to one of the most lucrative commissions in TV history,” adding that he eventually decided he “could just about manage to squeeze it in.”
But with his hectic schedule, producers had to call to call to “remind him about the theme tune” just weeks before they were set to film the show.
“With next to no time to write it, he had to come up with something fast. He went to the toilet and started writing the theme tune there and then.
“Years later, he told us that this was how he’d found the inspiration for the cheerful piddly-piddly-ping at the end. It actually came from the tiddly-tiddly-plip as he sat on his enamel throne!”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
