Theme
Hartbeat continued the themes covered by Take Hart but was a deliberate attempt to update the image of its predecessor. A more modern set of opening titles using rudimentary CGI and a synthesised theme tune were introduced. The theme tune was composed by David Owen Smith.
Several young female co-presenters were added initially alternating between Margot Wilson, Joanna Kirk, Gabrielle Bradshaw and Liza Brown. The studio backdrops were also changed to reflect the new direction of the series. In another attempt to move away from the format of Take Hart a "storyline" was also featured in each episode to keep casual viewers interested, generally revolving around a topic – e.g. a broken computer, Tony's birthday or something similar. Some fans of Take Hart felt that the inclusion of storylines was upstaging the premise of the show.
The "Gallery" segment, as featured in both Take Hart and its predecessor Vision On, in which viewers would send in their own artworks, also remained in the series and has continued to be used since 1994 in the BBC Children's programme SMart. In addition, with the advent of computers in schools at this time, Hart would often arrange for professional graphic designers to visit the studio so that they could demonstrate the use of computers in art and craft and show off the latest software made for this purpose.
Colin Bennett continued playing the role of Mr Bennett, the bumbling caretaker from Take Hart, and the end of each episode normally featured a humorous segment where Mr Bennett would distract Tony while in the middle of a task (such as filling up a sink to do the washing up), then after the closing credits Tony would be shown dealing with aftermath caused by Mr Bennett's distraction (such as the sink overflowing and flooding the studio). In the 1989 series Mr Bennett was replaced with the dotty tea lady Elvira Muckett played by Amanda Swift. Elvira could generally be heard calling "Te-ea!" and would "annoyingly" refer to Tony and the co-presenter of the day as "Mr and Mrs Hartbeat". Her first appearance featured her humming the original Take Hart theme "Left Bank Two" in an attempt to appeal to longer-term viewers.
Eventually Elvira was replaced by an accident-prone cleaning-lady named Alison in 1992 in an attempt to bring back the "comedy" element left by Mr Bennett's departure.
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Famous quotes containing the word theme:
“It seems to me that upbringings have themes. The parents set the theme, either explicitly or implicitly, and the children pick it up, sometimes accurately and sometimes not so accurately.... The theme may be “Our family has a distinguished heritage that you must live up to” or “No matter what happens, we are fortunate to be together in this lovely corner of the earth” or “We have worked hard so that you can have the opportunities we didn’t have.””
—Calvin Trillin (20th century)
“... passion for survival is the great theme of women’s poetry.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“Children became an obsessive theme in Victorian culture at the same time that they were being exploited as never before. As the horrors of life multiplied for some children, the image of childhood was increasingly exalted. Children became the last symbols of purity in a world which was seen as increasingly ugly.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)