The theme music is taken from Johnny Pearson's "The Awakening", itself part of a longer composition called "20th Century Portrait".
Its set-in-stone airtime meant that movies which started at 9pm had to take a half-hour break at 10, much to the annoyance of schedulers.
When this national institution finally ended, there was an outcry. This included pressure from Members of Parliament and newspaper campaigns, but they had no effect on the schedules.
Its brief headlines in between the hour-chimes of Big Ben were known to the editorial team as "the bongs".
"The Awakening" by John Pearson was the main theme of the 1969 western "Five Bloody Graves".