Speaking in 1965, the year before he died, Spear said he was called at home in Guernsey and invited to Manchester to see test footage of a new working-class drama that Granada was developing and which needed title music. “I was briefed very beautifully on this,” he said. “They wanted something melodic, but not too much so. They wanted something rhythmic, but it mustn’t be jazz. They wanted something exciting, but it mustn’t be too thrilling.”
After lunch, they all stepped outside into a Mancunian street akin to the one the show was based around. It was raining but, remembers Spear, “suddenly the sun broke through the clouds”. The director, now alive to the possibilities, declared he wanted the theme to convey precisely that. That sense of golden hope piercing darkness is there in Spear’s composition: mournful cornet notes sailing over a light shuffle, originally with trumpet, clarinet, muted trombones, drums played with brushes, stand-up bass and acoustic guitar.