University Challenge Theme Tunes - 1962-2022 (UK, NZ & Australia)

Here's your starter for ten - fingers on buzzers and no conferring....
Q. Where and when did University Challenge begin?
The answer is that it began in Manchester in September 1962 when Granada TV produced the first series. It was broadcast throughout Britain on the ITV network.
Over sixty years (and fifty series) later and with only three quizmasters in all that time (in the UK at least) the programme is still in rude health.
Bamber Gascoigne was the host for the first quarter of a century. The show took a break in 1987 only for it to be revived in 1994 by the BBC with Jeremy Paxman at the helm. And yes, Paxo hosted University Challenge for longer than Bamber! Amol Rajan then took over the helm in Autumn 2023 - Amol has apparently been a huge fan of UC for many years.
Surprisingly the show's origins are not British, but American. University Challenge is based on College Quiz Bowl - a radio series on NBC first broadcast in 1953 which moved to TV on CBS as College Bowl in 1959. Cecil Bernstein saw the show in the States and recommended it to his brother Sidney Bernstein who was Granada TV's founder. Granada (now ITV Studios) still makes the show in Manchester for the Beeb.
But who remembers the first University Challenge theme tune? No it isn't the 'Boooiiing, Ding, Ding, Ding, Dong' one that we all remember!
The 1962/3 series theme tune was called Ting A Ling, but by series 2 in 1963 it was replaced by the tune we all know and love which is called College Boy. The newer string quartet version of College Boy was used from around the second series made for the BBC in 1995.
Both New Zealand (initially) and Australia used College Boy as the theme tune for their versions of University Challenge, though the Australian theme tune sounds like it was played on a primitive Bontempi keyboard!
University Challenge has been wonderfully parodied over the years, most notably by The Young Ones.
However in 1975 a group of lefty students from The University of Manchester decided to sabotage the show's elitist image by answering all of the questions with the names of famous communists - scoring zero in the process. ITV sensibly broadcast the show, making the would-be revolutionaries look like a bunch of complete numpties.
Here then is a selection of theme tune intros for University Challenge shown in the following order:
1962 - (UK) One intro of the first series with the original Ting A Ling theme tune
1963 - 1980 - (UK) Three intros with the classic College Boy theme tune
1980s (New Zealand) One intro with the classic College Boy theme tune
1980s (Australia) One intro with a derivative College Boy theme tune
1980s (New Zealand) One intro with an alternative them tune tune
1990s- 2020s (UK) String quartet version of College Boy
And to round everything off we finish with the full version of the classic College Boy theme tune.

In memory of the incomparable TV quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne CBE FRSL, the original presenter of University Challenge - born 24th January 1935, died 8th February 2022.