Patrick Moore in the 1950s; Moore argued against Lord Dowding and other UFO proponents. He was invited to present a live astronomy programme and said the greatest difficulty was finding an appropriate theme tune; the opening of Jean Sibelius's "Pelléas et Mélisande" was chosen and used throughout the programme's existence. The programme was originally named "Star Map" before "The Sky at Night" was chosen in the "Radio Times". On 24 April 1957, at 10:30 pm, Moore presented the first episode about the Comet Arend–Roland. The programme was pitched to casual viewers up to professional astronomers, in a format which remained consistent from
Trapped in the Sky 7:00 p.m. on 30 September 1965. An alternative, two-part format debuted on 20 October for the episode's Granada Television première. The episode was networked nationwide for the first time on 20 September 1991, after BBC Two acquired the broadcast rights to the series; it achieved ratings of 6.8 million viewers when it was repeated by the channel in 1992. On 18 December 1994, "Trapped in the Sky" was transmitted in a re-edited format as the first episode of "Turbocharged Thunderbirds"; broadcast on UPN in the United States, the programme combined footage drawn from the 1960s series with new, live-action scenes.