Blue Peter the 50th anniversary) the opening arrangement of the tune was reworked to include elements of "Barnacle Bill" once again. The closing theme for 2008 is the same as opening signature tune. In September 2011, the series returned to using "Barnacle Bill" though with the opening bars and drum roll omitted (along with the "Sailor's Hornpipe") and the traditional closing signature tune not used. 1958–1989: The earliest episodes featured stock footage of a sailing ship under the opening credits. By the late 1960s, Blue Peter's opening sequence featured extracts of that edition's filmed inserts or an event in the studio where
Barnacle Bill (song) Elks Rendezvous Band) recorded a clean version in 1938. In the first Fleischer "Popeye" cartoon, "Popeye the Sailor" (1933), "Barnacle Bill" was used as the recurring theme for the Bluto character. A later Fleischer "Popeye" cartoon, "Beware of Barnacle Bill" (1935), is a mock operetta based around a toned-down version of the song. Although versions differ in their content "Barnacle Bill" is structured as an exchange between Bill and a "fair young maiden." Each verse opens with inquiries by the maiden and continues with Bill's response. This version is credited to Anonymous and appears in "Immortalia" (1927). It is published