Fritz Spiegl Fritz Spiegl died suddenly during a Sunday lunch in Liverpool with his wife, Ingrid Frances Spiegl, and some friends. As a composer, Spiegl scored a popular success with the original theme from the TV series "Z-Cars", based on "Johnny Todd", a Liverpool sea shanty. He also composed the original theme for the "Z Cars" spin-off series "Softly, Softly"; the song was also released as a single on Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate record label in 1966. His BBC Radio 4 "UK Theme", in which national songs from each of the four constituent countries of the United Kingdom are combined, was heard
The Midnight Special (TV series) when singer Helen Reddy served as the regular host. Wolfman Jack served as the announcer and frequent guest host. The program's theme song, a traditional folk song called "Midnight Special", was performed by Johnny Rivers. "The Midnight Special" was noted for featuring musical acts performing live, which was unusual since most television appearances during the era showed performers lip-synching to prerecorded music. The series also occasionally aired vintage footage of older acts, such as Bill Haley & His Comets. As the program neared the end of its run in the early 1980s, it began to frequently use lip-synched performances rather