What's the greatest ever TV sport theme?

Dermot O'Leary has been hosting a World Cup of TV Sports Themes, with the winner announced on his Radio 2 show.

Over the summer, Dermot's been on a quest to crown the ultimate TV sporting theme tune on his weekly Radio 2 Saturday morning show. We've seen challengers such as Grandstand, Sportsnight, Kick Start, Ski Sunday and Wimbledon eliminated along the way. The final saw only two remain.

The grand final took place on Saturday 1 August - listen back to see if your favourite won.

"Both finalists are pieces of music which immediately evoke memories of their sport," Dermot said. "Despite both being successful songs in their own right, from Booker T and Fleetwood Mac, they have come to define their sport, and particularly the 80s and 90s heydays".

The last two contenders standing were BBC Cricket and BBC Formula 1 - two iconic sports themes and classic tracks in their own right. With the winner being crowned, we take a closer look at the stories behind the music...

A theme tune that has conjured up images of cricket for decades.

Soul Limbo was first released by Memphis soul group Booker T. & the M.G.'s back in 1968, the title track of their seventh studio album. The name comes from the limbo, a dance craze which originated in Trinidad and Tobago and swept the world in the 1950s. The M.G.'s were themselves pioneers, one of the first racially integrated bands of the era.

The group's name has never been fully explained, itself the subject of debate over the years. Booker T. himself reckons they were named after a British M.G. sports car spotted parked outside the studio window, though others swear "M.G." stood for "Memphis Group", or even "Musical Geniuses".

While only originally reaching number 30 on the UK singles chart in 1968, the BBC first started using it in the early 1970s to soundtrack its Test Match cricket coverage. The pairing proved so perfect it stuck around for the best part of thirty years. As one writer put it: "the unsurpassed glory of Soul Limbo's theme music was frankly the high point of the coverage". Another writes of it "evoking long summer days in the UK."

After BBC TV cricket coverage ceased in 1999, Soul Limbo's cricketing links didn't fade, instead becoming Test Match Special's opening and closing theme on the radio from 2000. When cricket then returned to BBC screens in 2020, after a 21-year absence, the song was again used in its full glory - a clear nod to the lasting impact that it has had in the nation's sporting psyche.

Fun fact: Listen closely and you'll hear a cowbell on the track - played by a then-unknown Isaac Hayes, just one of the many young Memphis musicians "pulled in off the street" for the sessions at Stax Records. Not a bad way to start a legendary career!

Themes it's beaten so far: Grandstand, Wimbledon, Ski Sunday.

Dermot says: "If you look at BBC Cricket's route to the final, it has seen off some of the real heavyweights - early favourite Grandstand went out in Round 1. Then Wimbledon, in the height of the summer. And then a semi-final against a very popular theme - and ringtone - Ski Sunday."

As soon as that looming, gradual bassline kicks in, you know that it's the seminal Fleetwood Mac track. Or if you're of a certain generation, you probably also expect it to be accompanied by the engine roar of Formula 1 cars racing around the circuits across the world, competing for victory.

The Chain was first released in 1977 as the opening track on side two of Fleetwood Mac's hugely popular Rumours album - and it's the only song in the band's entire catalogue credited to all five members of their classic line-up (Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham). It was stitched together, quite literally razor-bladed from tape, out of several unrelated, half-finished songs. Vocalist Buckingham later explained the title by saying: "We ended up calling it The Chain because it was a bunch of pieces."

The BBC first soundtracked racing with The Chain in 1978, using it to soundtrack their Grand Prix coverage. The song's association with Formula 1 soon became iconic. It's still one that manages to conjure emotions too. Journalist Maurice Hamilton heard the song again when revisiting an interview with BBC commentator Murray Walker following Walker's passing in 2021, and wrote: "When Jason [Swales, producer] played the opening bars of Fleetwood Mac's The Chain... I don't mind telling you that I had a lump in my throat."

When the BBC lost live TV rights of Formula 1 to Channel 4 in 2016, The Chain's F1 heritage carried on - the new broadcaster decided to keep it as their own title music. It stayed as the opening theme until 2019, when it was finally retired in favour of Genesis by French electronic duo Justice.

Fun fact: Some might also associate Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain with another BBC programme. The track soundtracks The Chain segment on Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie's 6 Music show - a "never-ending list of records, with every new track somehow connected to the last".

Themes it's beaten so far: London Marathon, Horse of the Year, BBC Snooker.

Dermot says: "F1 seems to have been in the easier side of the draw, but you can never rule out an underdog. So many people have run the London Marathon, so have special memories of that music, so that one could have gone either way".

Here's how the two themes made it to the final, and who they beat along the way...

Round of 16

Grandstand v BBC Cricket
Wimbledon v Sportsnight
BBC Boxing v Kick Start
Ski Sunday v ITV Big Match
Tour De France (C4) v BBC Snooker
BBC Athletics v BBC Golf
ITV World of Sport v Horse of the Year
BBC Formula 1 v London Marathon

Quarter Finals

BBC Cricket v Wimbledon
Kick Start v Ski Sunday
BBC Snooker v BBC Athletics
Horse of the Year v BBC Formula 1

Semi Finals

BBC Cricket v Ski Sunday
BBC Snooker v BBC Formula 1

Final

BBC Cricket v BBC Formula 1 - Listen back to Dermot's show to find out who won!