The BBC Radio 4 UK Theme is an orchestral arrangement of traditional British and Irish airs compiled by Fritz Spiegl and arranged by Manfred Arlan. It was played every morning on BBC Radio 4 between 23 November 1978 and 23 April 2006. The piece was used as the signature theme to introduce the daily beginning of Radio 4's broadcasting following the early morning handover from the BBC World Service. The theme was immediately followed by the Shipping Forecast. In 2006, the decision by Mark Damazer (Controller of Radio 4 at the time) to drop the Radio 4 UK Theme to make way for a "pacy news briefing" caused much controversy in the United Kingdom, including extensive discussion in the British media and even in Parliament. Austrian-born Spiegl moved to the UK as a refugee in 1939, after his parents fled Nazi persecution of Jews after the Anschluss. He had contributed several pieces of music to the BBC, including a theme for Radio 4 based on a children's skipping rhyme introduced in 1973 (called A Skipping Tune), which was replaced by the Radio 4 UK Theme. Context and usage The UK Theme was created in 1978 at the suggestion of Ian McIntyre, the then-new controller of Radio 4. (BBC press releases, when it was cut, wrongly stated 1973.) McIntyre commissioned Fritz Spiegl to produce an arrangement of traditional British and Irish melodies to signify Radio 4 as a service which, from its move from medium wave to 1500 metres/200 kiloHertz long wave on 23 November 1978, would for the first time broadcast a unified service to the whole United Kingdom. Radio 4 had inherited regional opt-outs from the BBC Home Service in 1967, when the "Home", the "Light" and the "Third" were rebranded as Radio 4, Radio 2 and Radio 3 to make way for the then-new BBC Radio 1. The piece was recorded in 1978 by the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra. The original recording was 5 minutes, 45 seconds and did not include 'Greensleeves/Drunken Sailor', having instead a longer and slower 'Londonderry Air/Annie Laurie' section, with the two pieces played separately before being combined. By 1990, the more familiar five-minute arrangement was in use, lasting until 2006. The time at which the piece was played varied according to the time Radio 4 began broadcasting, which has become gradually earlier in the morning over the years. Initially it was played at