Concept and creative process
The highly popular and avidly watched police detective drama 'New Tricks' began life as a pilot in 2003 and ran to 12 seasons of 107 episodes between 2004 and 2012. It attracted huge audiences, averaging regularly between 5.5 and over 9 million viewers and on occasions becoming the most watched programme on TV for the week. The theme song was written by Mike Moran and sung by cast member Dennis Waterman. The title of the show was derived from the proverb "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" and as such deals with the work of UCOS, a fictional Metropolitan Police squad staffed by three retired police officers, tasked with revisiting unsolved and open crimes. The title sequence introduces the main protagonists in a montage edited to the song track, enhanced by the use of animated credits and translucent, graphic shaped vignettes.