Fans battle to save Radio 4 Theme

The campaigners will protest outside Broadcasting House

Campaigners fighting to save BBC Radio 4's opening UK Theme have launched a CD single of the threatened medley.

The patriotic arrangement, including Rule Britannia and Scotland the Brave, plays at 0530 every day but is due to be replaced by news and weather.

Fans will blast out the tune from a Routemaster bus near the BBC's Broadcasting House in London.

17,000 of them have already signed a petition asking the BBC to rethink its decision to axe the theme.

The Save the Radio 4 Theme group predicts its single will enter the Top 10 based on pre-order sales.

The five-minute composition has opened Radio 4's schedule for the past 33 years.

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Fans include Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, who jokingly threatened to play the theme each night on the programme unless Radio 4 controller Mark Damazer changed his mind.

Two MPs have tabled motions in the House of Commons criticising the BBC's decision.

The move to axe the theme was announced in January.

The CD, which was recorded by the Birmingham Royal Ballet Sinfonia at the request of the campaigners, features a B-side of Sailing By, which introduces the nightly shipping forecast.

Proceeds from the CD sale will go to the Light Music Society and Library, a music collection run by Ernest Tomlinson, who knew the UK Theme's Austrian-born composer, Fritz Speigl.