BMG, the music company with artists including David Bowie, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger and Iron Maiden, has bought the potentially lucrative rights to more than 1,000 copyrights to theme tunes, background music and music cues in BBC shows.

BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, only looks to sell the music rights to shows once every five or so years when it has built a decent archive of music from more recent shows.

Under the terms of the deal, BMG has acquired the rights to theme tunes from hit BBC programmes including Luther, Mrs Brown’s Boys and Frozen Planet as well as background, or incidental, music from Doctor Who and Wolf Hall.

The amount BMG paid has not been released.