PSB songs that have been used in films and "non-musical" TV shows

This list doesn't include:

1. West End Girls

Many occurrences, which isn't surprising considering it's the Boys' biggest hit:

2. In the Night

3. Left to My Own Devices

4. So Hard

Neil once referred to the fact that this song was used in an episode of the popular nineties U.S. nighttime soap Beverly Hills, 90210. It played during a party scene in the first-season episode titled "BYOB," which originally aired on January 10, 1991.

5. Can You Forgive Her?

Portions of this song, relatively new at the time, were heard during the third season (set in San Francisco) of MTV's pioneering reality show The Real World—more specifically in the episode titled "You Gotta Have Art," which first aired on July 21, 1994. And, very interestingly, it wasn't the familiar single/album mix of the song that could be heard on the cafe jukebox on the October 25, 1995 episode of the U.K. soap opera Coronation Street but rather the MK Remix. "Can You Forgive Her?" was also one of two PSB songs (the other being "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing") used in the BBC Two series I Love the 1990s—specifically the "1993 episode" I Love 1993—which first aired on September 8, 2001. With more than a touch of dark humor, CYFH served as the backdrop to a segment on the infamous incident in which Lorena Bobbitt cut off the penis of her husband, John Wayne Bobbitt, as he slept. Much more recently, the Argentine comic telenovela Viudas e hijos del Rock and Roll (Widows and Children of Rock and Roll) used "Can You Forgive Her?" in its January 15, 2015 episode (Chapter 82) in a situation (the female lead discovering her husband holding hands with a male horsekeeper) roughly parallelling the plot of the song itself.

6. Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)

Surpassing "West End Girls" in frequency of use—almost certainly on account of its salient topicality—this song boasts the following occurrences:

7. Single

Reportedly plays during a bar scene—a singles bar, no doubt—focusing on the character Anna in a Series 2 episode of the popular mid-1990s BBC2 TV show This Life, which concerned a group of young solicitors and barristers (aka "lawyers" and "attorneys" in the States) sharing a house in London. I'm not sure of the precise episode or the original air date, but it would have been sometime from March to August 1997.

8. How Can You Expect to Be Taken Seriously?

Plays over the closing credits of the "Fair Enough" episode of the U.S. "teen angst" cartoon Daria. This episode first aired on July 13, 1998.

9. Se A Vida É (That's the Way Life Is)

In what was likely an intentionally ironic act of foreshadowing, this song was playing in the background just before an unforgettable moment in the December 31, 1998 episoode of the popular, long-running U.K. soap opera EastEnders—unforgettable because it involved the sudden, unexpected death of one of the show's most popular characters, Tiffany Mitchell (portrayed by Martine McCutcheon), struck and killed by an automobile outside the Queen Vic Pub. (As testament to its status, EastEnders fans voted this the single episode they most wanted to watch again, resulting in its being reshown on the show's 15th anniversary in February 2000.) Also, the October 23, 2008 episode (titled "How I Got My Posh") of the U.K. comedy/drama series Beautiful People includes a scene set in a hair salon in which this song is playing on the radio. And the January 3, 2015 episode of the BBC1 medical drama Casualty featured the song in a scene set in a café.

10. Too Many People

Again playing over Daria's closing credits, this time the episode titled "Lane Miserables," which was originally broadcast on July 14, 1999. The producers of Daria must have liked the Pet Shop Boys.

11. I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing

Not the Boys' original version but a cover by Robbie Williams, which plays in an episode of Friends ("The One with the Routine") that originally aired on December 16, 1999. It appears during a dance sequence in which Joey pursues his current love interest, Janine. Robbie's version also appears on the Friends Again soundtrack album as well as on his 1998 album Let Me Entertain You. One of my site visitors distinctly remembers, however, the Pet Shop Boys' own single version being used as background music during a go-kart segment that appeared during the 1994 season of MTV's popular The Real World series, set that year in San Francisco. I haven't yet been able to confirm this independently or find the precise date. Also in 1994, on January 7 and again on January 12, "Normally" played on the ol' cafe jukebox on the U.K. soap Coronation Street. IWNDTKOT was also one of two PSB songs (the other being "Can You Forgive Her?" as noted at #5 above) used in the BBC Two series I Love the 1990s—specifically the "1993 episode" I Love 1993—which first aired on September 8, 2001.

12. Shopping

The chorus alone has guaranteed its use on a number of TV shows, most of which have everything to do with the title but nothing to do with what the song is actually about. For one thing, it has proven extremely popular "bumper music" on home shopping shows. No further comment needed about that. These, however, are a little more interesting, if in most cases all too predictable:

13. Break 4 Love

This PSB/Peter Rauhofer collaboration plays a prominent role in the tense, overlapping closing scenes (continuing into the closing credits) of Episode 209 of the U.S. version of Queer As Folk, which first aired on March 10, 2002.

14. Music for Boys

Considering the relative obscurity of the song, this is one of the more surprising PSB tracks to be used on television. It can be heard in "The Beast of Royston Vasey," the fourth episode (first airing on February 1, 1999) of the BBC comedy series The League of Gentlemen, in which it serves as background music during a segment about a school theatre production on the subject of homosexuality. And on April 22, 2007, it could be heard in the episode titled "Tod in der Siedlung" (translated "Death on the Estate" or "Death in the Settlement") of the popular German crime drama Schimanski. The specific scene involves a teenage prostitute who, upon being taken back to her parents' home, runs to her room and immediately turns on loud music—that music being "Music for Boys," though heard only for several seconds.

15. A Different Point of View

This song was used during the fourth episode (originally airing October 8, 1995) of the relatively short-lived U.S. TV drama Central Park West. The following year, in 1996, the Chilean children's television show Sega Acción used it as opening and closing theme music. Two decades later, on August 2, 2016, a brief excerpt of about 30 seconds could be heard in Season 20, Episode 27 of the U.K. show Homes Under the Hammer during a segment concerning "different views" from a house. The same series used the song again in Season 22, Episode 32, first airing on September 6, 2018.

16. Always on My Mind

The Pet Shop Boys' hit version of this song can be heard in these TV shows and films:

17. Suburbia

18. It Always Comes as a Surprise

On January 2, 2007, BBC2 broadcast This Life + 10, a one-off sequel to This Life (described above in this list's entry for "Single"). This song plays in the background during a scene in which the gay character, Warren, is having a lengthy conversation—which soon turns into a political argument—with several of his heterosexual friends. Also, the November 13, 2015 episode of the U.K. morning show Homes Under the Hammer featured it as background music as commentary on a house under consideration that didn't require much work to make it marketable, which apparently makes it "a surprise."

19. One More Chance

The instrumental introduction of this song—looped, I believe, in order to extend its length without running into the vocal—is briefly used in a March 18, 1988 episode of the long-running BBC documentary series Arena that focuses on the work of the American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. (The particular scene in which it's heard deals with the New York gay bar scene of the late 1970s, which introduces a segment about some of Mapplethorpe's most controversial photos, often involving blatantly sado-masochistic and/or fetishistic subject matter.) A little less than a year later, "One More Chance" also served as background music during an illusion performed by the famous magician David Copperfield in his March 3, 1989 U.S. (CBS) television special The Magic of David Copperfield XI: The Explosive Encounter. The popular, long-running Dutch game/stunt show Te land, ter zee en in de lucht (On Land, at Sea, and in the Air) used it from time to time circa 1988 as background music for compilation clips of "stunt failures." And a 2003 U.K. Channel 4 TV documentary titled The 100 Greatest Movie Stars put "One More Chance" to work as background music during its segment on their pick for #62, Robert Downey, Jr. (The rankings were based on the results of a poll of British viewers.) Considering the ups and downs of that particular actor's career, it's an understandable choice.

20. "Comrades!"

Used several times in the fourth episode (titled "Revolution!" and originally broadcast June 12, 2007) of the BBC 2 documentary Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain, most notably during a sequence concerning Margaret Thatcher's fall from power as U.K. Prime Minister. (The site visitor who was kind enough to tell me about this documentary cites the intense irony of the use of this song—the opening track from the PSB score to a film classic associated with Russia's communist revolution—in an program that deals largely with the victory of capitalism over trade unions in Thatcherite Britain.) In addition, "Comrades!" could also be heard in the February 13, 2011 episode of the BBC1 series Countryfile in a segment about foot and mouth disease and its effect on British cattle farmers. (Obviously the ominous mood of this track comes in handy for such things. wink ) Another BBC1 series, Country Tracks, also used "Comrades!" on October 23, 2011, apparently in a bit about Britain's Sandhurst Military Academy.

21. It's a Sin

Quite a few, not surprisingly for such a hugely popular song—though what is surprising is the large gaps between its earlier uses:

22. Being Boring

23. It Couldn't Happen Here

Hurricanes are by no means unheard of in Britain, but they're certainly a rarity. So it's perhaps not surprising that in 1997, when the BBC ran The Great Storm—a tenth-anniversary documentary on what was technically not a hurricane but a hurricane-like system that struck southern England and northern France on October 15-16, 1987, doing massive damage and claiming at least 19 lives—they included this song at one point as background music. Much more closely related to its original intent, however, was how it was used in the two-part BBC documentary Prejudice and Pride: The People's History of LGBTQ Britain, specifically Episode 2, first airing on August 3, 2017.

24. I'm with Stupid

The TV movie Clapham Junction, which first aired on U.K. Channel 4 on July 22, 2007 as one of a series of special programs in its 40 Years Out series (commemorating the fortieth anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexual acts in Britain), includes a disturbing segment that makes use of this song. One of the main characters, portrayed by Paul Nicholls, is picked up by a guy at a London gay club and goes back to his apartment. His host puts on some music and they start talking. The man starts to make a pass at Nicholls's character, who says he that likes the track playing ("I'm with Stupid") and asks him to turn it up. As he does so, Nicholls approaches from behind and strikes him with a glass ashtray. The dazed, bloodied man pleads with Nicholls, asking why he did that, to which Nicholls replies, "'Cause I hate the fucking Pet Shop Boys!" (or words to that effect; I've read differing reports). He then proceeds to beat the guy up, forces the contents of the ashtray down his throat, and urinates on him. Not a pretty scene. Neil and Chris were absolutely livid when they learned that their music had been used in this way—and who can blame them? After they made their intense displeasure clear to the appropriate authorities, both "I'm with Stupid" and the reference to the Pet Shop Boys themselves were deleted from subsequent reruns of the program.

25. Birthday Boy

The August 26, 2007 episode of the ongoing BBC documentary project Child of Our Time, which follows the lives of 25 children from all over the United Kingdom born in the year 2000, included a brief portion of this song.

26. Integral

The same episode of Child of Our Time noted just above for "Birthday Boy" featured this PSB track as well, playing during a segment in which children were asked whether various "cartoon stereotypes" (such as person with green hair, a very slow runner, and so on) should be included or excluded from the group.

27. I Want a Dog

The February 11, 2008 broadcast of the NBC morning news show Today included a bit of the Introspective mix of this song during a report on employers reading their employees' email. (It obviously wasn't chosen for its theme but probably for its sound.) Considering that less than two weeks later the same program used "Opportunities" (see above), it makes you suspect that someone who makes decisions about their on-air music must be a PSB fan. A brief segment of the Introspective version can also be heard during a party scene in the 1995 French film Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud (English: Nelly and Mr. Arnaud). And it figures as well in a scene set in a gay club in the 2023 film All of Us Strangers.

28. I Don't Know What You Want But I Can't Give It Any More

Part of this song plays near the conclusion of the 1999 Italian film comedy Vacanze Di Natale 2000.

29. Flamboyant

An April 2004 episode (exact date unknown) of the BBC show Football Focus apparently played this song during a concluding montage of "flamboyant" goals being scored. The June 9, 2008 episode of the BBC2 show Mary Queen of Shops—a sort of "fashion store makeover" program starring fashionista Mary Portas—also included "Flamboyant." I haven't seen the show myself, but I imagine it was incredibly appropriate. And the "Michael Mayer Kompakt Remix" of the song was used on the soundtrack of the 2008 ski film Turbo.

30. What Have I Done to Deserve This?

31. Somewhere

The Pet Shop Boys' hit rendition of this standard can be heard almost in its entirety in the final episode (titled "How I Got My Globe") of the aforementioned U.K. series Beautiful People, which aired on November 6, 2008. It plays as the two young central characters, Simon and Kylie, are exploring London for the first time. The October 18, 2011 episode of the UK show Shameless ("The Maguire Motto") also used it.

32. London

A brief excerpt from one of the "Felix da Housecat" mixes of this PSB song could be heard in the original version of the documentary-style telefilm about parkour Jump London, which first aired on U.K. television in 2003. The excerpt is so brief, in fact, that if you sneezed a couple times in a row at the wrong moment, you'd probably miss it. So it's perhaps no great loss that it was deleted from the film's DVD release. "London" could also reportedly be heard playing in the background on the radio during a scene in a 2003 episode of the U.K. soap EastEnders.

33. Euroboy

In 2003, the publisher of the U.K. gay soft-porn magazine Euroboy released a direct-to-video film titled Euroboy Tender Young Lust. Like the parent magazine (so to speak), the film was softcore, but adults-only nevertheless. Quite surprisingly—or not, depending on your perspective—this Pet Shop Boys song was used in the film. The video cover even states "Music by Pet Shop Boys," and the Boys are thanked in the credits.

34. The Noise

Although it can be considered a "song" in only the loosest sense, Chris and Neil created this somewhat experimental instrumental piece in 1996 for a short-lived Saturday morning U.K. television music magazine with the same title.

35. Domino Dancing

36. Love etc.

This song quickly proved itself extremely popular for use in TV shows. Examples so far include:

37. New York City Boy

Episode 36 of the popular Colombian show Yo soy Betty, la fea ("I'm Betty, the Ugly One"), a telenovela that ran from 1999 to 2001—and which was subsequently spun off into more than a dozen versions in other languages, such as the U.S. hit Ugly Betty—featured a flamboyantly gay character singing a very brief excerpt (the title line) of this PSB hit. Not being fluent in Spanish, however, I'm not quite sure of the context.

38. Numb

Famously used as the background music for a montage run on a BBC Match of the Day broadcast in early July 2006 dealing with England's elimination from the World Cup competition (soccer to my fellow Americans, but football to much of the rest of the world). Although "Numb" was already under consideration by the Boys and their record company as a potential single, this montage proved so popular that it may well have provided the final nudge, resulting in it becoming the third single from Fundamental. Also, the July 19, 2015 episode of the BBC program Countryfile made use of an instrumental passage of this track (as well as two others, "Breathing Space" and "Invisible," as noted below).

39. Did You See Me Coming?

Served as background music during a "montage-ish" sequence on an early June 2009 episode of the Brazilian "reality show" A Fazenda ("The Farm"). The instrumental mix was also one of several PSB tracks that were used in Autumn 2011 episodes of the U.K. television show Countryfile as background music to display photo submissions for its 2012 calendar competition. And that same instrumental could be heard at one point in the background of the February 24, 2012 episode of the British children's show Incredible Edibles, a program that's apparently devoted to demonstrating to kids just how unusual, bizarre, and/or outright disgusting items that pass for food can be. Of course, that's all a matter of taste, isn't it?

40. Rent

41. You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk

Used in the second episode (titled "Zellers letzter Auftrag," meaning "Zeller's Last Order") of the eighth season of the popular German police drama Siska, which originally aired on March 4, 2005. It's playing in the background on a radio or stereo in a scene in which the title character, Siska, and another police officer visit a computer shop to interrogate a worker there suspected of murder.

42. King of Rome

A telenovela from Brazil, Viver a Vida ("To Live the Life"), makes recurring use of this PSB track as something akin to the "romantic theme music" of one of the couples who are at the heart of the story. One (but not the only) example occurs in Part 4, which first aired on September 23, 2009. I can't help but wonder whether the song's own theme and mood suggests a possible tragic outcome to their story.

43. Liberation

The "Liberation" music video—specially recreated to emphasize its three-dimensional quality—was featured in the 2000 film CyberWorld, a compilation of 3D animation that also includes the famous 1995 "Homer³" segment from The Simpsons, an excerpt from the movie Antz, and various other examples of three-dimensional animated rendering on the computer. By virtue of that same video, a short excerpt of "Liberation" was also used in the TV special The Greatest Ever 3D Moments, which first aired on U.K. Channel 4 on November 21, 2009, and during which the onscreen commentators talked about it briefly.

44. Beautiful People

This song was used in the December 23, 2009 episode of the BBC1 "school drama" Waterloo Road. It played in the background during a scene set in a hallway involving two separate conversations between pairs of teachers. There didn't seem to be any "thematic connection," so to speak, unless it was simply to suggest that these particular teachers are "beautiful." (Or is that they, like the narrator of the song, merely want to be "beautiful"?) Then again, I've always regarded teaching as quite a lovely profession—though as a former teacher I may be a bit biased. wink Also, the instrumental mix was also one of various PSB tracks used in Autumn 2011 episodes of the U.K. TV show Countryfile as background music while showing photo submissions for its 2012 calendar competition.

45. Absolutely Fabulous

Maybe it doesn't really count, but a modified version of the Pet Shop Boys' "Absolutely Fabulous" video was featured in an "Ab Fab" TV special titled Absolutely Fabulous Moments, which was originally broadcast on July 24, 1994. (I'm not sure on which network it first ran, although I believe it has been shown on both BBC America and Comedy Central.) If, however, you don't wish to count that, then several other more recent television occurrences surely do qualify. In the U.K. Channel 4 documentary Growing Up Gay, first broadcast in 2002, it could be heard briefly playing in "real life" during an interview segment a little more than three minutes into the program. "Absolutely Fabulous" also featured in the July 27, 2003 episode of Futurama, which was aptly titled "Obsolutely Fabulous," thereby making it very close to the "title song." Both the February 22, 2009 episode of the U.K. cooking competition show Celebrity Come Dine with Me and the premier episode of the seventh series/season of the U.K. edition of Celebrity Big Brother, which aired on January 3, 2010, used "Absolutely Fabulous" for background music at certain points. Later in 2010 (on August 29), BBC4 first broadcast the documentary Blackpool on Film, in which the ''Rollo Our Tribe Tongue-in-Cheek Remix'' of "Absolutely Fabulous" could be heard during a sequence that focused on the famed "Blackpool Illuminations"—which are, after all, pretty fabulous. The April 29, 2013 edition (Series 17, Episode 14) of the BBC program Homes Under the Hammer also briefly employed a remix of this track. The November 22, 2018 episode of the U.K. news show Good Morning Britain played "Absolutely Fabulous" in the background during a clip of actor John Barrowman's exploits as an ongoing contestant on the TV show I'm a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! on which his repeated use of the exclamation "Fabulous!" has become something of a catchphrase. And a special edition of the U.K. The Apprentice, subtitled Best Bits: Celebrity Specials, first airing on October 8, 2020, briefly featured the track during a segment in which Trinny Woodall tells Cheryl Cole to exercise in order to fend off exhaustion.

46. A Red Letter Day

On December 27, 1998, the fifth season of the U.K. TV series The Car's the Star featured the song twice—first, near the beginning of the program, playing the instrumental "marching" section before the Russian choir joins in, and then later a lengthier segment that includes some of Neil's singing—in an episode focusing (appropriately enough) on the Russian automobile manufacturer Lada. More than a decade later, the three-part BBC4 documentary titled Crude Britannia: The Story of North Sea Oil ( the title pretty much says what it's all about) uses "A Red Letter Day" during a sequence in its third episode (which first aired on July 2, 2009) concerning the Labour Party regaining power in 1997 and the widespread optimism that followed in its wake. Also, each episode of the three-part 2003 BBC documentary series Headhunting the Homeless, concerning the plight of the U.K.'s homeless population, opened and closed with segments of one of the brilliant Trouser Enthusiasts remixes of this song—probably the Congo Dongo Dubstramental, but possibly the very similar Autoerotic Decapitation Mix.

47. Go West

48. It Doesn't Often Snow at Christmas

It took more than a decade of Christmases for PSB's 1997 stab at a holiday standard to make it onto a non-musical TV show. But it could finally be heard on a December 10, 2010 episode of the perennial U.K. sudser EastEnders. It can be heard playing in the background on the jukebox in a pub scene in which two characters have a decidedly non-Christmasy conversation. One of my site visitors has astutely suggested that the song serves "to amplify and echo the lack of Christmas spirit in this scene." Almost exactly a year later—on December 8, 2011, to be precise—EastEnders once again used the song in another pub scene. Roughly a decade later, on December 20, 2021, it could be heard again on EastEnders playing on the kitchen radio for a little over a minute as characters looked at old family photos and then knocked over the Christmas tree. And EastEnders featured it yet again on the December 27, 2022 and December 6, 2023 episodes. The show's producers are clearly quite fond of it. One of my site visitors also recalls it being played some years ago during a scene of the German soap opera Unter uns ("Between Us") in which characters are decorating their home for the Christmas season, but he doesn't recall precisely when, and we haven't been able to figure it out.

49. This Used to Be the Future

On April 11, 2011, BBC4 aired a TV documentary titled The Great Estate: The Rise and Fall of the Council House, concerning the era of state housing for the U.K. working classes. This program used in its title sequence an instrumental loop taken from this PSB song and a brief segment of Neil's vocal. It was surely chosen for the lyrics' expression of frustrated utopian idealism, which meshed quite nicely with the theme of the documentary. This song was also used at the very end (continuing over the closing credits) of the final episode (February 27, 2014) of the three-part BBC Four architectural documentary The Brits Who Built the Modern World.

50. Where the Streets Have No Name (I Can't Take My Eyes Off You)

The PSB cover version could be heard in the background during a scene in the August 18, 2011 episode of Coronation Street, the U.K.'s longest-running soap opera. It's also used during the closing credits of the March 2, 2015 edition of the Irish sitcom Moone Boy; in fact, it's essentially the title song of the episode, which is dubbed "Where the Streets Do Have Names" (my emphasis). And it was also one of several PSB songs that could be heard on the December 20, 2023 episode of the BBC series What We Were Watching, in this case during excerpts from the Boys' classic Performance concert.

51. A Man Could Get Arrested

Used as the background music for a segment on swearing at policemen on the November 24, 2011 episode of the popular BBC political news show This Week. (Apparently it's no longer an arrestable offence in the U.K. to swear at a policeman.) Incidentally, the host of This Week is journalist Andrew Neil, who happened to choose "Being Boring" as one of his Desert Island Discs when he appeared on that program several years ago.

52. Was That What It Was?

This track was used in the second episode of the 1987 U.K. TV miniseries The Beiderbecke Tapes, playing well in the background for about two full minutes as dance music in a bar as two characters have a rather tense conversation. Then it quite abruptly and curiously changes mid-song to "I'm Your Man" by Wham!

53. Heart

54. Nothing Has Been Proved

Dusty Springfield's hit version of this Tennant-Lowe song—which was composed for and could be heard over the end credits of the 1989 film Scandal—was reportedly also used in early 2002 during a second-series episode of the U.K. sketch comedy Big Train. I haven't yet been able to determine the precise date of its initial airing, but it was during a segment parodying Christine Keeler, a key figure in the Profumo Affair, which was of course the subject of the song to begin with. Also, an episode of the U.K. edition of Antiques Roadshow, possibly first airing in 2014 (the date is uncertain at this time), featured someone who brought in some Profumo Affair memorabilia for evaluation, followed by a video montage set to this song (again Dusty's rendition).

55. Do I Have To?

A most surprising song to grace a TV show. It could be heard in the background in a scene set in a posh restaurant in the February 17, 1988 episode of the venerable U.K. soap Coronation Street.

56. Memory of the Future

It's not just twentieth-century PSB songs that have found their way onto Coronation Street. Its March 1, 2013 episode featured this latter-day single (though, interestingly, the album version, not the single mix) playing prominently in the background at the Rover's Return pub for more than two minutes. And another British soap opera, Emmerdale, used the song in its February 17, 2014 episode, playing in the background during a scene in which several characters are discussing HIV—hopefully a coincidence and not some sort of purposeful suggestion of linking PSB with HIV.

57. Breathing Space

The March 17, 2013 episode of the BBC Two show Toughest Place to Be a… dealt with the topic, "Toughest Place to Be a Farmer." The place designated as being the toughest to be a farmer was the Samburu district of north-central Kenya, home of the Samburu, who traditionally earn their living as keepers and herders of dairy cattle. "Breathing Space" was used at one point in this episode: a most appropriate selection if one indeed regards the open country of north-central Kenya as offering lots of breathing space. The instrumental version of the song could also be heard on the August 4, 2013 edition of the BBC One program Countryfile, focusing on the scenic Wye Valley bordering England and Wales; again, an apt choice of music. Countryfile used it again—along with two other PSB instrumental segments ("Invisible" and "Numb")—in its July 19, 2015 episode, this time dealing with Northumberland.

58. Invisible

The Brazilian telenovela Flor do Caribe ("Flower of the Caribbean") featured this song on its March 20, 2013 episode as background music during scenes set on tropical beaches. (It was probably chosen more for its sound than its meaning.) And as noted just above, the BBC show Countryfile used a portion of the instrumental version on its July 19, 2015 edition; in fact, the May 2, 2021 episode of Countryfile used a brief instrumental segment as well.

59. Pandemonium

Since at least early May 2013, the Israeli television show Keshet's Morning has used this PSB song as its opening theme music. (The show was later renamed Friday Morning with Galit and Yoav when it went to just one day a week, but it still continued to use "Pandemonium.") And the August 23, 2020 episode of the German TV show Der Trödeltrupp (The Junk Troop), in which people try to convert their household junk into cash, briefly used an instrumental segment as background music.

60. Electricity

Played briefly in the background during a segment about electricity and the U.K. electric power industry on the March 25, 2013 episode of the BBC One daily newsmagazine The One Show. I suppose the fact that the song really doesn't have anything to do with electricity in that sense didn't bother the producers. By the same token, the November 6, 2014 edition of the U.K. consumer rights program Watchdog featured a segment on an electrician allegedly doing substandard work, during which several songs with an "electrical" theme could be heard faintly in the background, PSB's "Electricity" among them.

61. Transparent

This track could be heard playing in the background during a report on the July 11, 2013 edition of the BBC 2 news show Newsnight about the Caucasus-region nation of Georgia moving from corruption toward greater "transparency."

62. Bolshy

In one of the quickest-ever uses of a PSB song on "non-musical" television, an instrumental portion of this Electric track could be heard on the July 29, 2013 episode of the U.K. version of Big Brother, just two weeks after the album's release.

63. Axis

Not quite as quick (considering that it actually debuted online more than two months ahead of Electric), "Axis" was employed as background music during a July 25, 2013 BBC2 special covering the RHS Tatton Show—a large horticultural exhibition with show gardens. It could also be heard in the background during a report on the U.K. health service on the November 12, 2013 edition of BBC2's Newsnight. And it was used during an episode of the BBC show Gardener's World on March 25, 2016. (That makes two out of three uses in relation to gardening—intriguing.)

64. Everything Means Something

The instrumental version of this song was used on the August 4, 2013 episode of the BBC One show Countryfile—the same episode that also included another Elysium track, "Breathing Space," as noted above (#57).

65. Before

Played in the background (probably from a radio) during a domestic scene in the September 25, 1996 episode of Coronation Street. Honorable mention – In an unusual "special case" coming from the July 9, 1996 episode of another classic U.K. soap, EastEnders, the song itself wasn't heard but an advertising poster for the single was prominently displayed on a brick wall near the home of two of the characters, where some nasty graffiti ("AIDS SCUM") had been scrawled.

66. The View from Your Balcony

Used in the October 24, 2013, November 15, 2018, and February 12, 2019 editions of the BBC program Homes Under the Hammer, each of which has been rerun on later dates. Not surprisingly, each of these scenes involved views from balconies.

67. Love Is a Bourgeois Construct

A brief instrumental segment could be heard in the first episode of the BBC Four architectural documentary The Brits Who Built the Modern World, which first aired on February 13, 2014.

68. Paninaro

One of several PSB tracks instrumental segments of which were used in the second episode, first airing on February 20, 2014, of the BBC Four documentary The Brits Who Built the Modern World. "Paninaro" was also used for several years as the theme music of a Portuguese educational television program titled Universidade Aberta (Open University). Since he didn't own a copy of the recording at the time, one of my site visitors in Portugal used to get out of bed early every Saturday morning just to hear it! Now that's dedication! "Paninaro" can also be heard in the 2015 film documentary The Queen of Ireland, which tells the story of drag artist Panti Bliss, already known to PSB fans for having inspired and served as the centerpiece, so to speak, of the 2014 track "Oppressive (The Best Gay Possible)" (which is also heard in the documentary, along with one other PSB song; see #86-87 below). And it played behind a highlights clip of goals scored over the past week in U.K. soccer matches on Sky One's Soccer AM program in the U.K. and Ireland on April 10, 2021.

69. I'm Not Scared

The original Eighth Wonder rendition of this song was featured in the 1989 film Lethal Weapon 2, in which singer Patsy Kensit also has a role as a secretary being romanced by Mel Gibson's character. (It did not appear, however, on the movie's soundtrack album.) In addition, an instrumental portion of the PSB version provided some background music during the second episode (February 20, 2014) of the BBC Four documentary The Brits Who Built the Modern World. And it was once again the Eighth Wonder version that made an appearance as background music on the July 4, 2019 edition of the British TV show Homes Under the Hammer (which has a long tradition of using PSB songs).

70. Thursday

It could be heard playing in the background for nearly two minutes during a scene set in a café in the June 6, 2014 episode of the long-running British soap opera Emmerdale. (As an interesting sidenote, one of the actors in this scene was John Middleton, who attended school with Neil Tennant. Apparently they remain friends to this day.) The January 18, 2015 episode of the HBO series Looking used a portion of the song (mainly the rap segment by Example) during its closing credits. The February 15, 2016 edition of the U.K. series Wanted Down Under Revisited used the instrumental mix of the song during the final segment that provides an update on the people who served as the focus of the corresponding original episode of Wanted Down Under. The instrumental mix could also be heard on the November 27, 2023 episode (Series 21, Episode 26) of the BBC Two show Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two.

71. To Speak Is a Sin

The 2006 German film Montag Kommen die Fenster ("The Windows Will Arrive on Monday" or "Windows on Monday") features this song in a bar scene during which couples dance to its melancholy strains.

72. Jealousy

A dramatic orchestral instrumental segment from the climax of this track was used as the opening theme music in 1994 for the Swedish talk/comedy show Gardell får hemligt besök (translated "Gardell Gets a Secret Visit") hosted by openly gay Swedish comedian Jonas Gardell.

73. Home and Dry

It would appear that the very first use of this song on a non-musical TV show occurred on June 26, 2009, when it was one of three PSB songs used on that morning's episode of the BBC's Homes Under the Hammer (rerun a number of times since then). It could also be heard on the December 16, 2014 (and final) episode of the BBC1 drama The Missing, where it plays faintly in the background while the characters Emily and Tony are having a conversation following a wedding reception. Homes Under the Hammer employed it again on its March 8, 2016 edition during a segment on renovations to alleviate a problem with excessive dampness. (A nice musical pun there.)

74. Silver Age

An instrumental segment of this track could be heard toward the end of the very first episode (airing January 6, 2015, on the subject of "Beautiful Buildings") of the U.K. ITV1 television documentary program The Wonder of Britain.

75. One in a Million

The popular South Korean sketch-comedy show Gag Concert has used a brief bit of the instrumental introductory portion of this PSB track as its opening theme music since its inception in 1999.

76. The Pop Kids

On February 24, 2016—even before it was released in physical format, but shortly after its digital debut—this song was used as background music on Finnish television during the weekly goals highlights of the Champions' League football (soccer) game Arsenal vs. Barcelona. It could also briefly be heard in the background during a scene set in a cafe on the July 18, 2016 episode of the British soap opera Emmerdale, and the August 25, 2016 edition of that same show featured it in its opening scene. And the 2016 German comedy film Männertag (trans. "Men's Day") offers a number of rock/pop songs both old and new, including "The Pop Kids," which can be heard quite early on, during its first five minutes or so.

77. Minimal

Used in the August 4, 2015 episode of the U.K. soap opera EastEnders—I'm afraid I don't know the context. It was also used in the same show's January 20, 2017 episode at the point when the character Lee Carter walks into the Queen Vic pub, and again on October 2, 2020 in a scene set in the gay bar "The Albert." In addition, "Minimal" could be heard during the July 12, 2016 edition of the popular British show Homes Under the Hammer (which frequently uses PSB tracks) during a segment about a home needing only minimal repairs before going up for auction.

78. For Freedom

The 2014 documentary To Russia with Love—which concerns the moral challenge faced by gay and lesbian Olympic athletes as they tried to decide whether to boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi to protest Russia's anti-gay laws—plays this excerpt from the Tennant-Lowe Battleship Potemkin score during its concluding segment.

79. Say It to Me

The U.K. soap opera Emmerdale has employed this song on no fewer than four separate occasions:

80. Give It a Go

Used in the December 6, 2016 edition of the U.K. TV show Homes Under the Hammer (which has often made use of PSB tracks).

81. Building a Wall

Once again, it was Homes Under the Hammer that made use of this song—a pretty obvious choice, considering the subject of home construction and the word "wall"—in its May 11, 2017 episode.

82. Pazzo!

The Irish dramatic series Riviera, which airs in Ireland and the U.K. on the Sky Altantic network, features this track briefly in its fourth episode, which first aired on July 6, 2017. The relevant scene, with "Pazzo!" playing in the background, involves a plainclothes policeman entering a club—a front for prostitution—to rescue a woman apparently being held there against her will.

83. All Over the World

The instrumental version of this song was one of two Pet Shop Boys tracks—the other being "Go West"—that could be heard in the September 1, 2017 edition of the U.K. TV show Homes Under the Hammer, the producers of which clearly appear to love their PSB music.

84. In Private

Dusty Springfield's original version of this song—written, of course, by the Pet Shop Boys—could be heard for about a minute in the background of a bar scene in the September 5, 1991 episode of the U.K. crime docudrama series Crimewatch File.

85. Winner

The German TV show Kaum zu glauben! ("Hard to Believe!" in which a panel tries to guess the unusual "secrets" of guests) played this song on its September 16, 2018 episode during a segment about Kai Markus, a 45-year-old man who ran all the way from Hamburg to China. He actually broke both of his feet shortly before reaching his finish line but, with the help of friends, completed his "run" in a wheelchair.

86. Oppressive (The Best Gay Possible)

Appears in the 2015 film documentary The Queen of Ireland concerning drag artist Panti Bliss—more than appropriate considering the Boys built this track around a monologue by Panti herself.

87. We Came from Outer Space

Also used (along with "Paninaro," as noted in # 68 above) in the aforementioned documentary The Queen of Ireland.

88. Boy Strange

Played over the closing credits of the BBC documentary The Man Who Used HIV as a Weapon, which first aired March 19, 2019 (although it was available on the BBC iPlayer several days beforehand, on March 15).

89. Love Comes Quickly

It seems incredible, but the only use of this song that I know of on a "non-musical" TV show is one occurrence that I didn't learn of until more than 30 years after the fact. It was in the sixth episode, titled "Repenting," of the British sitcom Watching, first airing on August 6, 1987. It can be heard playing on a jukebox, apparently having been specifically selected by one of the main characters. Decades later, "Love Comes Quickly" would also be used as background music at one point during the June 24, 2021 premier episode of the Irish television documentary series Our Town, which focuses on the lives of a diverse group of young people in the coastal town of Bray.

90. Only the Wind

This PSB song could be heard playing very quietly in the background during one scene of Episode 4 ("Stranger in the House"), Series 2, originally broadcast on January 30, 1994, of the U.K. detective drama A Touch of Frost.

91. Dreamland

The first-ever appearance of this song on a non-musical TV program occurred on October 19, 2019, during the final episode of the second season/series of the U.K. reality show The Circle, when it was employed as background music while host Emma Willis walked onto the set. Then, on December 27, 2019, it was briefly used during a transition between two scenes of the long-running German daily soap opera Unter uns ("Between Us"). And it played during a scene set in a New York City dance club in Episode 8, "Boys' Trip," of the U.S. streaming series Love, Victor, which first ran on June 17, 2020.

92. That's My Impression

This, one of the earliest PSB songs, doesn't seem to have been used in a "non-musical" television show until more than thirty years after its release. It finally did so on January 7, 2020, when it could be heard roughly three-quarters of the way through Series 23, Episode 61 of the BBC program Homes Under the Hammer.

93. So Sorry, I Said

Liza Minnelli's version of this song plays over the end credits of the 1990 French/U.S. film Mr. Frost.

94. Monkey Business
95. Will-o-the-wisp
96. Happy People

Brief instrumental segments of all three of these Hotspot tracks could be heard in the June 13, 2020 edition of the German television show Galileo: Big Pictures, each episode of which provides a "ranking list," usually the "Top 50" of one thing or another, nearly always involving photographs of particular note. This specific episode dealt with "The Pictures of Our Life": photos that have presumably had the greatest, most widespread public impact.

97. It's Alright

The instrumental opening of the single version of the PSB cover of this song was used in the September 24, 1992 edition of the U.K. true-life crime-solving show Crimewatch File, the title of the specific episode being "Crimewatch File: A Chapter of Revelations." The factual crime covered during the relevant segment involved the murder of a gay man, and the music was used to introduce a scene suggesting gay urban nightlife of the 1980s.

98. Two Divided by Zero

The 2017 horror film Sleep No More, which is set in 1986 among a group of college students, appropriately includes a number of 'eighties songs, including this Please album opener. About 40 minutes into the movie, one of the characters is listening to it on his Walkman while walking on campus. (Other artists represented on the soundtrack include Duran Duran, Bananarama, and After the Fire.)

99. Later Tonight

About nine minutes into the 2018 German film In My Room, the main character, Armin, brings a girl home from a club and asks her if she would like to listen to any music. When she doesn't answer, he chooses "Later Tonight" from his laptop computer. Only about the first 80 seconds of the song plays, during which the girl decides against spending the night with Armin and leaves. Then, much later, it plays again over the end credits.

100. Burning the Heather

The first ten seconds or so of this track is briefly used as background music near the end of the German television news documentary Wir machen weiter – trotz Corona! ("We Carry On – Despite Corona!"), which first aired on February 18, 2021, concerning how ordinary people are struggling with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on their lives.

101. Young Offender

The January 8, 1995 episode, "Ein enhrenwertes Haus" (translated "An Honorable House") of the popular, long-running German police procedural drama Tatort ("Crime Scene") included a scene in which this song is heard playing in an apartment where a teenage girl lives with her family. She's a likely suspect in the murder of an older man with whom, as it turns out, she was a sexual relationship. Therefore the choice of this particular song was surely no accident, undoubtedly meant as a "clue" to that relationship for the benefit of more attentive, knowledgeable members of the viewing audience.

102. Losing My Mind

It's hardly even worth mentioning, but just for the sake of completion, I should note that an extremely brief snippet—no more than two or three seconds—of the PSB-produced rendition of this track by Liza Minnelli could be heard during a profile of her on the January 16, 2022 edition of CBS Sunday Morning. Aside from a simultaneous fleeting depiction of the Results cover in a montage of Liza's various releases, there was no actual mention of the song, the album, or the Pet Shop Boys.

103. Hallo Spaceboy

Although it's at root a David Bowie song, the single version is also a full-fledged PSB collaboration, which qualfies it for this list by virtue of its occurrence during the first few minutes of the 2022 Bowie biopic Moonage Daydream.

104. Was It Worth It?

Incredibly, the first use of this PSB number on a non-musical TV show, at least that I'm aware of, didn't occur until the October 12, 2022 edition of the U.K. program Homes Under the Hammer—more than 30 years after the song's original release—on which occasion the 12" Mix could be heard as background music.

105. Fluorescent

Season 5, Episode 2 (first airing on August 6, 2018) of the German television "reality show" Armes Deutschland – Stempeln oder Abrackern? (translated literally as Poor Germany – Stamping or Toiling Away? but more colloquially as Poor Germany – Living on Welfare or Working Like a Dog?) contains a scene titled "Willi und Carola lassen ihren Dreck zurück" ("Willi and Carola leave their garbage behind") that, about 19 seconds into it, plays an instrumental segment of the Pet Shop Boys' "Fluorescent" as background music (rather inexplicably as far as I can tell) for 15 seconds or so.

106. Dancing Star

While the Critérium du Dauphiné cycling race is taking place in France, hour-long highlights are aired on ITV4 each evening (ITV Cycling). At the start of the June 8, 2024 Stage 7 highlights episode, there was a recap of Stage 6, during which instrumental segments of "Dancing Star" were used as background music. They used it again on July 4 during the Tour de France Stage 5 recap and on other dates/recaps thereafter (there's no need to enumerate them).

In addition:

I also distinctly remember a Pet Shop Boys song being played over the closing credits of an episode of the U.S. public television "gay features" show In the Life sometime around 2003-2004, give or take a year. But, for the life of me, I can't remember which song it was or find any information as to when precisely it aired. (Something tells me that it may have been "New York City Boy," but I wouldn't bet the mortgage on it.)