It sounds like a decent cover of Weather Report's Birdland. I am a fan of that band, co led by Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul and gave Jaco Pastorius world acclaim. The theme changed halfway through the run but being reminded of Weather Report in the early episodes is weird but not in a bad way.
Strangers is one of the rare examples of a spin-off series being better and more successful than where it came from. The series XYY Man introduces detectives Bulman and Willis and this series carries on with the detectives being assigned far from "the Met" in the North country.
What is typical of British drama and what draws me to their shows is how much more care in development of depth in character. It does not seem to happen quite as much in American shows from this era (it certainly does now in the memorable shows.). DS George Bulman has many idiosyncrasies that makes him a distinctly unique character. That is a credit to Kenneth Royce, Don Henderson and Murray Smith. Bulman is one of those characters that simply could not be played by a different actor. I do not feel that is quite as true with Dennis Blanch's portrayal of DC Derek Willis but that mostly is due to Willis not having as many characteristics like the gloves, nasal spray, a penchant for quoting classical literature and a taste for Nigerian lager. Having good characters makes one want to watch a show.
Police dramas were never my all time favorite form of entertainment but this show really is well written and done well. Murray Smith is a genuine talent. There is only 30 episodes but it ran for 5 years which is about how long these types of shows should run. I notice some changes over its run. It shifted to becoming a show shot entirely on film about half way through. It also seems to develop a lighter tone when that change over happened. The final episode had some genuine comedic moments toward the end of it. Even the location filming is fascinating in its own way. The location becomes a kind of character in itself especially early on in the Series. The "strangers" never do fit in there.
