New Music: The French – Maybe Tomorrow

With The Littlest Hobo heading for a reboot, this reissuing by The French of their version of the fondly remembered show theme tune is incredibly timely.

The French was one of the post-Hefner projects of singer-songwriter Darren Hayman. Teaming up with another Hefner member, John Morrison, they found themselves in the studio at the behest of visionary British radio DJ John Peel to record an experimental selection of songs.

While Maybe Tomorrow was recorded over twenty years ago, along with the other tracks on the TV Themes EP, it doesn’t sound dated. If anything, it’s Americana/British folk fusion is more at home in 2026 than it was at its conception for the Peel Session, as it wasn’t a format the British public was often exposed to.

I have to say, I have mixed feelings about the song; as a kid, I could never shake off the sadness and longing that lay underneath the free-spiritedness of the lyrics. In the hands of Hayman and Morrison, it becomes more than a simple pop song; the nostalgia and yearning are pushed to an emotional breaking point. The original was designed to draw you into a new beginning; here it feels more like an ending, Hayman giving the words depth unexpected in a track about a possibly-alien super-dog.

“I am most proud of the many sessions I recorded for John Peel with my two bands, Hefner and The French,” discloses Hayman, looking back at the session that led to what became TV Themes. “When Hefner became a ‘Peel band’ and recorded their first session, I felt that a true-life goal had been achieved. Many bands, much more revered and successful than myself, would have wished they’d recorded a Peel session. I could die a little happier.”

“At one point, Hefner, with no album to promote, asked John if we could record a session of Gospel songs for him. He loved both the idea and result, saying that this was what he had always wanted the Peel sessions to be: an opportunity for artists to experiment and stretch out at the BBC’s expense.”

“After Hefner, John Morrison and I formed The French. After our first Peel session in 2003, we decided to repeat our Hefner Gospel idea and asked John if we could record four television themes for his show. Recorded at the end of July 2004, it turned out to be our last session for John, shortly before his death in October.”

“The TV themes are the ones that sat on the very edge of our memories, barely recalled shows from our childhoods, ones that might only resonate with you if you are the same age as us. Crockett’s Theme and Hill Street Blues reflected our interest in beautifully written tunes, and both were complicated to work out and reconstruct. Mike Post’s Hill Street Blues theme is a proper piece of complex arrangement that really stretched us.”

“Crockett’s Theme is the only bona fide hit out of these tunes and allowed me to play the beautiful monophonic lead line on my synth and pretend I was in Kraftwerk. Big John, Little John was an early TV version of the film Big but had creepy overtones with the shapeshifting child/man having a wife. Maybe Tomorrow [The Theme from The Littlest Hobo] also lives in the dimmest corner of my brain; I remember nothing about it except that it’s about a dog and this was the theme.”

“Listening to these versions now, I am impressed by how odd and wonky they sound. I put this spirit of experimentation down to John Peel’s influence: we wanted to impress and surprise him. What you have here isn’t the Peel Session itself; it’s the same backing tracks we brought in to Maida Vale 4, but in a rare moment of foresight from us, we re-recorded the vocals and lead lines.”

TV Themes can be heard on Bandcamp and Spotify, as can Local Information, the only LP by The French. Hayman plays a headline gig this Saturday, the 26^th of September, in Cheltenham. He says about the gig, “My last show of the year is in fact my only headline show of the year and I’ll actually play for an hour and do a proper set and everything. My shows at the Everyman in Cheltenham are my favourite shows. And almost an annual event.”

You can learn more about The French, as well the music and paintings of Darren Hayman, by heading to his Instagram, Facebook, and BlueSky feeds.