Jack Ketch

January 15th 2013 CH4 10pm

A touching exploration of the new ‘adoption parties’ scheme where hard to place children are invited to an activity day with prospective adoptive parents.

This one was quite tricky to find a musical way in for; too childlike and it was saccharine, too dark and it became very heavy and depressing very quickly.  I wanted to project a sense of hope whilst keeping the fairly harsh reality of the situation in mind.  Based on peoples experiences, there was a fair amount of score under talking, so a lot of the music was necessarily quite sparse.

For TiFiNi for Cutting edge.

November 14th 2013 CH4 11.05pm (Jan 14th 2014 PBS version)

An incredible view through the cracks appearing in North Korea’s wall of secrecy, showing terrible deprivation and wonderful heroism as the people of North Korea finally start to glimpse the real outside world.

I’ve had a lot of requests from people asking to hear tracks from this film.  A mixture of totalitarian bombast and more subtle glimpses of hope in the face of a cruel dictatorship.  You can hear a few of the main themes on my MUSIC page.

For Hardcash productions for Dispatches and Frontline

 October 23rd 2013 CH4 10.45pm

More and more people are flatsharing, often into their thirties. This First Cut documentary follows members of ‘Generation Rent’ as they brave an increasingly brutal and judgemental rental market.

This one gave me a chance to flex my more electronic urban side alongside some more quirky, character-driven bits.  Perhaps not as focussed as I would normally present, musically  – a reflection of the multifarious characters, locations and situations of real city rental life.

For Sundog Pictures for First Cut

September 17th 2013 CH4 10pm

Meeting six women with an average age of 80 – an upbeat, inspiring film that questions assumptions about ageing.

For this film I made a mix of fun, upbeat tracks and some more reflective ones – lots of positivity in this one –  the joie de vivre caused a twitter trend.

For Wellpark productions for Cutting edge

September 3rd 2013 CH4 10pm

This film tells the real and terrifying story of British hostages trapped by Al Qaeda in an Algerian gas plant in January 2013; a drama-documentary mixing survivor interviews with movie-style reconstruction and special effects.

This film gave me room to really stretch my cinema-action-thriller self.  Large orchestral themes with Algerian motifs for action sequences and sparse electronics for tension and survivor story underscore.

For Nutopia for CH4

 June 5th 2013 CH4 9pm and June 6th 2013 CH4 9pm

D-Day: As It Happens: a real time 24-hour history event. Broadcast across TV, online and social media, viewers tracked the real time progress of seven people who were there on the day through a series of moment-by-moment updates, transporting the viewer into the moment of the D-day landings.

My job was to help transport viewers there via the music.  A fairly epic-scale military percussion and brass feature of course, but also giving a continuing sense of time passing, without being too noticeable.

For Windfall for CH4

April 4th 2013 CH4 10pm
An extraordinary documentary exploring the world of dogging in Britain.  This is the second time  I’ve worked with Director Leo Macguire – the first was his film Gypsy Blood’ which won the Grierson award for best newcomer.  Visually gorgeous, brave decisions and unprecedented access make this very much one to see.  The music in this one is less focussed than normal, from dark electronic ambients to lush orchestral, but it fits together just right somehow – The editor, Joby Gee and I worked hard together to really enhance the wide, wild, rural environments and the intense internal narratives.  Hope you like it!

For Minnow Films for CH4