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Episode 3

Neil Brand reveals how television scores have grown in importance, from their origins in the 1960s and 1970s, to reach a peak in the big-budget world of Netflix and HBO.

In television鈥檚 early years, specially composed music, otherwise known as the score, which had driven big-budget movies for decades, rarely featured. In this final episode of the series, we see how the importance of a TV score grew, from its origins in the 1960s and 1970s, to reach a peak in the big-budget world of Netflix and HBO.

Neil Brand reveals that his first exposure to the impact of a score on television was in the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau, bringing adventure and drama to the natural world. He demonstrates how music has driven the success of 大象传媒 natural history programmes, talking with George Fenton, the film composer behind such landmarks as Blue Planet. Fenton was also pivotal in the development of music in TV drama, with his score for Jewel in the Crown. We learn how these breakthrough drama series competed with cinema in their scale and ambition.

We also meet some maverick creators of the TV score, including Roxy Music鈥檚 Andy MacKay, who wrote the songs that powered radical 70s drama Rock Follies, and David Chase, music buff and creator of The Sopranos. Neil gets to write his own score with Signature Tracks - the team behind some of the biggest successes of US reality TV such as Real Housewives and the Kardashian series.

Finally, we see how the television score has now been forced to compete with the movies in huge blockbuster series such as Stranger Things and Game of Thrones.

59 minutes

Last on

Sun 27 Mar 2022 23:15

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Music Played

  • Maurice Jarre

    The Rescue of Gasim

  • The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

    The World At War (Main Theme / Cues)

  • Geoffrey Burgon

    Brideshead Theme

  • George Fenton

    March of The Lobsters

  • Roxy Music

    Ladytron

  • Fred Waring & His Pennsylvanians

    Dry Bones

  • The Mills Brothers

    Paper Doll

  • Al Jolson With Matty Malneck's Orchestra and The Four Hits and A Miss

    After You've Gone

  • Katherine Jenkins & Vera Lynn

    We'll Meet Again

    Orchestra: 大象传媒 Concert Orchestra.
  • A3, The Sopranos (Television Soundtrack)

    Dialogue From "The Sopranos" / Woke Up This Morning

  • Alabama3

    Woke Up This Morning

  • Luba Organasova, Will Humberg & Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra

    La Rondine / Chi Il Bel Sogno Di Doretta

  • Deep Purple

    Smoke On The Water

  • The Rolling Stones

    Tell Me

  • John Cooper Clarke

    Evidently Chickentown

  • Frank Sinatra

    It Was A Very Good Year

  • Journey

    Don't Stop Believin'

  • John Mauceri and The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra

    Overture

  • Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

    Stranger Things

  • Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein

    Kids

  • The Crystals

    Da Doo Ron Ron

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Neil Brand
Production Manager David Prichard
Series Producer Ian MacMillan
Executive Producer Roy Ackerman

Broadcasts