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an actor who he had mistakenly thought

was me from my photo in an old Spotlight

directory. He asked me to read anyway and

then play something. This chance meeting

led to him asking me to arrange the music

for

Twelfth Night

at Stratford. I began work

but I couldn’t find a traditional setting for

one of the songs to arrange, so I wrote

one – which he liked and asked me to

write the rest of the music. The director

was Peter Gill, the hugely influential

playwright and director who later opened

the Riverside Studios, which became a

venue of international importance in the

1970s. Peter had an enormous influence on

my career. I worked on all his productions

at the Riverside and with him at the

National Theatre – and my first television

score was for a Stephen Poliakoff play

which he directed.

One of Peter Gill’s greatest fans

was the theatre director Michael

Attenborough. Through this connection,

I got my second big break when Michael,

whom I didn’t know, played my music

to his father Richard Attenborough,

and this bizarrely led to me co-writing

with Ravi Shankar the music for

Gandhi

It was working on

Ghandi

that really

changed everything for me and opened

up unimaginable opportunities. I went on

to write scores for four more of Richard

Attenborough’s films including

Cry Freedom

and

Shadowlands.

What is the process of writing

a film score?

There are occasions when one is required

to write music before or during a film

shoot, for example for a dance sequence,

but generally the process of scoring a film

hasn’t really changed since silent films,

insofar as the score is added to the finished

picture in order to awake or inform our

senses (although its original use was to

drown out the noise of the projector). This

order of things – the music being the final

stage of a film has largely survived through

the days of the great studio system and is

still common now. Sometimes sooner but

usually when the film reaches its “fine cut”

stage the composer will meet with the

director and editor and “spot” the film,

which means deciding where the music

should stop and start, taking into account

narrative, emphasis, pacing, sound design

etc. Of course in some instances like an

action film the music hardly ever stops but

nevertheless it is the opportunity for the

director to express and discuss his or her

ambition for the film’s impact and how

the score can best help the audience to

respond in the right way.

Did you embrace a celebrity lifestyle?

Not really although I did enjoy celebrity

status at my local Indian restaurant after I

did Gandhi! I’ve had enormous privileges

thanks to my work and met and worked

with some amazing people but generally

no one outside the business has ever had

a clue who I am or what I do so celebrity

has never been an option and I’m pleased

about that. I have enjoyed my time in

Hollywood and have been fortunate enough

to be nominated a few times for the

Academy Award so that was nice, but being

a composer in film is very much a “back

room boy” job working with editors and

directors and of course wonderful musicians,

which is the real highlight. Even though I

worked non-stop in Hollywood for a while I

didn’t want to make my life there. Hollywood

is a wonderfully “can do” place but one tends

to get pigeonholed and for that reason I

have been happier since I haven’t been based

there. I feel freer in my work options.

From a career full of highlights, what

would be your most memorable?

Without a doubt, working with Richard

Attenborough – and also with Ken Loach.

I’ve composed the music for the last 16 of

his films.

Perhaps the most significant highlight

stems from a snap decision I made in 2000,

which was to abandon an incredibly lucrative

film I was about to start and come home and

write the score for

The Blue Planet

, purely on

the strength of the title.

The Blue Planet

was

followed by

Planet Earth

and

Frozen Planet

This Earth Trilogy has changed my

working life. Tremendous projects in

themselves, they also gave me a new

musical opportunity, which was to create,

in partnership with the BBC, concert

programmes with the footage re-cut and

with no narration, projected above a full

orchestra. They’ve proved popular and as

a result I have taken them to many of the

world’s greatest orchestras, both in concert

halls and arenas. The concerts, with or

without me, are now appearing in venues as

diverse as the Hollywood Bowl and cruise

ships! And for the feature film spin-offs

Deep Blue

and

Earth

I had the chance to

George in a cameo role as the conductor alongside pianist Clare Hammond as the young Dame Maggie

Smith in

The Lady in the Van

Conducting the music for Ken Loach’s period

drama

Jimmy’s Hall

at Abbey Road Studios

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FOCUS ON MUSIC