Don Letts, Neil Brand, Rhianna Dhillon

The BBC this morning launched a month of programming in September – BBC Sound of Cinema – across several of its networks drawing attention in on “the composers, songs and film scores that form the soundtrack to the big screen.”

The launch, attended by BBC Director of Radio Helen Boaden, BBC Four Controller Janice Hadlow and Radio 3 Controller Roger Wright, gave us excerpts from a three-part film documentary presented by Neil Brand, called Sound of Cinema: The Music that Made the Movies, which will be screened on BBC Four.

The time-constraints of three hours of film means that it cannot be comprehensive, and, according to Neil Brand, tends to be ‘Hollywood-centric’. The excerpts we were shown featured Bernard Herrmann (Citizen Kane), John Barry (The Ipcress File), Max Steiner (King Kong), Vertigo (Hermann again), Hans Zimmer (Gladiator), the Sherman brothers (Mary Poppins) and – moving forwards – Randy Thom and Vangellis. (Firm dates for transmission not yet available)

It all does seem like a good way to bring the role of the film composer out of the shadows, and Neil Brand – a musician who has also been trained as an actor – is an extremely  knowledgeable and engaging presenter.  There are a host of other ventures across the BBC. 6 Music’s activity will include a major contribution from Don Letts. BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra will feature Rhianna Dillon. More detail from the link below :

  AN ADVANCE GUIDE FROM THE BBC MEDIA CENTRE IS HERE