Review 2013: Not The Doctor: Neil Brand's Sound of Cinema: The Music that Made the Movies.

TV For about three weeks in September, film music expert Neil Brand bestrode the BBC's schedules like a colossus, as every network offered programmes celebrating film music, turning up everywhere from Radio 3, actually mostly Radio 3 to Radio 4, to The One Show to well everywhere offering his thorough knowledge of everything from Disney musicals to the John Williams via Bernard Hermann. The programmes themselves were glorious with their composer interviews, most especially Vangelis as he deconstructed exactly how he's able to produce such unique sounds and Brand visiting various locations and archives with a clear sense of excitement as he was able to run his fingers across the original notations or visit a studio's scoring stage. The three programmes are only available in the illicit places you'd expect, but the BBC's own websites still contain a wealth of material, from extended interviews with contributors, 6 Music's various slots including a whole programme about David Arnold, Brand's own genre based discussions for The Film Programme and his podcast series on a similar theme, In Tune's Sound of Cinema podcasts, Radio 3's conversations with Directors and Film Composers, Composer of the Week episodes about British Film Music and the Golden Age of Hollywood. As a variation on a theme, here are five of my favourite pieces of film music, three themed around Brand's programmes and two others. See if you can work out which one is my ring tone (don't phone, it's just for fun).