Soundtracking With Edith Bowman

As Edith has noted before, our latest guest on Soundtracking has effectively created his own genre of naturalistic musical cinema, in which the songs featured feel organically rooted in the landscape of the narrative. John Carney is the man who brought us Once and Sing Street - and now blesses us with Flora And Son, which you can watch on Apple TV and in selected cinemas. It tells the story of a mum struggling to deal with her rebellious son, whose fortunes start to change after she rescues a beat-up guitar from a skip. John enlisted the help of Gary Clark of Danny Wilson fame for the original songs and the score, and you'll hear examples of his music throughout the conversation.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking was also one of our very earliest, when he joined me to discuss his brilliant contribution to the Star Wars franchise, Rogue One. And Gareth is back with The Creator - which he wrote and directed, and is a quite simply extraordinary addition to the sci-fci canon. It's hard to tell you too much about it, aside from the fact that it puts a hugely compassionate twist on the classic battle between humans and machines and artificial intelligence. Oh yes, and it's scored by our old friend Hans Zimmer ...

We continue to celebrate independent film on Soundtracking this week in the company of Prasanna Puwanarajah and Niall Lawlor - respectively director and composer of Ballywalter, a bittersweet comedy set in the Northern Irish village, which counts among its stars Seána Kerslake and Patrick Kielty

She's back, with that infectious laugh of hers, and we couldn't be more delighted. Hildur Guðnadóttir is one of my very favourite composers of film music, and she joins me to discuss Kenneth Branagh's latest take on Agatha Christie, A Haunting In Venice. Darker and more claustrophobic than the previous two Poirot mysteries he directed and starred in, A Haunting In Venice sees the Belgian detective investigate a murder while attending a Halloween seance at a palazzo in the floating city.

Continuing our recent theme of featuring low-budget British films on Soundtracking, our latest guest is Charlotte Regan, writer and director of the superb Scrapper. Featuring a remarkable central performance by 11-year-old Lola Campbell, Scrapper tells the story of Georgia, who is forced to confront a new domestic reality when, among other things, her estranged father turns up out of nowhere. The film is scored by Patrick Jonsson, who was kind enough to share some of his as yet unreleased cues for us. 

For the second week running, we're celebrating a low budget British film. Last week, writer/director Neil Maskell and composer Andy Pettitt joined me to discuss Neil's Klokkenluider, while this week Ryan Hendrick is here to discuss his horror thriller, Mercy Falls. Set in the Scottish Highlands, it sees a group of friends head off in search of a long lost cabin, only for tragedy to strike and carnage to ensue. Mercy Falls is scored by Stephen Wright, and Ryan was very kind to furnish us with a couple of his yet unreleased cues.

Director Neil Maskell & Andy Pettitt of Shortwave Set fame join Edith to discuss Neil's writer / director debut, Klokkenluider, which also saw Andy make his first foray into writing screen music. It's a cracking chat with two pals who are simply thrilled to have collaborated on a film together.

We have something slightly different for you on our latest episode of Soundtracking, as I'm joined by producer Matthew Metcalfe and journalist and organised and cyber crime expert Misha Glenny, author of McMafia and Dark Market. They joined me separately to discuss Billion Dollar Heist, a documentary about one of the most daring cyber heists of all time - the Bangladeshi Central Bank Theft

Our latest episode of Soundtracking is with composer Paul Saunderson, who has scored the BBC documentary Earth, which is available to watch now on the BBC iPlayer. Hosted by the wonderful Chris Packham, the show explores some of the most significant moments in our planet's history, from asteroid bombardments to extreme changes in climate to the collision of continents, using groundbreaking science and effects. The fact there are informed recreations of seismic events in the past affords Paul plenty of scope to push the sonic envelope - almost as if he were scoring a science fiction film rather than a traditional documentary. The results are magnificent.

What a joy to welcome Ludwig Göransson back for a fourth time to reflect upon the incredible music he provided to Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer. And in person, too!

In a change to our billed interview with Ludwig Göransson, we're putting out Edith's chat with Kathryn Ferguson. Kathryn directed the Sinéad O'Connor documentary, Nothing Compares, which very specifically concentrates on the tumultuous period in her life between 1987 and 1993, during which she became a global sensation, but also the victim of a character assassination in the media, having spoken out against abuse in the Catholic church. In a cruel twist of fate, Kathryn and Edith spoke just three days before Sinéad passed away, but - with Kathryn's blessing - we thought it timely that we share the story of the beautiful, powerful and illuminating film.

Recorded before the SAG strike began, our latest guest on Soundtracking is the legend that is Christopher Nolan. Criminally, it's the first opportunity Edith has had to speak to him on the podcast, so it was an absolute joy to welcome him on to discuss Oppenheimer, which sees him reunited with our good friend, Ludwig Göransson.

In an interview recorded before the actors strike began, Greta Gerwig returns to Soundtracking for a third time, to discuss the music of her extraordinary take on Barbie, which is witty, funny, smart and cerebral. Among the many points for discussion are Mark Ronson's involvement, who has a key hand to play in both the score and frankly incredible soundtrack.

Our guests today are Cécile Tournesac and Eddie Hamilton, who are respectively the music editor and editor of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Part I), directed by our old friend Christopher McQuaurrie, and scored by our even older friend, Lorne Balfe.

We love James Mangold, so it is a joy to welcome him back to Soundtracking to discuss the final instalment of the Indy saga, and, of course, the unsurpassable John Williams.

As promised, we have a bonus episode of Soundtracking for you this week, as the brilliant Charlie Brooker joins me to discuss the inimitable Black Mirror. All 6 episodes of the new season are available to watch on Netflix now, and do not disappoint. Music is a central part of the show, from the needle drops to the composers he's employed, including friends of the show Daniel Pemberton, Max Richter & Clint Mansell.

Bit of a legend alert for you now, as we welcome the genius that is Wes Anderson to Soundtracking. Wes's latest offering is quite difficult to describe in a few words. But suffice to say it is laugh-out-loud funny in parts, incredibly moving in others, features a terrific ensemble cast, and once again sees him work with composer Alexandre Desplat and our Jarvis Cocker.

We are celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Wicker Man this week in the company of Lesley Mackie and Gary Carpenter. Lesley appeared as Daisy, while Gary was the film's associate music director, who helped assemble the band Magnet, who performed the songs composed by Paul Giovanni.

It's a welcome return to Soundtracking to our very good friend, the composer Daniel Pemberton, who has provided the score for the simply sensational Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. We'll hear plenty of Daniel's music from the film throughout the conversation, as well of fascinating insights into the process of making the score and the movie.

Our latest episode of Soundtracking sees us joined by two great friends who scooped the Camera d'Or at Cannes last year for best first feature  Riley Keough and Gina Gammell co-wrote, produced and directed War Pony, which tells the overlapping stories of two boys on the Pine Ridge Reservation - brilliantly played by Jojo Bapteise Whiting and Ladainian Crazy Thunder - and comes out in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on Friday.