Director: Marcus Plowright
Composer: Alexander Parsons
Production Company: Label1
Broadcaster: ITV

Despite the tragedy at its centre, the series also contains stories of warmth and joy. The biggest challenge was for the score to connect these, almost continuously, with much darker contrasting events of the day. I used various musical devices to try to achieve this – firstly the use of very loosely played acoustic instrumental parts, which we hear performed on violin, cello and flute. These bring a sense of warmth to darker scenes, as well as hinting at instability and a sense of what is to come in warmer moments. I also aimed to give an impression of different worlds colliding as parts weave in and out of time. The second was a four-note ascending motif, which returns at points that hint at the tragedy about to occur. Thirdly the use of vocals which we used to invoke a sense of memory and as a reminder of the tragic loss of life.

Violin: Alexander Parsons
Vocals: Hinako Omori
Cello: Joe Zeitlin