I’m delighted that my score for American High School will be available on general release, to coincide with its broadcast on BBC 1, in the UK. The soundtrack features original music from the series and will be available digitally from February 17th,  in all the usual places.

The series was produced and directed by Marcus Plowright with Swan Films.
Exec Producers: Neil Crombie and Joe Evans
Production company: Swan Films
Original Television Soundtrack mastered by Alain Paul at Million Mangoes, Berlin

In this article for Broadcast Magazine, I write about ‘Music for Heroes’ and stories behind my latest score for the BBC3 documentary Series American High School.

Myself and Marcus Plowright (Producer/Director) were asked to write this double page spread featured in the 11th November, 2016 issue in print, also available online for subscribers.

Download a PDF here

It was as hugely collaborative process

American High School follows a charismatic principal and his students over the course of one school year and through their eyes we witness life-changing moments. In the US, life chances for students who graduate high school are often starkly different to those who don’t, a disparity even more marked for African-American pupils.

With the odds often stacked against them we follow the class of 2016 over this, their make-or-break year.

We experience their highs and their lows as they prepare for life after high school. We meet Ivy League hopefuls, male cheerleaders and young mothers on a tough journey into adulthood. This is school as you’ve never seen it before and a unique insight into how it really feels to be young and black in America today.

In the first episode, new principal Dr Peters arrives on a mission to improve grades and discipline, but a mass brawl and the threat of further violence gives him a swift reality check.

Meanwhile, high-achieving pupil Jalena begins college applications, but with college fees costing more than a house, will she even be able to afford to go? Male cheerleader Vernon, and star football player Kordel, each prepare for the big Friday night football game. Can a win for the school help to get Dr Peters’ ambitions back on track?

Producer/Director: Marcus Plowright
Executive Producers: Joe Evans and Neil Crombie
Production Company: Swan Films
Composer: Alexander Parsons

Thank you to Julia Raeside for the fantastic reveiw of American High School: Straight Outta Orangeburg. Read the review in full here

Alexander Parsons’ impressive score, mixing tinges of the music the kids listen to with his own emotive arrangements. Six episodes of hope, just when it’s needed.

American High School follows a charismatic principal and his students over the course of one school year and through their eyes we witness life-changing moments. In the US, life chances for students who graduate high school are often starkly different to those who don’t, a disparity even more marked for African-American pupils.

With the odds often stacked against them we follow the class of 2016 over this, their make-or-break year.

We experience their highs and their lows as they prepare for life after high school. We meet Ivy League hopefuls, male cheerleaders and young mothers on a tough journey into adulthood. This is school as you’ve never seen it before and a unique insight into how it really feels to be young and black in America today.

In the first episode, new principal Dr Peters arrives on a mission to improve grades and discipline, but a mass brawl and the threat of further violence gives him a swift reality check.

Meanwhile, high-achieving pupil Jalena begins college applications, but with college fees costing more than a house, will she even be able to afford to go? Male cheerleader Vernon, and star football player Kordel, each prepare for the big Friday night football game. Can a win for the school help to get Dr Peters’ ambitions back on track?

Producer/Director: Marcus Plowright
Executive Producers: Joe Evans and Neil Crombie
Production Company: Swan Films
Composer: Alexander Parsons

Across America, poodles are being crimped, pimped and dyed to compete in a multi-million-dollar activity. Extreme creative dog grooming is a fiercely competitive world where groomers vie to turn their dogs into ever more outlandish designs, with the owners as colourful as their canine creations.

Every year they come together at the world’s largest grooming event in Hershey, Pennsylvania: the Olympics of creative grooming.

The competition has always been dominated by big American groomers. But now, one British dog-lover, Su Eld-Weaver, travels with her poodle, Dobby, in an against-the-odds bid to beat the Americans.

For the first time in history, could a British dog triumph at Hershey? And could Dobby become the first non-American poodle ever to grace the cover of the industry’s prestigious Groomer to Groomer magazine?

First Broadcast: Channel 4 – 30th December 2013

Company: Swan Films
Producer: Joe Evans
Director: Marvyn Benoit
Music: Alexander Parsons

“Think of the movie Best in Show and ramp it up ten notches.” The Guardian
“Hilariously funny…Simon Callow’s straight-faced narration makes it unmissable.” The Observer
“Prepare for your jaws to drop… It’s like the film Best in Show but actual real life.” Heat