Explore every episode of the podcast Sound of Cinema

To mark the latest release in the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World Rebirth, Matthew Sweet looks at music for films set in prehistoric times, or that feature dinosaurs in a modern setting.

Matthew Sweet talks to film editor, sound designer and director Walter Murch about working on Apocalypse Now, the Godfather films, The Conversation, Barton Fink and Return to Oz

Matthew Sweet celebrates the centenary of legendary film composer Ron Goodwin - famous for his scores for Where Eagles Dare, 633 Squadron, The Battle of Britain and the Miss Marple films. However, Goodwin's scores are far more varied than military marches, with his music for Hitchcock's Frenzy and the first-ever score for brass band, Escape from the Dark.

Matthew also speaks to Helen, the step-daughter of Ron Goodwin, who shares her memories of growing up with an in-demand composer.

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Matthew looks at music for films that explore the age gap between their characters, inspired by the release of Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, Licorice Pizza, which includes music by Jonny Greenwood.

The programme features music from ‘Room at the Top’, ‘Malena’, ‘The Lost Daughter’, The Reader’, ‘Notes on a Scandal’ and ‘Judy’. This week’s Classic Score is Franz Waxman’s music for ‘Sunset Boulevard’, which was released in 1950.

Radio 3’s ‘Sound of…’ marks the 90th anniversary of one of the most famous of all recording studios, London’s Abbey Road. Presenters Matthew Sweet and Louise Blain team up for a special programme for Christmas to mark Abbey Road’s important and illustrious history of making music for film - and more recently for the gaming world. Together they tour the building, taking a keen interest on the legendary Studio 1 - meeting some of the people who have shaped soundtrack recordings there. The programme is lavishly illustrated with music from the Abbey Road catalogue.

Abbey Road began its venture into film in the early 80s and quickly attracted the likes of Miklós Rózsa, John Williams and Stephen Spielberg, Jerry Goldsmith, and James Horner etc. It continues to play a major role in music for international film. One of the first significant scores to be recorded there was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was soon followed with prestigious catalogue of titles: The Return of the Jedi, The Last Emperor, RoboCop, Aliens, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Skyfall, Gravity, The Shape of Water, Black Panther and so on. Matthew reflects both on the history, in conversation with engineers Merik Stiles and Ken Townsend, and with Hollywood composer James Newton Howard (The Hunger Games, The Dark Knight, Fantastic Beasts) who has recently been recording there. Meanwhile, Louise talks with Isabel Garvey about links with the world of Gaming. Titles such as Final Fantasy and Call of Duty have passed through Abbey Road’s doors. She meets composer Ilan Eshkeri who rectory recorded ‘Ghost of Tsushima’ there, and with cellist Caroline Dale, who explains some of the challenges that face the musician working on soundtracks.

Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings is one of contemporary cinema's milestone moments. Now, more than 20 years since it first appeared, Matthew Sweet devotes the whole of this week's programme to the series and to what is one of the most ambitious of all film scores - Howard Shore's remarkable ten-hour epic. Matthew is joined by the musicologist Doug Adams, who worked alongside the composer deconstructing some of the incredibly complex ingredients that constitute Shore's musical story-telling. Shore took as his basis Richard Wagner's leitmotif idea, where musical themes and statements are used to represent characters and ideas in the films. When these themes are combined and varied symphonically, they present a complete aural picture of the narrative to complement and enhance the story as it is unveiled on the screen. Together, Matthew and Doug unpick some of the main musical ideas in Shore's score and reveal just how far-reaching the music for LOTR is.

Matthew looks back on the career and recordings of soprano Marni Nixon, a "ghost singer" who provided the vocals for several leading actresses often without audiences being aware. With the release this week of Steven Spielberg's new version of 'West Side Story', Matthew considers the 1961 film in which Nixon provided the singing voice of Natalie Wood, without receiving a credit. She was also the singing voice of Deborah Kerr in 'The King and I' and 'An Affair to Remember', and of Audrey Hepburn in 'My Fair Lady'. And she filled in a few of Marilyn Monroe's notes on 'Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend' from 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'. Although she was well known on the concert stage as a soprano, and even recorded works of Stravinsky conducted by the composer himself, she was largely unknown as a singer in films, and it was not until more recently that she was finally credited for her soundtrack recordings.

The fashion industry has long links with cinema, both on screen and off. With the release of House of Gucci in mind, Matthew Sweet looks at the relationship between film and fashion, featuring film music in which costume design is a significant aspect of the film or a driving force of the plot.

The programme features music from the films Clueless, Black Panther, The Fifth Element, Breakfast at Tiffany's, À bout de souffle, Spencer, Phantom Thread, Yves Saint Laurent, Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky, Coco avant Chanel, Prêt-à-Porter and House of Gucci.

Image courtesy of Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures Inc

With the release this week of 'Cry Macho', Matthew Sweet looks back on the music for the films of Clint Eastwood, both as actor, director and composer. The programme includes music from 'For A Few Dollars More', 'The Outlaw Josey Wales', 'Magnum Force', 'High Plains Drifter', 'Pale Rider', 'Mystic River', ''Letters from Iwo Jima', 'Sully' and 'Unforgiven' and celebrates his musical links and collaborations with composers such as Ennio Morricone, Lalo Schifrin, Dee Barton and Lennie Niehaus. And we end with music by Morgan Kibby from 'Mothering Sunday' which is also out this week.

Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Photo: Claire Folger

The release of Edgar Wright's new film 'The Last Night in Soho', where the main character travels back to 1966, prompts Matthew to look back at the film music of that year. It was the time of 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly', 'One Million Years BC', 'A Man for All Seasons', 'Born Free' and 'The Battle of Algiers'. The programme features muisc from these, plus 'Georgy Girl', 'The Blue Max', 'Is Paris Burning?', 'Dracula - Prince of Darkness', 'Fahrenheit 451' and music from Steven Price's new score for 'Last Night In Soho'.

Transferring a book or idea to the screen can be troublesome, in the week of the long-awaited ‘Dune’, Matthew Sweet selects music for films that have struggled to reach the screen. The programme includes music from 'Apocalypse Now' - including part of David Shire's rejected score - 'Fitzcarraldo', 'Waterworld', 'Heaven's Gate', 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote', 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Dune'.

Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures.

Matthew Sweet meets director and composer John Carpenter to talk about writing the music for his films, and his score for 'Halloween Kills', which was released this week. They discuss John's iconic score for the first film in the 'Halloween' franchise, which was released in 1978, his musical collaborations with Alan Howarth and Shirley Walker on 'Escape from New York' and 'Escape from L.A.' and John's scores for 'The Fog', 'Vampires' and 'Village of the Damned'. John explains how he came to work with the great Ennio Morricone who wrote the score for 'The Thing'. And he describes the great pleasure he now gets from writing themes for imaginary films in the 'Lost Themes' series, and the joy that performing his music live has brought him.

With the recent release of the new James Bond film ‘No Time To Die’, Matthew Sweet looks back on the music for Bond villains from John Barry to Hans Zimmer. Included in the programme is music for Bond and the villains in 'Goldfinger', 'Dr No', 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service', 'Spectre', 'You Only Live Twice', 'Moonraker', 'The Spy Who Loved Me', 'Live And Let Die', 'The World Is Not Enough', 'Octopussy', 'A View To A Kill', 'The Living Daylights', 'Tomorrow Never Dies', 'Skyfall', 'Casino Royale', and 'No Time To Die'.

Matthew Sweet celebrates the film highlights of the year with a focus on the recently announced 2025 Bafta winners.

He speaks exclusively with the winner of the Best Original Score - composer Daniel Blumberg, for the film The Brutalist - who tells Matthew about how he travelled to an Italian quarry to record some of the music, and what it was like to actually win the Bafta itself.

There's music from Conclave, The Brutalist and The Wild Robot, plus even some Zoe Saldana and a hint of Trent Reznor's alarm clock....and even a musical jump-scare from Nosferatu....

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Matthew's theme is skin, featuring music for the screen as varied as The Singing Detective to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, and prompted by this week's new release, the first Tunisian film to be nominated for an Academy Award, Kaouther Ben Hania's 'The Man Who Sold His Skin' with a score by Amine Bouhafa.

Also in the programme is music by Dan Romer, Jerry Goldsmith, Alberto Iglesias, Ron Grainer, John Williams, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Harold Arlen and Mica Levi. The Classic Score of the Week is Jerry Goldsmith’s ‘The Illustrated Man’.

Matthew Sweet is joined by director Mike Leigh to talk about his ideas about music for films and to look back on some of the scores for films such as the historical dramas 'Mr Turner', 'Peterloo' and ‘Topsy-Turvy’. He first came to prominence with the Play for Today TV drama ‘Nuts in May’ in 1976, and for many years he was known for his improvised domestic dramas. He tells Matthew about his work with composers Andrew Dickson (‘Naked’, Mean Time’ and ‘High Hopes’) and Gary Yershon (‘Peterloo’, ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’ and ‘Another Year’). There’s jazz from Marianne Jean-Baptiste (‘Career Girls’) and an excerpt from one of Rachel Portman’s earliest scores (‘Four Days in July’). And we hear Carl Davis’s versions of Gilbert and Sullivan (‘Topsy-Turvy’).

Mike Leigh’s work is celebrated by the BFI in October and November on the Southbank in London and at Home in Manchester, with the release of a new print of his 1993 classic ‘Naked’, and with the appearance of a new, revised version of ‘Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh’.

Matthew Sweet with music for films inspired by the world beneath the surface including James Horner's music for 'The 33' and Bernard Herrmann's music for the classic 1959 version of 'Journey To The Center Of the Earth'. This week's featured new release is the First World War drama, 'The War Below' about the miners of Messsines who dug tunnels to employ high explosives deep beneath the Belgium trenches. The new sore is by the Finnish composer Anne Kulonen.

The programme also includes music from Escape From The Dark, The Molly McGuires, Germinal, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Descent, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, and Beneath Hill 60.

Matthew also meets compsoer Natalie Holt who talks about her score for the new Phyllida Lloyd film, 'Herself'.

Matthew Sweet with a look and film music for movies with a disruptive vibe reflecting the launch this last week of Michael Caton-Jones's new film 'Our Ladies', about a group of school girls from the Scottish Highlands who spend a day partying, drinking and hooking up in Scotland's capital.

Also in the programme is music for the varioues St Trinian's films, plus 'Rebel Without A Cause', 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', 'Heathers', 'Suicide Squad', 'Birds of Prey' and the recent 'The Suicide Squad', 'Kick-Ass', and 'The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared'. The Classic Score of the Week is 'West Side Story'.

Matthew Sweet presents a selection of film music inspired by the new film Reminiscence with a score by Ramin Djawadi, with a look at films in which the pursuit of love has to overcome extraordinary obstacles.

Matthew meets Canadian film composer Christophe Beck, who wrote the music for both Frozen films, the Ant-Man franchise and The Hangover trilogy. Initially a music student at Yale where he wrote two musicals with his brother, the pianist Chilly Gonzales, he went on to study film scoring with Jerry Goldsmith at the University of Southern California. Starting out in television he won an Emmy for his work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, before the cheerleading comedy Bring it On launched his film career. Other credits include Under the Tuscan Sun, Garfield, Crazy Stupid Love, Pitch Perfect, and Trolls.

Christophe talks to Matthew about his latest film Free Guy, his love of modular synths, and how it feels when a film you score flops at the box office.

Producer: Ruth Thomson

Matthew looks back on 40 years of Indiana Jones, with music from the franchise alongside some of the titles from the Golden Age of cinema that inspired both Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to re-imagine the genre. And Matthew also looks at the some of the films that have come in its wake, including Disney's 'Jungle Cruise', which is released this week.

As well as Indiana Jones and 'Jungle Cruise', the programme features music from 'Romancing the Stone', 'King Solomon's Mines', 'Tomb Raider', 'Secret of the Incas', 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' and the 1950 version of 'King Solomon's Mines'.

Matthew looks at music for the Tough Guy Movie, especially films featuring the creations of Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Bronson, Eastwood and Willis - heroes with staying power. In particular Matthew looks the changing career of Sylvester Stallone - and the Classic Score of the Week is the 1974 'Death Wish'.

Includes in the programme is music by Roy Budd, Elmer Bernstein, Carter Burwell, Alan Silvestri, Lalo Schifrin, Isaac Hayes, Bill Conti, Ennio Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith, Howard Shore, Brian Tyler and Herbie Hancock Plus a track from Christopher Benstead's score for Guy Richie's new film 'Wrath of Man'.

Matthew Sweet catches up with the prolific American film composer, artist and author Mark Mothersbaugh, founder of art-house band Devo and the composer of a new animated movie The Croods 2. Mothersbaugh talks about his extensive collaboration with the director Wes Anderson as well as why animation is, for him, the acme of artistic opportunities for film composers.

Inspired by the release of Freaky, featuring a new score by Bear McCreary, Matthew Sweet presents a selection of scores for films where characters have either lost track of who they are or who find themselves exchanging their name, their mind, or their body with another.

The programme includes music from Gattaca, Spellbound, 3 Women, Desperately Seeking Susan, Welcome To Marwen, Oxygen, Total Recall, Face/Off, Hands Of Orlac, Self/Less, and Freaky. The Classic Score of the Week is Franz Waxman's music for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde from 1941.

The programme also features some of Lorne Balfe's music for the newly released 'Black Widow'.

Matthew Sweet speaks to actor and director Jesse Eisenberg about using Chopin's music in his latest film "A Real Pain" - the story of two cousins touring Poland to honour their grandmother. Matthew also explores the wider impact Polish music and musicians have had on the world of film music - from Bronislaw Kaper's music for the 1954 monster classic "Them!" to Wojciech Kilar's award-winning scores for "The Pianist" and "Bram Stoker's Dracula".

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Matthew Sweet marks the return of the Fast and Furious franchise to cinemas, and a new score by Brian Tyler, with a look at film music for fast cars and the quest for speed.

The programme includes music from Hanna, Monte Carlo or Bust, The Great Race, Le Mans 66, Rush, Mad Max Fury Road, Ronin, The French Connection, Black Panther, Bullitt and fromt he enw Fast and Furious film. There's also a close look at Billy Goldenberg's score for Steven Spielberg's early film, Duel.

Matthew Sweet talks to Coventry born Clint Mansell, founder member of the group Pop Will Eat Itself, and one of the most distinctive composers of modern film. His credits include 'Requiem for a Dream', 'The Fountain', 'Black Swan' 'Loving Vincent', 'Rebecca' and many others, including his latest score for Ben Wheatley's new film 'In The Earth'. which is released this week. Clint talks with Matthew about his approach to writing for film, the people who have inspired him, and his regular working relationships with directors Ben Wheatley and Darren Aronofsky. He also speaks about working with the film director Duncan Jones on his sci-fi masterpiece 'Moon' and how significant this was for him, not least because he had idolised Jones's father, David Bowie. And Clint Mansell speaks candidly and movingly about the sudden death of his girlfriend and how this impacted his music for the film High Rise.

Inspired by the Emma Seligman's new film, 'Shiva Baby' featuring an imaginative and unsettling score by Ariel Marx, Matthew looks at music for films that present ideas about anxiety, from Hitchcock to Mel Brooks, to a some of the screen stories of the present day.

Included in the programme is music from High Anxiety, Adaptation, Now Voyager, Inside Out, Arachnophobia, Vertigo, Marnie, The Aviator, Airport, and Airplane. The Classic Score of the Week is Jerry Goldsmith's score for the 1962 Freud: The Secret Passion.

The programme also features an interview with Ariel Marx talking about her imaginative score for the new film, Shiva Baby.

Hollywood composer Joseph Bishara, who has scored all the Insidious and Conjuring films, joins Matthew Sweet to delve into the world of contemporary horror and discuss the presence of evil, the power of silence, and scoring scenes that feature himself – as supernatural villains Bathsheba Sherman and the Lipstick-Face Demon. Featuring Joseph’s music alongside influential scores he admires by John Carpenter, Jerry Goldsmith, Wendy Carlos, and John Corigliano. ‘The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It’ is in UK cinemas this weekend.

Matthew Sweet with music for the road movie genre, marking the cinematic release of the much-garlanded film 'Nomadland'.

Characters in a road movie undergo a journey - usually by car or motorbike - which invariably presents a life-changing experience. They can be journeys about self-discovery, rebellion, reconciliation and sometimes death. Matthew foregrounds some of the best road movie scores including 'Easy Rider', 'On the Road', (inspired by Jack Kerouac's genre-defining novel of the same name), 'The Motorcycle Diaries', 'Little Miss Sunshine', 'To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar'' and 'Locke'. Matthew takes a look at how Erik Nordgren's score works to picture in Ingmar Bergman's 1957 masterpiece 'Wild Strawberries' and reflects on the importance of the road movie in the work of director Wim Wenders. The Classic Score of the Week is Ry Cooder's atmospheric music for 'Paris, Texas'.

Matthew Sweet marks the forthcoming release of Dominic Cooke's thriller 'The Courier', with a new score by Abel Korzeniowski, and focuses on films based on true espionage stories.

Matthew features music from the new film as well as from 'Argo', 'Mata Hari - Agent H21', 'The Good Shepherd', 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind', 'Black Book', 'Bridge of Spies', 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy', 'Red Joan', and cues from Gabriel Yared's and Stephane Moucha's 'The Lives of Others', which is the Classic Score of the Week.

Matthew Sweet looks back on the music for the films of the great French director Bertrand Tavernier, who died earlier this year, including Herbie Hancock's Oscar winning score for the film 'Round Midnight'. The programme includes music by some of France's greatest film composers including Antoine Duhamel and Philippe Sarde and music from revered films such as 'Quai d'Orsay'; 'A Sunday in the Country', 'The Clockmaker', 'Laissez-Passer', 'Death Watch', 'La fille de d'Artagnan', 'La Princesse de Montpensier'.'Coup de Torchon', 'L.627' and 'Daddy Nostalgie'. Matthew is joined by the French film critic Murial Zagha.

A selection of film music written to evoke the start of spring and the idea of rebirth, including scores by Ji Bark, John Williams, Danny Elfman, Isobel Waller-Bridge and David Schweitzer, Nino Rota and Jerry Goldsmith, among others. The Classic Score of the Week is Jerry Goldsmith's music for the 'The Reincarnation of Peter Proud'. Matthew also takes a close look at how music works to picture in the first outing of a new feature for the programme. Today he examines Alexandre Desplat's music for the opening scene of Jonathan Glazer's 2004 film 'Birth'.

It’s 25 years since Rachel Portman composed the music for Emma and collected an Academy Award for Best Soundtrack, the first woman to merit such recognition, since which time there has been an array of talented female composers all eager to follow her lead - and yet a recent survey noted that an annual list of top 250 box office rated films, 94% of them were scored by men. Matthew Sweet marks International Women’s Day with a look at woman who score films, featuring a wide ranging selection of music from across a variety of genres. The programme includes great pioneers of the past, such as Elisabeth Lutyens and Shirley Walker, as well as some of the excitingly diverse, up-and-coming names, hungry for attention now.

With the upcoming release of a full length big screen outing for Tom and Jerry, Matthew Sweet meets composer Christopher Lennertz to talk about his music for this and other films.

Matthew Sweet talks to composer Debbie Wiseman about using period music in films. For the TV series Wolf Hall, Debbie wrote original music in a period style, films like Farinelli and Death In Venice use classical music and for the series Bridgerton Kris Bowers created a hybrid of period-sounding music with hip-hop beats. Matthew asks how the search for authenticity enhances the viewer's experience, and when does it become a distraction?

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As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, Matthew Sweet features a selection of music for film from across the years that has presented its own vision of the 20s, such as Children of Men and Terminator.

Mark Isham, Hollywood composer of 'October Sky', 'A River Runs Through It' and the new 'Judas and the Black Messiah' has scored over 400 films and is a favourite composer with the likes of Robert Redford and Jodie Foster. He joins Matthew Sweet to discuss his career and some of his thoughts on scoring film in a programme that features music from ‘Fire In The Sky’, ‘Blade’, ‘A River Runs Through It’, ‘Of Mice And Men’, ‘Nell’, ‘The Black Dahlia’, ‘Dolphin Tale’, ‘Togo’ and the forthcoming ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’.

Matthew Sweet looks at music for some of the recent On Demand small screen series and in particular at those with a supernatural theme, in the light of the release of the new drama 'Fate - The Winx Saga' featuring music by the Canadian composer, Anne Nikitin.

Other series featured in the programme include ‘WandaVision’, ‘Bridgerton’, ‘Game Of Thrones’, ‘His Dark Materials’, ‘Dark’, ‘Stranger Things’, ‘Hemlock Grove’, ‘Carnival Row’, ‘The Umbrella Academy’, ‘Penny Dreadful’ and ‘Penny Dreadful - City of Angels’. The Classic Score of the Week is Bernard Herrmann’s music for the original 1959 ‘The Twilight Zone’.

The American composer and jazz trumpeter, Terence Blanchard, talks to Matthew Sweet about his career in film music and his artistic association with film-maker Spike Lee. Terence's latest score for One Night In Miami, about a fictionalised meeting between Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown, is out this week. Matthew features music from that and also from The Blackkklansman, Da 5 Bloods, Malcolm X, Harriet, The Caveman’s Valentine, and Eve's Bayou.

With the release of Kornél Mundruczó’s award winning ‘Pieces of A Woman’, with a new score by Howard Shore, Matthew Sweet looks at film music inspired by the idea of autobiography.

'Tis more than just a season of snow-clad backdrops and tinkling soundtracks as Matthew Sweet illustrates in his sparkling assortment of film music for cinematic Christmases.

With the recent on demand release of David Fincher’s new film ‘Mank’, exploring the background to the 1941 classic film, 'Citizen Kane' and starring Gary Oldman as writer Herman J Mankiewicz,, Matthew looks at the music and cinema of Orson Welles. As well as featuring some of the new score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for the new Fincher film biog, the programme also includes music from Welles's Shakespeare inspired films: 'Chimes At Midnight', 'The Magnificent Ambersons', 'Macbeth' and 'Othello'; plus music from 'Touch of Evil', 'Lady of Shamghai', 'Jane Eyre', 'The Third Man', 'The Other Side of the Wind' and of course, 'Citizen Kane'.

As part of a weekend profiling Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, Matthew Sweet is joined by film historian Iain Smith, a past member of scheme, for a look at one of his pet interests - how popular English speaking film titles and their music often appear adapted and remade in other countries of the world.

Virtually every major franchise has its equivalent local version in some part of the world. It could be a Turkish or Filipino interpretation of James Bond or an Indian take on Harry Potter. Sometimes the music bares a strong resemblance to the original as well. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the many different takes on the James Bond franchise and Matthew and Iain give particular attention to the "Eurospy" phenomenon of the 60s and 70s.

This sharing of ideas also works the other way round, and Matthew and Iain look at how Hollywood has taken inspiration from French cinema, Bollywood and Japan. The programme includes music from 'True Lies', 'Sommersby', 'UpperSeven - The Spy with Ten Faces', 'OK Connery', 'Kung Fu Hustle', 'Dastak', 'Pearl Harbor', and 'Battle beyond the Stars'. The Classic Scores of the week are Fumio Hayasaka's 'The Seven Samurai' and Elmer Bernstein's 'The Magnificent seven'.

Heaven Can Wait, On Golden Pond, The Champ, The Firm and The Fabulous Baker Boys are some of the best-loved film scores of the past 50 years. Matthew Sweet meets their composer, Dave Grusin, for a look back on a long and distinguished career in film.

Matthew Sweet with a selection of film music inspired by the theme of Halloween, from the classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to more recent manifestations such as - Halloween.

Matthew looks at representations of Halloween in film in the likes of 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' and 'Meet Me In St Louis' and turns to scores from some of the great and scariest horror films, such as Suspiria, The Quatermass Xperiment, Doctor Who, The Night Of The Hunter, Psycho, A Nightmare On Elm Street, The Babadook, Candyman, Insidious, Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, Sinister, and - the Classic Score of the Week - John Carpenter's influential music for the 1978 Halloween.

With the Maria Callas biopic starring Angelina Jolie in cinemas, Matthew Sweet speaks to Maria director Pablo Larrain. The talk about working with Angelina Jolie, being a frustrated musician himself and how Pablo uses music in his films. Pablo also reveals the secrets of bringing Maria Callas alive through Angelina's singing.

Matthew also explores how films have turned to their natural predecessor, opera, for inspiration. Puccini's Madame Butterfly proves a Fatal Attraction for Michael Douglas, Bernard Herrmann writes his own aria for Citizen Kane, and the Habanera from Bizet's Carmen gives depth and poignancy to widower Carl's pottering in Up!

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With the cinematic release of a new telling of the classic Frances Hodgson Burnett children’s book The Secret Garden, featuring a score by Dario Marianelli, Matthew Sweet looks at this and other music for secret worlds in film. From the fantasy worlds of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland and C.S Lewis's Narnia, to the dinosaur ridden terrains of Jurassic Park and the Valley of Gwangi, the mind of John Malkovich, and the labyrinth of Pan. Our classic score is Dmitri Tiomkin's music evoking the mystical utopia of Shangri-la in Frank Capra's Lost Horizon.

This week's featured new release is The Trial of the Chicago 7, with a new score by Daniel Pemberton, a true story set against the background of protest and unrest of 1968, a year historically regarded as being a watershed for social change. Matthew takes a look at the film and its new score and looks back to some of the many films released in 1968. The year that saw the arrival of 2001 - A Space Odyssey, Bullitt, If, The Lion In Winter, and Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet.

Photo credit: Niko Tavernise/NETFLIX © 2020

Zbigniew Preisner first came to international attention through his collaboration with the great Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, for films such as the Dekalog series, The Double Life of Veronique and the critically acclaimed Three Colours Trilogy. Matthew explores Zbigniev's philosophy about music for film. He looks back on Preisner's early career in political cabaret in communist Poland, his work with Kieslowski and with directors such as Agnieska Holland and Louis Malle, about his feelings Hollywood and the vast body of music he’s produced for international cinema since Kieslowski's death in 1990.

The programme features music from Dekalog, The Double Life of Veronique, Three Colours Blue, A Requiem For My Friend, The Queen Of Spain, The Secret Garden, Damage, Between Strangers, Woman of Berlin, Valley Of Shadows, All About Love, The Beautiful Country, Aberdeen, and Mother Didn't Know.