By Barry Gray

Silva Screen, out now

 

Tunes for the BISHOP…

Silva Screen have provided a lot of nostalgic sounds for genre fans over the years, and their latest is no exception, especially for those of a Gerry Anderson fandom persuasion.

Here, we get a selection of Anderson regular composer Gray’s music from the series in which Stanley Unwin voiced a vicar turned world-saving secret agent. Thankfully, for those of us who prefer to avoid putting up with Unwin’s trademark gobbledigook schtick, none of it is present here, so that’s a bonus point to start with. Instead we start with the Century 21 fanfare that is familiar to so many of the Anderson shows, and that leads us nicely into “Robbery At Healey Automation,” a nice bit of crime/espionage scoring that is pure 1960s Brit-crime nostalgia with a hint of John Barry crossed with Thunderbirds. To be fair, so is a lot of the rest of the album.

The main theme is rather different; since the main character is at least partially a vicar, the theme tune is very much a light bubbly religious  sounding vocal that sounds like it would accompany a feature in Songs Of Praise or something similar. Being that this effectively operates as Father Unwin’s theme too, it crops up repeatedly throughout the album, signifying the Unwin marionette’s appearances in the episode.

Longtime fans of Anderson and/or Gray might expect that there would be more electronic music than there actually is in this score, though it isn’t totally absent. That said, the small orchestra does provide some very Thunderbirds– like cues in places, especially in tracks like “Aerial Spies” and “250 Hours.” Most of the thrill, mystery, and action cues are distinctively 1950s/60s British thriller sounds in nature, but with a lightness more attuned to a family-friendly show.

Verdict: It’s a pleasant enough listen as a soundtrack album; nothing too jarring, nothing too demanding, but nothing too memorable either. It’s simply a nice nostalgia trip with a little over-reliance on the bubbly hymn-like theme.  7/10

David A McIntee

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