By Lorne Balfe

Watertower Music

Alfie’s world expands – in London and musically…

For the second season of Pennyworth, scoring duties transferred over to Scottish composer Lorne Balfe, best known for the likes of Ironclad, Assassin’s Creed III, Penguins Of Madagascar, and Mission Impossible Fallout.

David E Russo’s main theme carries over, and remains distinctive and well used throughout, with Balfe having perhaps a longer and wider range of experience to draw upon in blending the original choices with more straightforward but still exciting and evocative contemporary scoring. In particular, Balfe dials down on the use of harpsichord and suchlike, using those kinds of instrumentation more sparingly, but more effectively, and especially – in the final “Main Theme” track, damping down a lot on the Aldi’s/Lidl’s version of The Persuaders intro.

As with season 1, this feels like a solid period thriller score, with more use of orchestra and strings, as we’d expect from an action series score. It’s a better blend than the season 1 score, but also a little less individualistic. Despite that, there are still some highly memorable pieces, notably the evocative piano version of the theme, heard in “I’m Engaged”, and the mix of a building militaristic percussive metal pipe beat blended with snare drums in “Duty Calling,” which really catches the feel of a Lalo Schifrin cop or war movie score, or a proper 1960s Mission Impossible build-up, without self-referencing any of his Mission Impossible Fallout score.

In fact, of course, those snare drums, heard in various tracks, are a distinctive Schifrin trademark, showing a clear choice of influence on Balfe as different to the John Barry choice of Russo in the previous season. That said, the harpsichords and suchlike do return effectively in “Just Another Job,” while there’s also some good threatening villainous airs in “We’ll Meet Again.”

Verdict: Balfe has turned in a score at least as solid and confident as the Season 1 score, albeit a little more in keeping with modern expectations for an action thriller score, and one which effectively develops from and blends with the already extant themes and motifs. Not hugely unusual or standout, but another solid soundtrack. If you’re going to get one of the Pennyworth scores, you may as well get both; they’re sufficiently different from each other, but neither is notably better or worse than the other. 7/10

David A McIntee