Silva Screen Records release John Lunn's score to the ITV drama series Grantchester. Based on the detective novels of James Runcie, Grantchester follows Anglican vicar Sidney Chambers and Detective Inspector Geordie Keating as they investigate wrongdoing in their Cambridgeshire village...

John Lunn's score for Grantchester opens incredibly well with 'Mr Chambers'' and in truth the majority of Lunn's music is quiet beautiful. For me, the one thing that spoilt this release was the rather unnecessary number of quotes that were played over the tracks. Now, while I'm sure some fans of the show will love this, for me the point of a soundtrack is a chance to finally hear the music unencumbered by the dialogue of the show. If I wanted to hear quotes then I'd watch the TV series.

In the show, Sidney Chambers is a keen jazz fan, and that’s reflected by the inclusion of music from Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong. The second disc (for those purchasing the CD release) highlights the arrival in the series of the enigmatic Gloria Dee and her quartet playing a selection of jazz standards.

So whether you enjoy this release really comes down to whether you're a huge jazz fan or not. Once you strip out the jazz tracks and segments of the score with dialogue plastered over them, Lunn's score sadly takes something of a backseat.

For fans of the show that want an audio souvenir of the series, this works well. If you enjoyed Dee's tracks on the show then there are six songs here for you to enjoy.

This album would have scored at least another mark if the producers had left the rather pointless quotes off the recording.

7

Darren Rea