Bleak landscapes and banjos: composer Bernard Hughes discusses his score for 'Chicken Town'

Composer Bernard Hughes first met director Richard Bracewell when working on the film Bill, a 2015 Horrible Histories take on the life of Shakespeare for which he provided some of the score. The pair were keen to collaborate again but the pandemic put paid to their plans. The new black comedy Chicken Town sees the pair reunited.

GRAHAM RICKSON: This is a film made on a small budget. How do the economics of a production affect how you work?

BERNARD HUGHES: I discussed the brief with Richard from the very start, and there were two big considerations. Namely “what do you want it to sound like?” and “what can we afford?”. I went with the smallest ensemble possible with which to realise what he required. We had a small string section which our brilliant engineer Nick Taylor made sound much larger. Plus an oboe, piano and harp along with two percussionists.A section of chase music needed some percussion, and I couldn’t do it with just one player. In terms of studio time, overdubbing takes twice as long, so that wouldn’t have helped. This is essentially a pared-down orchestral score, and Richard wanted something that would reflect the juxtaposition of this very bleak, grand landscape with a bunch of characters who are mostly idiots (Ramy Ben Fredj and Ethaniel Davy, pictured above). I was careful to ensure that the music didn’t tell the jokes, and only two cues out of 27 are comedic in tone.

So the bulk of your work started after you watched the first rough edit?

I was on board with the project from 2021, when Chicken Town’s script was in its early stages, and whether it would ever get made was a long shot. Richard shot the film in 2023, and when a release deal was agreed earlier this year, we could finally go ahead and add some original music.I wrote the score without much time pressure, though getting it recorded in a day was intense. Richard had added a temporary track to his final edit and would tell me what he wanted my music to sound like. Some of his choices were scored for full orchestra, so I had to remind him that I couldn’t provide an equivalent (Pictured above: Graham "Jilted John" Fellows in Chicken Town).

Richard was keen for me to bring my own ideas to the table and not just mimic the temp track. I put together a mood board of music for Richard to listen to while filming, which included the Tallis Fantasia and pieces by Walton and Elgar, so it was quite English pastoral in tone. At one stage we thought about doing a choral score, and I even suggested bringing in a banjo at one point. Everything was discussed in detail. We had just one long day in the studio, the three sessions running late into the evening and me with a terrible cold!

Once recording sessions are finished, do you walk away and trust the director to do the right thing?

The two days after the sessions were spent editing, and the completed sound mix was ready within a week. If anything had gone wrong in the studio, we’d have been stuffed. My only regret, which all film composers must have, is when the director starts sticking dialogue over your beautiful music!

• Chicken Town is in cinemas from Friday 27th June
• More film reviews on theartsdesk