Sound of Cinema

Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Sound of Cinema Podcast

Sound of Cinema: Family Films

Family Films

BBC Radio 3 - Sound of Cinema, Family Films

A wholesome mixture of film music written to enhance the shared experience of the 'family film', introduced by Matthew Sweet.

Of all the genre titles the 'family film' is perhaps the trickiest to define. Its intention, clearly, is to entertain and appeal to the whole family - togetherness. But what are the specific ingredients that make it so?  Nevertheless, cinema goers seem to have a good sense of what an advertised family film might have to offer. 

Matthew Sweet looks back at this category of film, which seemed to spring into existence in America around the 1930s, and he foregrounds the music of some of the best and most defining examples.

The programme includes music from Home Alone, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Gulliver's Travels, Honey I Shrunk The Kids, The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, ET - The Extra Terrestrial, Kiki's Delivery Service, Paddington 2 and the Classical Score of the Week  - the Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell score for Shrek.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Music: Easy Listening, Soundtracks & Musicals

Matthew Sweet's weekly look at music for the screen

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