The Push - Channel 4

The story of Fawziyah is incredibly emotional and harrowing.

The pain and difficult journey experienced by her family is evident throughout the film, so musically we wanted to show restraint and not become maudlin, but still give the film a character and personality that has a strong identity that emphasised the family.

To achieve this and give the central character a life that supported the incredible archive, the sound of the intimate solo cello resonated with everyone.

I wrote themes for Fawziyah and recorded a lot of material on solo cello. Motifs, rhythms and other cello experiments were incredibly useful to form a tool kit of sounds.

While we didn’t want the music to be ethnic, or reference the cultural heritage of the family, I wanted to have a sound connected to the cello but also a sound that you couldn’t pin down.

That sound is the Bazantaar – an extremely rare instrument performed by Mark Deutsche the inventor of the instrument. The instrument is bowed like a cello but has resonating strings like a sitar which gives it a slightly exotic quality.

You hear that instrument which is performed in a very emotive way across a handful of key themes that are very emotional. It lends itself to lyrical moments.

I also had to bring out the tension of the court room drama and the trial with subtle energy and a chilling feel.

The other character in the story is Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh. The camera work evokes a sense of impending doom that is enhanced with flurries of cello.

The choice of using solo instruments was to maintain intimacy with the story; to never go bigger than the story.

I was on the series from before the edit right through to the dub, working closely with the team, refining the music cues.

I found the material of Fawziyah’s mother incredibly harrowing and difficult to work with as her pain is so raw and visceral. Tapping into that energy was very important to be able to tell the story with sensitivity.