A selection of recent audio drama projects composed / sound designed by Jon Nicholls including productions with BBC Radio 3 & 4 and leading indies.

audio drama | music & sound design

Music from the Radio 4 adaptation of 'Laurels And Donkeys' by Andrew Motion; a sequence of war poems based on the words of serving soldiers from WW1 to the present day.

Laurels And Donkeys

A selection of tracks from composer Jon Nicholls www.jonnicholls.com. Track 1 is a 3-minute montage of shorter clips.

selected tracks

Opening of 'Pink Mist', Owen Sheers' drama about returning soldiers.

Pink Mist: after before

Title themes from documentaries from strands including Channel 4 Dispatches & Cutting Edge, BBC Storyville, BBC3 and Sky1.

Married To The Moonies

The Hunt For Mr Swirl

Music from the Radio 4 adaptation of 'Laurels And Donkeys' by Andrew Motion; a sequence of war poems based on the words of serving soldiers from WW1 to the present day. Voice: Carl Prekopp

Laurels & Donkeys: Matinee Idol

Homecoming

Gethsemane

Aftermath

Selections from recent audio dramas I've sound designed and mixed, including projects with Audible, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4. Extracts from 'The Baker Street Four' & 'Username: Resurgent' (Audible Originals); 'Spores', 'Rare Earth' & 'The Certificate' (Radio 4); 'The Meaning of Zong' (Radio 3: Winner Best Sound Design BBC Audio Drama Awards). Some projects are mixed in immersive Dolby Atmos - headphones recommended!

audio drama: sound design and mix

Extracts from composed features produced, sound designed, composed and mixed for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4.

composed audio features

Ballad Of The Burning Boy

Title theme for Lost At Sea, a new podcast series from BBC Studios investigating the terrifyingly dangerous world of international fisheries observers and the mysterious 2015 disappearance of Keith Davis.

Lost At Sea: Main Title

Series theme for 'Where I Am', an annual collection of audio drama shorts from Pentabus Theatre's national Young Writers programme. The brief for was for a contemporary-sounding theme which also reflected Pentabus' origins as a company making and touring work in rural areas of the country.

Where I Am title theme

Title theme for BBC Radio 4's podcast series Bad Blood: The Story of Eugenics, presented by Dr. Adam Rutherford.

Bad Blood theme

Dramatised by Jonathan Myerson, from the novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer, translated by Leonard Wolf.

This warm-hearted comic romance tells the story of hapless teenager David Bendiger, who washes up penniless in 1922 Warsaw. Director: Jonquil Panting | sound design & mix Jon Nicholls

The Certificate

The adventures of the Baker Street Four - street children who assist Sherlock Holmes with the help of Watson the cat. Starring Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie and Joseph Paterson, directed by Celia de Wolff. Music by Nicola Tescari; sound design & mix by Jon Nicholls.

The Baker Street Four

Music from Theatre Royal Bath's production of Lynn Nottage's 'intimate Apparel', set in 1905 New York City.

Intimate Apparel

Music from the Northampton Royal & Derngate's 2011 production of J B Priestley's 'Eden End'. Featuring Fiona Barrow (violin) & Rebecca Rudge (soprano)

Eden End

Theme for the RNLI 200 Podcast series, celebrating 200 years of the RNLI

RNLI 200 Voices Theme

The Lost Diary

Music from BBC Radio 4's 2015 adaptation of Ursula Le Guin's fantasy classic 'Earthsea'. Music performed by the Society Of Strange & Ancient Instruments.

Earthsea

Music from the BBC Radio 4 drama serial 'Clouds In Trousers', and its companion series 'Weatherland' about artistic and literary responses to the British weather.

During Wind And Rain

Weather Rain

Music from the Radio 4 dramatisation of Toni Morrison's novel 'Beloved'.

Beloved LoveTheme

'Who's There?' by acclaimed poet Greta Stoddart is a moving and poetic exploration of the inner and outer worlds of the residents of a dementia care home, mixing real and imagined voices with music and fluid, dream-like soundscapes. Featuring the voices of David Hargreaves, Kim Hicks, Hattie Morahan, Dr Stephen Pearson and Heather Williams, together with the voices of residents and staff of Koppers care home in Devon. Producer: Jon Nicholls

Who's There? by Greta Stoddart (full version)

Cemetery Gates by Jon Nicholls www.jonnicholls.com

Mix of music composed for recent screen / stage / audio drama projects.

music showreel

Cue from radio adaptation of H G Wells sci-fi classic. The Time Traveller describes his journey into the future...

The Time Traveller's Journey

Music from the smash-hit world stage premiere of Joe Simpson's survival classic 'Touching The Void', currently touring internationally. Composer & sound designer Jon Nicholls. All music © Jon Nicholls 2018

Touching The Void mix

Prix Italia, Jury Special Mention. Eliot Weinberger's long and continuing prose poem draws on reports, newspapers, official utterances and eye-witness accounts to paint a terrifying picture of the war in Iraq. Sound design / mix: Jon Nicholls.

What I Heard About Iraq (full version)

Music from the BBC serialisation of H P Lovecraft's 'At The Mountains Of Madness'

At the Mountains Of Madness: opening title

A full-length heightened reading of HP Lovecraft's horror classic 'At the Mountains Of Madness', read by Richard Coyle.

At The Mountains Of Madness - Episode 1

At The Mountains Of Madness - Episode 2

Music composed by Jon Nicholls for the 2020 BBC production of Henry IV Part 1,

Falstaff Is Melancholy (music only)

Music from Alan Ayckbourn's 'Things we Do For Love', produced by Theatre Royal Bath, starring Natalie Imbruglia.

The School Song

No Going Back

The Piano Lesson

'Lanny' by Max Porter, adapted by Oliver Emmanuel. Sound design by Jon Nicholls for BBC Radio 4

Lanny (edit)

A selection of music cues from recent audio dramas composed by Jon Nicholls

audio drama: music composition

I'm a Prix Italia-nominated composer and sound designer with over fifteen years' experience of composing music and sound scores for screen, radio drama,  interactive media and theatre, with a substantial track record of commissions from national broadcasters and theatre companies. Drawing on a huge range of eclectic influences, my work ranges from sweeping orchestral music to abstract electronics, choral writing and quirkily innovative sound design.

My work's been heard extensively on BBC Radio and BBC TV, Channel 4, ITV and Sky, and at leading theatres around the UK including the National Theatre.

Based near Bristol and working from my own Logic / Pro Tools-based broadcast-standard studio, I also have access to a wide network of fabulous musicians with whom I regularly work.

Jon Nicholls

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