This has been one of those rare series where everything’s fallen into place – and to make it even better, it’s been really fun to produce!
Scala Radio has an existing partnership with the brilliant Empire magazine, involving on-air credits for Empire and a column in the mag by our very own Mark Kermode, who showcases some of his favourite new and re-issued film scores each month.
As we were putting initial plans to Scala’s movie music marathon, All Movies Easter Monday – when each hour of the day is themed according to a film composer, genre, franchise, actor or director, and listeners vote for their 3 favourite hour themes in an online poll – I received this tweet from a regular listener to Mark Kermode’s Scala Radio show:
As it turned out, I’d met Amon Warmann, one of Empire’s contributing editors, a year or so earlier as part of the Cambridge Film Festival’s A Film I Love series. He’d demonstrated his excellent taste by choosing Whiplash and we had a really fun Zoom chat talking about why it’s such a great film.
Seeing as one of the genres listeners can vote for in the All Movies Easter Monday poll is Superheroes, it made perfect sense to invite Amon to host a series on behalf of Empire on Scala Radio. He picked his 3 favourite themes – Superheroes from the Genres list, Hans Zimmer from the Composers list and The Lord of the Rings from the Film Franchises list – and The Empire Playlist on Scala Radio is broadcasting on Sunday evenings in the run-up to our day of movie music as a way of promoting All Movies Easter Monday on air and on our socials.
Amon brings a real energy and passion to his chosen subjects and he’s also shown he’s up for a challenge by taking part it some movie music quizzes too…
