Before becoming a professional composer, Jim spent five years at the BBC as a cameraman – working on everything from Top of the Pops through Eastenders to Harold Pinter plays. This experience has proved invaluable in the discipline of writing music to film and in communicating with the director.
After leaving the BBC he started working in fringe theatre as a composer and soon picked up work in TV at the BBC again.
A string of short films including Recorded Delivery, which was selected for the prestigious LA Shorts festival of 2003 was followed by the feature film S Club:Seeing Double for Columbia Tristar. On this project Jim showed his ability to combine a commercial dance sound with a more traditional narrative score. In 2005 Jim provided the music for Lynda La Plante’s ITV1 drama The Commander.
In his score for the landmark BBC TV series The Planets he demonstrated a fresh approach to composing music for the now familiar subject matter of the solar system, where he focused on the scientific as well as the mythic aspects. It won much acclaim, including a nomination for an RTS award. This was his second nomination – his first, the previous year, was for the title music to the BBC TV sports talk show On Side. Other commissions for title music include The Daily Politics and
This Week, BBC Sports Personality of the Year and the BBC BAFTA Tribute programmes.
Other work includes the Tiger Aspect documentary Virtual History: Secret Plot to Kill Hitler , which won an RTS Award in 2005; the controversial BBC1 drama documentary The Virgin Mary; A Queen’s Kingdom a 2 hour BBC special documentary to mark Golden Jubilee year.
Jim has also worked in theatre and the fine art world. White Cube artist Runa Islam asked him to score her two-screen film Scale (1/16 inch = 1 foot) which was selected for the 2003 Istanbul Biennial.