My Bristol landlady, Sue Williams, eager, for some reason, to help me get more work, had heard that an animator friend of hers was looking for a composer. That is how I came to the attention of Kate Canning, creator of James the Cat and friends. Kate and I duly met. We laughed a lot, as we still do, umpteen years, and two series, later.
When the time came to record the music, towards the end of the analogue era of reel-to-reel tape machines, I was living in Derby. When I started looking around for a recording studio, there really wasn’t anywhere of a good standard locally. My then partner suggested I try a studio he knew of from his contacts in Manchester. The studio, Moonraker, was co-founded by Mike Harding (beloved of the folk music circuit and well-known to children via his excellent music for the classic TV cartoon series Dangermouse) and fellow musician Colin Goddard. I don’t think I met Mike, although we probably talked on the phone, but Colin was generally around. He mixed a lot of the James the Cat music. When he was busy, Mark Vibrans, composer and all-round wit, stood in. Both Colin and Mark were warm-hearted, talented, generous people. They died far, far too soon.
The series’ musicians were mostly northerners, like Peter Birkby the percussionist (with whom I’d worked on Sweet Charity at the Sheffield Crucible) and, I guess, the tuba player. I seem to remember that our mouth-organist was based in Birmingham, but I can’t be sure of that. I played a hired harpsichord every session; these days I’d almost certainly use a digital one. We four made the bulk of the music for the series, bringing in a clarinettist, an oboist and a trombonist as required.
When a batch of episodes were ready for music, I composed it in Derby, and then drove up to Manchester via Matlock, Bakewell and Buxton. It was such a beautiful journey through the Peak District when the sun was shining, but pretty challenging when it rained or — worst of all — snowed. The approach to Buxton could be perilous in inclement weather.
James turned out to be remarkably durable. It’s still being shown on terrestrial channels here and there. It has been pirated and uploaded to Youtube, which can be looked on as a form of flattery, as well as a rip-off.
What was genuinely flattering, and touching, too, was what happened when I went to work at the University of Rochester NY, about fifteen years after James had made his TV debut, The students I was working with greeted me one day with a full-throated rendition of the James theme tune, which they’d heard again and again when they were young children.
Grampian Television
Director: Kate Canning
Producers: Jan Clayton
Starring: Sean Arnold
