Music composed and realised by Roger Limb, BBC Radiophonic WorkshopPublished by BBC Worldwide

Album compiled, produced and mastered by Mark Ayres at Tempus Fugit, 2018

Episode OneWhen the Wolves were Running

Episode TwoWhere shall the ’nighted Showman go?

Episode ThreeIn darkest Cellars underneath

Episode FourThe Spider in the Web

Episode FiveBeware of Yesterday

Episode Six Leave us not Little, nor yet Dark

Original Television Soundtrack

Tracks 01-10

Tracks 11-20

Tracks 21-25

Tracks 26-33

Tracks 34-38

Tracks 39-48

Episode OneWhen the Wolves were Running

01 The Box of Delights - Opening Titles (0.59)

02 The Time That Likings are Made (0.21)

03 A Warning of Wolves (1.18)

04 A Tosser to my Kick (0.39)

05 The White Rider (1.50)

06 Phoenix in the Fire (0.51)

07 Out of the Cold (0.52)

08 A Mountain in Switzerland (1.05)

09 Last Minute Christmas Shopping (1.29)

10 King Arthur’s Camp (2.03)

Episode TwoWhere shall the ’nighted Showman go?

11 King Arthur’s Camp (reprise) (0.42)

12 King Arthur’s Camp (continued) (1.13)

13 The Box of Delights (1.51)

14 Towards Dawn (0.38)

15 Scrobblers (0.32)

16 Snowman (1.30)

17 Herne the Hunter (4.25)

18 Go Small (0.49)

19 Go Swift (0.24)

20 That Boy (0.17)

Episode ThreeIn darkest Cellars underneath

21 In Darkest Cellars Underneath (1.03)

22 Lighting the Tree (0.28)

23 Kitchen Fugue / Here Comes the Posset (1.11)

24 Sweet Dreams (1.51)

25 On the Flood (1.48)

Episode FourThe Spider in the Web

26 Over the Weir (0.42)

27 Return to Seekings (0.32)

28 Maria Scrobbled (1.18)

29 Kay and Peter Fly to the Chester Hills (1.13)

30 Peter Scrobbled (1.09)

31 A Dream (0.28)

32 Kay Returns to Chesters (0.59)

33 The Spider in the Web (0.50)

Episode FiveBeware of Yesterday

34 Our Final Plans (0.35)

35 The Key to All the Trouble (1.12)

36 The Boy with No Shadow (4.07)

37 Waterfall Boy (0.54)

38 Under my Hand (2.13)

Episode Six Leave us not Little, nor yet Dark

39 Leave Us Not Little (0.53)

40 Slave of the Night (2.13)

41 Is it Near? (2.04)

42 Know Your Fate (1.58)

43 Nor Yet Dark (3.33)

44 The End of Abner Brown (1.21)

45 To Tatchester (1.54)

46 Christmas Eve (1.09)

47 Home for the Holidays (0.27)

48 The Box of Delights - Closing Titles (1.44)

Album CreditsRoger Limb (Synthesisers and Radiophonics)Andrew Knight (Harp)Michael Baines (French Horn)Tony Arnopp (Flute, Clarinet, Bass Clarinet)

Music composed and realised by Roger Limb, BBC Radiophonic WorkshopPublished by BBC Worldwide

Except:Tracks 01 and 48 excerpted from Carol Symphony mvmt 3. Andante Quasi Lento E Cantabile by Victor Hely-Hutchinson. Performed by Barry Rose / Pro Arte Orchestra

Album compiled, produced and mastered by Mark Ayres at Tempus Fugit, 2018

The Box of Delights by John Masefield was made by BBC Television in 1984 and transmitted on BBC1 from 21st November 1984 to 24th December 1984Adapted by Alan SeymourProduced by Paul StoneDirected by Renny Rye

Executive Producers for Silva Screen Records Ltd. Reynold D’Silva and David StonerAlbum artwork and packaging design by Clayton Hickman

W hen John Masefield’s 1935 fantasy novel The Box of Delights was first adapted for radio in 1943, part of Victor Hely-Hutchinson’s Carol Symphony was chosen to set the scene. So successful was this pairing that it was used again over the

years on each of the next four radio adaptations. So when The Box of Delights finally came to BBC Television in 1984, it was natural that this tradition should continue.

It’s a story for the Christmas season, and the slightly unearthly, unsettling variations on The First Noel set the scene beautifully. But it’s not long before we are following Kay Harker into the midst of the timeless struggle between good and evil, magical manifestations, mayhem, and bizarre characters coming (literally) out of the woodwork, leading eventually to a reassuring happy ending.

So the essentially gentle music of the Carol Symphony has to give way to incidental music that is a little more hard-edged and threatening. We pass through an off-beat Alice in Wonderland fantasy world to arrive in more dangerous Harry Potter territory, where some of the characters are irredeemably evil.

As the creator of the incidental music, I approached the story with all the tools of a Radiophonic Workshop studio. However, this is not science fiction; certainly, magical things happen, but within the confines of an almost believable reality. This could be a definition of successful fantasy writing. So, to keep the music in line with this vision, I regularly incorporated conventional musical instruments into the score and from time to time I reference Hely-Hutchinson’s harp motif to underscore a particular emotional moment.

Roger LimbNovember 2018

Paul Stone and Renny Rye’s 1984 production of The Box of Delights was an award winner: three BAFTAs (Best Children’s Programme, Videotape Editor, and Lighting)

and an RTS Award (Technique). It was also nominated for the Video Cameraman and Graphics BAFTAs but – amazingly – not for the music. Boo! Hiss! (As they say). But it has endured, with many people of my own acquaintance making re-watching it

an essential part of their yearly Christmas experience. And who can blame them? It’s charm personified, with some

truly magical sequences as Kay Harker opens the box of delights into animated fantasy worlds and meets figures from folklore, the narrative intertwining the pagan and Christian mythologies of this most traditional of holidays.

As with our previous release of Paddy Kingsland’s The Changes, this music has been much-requested down the years

(you know who you are!) so it’s lovely to finally be able to bring this recording to your ears. In my humble opinion, you’d have to go some way to beat the marvellous combination of Roger Limb’s inventive

radiophonics and live instrumentation embodied here. There’s the warmest of Christmas cheer to be found in Snowman and Kitchen Fugue, offset by the most deliciously shivering of winter chills in Slave of the Night via the magic of Herne the Hunter.

Roger composed this score in the same year as his equally well-received music for Peter Davison’s final outing as Doctor Who in The Caves of Androzani, and while

The Box of Delights’ greater budget allowed for those featured live elements, there is a clear relationship, not least in the shared

percussion loops used here in King Arthur’s Camp. I should also point out that while the

production paperwork lists Andrew Knight as harpist, Roger remembers it as being

John Marson. Sadly neither gentleman is still around to ask.

The music was of course recorded in mono (one of BBC Television’s most exacting – but in retrospect frustrating – technical requirements at the time!), so it’s been placed in a stereo space here, with many of the shorter cues combined into longer tracks.

Enjoy. Don’t get scrobbled, and watch out for Wolves.

Happy Christmas!

Mark AyresNovember 2018

Original music recorded in 1984. Ⓟ & © 2018 BBC Studios. Under exclusive licence to Silva Screen Records Ltd.All rights reserved. SILCD1547 MCPS

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