Archive
HAUNTED – Debbie Wiseman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Set in 1920s England, Haunted is a British supernatural romantic drama which stars Aidan Quinn as Professor David Ash, a skeptical psychologist and academic who specializes in debunking claims of the supernatural. Still grieving the death of his twin sister Juliet many years earlier, Ash is invited to Edbrook House, a remote English country estate, to help a young woman named Christina Mariell (Kate Beckinsale), who believes her home is haunted. At Edbrook, David meets Christina and her two brothers, Robert (Anthony Andrews) and Simon (Alex Lowe), along with their old nanny Miss Webb (Anna Massey). While David initially maintains his scientific skepticism, he begins experiencing inexplicable phenomena – ghostly visions, eerie voices, disorienting memories, and suchlike – and then as David becomes romantically involved with Christina, the house’s sinister secrets slowly begin to reveal themselves. Read more…
DEBBIE WISEMAN: LIVE AT THE BARBICAN – Debbie Wiseman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Despite me having been one of her strongest and most vocal supporters for the past 20 years, the music of Debbie Wiseman is still grossly underappreciated. For those who don’t know her, Wiseman was born in London in May 1963. She studied at the Trinity College of Music, and took lessons in piano and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with the noted Hammer horror composer Buxton Orr. She began her career writing for British television, including popular shows such as The Upper Hand, and made her first foray into film in 1994, with her score for the Oscar-nominated drama Tom & Viv. Since then, Wiseman’s career has encompassed such successful and acclaimed films as Haunted, Wilde, Tom’s Midnight Garden, Arsène Lupin, and Lesbian Vampire Killers. She also remains prolific on television, having written music for numerous popular and critically lauded series and TV movies, notably the acclaimed dramas The Death of Yugoslavia and Warriors (both of which were nominated for Royal Television Society Awards for their music), Othello, Judge John Deed, Jekyll, Land Girls, Father Brown, and Wolf Hall. Read more…


