Diegetic Delights: Exploring On-Set Music with Adrian Scarborough and Ian Arber

Gareth Davies: 00:00:14

Welcome to the music room.

Gareth Davies: 00:00:28

This time in the music room.

Ian Arbour: 00:00:30

Every single one of these episodes is a movie. You know, this is why the shoot is so long. You're basically filming four movies.

These are individual stories, individual films, and each one needs to have its individual thing.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:00:41

It's a show where you've still got time to play and you've still got time to actually just be creative.

Gareth Davies: 00:00:50

Welcome to the music room, where I chat with music industry professionals about their work before going back in time to find out how it all began for them. Today, we won't be going back in time, and there's a reason for that.

This episode is all about on set music or diegetic music, and one of my guests will explain that properly. That guest being composer Ian Arbour, who's been on the show before, hence not going back in time.

You can hear Ian's episode via the link in the show notes or just search for his name wherever you subscribe, because of course you are subscribed. Aren't you? Joining Ian for the chat about on set music is the wonderful actor Adrian Scarborough.

And we chat about his lead role in the drama series the Chelsea Detective, for which Ian wrote the music. And I. Yes, I stood in for Adrian's hands on set. How very intriguing.

You'll know Adrian from loads of tv and film over the years, including Gavin and Stacey. Inside number nine, Sanditon killing Eve. Blunt talk, Miranda upstairs, downstairs, Gosford park.

Basically, Adrian's a national treasurer at this point and I'm delighted he was well up for this chat. And thank you to expectation tv for permission to go ahead and chat about the Chelsea detective.

Really good if you haven't seen it yet, but before that, music stories music room guest the brilliant mixing and mastering engineer John Ellison Hartley has made another podcast appearance. John wrote on his website, the superb guys of the Sound Discussion podcast.

Ben Holmes, Nate Kalms, Neil Merchant have been steadily building their new music podcast for throughout this year.

For their latest episode, I sat down for a very enjoyable chat with them covering my mixing and mastering and my role in projects linked to films and games. And the link to that is in the show notes.

Music room guest Carly Parady has a new show out show trial started on the 6 October on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK, and it's a drama series following high profile murder cases through the eyes of the police, the public and the courts. So if you like a good drama, check out show trial and those are the music stories. Let's get back to my guests for this episode.

Adrian Scarborough plays detective Inspector Max Arnold in the drama the Chelsea detective and is back for more sleuthing on the glamorous streets of west London, now in its third season.

Ian Arbor, who you may have heard on this podcast before, has lent his talents to productions such as Paris has fallen, Red Eye, bowling shoes, war of the worlds, the one, and so much more. I was delighted that Adrian and Ian agreed to come on to chat about the Chelsea detective and more specifically, the use of music on set.

Let's get into the music room to find out more.

Gareth Davies: 00:03:44

Adrian Scarborough, acting legend, national treasure, and Ian Arbor, wonderful composer for the drama series Chelsea Detective. Welcome both to the music room.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:03:55

Thank you very much. It's lovely to be here.

Ian Arbour: 00:03:57

Thanks for having me. You should have just said Andy, and.

Gareth Davies: 00:03:59

I'll have to share. How are you both today? Ian, you are still in LA. Adrian, you are not. You are wearing a hoodie. No, I mean, you're in the same country as me.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:04:09

I'm wearing a hat indoors because it's so damn cold now.

Gareth Davies: 00:04:14

Autumn, it's overnight, almost.

Ian Arbour: 00:04:16

The AC is quite cold here.

Gareth Davies: 00:04:21

Adrian will continue. I'll turn Ian's microphone off.

Ian Arbour: 00:04:24

We did have an earthquake this morning, by the way. I didn't set my alarm. I always set my alarm. And at 713, the whole house has a huge jolt.

And I hear, like, it's the first time I've heard slight cracks in the walls. Like, you know when you hear a creak?

Gareth Davies: 00:04:40

Have you had earthquakes before, though? Have you experienced them?

Ian Arbour: 00:04:43

like, that was a huge one in: 2019

So we have quite a few small ones, but the one this morning was a 5.1, which is. That's hefty. It's a bit of a job.

Gareth Davies: 00:04:59

Have you had earthquake training? Have you got a particular table you have to dive under or you just.

Ian Arbour: 00:05:05

Get, like, these alarms on your phone, they go beep, beep, beep, get out of the house. And it just says, like, take cover or get out.

Gareth Davies: 00:05:11

It must be genuinely disturbing to go through something like that.

Ian Arbour: 00:05:16

The first one is the first one. And then I. After about ten, you kind of get used to it. But, yeah, it is disturbing because a lot of the talk is around.

Kind of, when's the big one going to come?

And every time you have one, like this morning, there's a bit of a stress because you never know if it's the actual one or the pre shock to the big one. You know, they always talk about the big ones coming at some point.

Gareth Davies: 00:05:36

Okay, well, welcome, everyone, to earthquakes weekly to get back on track.

Ian Arbour: 00:05:43

Earthquakes. Earthquakes on set.

Gareth Davies: 00:05:45

Earthquakes on set. Oh, my word. That's a whole episode in itself. But the Chelsea detective is fabulous drama series in its third season now, Adrian, it's wrapped.

You mentioned before we hit record a couple of weeks ago. How's filming gone?

Adrian Scarborough: 00:06:00

Yes, indeed. Yeah, two weeks ago. Everybody's sort of, you know, sleeping it off.

Gareth Davies: 00:06:05

Now, there were a few night shoots, weren't there?

Adrian Scarborough: 00:06:09

Yes, we had quite a lot of night shoots and a few split days, which are always deadly when you're shooting a show where you sort of. You don't get any time at all, so your sleep is disturbed, as is most of your working day.

But, yeah, we've started in April and we've finished at the end of August. So it's been, you know, it's a marathon.

Gareth Davies: 00:06:32

Yeah. Quite an intense time.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:06:34

It is, yeah. Yeah. But I thoroughly enjoy it. It's great fun.

Gareth Davies: 00:06:38

Awesome.

So the reason we're making an episode about on set music today is that I was fortunate enough to be invited by Ian to visit the Chelsea detective set back on season one for a very particular reason. Ian, can you give us a little background about what on set music is to begin with and what your particular need for this series was at the time?

Ian Arbour: 00:07:03

Yes. So basically, on set music, what we call diegetic music, is music that's actually happening in the scene.

So the sound source is coming from the physical scene as opposed to my job. Eugene and the Chelsea detectives write the score, which comes in post later and part of the illusion of film and tv.

And basically, when at script level, when I came on board the show, we had discussions around Adrian's character Max's performances in the show. So he is actually playing the piano in the show. The character is playing the piano, and it's a big part of his character.

And how are we going to make that work? How are we going to do that? And I think previously, I mean, on blockbuster movies, it's done terribly badly.

You know, whether they got a terrible hand double in.

Gareth Davies: 00:07:53

They didn't have my number.

Ian Arbour: 00:07:54

They didn't have your number. Exactly.

Now it's like, I just recommend Gareth, but, you know, they don't necessarily think about syncing it up correctly or they don't make decisions about the song until imposed. It's actually shocking how little preparation they put into it a lot of the time.

So I think we just kind of wanted to make it legit and make it seem, well, I say seem, at first, it was like, well, we don't know if Adrian can perform these pieces. We don't know how advanced we're going to go, how simple we're going to go. So that's kind of where the thought process came.

Okay, let's try and find some music that Max can perform that Adrian potentially could play. And if it's a little bit too complex, let's see if we can find someone who has similar hands.

Gareth Davies: 00:08:37

And that's what happened, and that was.

Ian Arbour: 00:08:38

The inception of it, and that's when Gareth came to set.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:08:41

And it's been going on for years, this affair.

Gareth Davies: 00:08:43

It has, yeah. It's so lovely, though, this affair with our Hans. Who is this Hans?

Ian Arbour: 00:08:50

That was some of the strangers. That was Hans dinner. That was some of this. That was one of the strangest kind of, like, musician calls, having to post in a few.

Obviously, I already knew you, Gareth, but I had to post in a few kind of musician forums and say, does anyone have similar hands to Adrian? Scarborough had a photo of Adrian's hands, and also, does someone want to hand double? I don't think that happens very often to anyone, really.

So, thankfully, you were the perfect man for the job.

Gareth Davies: 00:09:21

Well, it was so bizarre, wasn't it? I was looking at this photo going, my hands were a bit like that. Get away with that. Get away with that.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:09:29

I think I've ended up with better hands than I've actually got, which is rather marvelous. I feel very. I feel very fortunate to have had them. I look like a hobbit, quite frankly, and yours are much more slender.

And, you know, I just think elegance when I see them working their way across the quays.

Gareth Davies: 00:09:49

Well, very happy to follow you around for the rest of your career, Adrian. Should there be a piano involved or anything else, you know, I'll give other instruments a try.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:10:02

Yes. Other bits of your body.

Gareth Davies: 00:10:04

There we go. Feet.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:10:05

Yeah, feet. Ears.

Ian Arbour: 00:10:07

Shower scene.

Gareth Davies: 00:10:10

There's a line. Arbor. There's a line.

Ian Arbour: 00:10:14

But what I would say is what was interesting, though, and it's not just a case of getting Gareth to handle.

I think the interesting thing was, the idea was, let's teach Adrian these parts, because, you know, actually, I was really surprised when I met Adrian and we sat down at the piano at how well you actually played. And, you know, the first piece we picked, Goldberg variations, episode one, is the hardest one we've done in three seasons.

So we started with the hardest one. And that's probably the one you. I guess that's probably the one you had. The most time to learn, and we got to sit through and actually practice.

But you basically played through the whole thing. So, you know, Gareth's obviously there as an insurance package, and it is useful to have the backup of him playing as well.

But I think that was what was really interesting about what we did and why we needed to get that close match of hands is because, you know, a lot of the time, Adrian, you're actually playing the piece.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:11:05

Yes, and both.

I mean, all of the directors were sort of terribly keen to show that it was definitely me, or that we could have certain sections where it was definitely me playing.

We should perhaps explain that the character plays the piano in his spare time when he's working out his crimes, essentially, so he sits there and muses. But, of course, the idea that, you know, I'm any kind of Glenn Gould working my way through the Goldberg variations is absurd.

And, you know, what ian's been so brilliant at in many, many ways, but simplifying them and using those, some of the themes was absolutely inspired. But also, I have to say, your use of video is phenomenal. So he'll.

He'll send me a video of him playing and sort of, you know, like a little tutorial so that I can see exactly where to put my fingers and what needs to move when. And he always starts blessing with the right hand, and then we move on to the left. If I can. If I can.

And if there's time, and there's seldom time and I can't.

Gareth Davies: 00:12:18

But then, you know, over the course of the three series, we have got into a kind of a rhythm where we'll have a little discussion about what's best for the scene and how best to capture.

And is there a certain angle where you might be looking at the board or, you know, you might be concentrating on the piano and then figuring out who does what and whether I'm inserted in there or, you know, it's been.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:12:43

I mean, I suppose one of the reasons why I worked as hard on the first one as I did was because I didn't know how on earth this was going to work, and I was terrified that I was going to be exposed as an incompetent. So what was brilliant was that you. That, you know, that you were there, essentially, and that I'd had Ian's fabulous tutorials.

And now I think we're in a position where we can kind of go, oh, I'm just going to leave that to you, because you're very, very good at it.

And, you know, essentially, I just need to do this little bit, and, you know, and then the camera will see my hand, and then it'll pan up to my face and it will definitely look like it's been me all along. Yeah, it's such a cheat.

Gareth Davies: 00:13:25

But then, you know, on the.

On the last shoots for series three, it was almost like we knew how it goes, and the director knew how it goes as well, and he went, right, okay, this is what we're going to do. And it was relatively quick, wasn't it?

Adrian Scarborough: 00:13:40

Absolutely. It's an interesting.

You've stumbled on something which I'd quite like to ask Ian about, which is after you've done something like this a few times and you sort of know the formula. What's terribly tempting sometimes is to cut corners with the show. And I always think that's a very, very dangerous thing to do.

But it's also terribly difficult to keep challenging yourself when you know what the format is. And I was just going to ask Ian if, you know, writing the different themes for the show, whether you still push yourself and challenge yourself.

I mean, it certainly sounds like you do. Or are there moments where.

I know I do, where I kind of go, well, I've been on the houseboat a bit now, and I know about that and I know what's expected, and I know my way around it. And so I kind of feel a bit. I suppose there's a difference between feeling comfortable and relaxing and sitting on. Back on your laurels.

Was there a question in there?

Ian Arbour: 00:14:40

Yeah, so I tend to look for the shortcut.

Gareth Davies: 00:14:43

I'm joking.

Ian Arbour: 00:14:45

That is actually a really interesting point.

And one conversation I just had with Richard, Richard Signy yesterday, and I think there's something about a series, one of a show, we all throw the kitchen sink out, and I.

All of these new themes for all these different characters, musically speaking, from my point of view, everything's new, everything's fresh, so it's really exciting. And then series two is always an interesting one on shows because you're kind of keeping the momentum of what you've already done.

And obviously the show's finding its feet. And I thought the Chelsea detective really found its feet in series two and got momentum. And now we're on series three.

A lot of those initial themes that they came up with in one, which did then kind of follow through series two are kind of feeling a little bit old now. I need to freshen everything up so 100%. I mean, I don't want to.

Every single one of these episodes is a movie, you know, this is why the shoot is so long, you're basically filming four movies.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:15:43

Yeah, these are.

Ian Arbour: 00:15:44

These are individual stories, individual films, and each one needs to have its individual thing, but you also need to keep those themes, those melodies that people know for the show. So it's actually quite a tricky balance, and often I'm trying to freshen up as much as possible. So series three.

Yeah, as I said, just going into episode one, it just felt like everything kind of needed to be fresh, so I had to ignore a lot of the kind of early themes from series one. Series two. I'm not sure if this is answering your question, but really, it's just starting from scratch. This is a max momentous.

Yes, that is a bit simpler because we have so many Max and astrid themes. So many Max themes. Those are always going to be the ones that we're going to have to play, and they just work so well for those characters.

Maybe I can, you know, I can edit a few things here and there, but generally speaking, we want to keep those the same.

But it means I can put a bit more time into actually focusing on this new character, this new location, and creating a new theme for that and being efficient with what I'm bringing that's new to each episode, but still having that kind of backbone of the Chelsea detective themes. So, I mean, to answer your question, really, overall, I mean, the Chelsea detective for me, is just so much fun.

And it's comfortable in a way that it's just such a nice family. Everyone's lovely. The schedules post schedules for me are not quite good.

I have enough time to kind of sit down, really work out themes and think about what I want to do musically to kind of tie the story together. So I never really want to cut corners. I want to spend as much time as I can to just have fun with it.

You know, people just generally on this show is just rare. Just come to kind of. Their responses are very positive to my score, which is great.

And it just means that I can kind of be like, what about this bold idea? And kind of push it further and further each season. And they tend to be like. The directors tend to be like, yeah, great, sounds good.

Gareth Davies: 00:17:33

Just coming back to Adrian's kind of the balance between pushing yourself and having that kind of comfort blanket.

I think that can go from episode to episode as well, because you have the established themes which feel like a bit like, you know, this is that character when you see them on screen. However that's delivered, whatever style that's delivered, you also have the episodic theme which will be different every episode.

And I think that's where you can really dive in, dive down the rabbit hole and try and push things. So you do have that kind of balance of, oh, this is a really familiar thing.

I feel like I'm home watching this thing that I know, and then, oh, I'm being challenged because there's this new theme, which is kind of the episode story in a way.

Ian Arbour: 00:18:21

And I wonder if, Adrian, you thought of that kind of stemming to also. Well, I mean, I think you thought of that stemming from your performances as Max playing the piano. Like, you know, I know how to do this now.

This is how we do it. Maybe there's an element of thinking, oh, how can we do it differently next time? Or is there something more crazy we can do?

Adrian Scarborough: 00:18:41

Very definitely.

And I suppose one of the reasons I was asking the question as well is that what tends to happen is that your budget gets squashed over the course once the show's up and running and they kind of know what it is. There's lots of financial corners that tend to start to get cut. And I think it's really reassuring to hear you say that.

It's a show where you've still got time to play and you've still got time to actually just be creative.

That's such a luxury these days, and particularly in television, because I certainly feel with the show now that we're in a, you know, we have an 88 day shoot, and when we first started, I think we had a 74 day shoot.

Well, that extra fortnight has given us a hell of a lot of time just to be able to get better and do it better and spend more time really exploring the subject matter, and I'd hate to lose any of that, because I think we really need it all.

Gareth Davies: 00:19:48

So series four, there's a key tar. Are we going that direction?

Ian Arbour: 00:19:54

Well, so talking.

I mean, just thinking about that, actually, what's interesting, I think, and also speaking to Richard yesterday, and Richard signy directed the first two episodes of series one and then did the first two episodes of series two, and he's doing the last two episodes of series three. And I think he. What I love about him is he really has that ambition to like, well, can we take this? What can we do next time?

What can we do with the score?

And I love that really excites me every time I speak to him about when I get to his episode and actually thinking about it, I suppose this season, the kind of diegetic set music, um, step up was the fact that Richard was like, oh, maybe it would be a good idea to have an orchestra on set.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:20:32

Yeah.

Ian Arbour: 00:20:33

And have a conductor and. And the musician in the orchestra be the actors who are actually playing the music. So I actually.

That slipped my mind, but that's very much connected to the same thing as Max performing on set.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:20:45

Yeah.

Gareth Davies: 00:20:45

So, Adrian, tell us about your character, Max, and his relationship with music. Do you feel like his piano music choices are reflective of his eclectic? I mean, there's been a variety of music, hasn't there? Over the course?

Adrian Scarborough: 00:21:00

There's. Yes, there's been a huge variety of music, you know, over the course of it.

I think he grew up at a time when it was, you know, when music was fairly cool. His father ran a bookshop, a secondhand bookshop, and so I think he listened to some quite eclectic stuff.

He was certainly not shy of classical music, opera, but similarly feels at home with, you know, Elvis Costello. Yeah, there's a couple of things in there that really irk me, which.

Gareth Davies: 00:21:36

Here we go.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:21:37

Which are not necessarily. Well, they're not necessarily things that I would have chosen, but. But sometimes, you know, I'm not in a position.

I didn't create the show, and I don't write the show so often.

You find that other people make those sorts of creative decisions for you, and sometimes they really jump out at you and they kind of make you go, no. I mean, he just never listened to the ting tings. And, you know, the longer it.

The longer the series goes on, and the more you play the character, the more you know about him, and the more his choices are your choices, not somebody else's. To have them sort of imposed upon you.

And I felt that, I think, stronger than I've ever felt it over the course of series three, that there were moments where I felt I was a mere puppet, and other people were making these sorts of decisions for me on my behalf. So, yes, I mean, some of them are lovely. I mean, you know, I think the gold, to be fair, as well, it's always an education, isn't it?

I hadn't spent a lot of time with the Goldberg variations until I started working on the Chelsea detective.

And, you know, quite a lot of my collection of music has sort of developed over the years simply because of the work that I'm doing, and often because pieces of music come to you through plays and through film and through television, sometimes on the radio, you know.

Gareth Davies: 00:23:10

So have you been in a situation before on a set where you've needed to play music or have music performed?

Adrian Scarborough: 00:23:17

I did a thing once where I had to play the drums, but that was okay because I'd played the drums as a kid, so that that was sort of all right. I'm trying to think. I don't think I've. I don't think I've had to play anything else.

Gareth Davies: 00:23:29

So the level of daunt. The daunting level must have been quite high for. I mean, Goldberg variations on the first one. It must have been quite. What kind of preparation?

I mean, you mentioned about the videos.

I don't suppose that question applies now, because you've kind of already answered it, haven't you, about the preparation you had to go through to step onto that set with confidence?

Adrian Scarborough: 00:23:53

I don't think I ever did that. You know, I think that. Well, you know, God bless you.

It's why you were employed, because, you know, if anything went horribly wrong and everything went south, then you're there, you know, to brilliantly step in and, you know, sort me out and make me look considerably better than I do.

Gareth Davies: 00:24:17

I've always felt that me being there just meant that you can relax and do your thing, you know, because you're there to do your job and to deliver the character confidently. So you don't want to be stressing about, oh, God, I've got the scene coming up. That's how I.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:24:36

Yes, that's very true. Well, and also, it's a. It is about being sort of mentally dexterous, I think.

And if you're not a natural player, it means that, you know, if I've got to. I've got to play the thing. I've got to do some acting.

Looking at the board or answering the phone or doing a text with one hand while I'm playing with the other. Do you know what I mean? If you're not a natural in that situation, which I'm certainly not, it can just be a bit crap, can't it?

Ian Arbour: 00:25:07

But I think what's interesting about that is, you know, initially in the scripts, it was Max playing these parts, but actually, exactly how you're describing how you felt kind of, is how Max plays as well. He's not a great player. He's kind of just like, you know, he's not supposed to be a brilliant piano player.

He's texting and just kind of noodling on the side.

Gareth Davies: 00:25:27

It's funny you should say that, Ian. First time on set for me, you know, it was daunting for me as well.

I'd not done that before, and so I'd been practicing all week, and for me, it was like Goldberg variations learn all this music. So I was practicing every day, and then. So I would be confident when I came onto set. And then Richard said, can you play this? But play it a bit crap?

I was like, oh, I'm not sure I know how to play it a bit crap. But actually, that made me relax immediately, because. Yeah, because it wouldn't matter if I fluffed it a little bit, because that actually.

That's the direction going through that process.

Ian Arbour: 00:26:07

I was kind of in awe of Richard and the filmmaking process, because a lot of what we do as creatives in post production or acting is it's all about kind of getting it perfect, right? Everything needs to be.

Whereas there's this element, especially when you're shooting a tv show on a budget, there's this element of, we're going to get what we get, and we need to make it the best we can.

And I think there was a little bit of that nervousness coming in with the cop Garbog variations, where we were like, how is this actually going to work? How are they going to actually. Is Gareth going to, like, put his arms underneath?

Gareth Davies: 00:26:40

How are we going to doing it wrong this whole time?

Ian Arbour: 00:26:43

That's a great idea, actually. Yeah. Just to get the right angle. But I think that's what I just found incredible.

And thank God Richard started the show, because he was just like, yeah, let's try this. Let's try that. Done. And it kind of just, you know, he just thought of it in the moment.

He didn't even need to put too much thought into it before, because he was working on a scene, you know, an hour before.

Suddenly, now it's the Goldberg scene, and he just made it work, made some decisions, and that became how we do those scenes, and then we used that as a precedent going forward. And, you know, you're mentioning earlier how it's now. We know it so well, and we just do it how we do it.

But every time there's a new director, we kind of have to go through the same process. New director, new producer. It's like, how do you do the scenes of the piano? I'm like, okay, don't worry. Everything's fine.

And then you have to kind of explain the way we did it with Richard to the other directors, and then they get really excited, and then it's the same thing once they get there. They just. They do it. They can't sometimes do it their own way. Slightly different.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:27:40

Yeah.

Gareth Davies: 00:27:41

So, Adrian, you mentioned your loathing of the ting tings, which I'm sure they won't take personally, assuming the Chelsea detective goes on for several more seasons.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:27:51

Yeah.

Gareth Davies: 00:27:52

Is there anything specific that you'd like Max to play, or would you want Max and yourself to continue improving as a player?

Adrian Scarborough: 00:28:01

That's interesting, isn't it? Because I wonder. I wonder how much as a player he's actually improving.

Ian Arbour: 00:28:06

I think he's actually degrading. Right.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:28:08

He's not putting the practice in, quite frankly.

Ian Arbour: 00:28:11

That's a good thing to think about, is. You're right, actually, we did start at a high level, and then we're now.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:28:20

Doing three blind mice.

Gareth Davies: 00:28:22

I mean, is it worth going back to something classical?

Ian Arbour: 00:28:25

Yeah, I think we probably will go back at some point, because I think it's turned into. And it's interesting evolution, but it's turned into. Quite a lot of the pieces are influenced by the storyline.

You know, there's an element of something that's going on in the story that Max is like, oh, I'm now learning this Christmas song, you know? So I think that's an interesting thing. We started it with Max being a big fan of the Goldberg variations, and so maybe we will go back into.

Go back into something a bit more complex in series four. It sounds like, you know, maybe Max has been practicing for six months before series four.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:28:57

Yeah.

Ian Arbour: 00:28:57

And then he comes back and he's.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:28:58

Like, yeah, he's got three hands.

Gareth Davies: 00:29:03

Hans Zimmer, Hans Gruber, and another hand. So just around things off about the Chelsea detective, how about your taste of music, Adrian? What do you tend to listen to?

What did you grow up listening to? Do you have similar tastes to Max, or.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:29:20

Oh, I grew up listening to lots and lots of very different sorts of things. Very different. Lots of comedy stuff, actually. Sort of Tom lirer, Flanders and Swan, you know, which I think has a very high musical bar.

But also my mom was, you know, just loved her Beethoven and sang quite a lot of bad aria when the fancy took her. She was a great one for just opening her mouth and singing.

And she worked for the Methodist church, so, you know, hymn singing was de rigueur in our house, and, you know, you go for rides in the car, and people would be improvising four part harmonies as we were going along, you know. So that side of things was lovely and delightful and my more popular tastes, I suppose. My dad was a big Beach Boys fan.

He had quite a lot of Beach Boys records, so I would listen to them, and, you know, I just fell in love with, help me, Rhonda, in my room. You know, lots of that kind of stuff.

Gareth Davies: 00:30:30

So it's not unlike Max, really, in the eclectic nature.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:30:33

No, it really isn't. No, no. And again, you know, I listen to a fair bit of radio three now because maybe I've just matured.

Gareth Davies: 00:30:43

I.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:30:46

Maybe I've got more mature ears. Who knows? I don't know. I don't particularly like listening to radio one. I listen to six music, actually, a fair bit. Still.

Talking of Costello, I'm going to see him on Sunday at the Oxford Playhouse with Steve Naive, because he's on tour at the moment and I'm so excited about it. I'm just very much looking forward to it.

Gareth Davies: 00:31:08

Yeah.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:31:09

And they're doing sort of lovely little duets together, which, you know, I really like the way that people sort of keep developing and keep going off on in different ways and different tangents and keep being imaginative and creative. And he's very good. I go to the Cambridge Folk Festival quite a bit. I love a bit of folk. I love the musicianship of, you know.

Gareth Davies: 00:31:33

Yeah.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:31:34

Watching people noodle, it's great. Very good.

Ian Arbour: 00:31:37

Should we get back to banjo in series four?

Adrian Scarborough: 00:31:39

Yeah, maybe.

Ian Arbour: 00:31:40

Or he joins a four part harmony group. That would be excellent.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:31:43

A choir or some bagpipes or something. A sort of Michael McGoldrick kind of, you know, with a bag.

Gareth Davies: 00:31:54

Good luck in that production. Meeting, both of you. So, Adrian, I ask all of my guests on this show to leave an item and a piece of advice in the music room for others to find.

So it can be something that's helped you in your career, something positive. So what kind of item do you think you would leave?

Adrian Scarborough: 00:32:13

Well, I thought long and hard about this, and often when I'm working on something, on a script, or particularly with something like Chelsea detective, I have, you know, 490 minutes scripts that I've got to try and learn. Not all at once, admittedly, but it means that I stop reading and I stop. I stopped reading novels.

So what I've found is, and particularly if I'm working away, what I slip into my bag is some poetry, because poetry is very, very digestible. You have enough room in your head to kind of just knock off a poem of an evening and it puts you in a different place and takes you somewhere else.

And I think it sort of opens up your head to new ideas and to different things and it allows the light in a bit. So I think volume of poetry. And you're now going to ask me which volume of poetry. And I've actually. I've come up with two.

One of them is called weeding by a very brilliant young irish poet. Called Jess McKinney. They're both irish and the other is Seamus Heaney's.

The spirit level, which I just take everywhere with me because it's completely brilliant. And you rediscover them again and again and again and just the insight to them is absolutely glorious and wonderful.

It's sort of like having a piece of music in your bag.

Gareth Davies: 00:33:44

Yeah, yeah.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:33:45

But it's very digestible and very easy.

Gareth Davies: 00:33:47

I've also loved that you put importance on getting out of your own head and looking after your own mental health, essentially.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:33:55

Indeed, indeed.

Gareth Davies: 00:33:56

Yeah. Yeah.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:33:58

Because one can get a bit, you know, if you're, if you're doing six months of detective work day after day after day, it's quite important to take a step away from it as often as you possibly can.

Gareth Davies: 00:34:14

Yeah. Let your brain.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:34:15

Otherwise you do go quietly. Madden.

Gareth Davies: 00:34:21

Superb. And so, piece of advice, what do you think?

Adrian Scarborough: 00:34:25

Oh, my piece of advice is very, very simple. I was told as a younger man, be a jack of all trades, master of none, and I think that's such a brilliant piece of advice.

I think it serves you so well for many, many reasons, not least that, again, it opens you up to opportunity.

So I've always been a great believer in doing as many different things as you possibly can, particularly as a character actor, because it meant that I was constantly employed and there was Marmite on the table.

So, you know, if you can do a radio play or you can, you know, present a concert or you can, you know, do a corporate video, you could do a play, you could do a telly, you could do a film, you can, you know, dance the tango for a couple of minutes. It just gives you the opportunity to just pay the mortgage.

But also it takes you in the most fantastic and wonderful directions, and often directions that you never, ever thought you'd go in the weirdest, most wonderful, unexpected things. Great.

Gareth Davies: 00:35:32

Oh, that's fabulous. Thank you. Those are both going in the music room.

Ian, we were chatting before, because you've appeared on this show before and you left a business card as your item, you've changed your mind.

Ian Arbour: 00:35:46

I can't remember the context of me leaving my business card, but, I mean, that was just beautiful. From Adrian. I'm going to leave my business card in place because I'm sure I had some very strong advice around that. Ok.

But, yeah, I will adjust my advice.

And just to go back on from what I was saying about the Chelsea detective, more than ever in my life, I realize it's about working with people you love working with. And I think Chelsea detective is such a lovely bubble of great people doing great things.

There's not a vicious person, there's not a bad bone in anyone's body and that crew. And that was what I would update.

Actually, I can't remember what I said for my advice before, but surround yourself with supportive people and stay away from the negativity and try and attract fun projects with good people rather than stressful situations.

Gareth Davies: 00:36:32

It was pretty much that your advice before it was find your little community of people which you've always been support network. You've always shouted about that to keep that going. Adrian Scarborough and Ian Arver, thank you so much for joining me in the music room today.

Ian Arbour: 00:36:52

Always a pleasure.

Adrian Scarborough: 00:36:53

It's been a pleasure. Thank you very much. How lovely.

Gareth Davies: 00:37:02

Thanks for listening to the music room podcast today.

Gareth Davies: 00:37:05

If you'd like to know more about.

Gareth Davies: 00:37:06

The show or the community that surrounds it, head to musicroom community. The link is in the show notes.