John Lunn’s music possesses a wonderfully unique voice that spans a wide spectrum of musical styles
Classically trained, yet contemporary in attitude, he combines a highly intelligent and sensitive approach, with a sound that always hits at the emotional heart of a piece. Matching the highest production values with a continual desire to discover new colours and sounds, it is not hard to see why John is continuously in such high demand. He is probably best known for scoring the hugely successful flagship ITV/Carnival Films drama, Downton Abbey, for which he has received two Primetime Emmy Awards, in 2012 and 2013, a further nomination in 2014, two Bafta nominations in 2012 & 2016. He also scored the 2019 movie adaptation which has gone on to become a massive hit, and this years follow up Downton Abbey – A New Era.
John’s recent work includes ITV/PBS/Kudos adaption of The Grantchester Mysteries which is now in it’s 7th season, Red Planet’s epic WW1 drama The Passing Bells and three seasons of Sky’s groundbreaking Jamestown about the early English settlements in America. Also recent Burton And Taylor (starring Dominic West and Helena Bonham-Carter), Shetland, The White Queen (based on the bestselling novel by Phillipa Gregory), for which he also received a Primetime Emmy nomination in 2014, and the subsequent follow up The White Princess, the reimagining of Hitchcock’s classic The Lady Vanishes, plus Sally Wainwright’s wonderful To Walk Invisible a biopic of the Bronte sisters, all for the BBC.
Having done all 5 previous seasons, he is currently scoring the Netflix movie The Last Kingdom – 7 Kings Must Die, the finale in an adaptation of Bernard Cornwell’s best selling “The Saxon Stories” for Netflix. Work in the pipeline includes Shetland series 8, Grantchester season 8 and a 2nd series of Belgravia.
He has received critical acclaim for three adaptations of Charles Dickens classics: the BBC/Masterpiece centenary adaptation of The Mystery Of Edwin Drood, for which he was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award (2013), 2008’s 14-part re-imagining of Little Dorrit, which garnered both a BAFTA nomination and his first Primetime Emmy nomination, and Bleak House where he received RTS Best Score and Best Title nominations.
John’s film scores include two recent features for Stone City Films, Unconditional Love and Electricity, starring Agyness Dean, and the IMAX film Giant Screen Bugs, narrated by Dame Judi Dench for Principal Film. Other film credits include the FilmFour/Shane Meadows feature Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (Kathy Burke, Robert Carlyle, Rhys Ifans), Get Real, directed by Simon Shore, winner of the Audience Award, Edinburgh and Dinard International Festivals, and The Wisdom Of Crocodiles, directed by Po Chih Leong for Zenith Films. He also scored the IMAX film Legend of the Loch for director Mike Slee.
In 2010 John was awarded his 4th RTS award for his evocative score for Sky’s Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal, which also received both BAFTA and Ivor Novello nominations.
Other works include a wonderfully innovative and cutting edge score for the Company Pictures’ drama, The Silence; the ITV fantasy horror, Marchlands; and a wonderfully chilling Christmas adaptation of Henry James’ classic ghost story, Turn of the Screw.
Earlier television credits have ranged from the BBC’s flagship productions of Cambridge Spies (FIPA Gold Award 2003), Lorna Doone, Madame Bovary and Murder Rooms, to the Channel Four/Company series North Square, World Productions 12 part series Outlaws, Scottish Television’s thriller Sirens, and the Ska Films/Ginger production, Lock Stock…. His score to the BBC Screen Two Film Getting Hurt won the Royal Television Society’s award for Best Original Music. His music to Bad Blood was also nominated for an Ivor Novello Award. John scored the critically acclaimed BBC series 20,000 Streets Under The Sky, Hotel Babylon for Carnival Films / BBC (for which he was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award), and the ITV biopic based on the moors murderers, See No Evil, as well as Sorted for the BBC. He scored The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard (starring Jane Horrocks) for the BBC, and Victoria Wood’s BAFTA award-winning drama Housewife 49 for ITV, along with Frankenstein for Impossible Pictures, and The Shadow In The North for the BBC. He went on to score Torn for Jeremy Gwilt and TXTV, series 2 of Jimmy McGovern’s acclaimed drama The Street for Granada, and then completed Hotel Babylon (Series 4) for Carnival/BBC. Further credits include Hamish McBeth, Criminal Justice for the BBC, which went on to be an RTS Award Winner 2008 for Best Original Score, Harley Street for Carnival Productions/ITV1, Identity, a 6 part thriller for ITV, and Material Girl for Carnival/BBC.