The King's Speech

Featuring an all-star cast, this British historical drama tells a moving story with Colin Firth as King George VI and Geoffrey Rush as speech therapist Lionel Logue, who helped George VI overcome a stammer.

Directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler, the film has already won the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award, the People’s Choice Award, Hamptons International Film Award and a Hollywood Award. The film is hotly tipped to receive several Academy Award and BAFTA nominations too.

The supporting music is crafted by Alexandre Desplat, the French composer who wrote the Golden Globe-winning score for The Painted Veil. He received Academy Award nominations for Fantastic My Fox, The Queen and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Other credits include the latest Harry Potter film, Girl With a Pearl Earring and The Beat that my Heart Skipped.

The score features classically-inspired orchestral music which sensitively and elegantly mirrors the on-screen drama. Desplat himself conducts the score with piano solos played by Dave Arch. Especially dramatic moments in the story are emphasised by selected pieces from the great masters, Mozart and Beethoven, in which the London Symphony Orchestra is conducted by Terry Davies.

The film’s director, Tom Hooper, said of Desplat’s score:
“What is so revealing about listening to this album is to realise how beautiful the work is in its own right. It has its own integrity and voice independent of the dance.”  

The humble microphone has a poignantly ominous presence within the film, reflecting the King’s fear of public speaking. Coincidentally, when Director of Engineering Peter Cobbin was told the recording would take place at Abbey Road Studios he recalled discovering some microphones dating back to 1923 in the EMI Archive at the studios. The EMI Archive Trust granted permission for these to be used and so the recording was made using the very microphone through which King George VI used to give his speeches, bearing the royal coat of arms and insignia.

Peter Cobbin said of the use of these historic microphones:
“It was one thing for us to enjoy the visual presence of these rare microphones, but then quite another to hear the sonic tone and unique quality which wrapped and enveloped the score inside Abbey Road’s Studio One.”