On Poldark, Mammoth Screen worked very hard to make the music as authentic as possible; they worked with me and Merv and Alison Davey to try and achieve that. The dance music is from a Thompson family MS and an MS from Morval House of the late 18th century; the choreography likewise. Many of the extras in dance scenes are members of the Cornish Dance Society.

Winston Graham quotes some folk songs in his books - we used authentic tunes for those. We added a couple of snippets of other Cornish folk songs (e.g. The Keenly Lode' in episode 3). At a couple of points Winston wrote lyrics intended to sound like folk song to achieve a dramatic purpose in the tale. 'I d' pluck a fair rose is one of those', this lyric appears in a couple of the books. I wrote the music.

At the beginning of episode 8 we use another song of mine, I wrote words and music of that one. Anne Dudley is the main composer and wrote the fine sweeping melody that opens the show.

All the best

Mike