Film Music Reporter

Christopher Gunning has passed away at age 78. The British composer has written numerous scores for film and television over a four decade-spanning career. Among his best known credits is his score for Olivier Dahan’s 2007 biopic La Vie en rose, for which he received the (BAFTA) Anthony Asquith Award. He composed the music for the first nine seasons of the long-running TV show Agatha Christie’s Poirot, for which he was honored with a BAFTA TV Award. He also won the prize for the 1987 mini-series Porterhouse Blue (shared with Rick Lloyd) and the 1994 six-part drama Middlemarch (with Stanley Myers). His other scoring credits include Simon Moore’s 1991 thriller Under Suspicion, Peter Sasdy’s 1971 horror film Hands of the Ripper, John Robin’s 1974 comedy Man About the House, Alan Gibson’s 1970 feature Goodbye Gemini, Clive Rees’ 1989 drama When the Whales Came, ITV’s 1997 adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, the 1992 mini-series The Big Battalions (for which he was also BAFTA TV Award-nominated) and the 2003 TV movie Pollyanna. His final major film scoring project was the 2014 biographical drama Grace of Monaco.