John E. Keane

John E. Keane is a British BAFTA and BFI Award-winning film and television composer. He has been nominated for two British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards, for A Very British Coup in 1989 and Hornblower: The Even Chance in 1999.
Keane's many credits include the 1993 miniseries Tales of the City, the 1998 film Hideous Kinky and multiple instalments of Hornblower between 1998 and 2003.

Early years

Keane studied composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Edmund Rubbra, and piano with Geraldine Peppin. He went on to study sound recording and film music at the National Film and Television School. Here he scored numerous graduation films, and his successful career as a composer was launched in 1986 with his score for Careless Talk, winner of the BAFTA Short Film Award 1986.

Keane quickly established himself in the Film and Television Music industry in 1987 when he scored The Kitchen Toto directed by Harry Hook. The film won the Tokyo Grand Prize, and Keane won a prize for Best Sound Track at the "Festival International du Film et de la Jeunesse". The same year he won the 1987 British Film Institute prize for Young Composer of the Year.

Film and TV

Keane's first television commission was for the highly acclaimed serial A Very British Coup for director Mick Jackson. The serial received many awards, including an International Emmy for Best Drama, 5 BAFTA Awards and a BAFTA Nomination for Best Music, Best Drama Series from Broadcasting Press Guild, and at the Banff Festival, Toronto. Since then Keane has written the music for a host of high-profile television drama, including Tales From The City, Hearts and Minds, Kavanagh QC, Plotlands, Far from the Madding Crowd, Wives and Daughters, The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, Anna Karenina, The Russian Bride, Gunpowder Treason & Plot, Mansfield Park starring Billie Piper, the Emmy Award-winning Hornblower and Heroes and Villains: "Shogun and Cortes".

Keane has written music for a number of award-winning documentary series, including Molly Dineen's BBC The Ark, winner of a BAFTA Award, and The House, about London's Royal Opera House. He has also written music for a number of feature films, including four films directed by Gilles McKinnon – Small Faces, Trojan Eddie, Hideous Kinky starring Kate Winslet, and Tara Road.

Recent credits include the BBC crime drama series Case Histories, starring Jason Isaacs, and Inspector George Gently, starring Martin Shaw.

Credits

Feature film

2005

• Tara Road

1998

• Hideous Kinky

1997

• A Further Gesture

1996

• Letters From The East
• Trojan Eddie
• Small Faces

1990

• Windprints

1989

• Chattahoochee
• Resurrected

1987

• The Kitchen Toto

1986

• Nanou

TV Films/Series

2014

• Inspector George Gently – Blue for Bluebird
• Inspector George Gently – Gently Between The Lines

2013

• Case Histories

2012

• Inspector George Gently – Gently in the Cathedral
• Inspector George Gently – The Lost Child

2008

• Sleep With Me
• Gently's Last Case

2007

• Mansfield Park
• Who Gets The Dog?
• Inspector George Gently – Gently Go Man

2006

• Perfect Day (The Funeral)

2005

• Wallis & Edward
• Uncle Adolf
• Tom Brown's Schooldays

2004

• Gunpowder, Treason & Plot
• The Brief
• Sparkling Cyanide
• A Line in the Sand

2002

• Bait
• Night Flight

2001

• The Russian Bride
• Hornblower (series 1,2,3)

2000

• Monsignor Renard (4 episodes)
• The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
• Anna Karenina

1999

• Kavanagh QC Series V
• Pure Wickedness
• Wives and Daughters (1 episode)

1998

• Far From The Madding Crowd
• Kavanagh QC Series IV

1997

• Plotlands (6 part serial)
• Stone Scissors Paper
• Kavanagh QC Series III

1996

• Kavanagh QC Series II

1995

• Killing Me Softly
• Mrs Hartley & the Growth Centre
• I'll Be Watching You

1993

• Circle of Deceit
• Tales of the City
• Maigret (2 episodes)
• Love and Reason (3 episodes)

1992

• Force of Duty
• The Last of His Tribe
• The Count of Solar
• The Hummingbird Tree

1991

• The Gravy Train Goes East
• Selling Hitler
• One Man's War

1990

• Murder East Murder West
• Stolen
• The Gravy Train

1988

• Defrosting The Fridge
• A Very British Coup
• Leaving

1985

• Careless Talk

Documentaries

2008

• Heroes and Villains – Cortes
• Heroes and Villains – Shogun

2006

• Wolf

2003

• Out of the Ashes

2002

• Princess To Queen

2001

• The English Civil War

1996

• The House

1994

• True Brits: The Foreign Office

1993

• English Women's Garden
• The Ark

1991

• Billy – A Violent Mind

1989

• EastEnd GP's
• Landshapes

1986

• Movie Masterclass