Moulton musician contributes to Netflix mini series Who Killed Jill Dando? - recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios – and is invited to join BAFTA

A musician who contributed musical arrangements recorded in Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios to a Netflix documentary has been invited to join BAFTA.

Dave Malkin, from Moulton, provided his musical skills to the Who Killed Jill Dando? documentary that has been able to stream on the platform in recent weeks.

Three episodes revisited the shocking 1999 murder of the much-loved news and Crimewatch presenter in an in-depth mini-series.

Mr Malkin (31), who studied at Spalding Grammar School, moved to London and studied classical guitar and composition at what is now Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

The musical score for the Who Killed Jill Dando? series was composed by Alexander Parsons and Mr Malkin’s name is seen in the programme’s credits roll.

He said: “Alex composes the music using synthesisers and virtual instruments - it’s my job to communicate his ideas to the musicians when we record the real thing, and get the best result from them.

“Often material needs adapting in order to make it work for the players we have.

“I see the whole process through, organising the musicians, presenting them with my scores, and guiding them through the recording process.

“It’s always a thrill to see and hear the final result, knowing how much work has happened behind the scenes."

Mr Malkin visited Real World Studios – conceived by Peter Gabriel in 1986 – but the musician did not know initially that he was working on the Jill Dando series as it had a codename.

He said: “Alex had revealed to me what we were working on, but we weren’t allowed to reveal the subject of the documentary to anyone else - it was codenamed Project Compass”

Mr Malkin has recently been invited to join BAFTA via its BAFTA Connect scheme for upcoming creatives and professionals.

His work takes him all over and most recently he played guitar in two productions of Henry VIII Used To Hate Us at Ayscoughfee Hall, Spalding with Ryan Gilmartin and John Dipper.

Their duo Dipper Malkin saw its debut album included in the Sunday Times’ Best 100 Albums of 2017 – a work which reimagined the traditional music of England.

He said: “Most of the work I do now is for TV and Film – I have credits with BBC, Sky documentaries and Channel 4.”

The pandemic saw live gigs dry up and it was opportunities to work in television and film that was a positive note to come from the lockdowns.

Mr Malkin said: “An interesting thing to me is to see how the route to composing in TV and Film has changed.

“It used to be people like John Williams – with big epic orchestral scores for film after film – there are different routes to becoming a composer, an instrumentalist or performer.

The musician also worked on Grayson Perry’s Art Club for Channel 4 and now gains full time work in television and film.

He said: “I used to tour a lot more and the pandemic hit and the gigs disappeared overnight.

“One thing that people were doing during lockdowns was watching television, and production companies were coming up with creative solutions to the challenges presented by the pandemic in order to keep producing programmes – I took it as an opportunity to move into that field and now it’s my main thing."

Visit https://davemalkin.com/ for further information.