Broken English

I have been very honoured to be asked by acclaimed film directors Iain Foster and Jane Pollard to compose music for, and appear in, their wonderful, new film “Broken English”, made in the run up to and after Marianne Faithfull’s passing in January 2025.

This was a labour of love! I was so thrilled to be asked as I was such a huge fan of Iain and Jane’s work, especially the film “20,000 Days on Earth” that they made with Nick Cave.

This film was three years in the making and so much effort and thought was put into every aspect of it, with I&J’s meticulous process and creativity, and such very sensitive and caring direction of the great lady herself… and who was suffering so much from illness in these last few years of her life. And indeed the film addresses her eventual passing (which occurred during the making of the film) with great empathy and beauty, and I think it does great service to her and to the creative spirit and indomitable character that was Marianne.

Having worked closely with Marianne through all the production & touring work I did with her, and our consequent close friendship, duly gave this assignment an extra dimension of emotional investment, and of course doubly so considering her increasing ill health over the course of the last two years of work on the film and her eventual very sad passing, but I am so glad that I had the opportunity to contribute to this wonderful celebration of her life and work.

I shared the music duties with my great friend Adrian Utley, and was also able to bring in my very old chum and regular collaborator Ben Christophers…both of whom also appear in the film and were invaluable to the musical process.

The film premiered at Venice film festival in August 2025 to great acclaim, and also at Sundance Film Festival in January 2026 where the screening was followed by a live performance of two songs associated with Marianne by Rufus Wainwright and Norah Jones.

Now, similarly to the Sundance screening, on March 18th 2026 we are marking the film’s general release by having a special event at The Barbican in London, showing the film and following it with live performances of some of Marianne’s songs, with an equally stellar line up of artists. The band for the evening consists of Adrian on guitar, Colin Greenwood on bass, Ed Harcourt on piano and vocals, Anna Phoebe on violin, and myself on drums…joined by Samantha Morton, Beth Orton, Jarvis Cocker, Nadine Shah, Rufus Wainwright & Anna Calvi on vocals.

Should be a blast, which I hope would have met with Marianne’s approval …