The music adds a real touch of magic. I also remember, when the meeting goes wrong, having to change the character of the music quite drastically, and it being quite a challenge to come up with music that provided an effective backdrop to the action while not getting in the way of Dennis Potter's dialogue. Later on, in Cold Lazarus there was a flashback to the same scene, and of course I made reference to the Karaoke music, but in a distorted way. Then I'll sit down at the piano or the computer and sketch some ideas for crucial scenes or characters. There are normally several meetings or telephone calls to discuss what the music should be like before I actually write anything at all.
Different commissions happen in different ways.
When I started the Last Train one or two of the production people had reservations about what I was doing, and I finished up rewriting the whole of episode one. The same happened with the incidental music for The Big Battalions . More recently, A life for a Life was an example of getting it absolutely right 1st time. But - if you think their ideas are wrong, you should be prepared to muster all your powers of persuasion. But, having said that, they cannot actually write the music, so the influence has limits.