THE lure of Hollywood-Bucksville, USA-where the budgets are in billions and the bounty includes brilliant musical film scores, is not the stuff of fiction.

The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra are dab hands at packing the Lighthouse (and other venues) with an audience that may not necessarily appreciate its more traditional role but are keen to hear their favourite music up-front and live.

Pete Harrison, standing as tall as a Saturn rocket himself, is key to the success, lucidly (and loudly-all part of the Hollywood ethos) putting us in the picture with informative and entertaining anecdotes.

Launching into Trevor Rabin’s music for Armageddon, telling of the exploits of miners sent to destroy an Earth-bound asteroid, touched on the topical! And scores by Jerry Goldsmith for Star Trek: Nemesis and that from Michael Giacchino, Star Trek (2009) were all treated to the BSO’s blockbusting blast.

Some of the quieter pieces offering respite were from John Williams in Schindler’s List featuring a beautiful, Jewish-intoned, solo from leader Amyn Merchant and Tan Dun for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with a lovely solo from principal cellist Jesper Svedberg.

The list of favourites was long and the encore, Superman, seemed to sum up the whole epic genre with the best in glitzy panache.