| Mark Knopfler's penned his first film soundtrack | | | | the movie ("Comfort," "Joy," and "A Fistful of Ice |
| for Local Hero, the now-legendary 1983 film | | | | Cream"), music from and references to the Dire |
| written and directed by Scottish filmmaker Bill | | | | Straits' album Love Over Gold is woven |
| Forsyth. The music played an important role in the | | | | throughout the entire film. According to Philip Gillett |
| film, and the main theme, "Going Home," was a | | | | of offscreen.com, director Forsyth once admitted |
| huge hit in the U.K. The cinematic relationship | | | | in an interview that he was "trying to mirror the |
| between Knopfler and Forsyth continued in 1984 | | | | tone" of the moody Love Over Gold by featuring |
| with a smaller but no less touching film entitled | | | | the songs "Telegraph Road," which traces the rise |
| Comfort and Joy. | | | | and fall of a city, and "Private Investigations," |
| Inspired by actual events in Glasgow, Scotland, | | | | which depicts a person "trying to solve an enigma |
| the movie tells the story of radio disc jockey | | | | which may be of his own creation." Forsyth used |
| Alan "Dickie" Bird (played by Bill Paterson), whose | | | | the lyrics to another track on the album, "It |
| girlfriend leaves him just in time for the holidays. | | | | Never Rains," as dialogue between two DJs at the |
| His depression is broken when he spies, then | | | | radio station in the film: "I hear the seven deadly |
| follows, a beautiful young woman in the back of | | | | sins and the terrible twins came to call on you / |
| an ice cream van. Through a bizarre series of | | | | The bigger they are, baby, the harder they fall on |
| events, Alan gets caught in a comical yet | | | | you." And not coincidentally, after his girlfriend's |
| strangely ominous war between two family-run | | | | departure, Alan Bird describes his situation as |
| ice cream businesses. It's up to him to play | | | | being in "dire straits." |
| mediator and bring a resolution in time for | | | | The 3-track score was released on vinyl in Great |
| Christmas. | | | | Britain by Vertigo (DSTR 712) in 1984. |
| Although Knopfler wrote three original pieces for | | | | |