[9] In 2014 Service made the first of a series of documentaries with historian Amanda Vickery, produced by Reef Television for the BBC, titled Messiah at the Foundling Hospital.

The programme received mixed reviews with The Daily Telegraph criticising the delivery of both presenters and its inaccuracies[10] and The Arts Desk being very positive.

[12] The third film, also in 2016 with Amanda Vickery, was the documentary Leningrad & the Orchestra that Defied Hitler for BBC Two about the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the performance of Symphony No.

[13][14] In 2015 Service wrote and presented The Joy of Mozart, a documentary for BBC Four, which The Daily Telegraph described as "joyous" and "richly enjoyable".

Opera News described the book as "two hundred pages of brilliant talk" and said of Service that "there's no doubting the intelligence he brings to the project".

[24] Classical Music magazine described the conversations as “a great battle of wills and provokes an unapologetically complex book”.