Martin Phipps - Composer Profile

Martin, (pictured right receiving an Ivor Novello Award 2012 with Agent Chris Gutch), recently completed a haunting score and beautifully evocative titles song (co-written with recording-artist Emily Barker) for the hugely intriguing and gripping, The Shadow Line, for which he was honoured with the 2012 Ivor Novello Award for Best TV Music. Autered by Hugo Blick for the BBC, its intensity, depth and complexity captivated both critics and the viewing public alike. Martin also scored the most recent BBC/WGBH re-imagining of Dickens' classic Great Expectations, which starred Douglas Booth, Ray Winstone, David Suchet, Gillian Anderson, and Mark Addy.

Coming from a musical background (he is Benjamin Britten’s godson), Martin read drama at Manchester University. Fortunately for the acting world, he decided to concentrate his energies on writing music. Martin's music is consistently innovative, striking at the emotional heart of any given piece.

Following the early critical success of Eureka Street he went on to score the BBC period dramas North and South and Elizabeth - The Virgin Queen, an enchanting score, in which he incorporated the wonderful voices of the Medieval Babes to excellent effect, and for which he was recognised with the Ivor Novello Award 2007 and RTS Award for Best Original Score.

Martin scored the gripping drama Low Winter Sun, for Channel 4, starring Mark Strong and Brian McCardie and Persuasion, the ITV adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, as well as Grow Your Own, a feature for Warp Films. He also scored the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, adapted by Andrew Davies. Martin was then commissioned to score the BBC's most recent Oliver Twist adaptation, for which he was recognised with the Ivor Novello Award 2008 for Best Television Soundtrack.

Martin went on to score the Rowan Joffe helmed drama, Hurndall for Talkback Thames, followed by Wallander for Yellow Bird/Left Bank Pictures, starring Kenneth Branagh, for which he was recognised with the BAFTA Craft Award 2009 for Best Original TV Score. He then went onto write the music for the feature film, Endgame, starring William Hurt, Derek Jacobi, Mark Strong, Johnny Lee Miller and Chiwitel Ejiofor, chronicling the breakdown of S. African apartheid, directed by Pete Travis. It was entered into competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Martin scored Small Island for Ruby Films/BBC, winning the BAFTA Craft Award 2010 for Best Original Television Music.

In the summer of 2005 Martin wrote a haunting score to the film Pierrepoint, directed by Adrian Shergold. Other credits include The Wife of Bath from the BBC’s contemporary adaptation of the Canterbury Tales, and the acclaimed contemporary drama Dirty Filthy Love. Martin also scored the British feature film, The Flying Scotsman, and the BBC adaptation of the 2004 Man Booker prize winning The Line Of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst.

He scored the gripping UK thriller feature, Harry Brown for Cutting Edge/Marv Films, starring Michael Caine, and Rowan Joffe's feature adaptation of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock. He most recently completed the music for the BBC Film / Scott Free Productions follow up to Life In A Day. Britain In A Day, as its predecessor, follows a single day in the life of individual people as complied from there own You Tube clips, only this time, rather than worldwide, it focuses wholly on Britain.

Film Credits

Television Credits