Martin Phipps (born 1 August 1968) is a British composer, who has worked on numerous film and television projects.

Life and career

He is the son of Sue Pears and Jack Phipps, an arts administrator who had previously founded a management agency, which acted for many leading musical figures (including

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

, Phipps's godfather). Having read drama at Manchester University, Phipps enjoyed early critical success with '' Eureka Street'', and went on to score the BBC period dramas '' North & South'' and '' The Virgin Queen'', for which he was recognised with the

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been ...

for Best Original Score. Phipps scored '' Low Winter Sun'' for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

, starring

Mark Strong Mark Strong (born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia; 5 August 1963), is a British actor, best known for his film roles such as Prince Septimus in ''Stardust'' (2007), Archibald in '' RocknRolla'' (2008), Lord Henry Blackwood in ''Sherlock Holmes'' (20 ...

and

Brian McCardie Brian McCardie is a Scottish actor and writer. Early life Brian McCardie attended St. Brendan’s, then St. Athanasius Primary Schools. He went on to Our Lady's High School in Motherwell. His parents moved from Motherwell to Carluke while ...

and '' Persuasion'', the most recent ITV adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, as well as '' Grow Your Own'', a feature for

Warp Films Warp Films is an independent film and television production company based in Sheffield & London, UK. History 2001 – 2012 Warp Films was established by Warp Records founding partners Rob Mitchell and Steve Beckett. It was initially created with ...

. He also scored the BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's ''

Sense and Sensibility ''Sense and Sensibility'' is a novel by Jane Austen, published in 1811. It was published anonymously; ''By A Lady'' appears on the title page where the author's name might have been. It tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor (age 19) a ...

'', adapted by Andrew Davies. Phipps was then commissioned to score the BBC's '' Oliver Twist'' adaptation, for which he was recognised with the Ivor Novello Award 2008 for Best Television Soundtrack. Phipps went on to score the

Rowan Joffé Rowan Marc Joffé (born 1973) is a British screenwriter and director. He is the son of director Roland Joffé and actress Jane Lapotaire, and half-brother of actress Nathalie Lunghi. Joffé began writing plays in university and was eventually a ...

-helmed drama, ''Hurndall'' for Talkback Thames followed by '' Wallander'' for Yellow Bird/Left Bank Pictures, starring

Kenneth Branagh Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs (plus ...

, for which he was recognised with the BAFTA Craft Award 2009 for Best Original TV Score. He then went on to write the music for the feature film ''

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'', starring

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Derek Jacobi Sir Derek George Jacobi (; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor. He has appeared in various stage productions of William Shakespeare such as ''Hamlet'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', '' Macbeth'', ''Twelfth Night'', '' The Tempest'', ''Kin ...

Jonny Lee Miller Jonathan Lee Miller (born 15 November 1972) is a British film, television and theatre actor. He achieved early success for his portrayal of Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson in the dark comedy-drama film '' Trainspotting'' (1996) and as Dade Murphy i ...

and

Chiwetel Ejiofor Chiwetel Umeadi Ejiofor ( ; born 10 July 1977) is a British actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a BAFTA Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, an NAACP Image Award, and nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awa ...

, chronicling the breakdown of S. African apartheid, directed by

Pete Travis Pete Travis is a British television and film director. His work includes ''Cold Feet'' (1999), '' The Jury'' (2002) and ''Omagh'' (2004) for television and '' Vantage Point'' (2008), '' Endgame'' (2009), ''Dredd'' (2012) and '' City of Tiny Lig ...

. It was entered into competition at the Sundance Film Festival. He also scored '' Small Island'' for Ruby Films/BBC, winning the BAFTA Craft Award 2010 for Best Original Television Music. More recently, he completed the score for his first feature film, '' Brighton Rock'' and composed the music for the newest BBC adaptation of '' Great Expectations''. In 2005, Phipps wrote the score to the film '' Pierrepoint''. Other credits include '' The Wife of Bath'' from the BBC's contemporary adaptation of the ''

Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''magnum opus ...

'', and the contemporary drama ''

Dirty Filthy Love ''Dirty Filthy Love'' is a British single television drama starring Michael Sheen as an architect living with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette syndrome. Directed by Adrian Shergold, the film was first broadcast by ITV on 26 S ...

''. He also scored the British feature film, '' The Flying Scotsman'', and ''

The Line of Beauty ''The Line of Beauty'' is a 2004 Man Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst. Plot The novel is set in Britain in three parts, taking place in 1983, 1986 and 1987. The story surrounds the young gay protagonist, Nick Guest. Nick is mid ...

''. Phipps scored the UK thriller feature '' Harry Brown'' for Cutting Edge/Marv Films, starring

Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...

, as well as Rowan Joffé's feature adaptation of

Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...

's '' Brighton Rock''. Mike Diver described Phipps' score as "rich and sumptuous of tone and depth". He co-wrote the score with

Emily Barker Emily Barker (born 2 December 1980) is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician and composer. Her music has featured as the theme to BBC dramas ''Wallander'' and ''The Shadow Line''. With multi-instrumental trio the Red Clay Halo, she record ...

for the BBC drama '' The Shadow Line''. Authored by Hugo Blick for the BBC, it was described by one critic as "a maddening, stylish experiment in doing something completely, admirably different with television". More recent credits include the first series of ''

Peaky Blinders The Peaky Blinders were a street gang based in Birmingham, England, which operated from the 1880s until the 1910s. The group consisted largely of young criminals from lower- to middle-class backgrounds. They engaged in robbery, violence, rack ...

'' on BBC Two for which he was nominated for a BAFTA Craft Award and ''

The Honourable Woman ''The Honourable Woman'' is a 2014 British political spy thriller television miniseries in eight parts, directed and written by Hugo Blick for the BBC and SundanceTV. Featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal in the title role, it aired on BBC Two in the ...

''. His documentary work includes scoring the documentary '' Britain in a Day''. More recently he composed the score of the film '' Woman in Gold'' in collaboration with

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living G ...

. Phipps composed the soundtrack for the 2016 miniseries '' War & Peace''. Phipps said he "ended up coming onto the project early on", and that he was given room to "run with it... from the very beginning." The soundtrack was released on 13 May 2016. He also composed the theme to the same year's ''

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

'', as well as incidental music of the early episodes. The theme was sung by the

Mediæval Bæbes The Mediæval Bæbes are a British musical ensemble founded in 1996 by Dorothy Carter and Katharine Blake. It included some of Blake's colleagues from the band Miranda Sex Garden, as well as other friends who shared her love of medieval music. ...

. Phipps also composed the soundtrack for season 3, season 4 and season 5 of

The Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

Filmography

Films

Television

References

External links

Martin Phipps at COOL Music Ltd
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Phipps, Martin 1968 births Alumni of the Victoria University of Manchester British film score composers British male film score composers British television composers Ivor Novello Award winners Living people Male television composers