Martin Phipps (born 1 August 1968) is an award-winning British composer, who has garnered critical acclaim for his work on numerous film and television projects.
Contents |
Having read drama at Manchester University, Phipps enjoyed early critical success with Eureka Street, and went on to score the BBC period dramas North and South and Elizabeth - The Virgin Queen for which he was recognised with the Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Score.
Phipps scored Low Winter Sun for Channel 4, starring Mark Strong and Brian McCardie and Persuasion, the most recent 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. Phipps 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.
Phipps 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. More recently, he completed the score for his first big feature film, Brighton Rock and composed the music for the newest BBC adaptation of Great Expectations.
In the summer of 2005 Phipps wrote the 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. He 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.
Phipps scored the gripping UK thriller feature Harry Brown for Cutting Edge/Marv Films, starring Michael Caine, as well as Rowan Joffe's feature adaptation of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock. Mike Diver described Phipps' score as "rich and sumptuous of tone and depth".[1] Martin has recently completed the score (co-written with recording-artist Emily Barker) for the hugely intriguing and successful BBC drama The Shadow Line. Autered by Hugo Blick for the BBC, its intensity, depth and complexity has captivated both critics and the viewing public alike, described by one critic as "a maddening, stylish experiment in doing something completely, admirably different with television".[2]