George Fenton

Composer

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Film, TV & Theatre

Agent: Alice Dunne
Assistant: Grace Malloch

Film, TV & Theatre

Best known for his work in film and television, George Fenton is one of the UK’s most successful composers, writing scores for over 100 films and dozens of plays and TV programmes.  He has collaborated with some of the most influential filmmakers including Richard Attenborough Stephen Frears, Nicholas Hytner, Ken Loach and Andy Tennant.

 

To date, Fenton’s work has been recognised with numerous awards. George has received 5 Oscar nominations; multiple Ivor Novello wins and nominations, BAFTA and Emmy awards, a Classical Brit, the Nina Rota award at Venice and a World Soundtrack Lifetime Achievement award from Film Fest Gent.  George also holds a Fellowship at The Royal College of Music and The Ivors Academy (formally BASCA).

Features

George began scoring films in 1982, with Richard Attenborough's biopic Gandhi for which he was nominated (with Ravi Shankar), for the Academy Award for Original Music Score.  George continued to work with Attenborough on movies including: Shadowlands (Ivor Novello award), In Love and WarGrey Owl and Cry Freedom (Ivor Novello win /Golden Globe nomination /Grammy nomination/Oscar nominations). 

Further credits include Anna and the KingThe Madness of King George, Cold Pursuit, The Fisher King, Dangerous Liaisons, White Mischief I Daniel Blake, The Lady in the Van and most recently Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts, Sorry We Missed You, Red Joan, The Secret: Dare To Dream, The Duke and to come in 2023 Allelujah, Unit 234 (Andy Tennant), and The Old Oak (Ken Loach).

 

Drama

George’s drama credits include The Monocled Mutineer (BAFTA/Ivor Novello wins), The original BBC Talking Heads series and also this 2020's series, Bergerac (BAFTA win)The Jewel in the Crown (BAFTA nomination/Ivor Novello win, The Six Plays By Alan Bennett  and Shoestring (Ivor Novello nomination).

 

Factual Entertainment

Factual Entertainment credits include The BBC's Blue Planet (Ivor Novello/BAFTA/Emmy wins), Planet Earth (Emmy win/Ivor Novello nomination) and Frozen Planet (BAFTA nomination), Life (Ivor Novello Nomination), MonarchyBeyond The Clouds (Ivor Novello nomination), The Trials of Life and Life in the Freezer (BAFTA nominations).

George has composed the theme tunes to current affairs programmes such as the BBC's One O'Clock NewsSix O'Clock News, and Nine O'Clock News (BAFTA win)Breakfast TimeNewsnightOn the Record and Omnibus.

Theatre

George has worked on productions for The Royal Shakespeare Company, The National Theatre and Riverside Studios, with scores including Good, Mother CourageThe Judas Kiss, Othello, Mrs Henderson Presents and Alan Bennett's Untold Stories, Talking Heads and Nicholas Hytner's new production, Beat The Devil, featuring Ralph Fiennes. More recently, he has worked on Bach & Sons and David Hare's Straight Line Crazy. 

Concerts

Following on from the BBC's The Blue Planet,  Frozen Planet and Planet Earth, George then took these to live audiences globally, conducting with an orchestra performing to the footage on screen. Venues have included London's Royal Festival Hall, LA's Hollywood Bowl and Sydney's Royal Opera House.  These concerts continue to tour the world.