George Fenton(I)

George Fenton is an English composer best known for his work in film and television. He began learning guitar as a child and later studied organ at St. Edward's School in Oxford, continuing his musical studies privately. Although he briefly considered acting and appeared in Alan Bennett's West End play Forty Years On in 1968, he ultimately pursued music. He worked in theater during the early part of his career and received his first major commission in 1974, composing and serving as musical director for the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Twelfth Night. He began writing television scores in the 1970s and became an established composer for British television, with work including The Jewel in the Crown (1984) and the BBC series Bergerac (1981). His career in film developed significantly after he co-wrote the score for Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982) with Ravi Shankar in 1982, earning his first Academy Award nomination. He subsequently worked with Attenborough on several more films, including Cry Freedom (1987) and Shadowlands (1993). Fenton became particularly known for his music for natural history documentaries, beginning with David Attenborough's The Trials of Life (1990) in 1990 and later composing the scores for The Blue Planet (2001), Planet Earth (2006), and Frozen Planet (2011). His score for The Blue Planet earned him an Ivor Novello Award, a BAFTA, and an Emmy, while Planet Earth also brought him an Emmy. He has composed music for more than 100 feature films, with notable credits including Dangerous Liaisons (1988) and Groundhog Day (1993). His long-running collaboration with director Ken Loach began with Ladybird Ladybird (1994) in 1994 and continued across numerous films, including Land and Freedom (1995), The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), and The Old Oak (2023). Fenton has received five Academy Award nominations along with multiple BAFTA, Ivor Novello, Golden Globe, Emmy, and BMI Awards, as well as a Classic BRIT. He has also developed his documentary scores into live orchestral concerts, including The Blue Planet in Concert and Planet Earth in Concert. In 2023, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to music.