Arthur Sharpe

Composer

IMDb

Arthur Sharpe is a BAFTA, Ivor Novello and RTS Award-winning composer whose distinct and characterful music combines modern experimental sensibilities and playing techniques with the melody-driven lyricism of classical writing. Often blending an orchestral palette with more unusual instruments and found sounds, his progressive scores can move, unsettle and enrich in equal measure.

Most recent works include the BBCOne comedy-thriller series The Following Events are Based on a Pack of Lies (2023), the HBO & Sky Atlantic series Landscapers (2021), a genre-distorting true crime drama about a double murder starring Olivia Colman and David Thewlis, where he merged nods to golden age Hollywood with more unconventional macabre writing and textures. His score for the show won him multiple awards including the 2022 BAFTA for Best Original Music and the Ivor Novello Award for Best Television Soundtrack. He also scored the feature film The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021), a Victorian-era artist’s biopic starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy, in which he incorporated a theremin, musical saw and mellotron with a chamber ensemble. His work on this film won him an ASCAP London Music Award, a nomination for the Ivor's Best Original Film Score and made the 2022 BAFTA Longlist for Best Original Film Score, while his scores for both projects also saw him nominated for an IFMCA Award for Breakthrough Composer of the Year.

Other past projects include the Channel 4 show Flowers (2016 – 2018), a dark comedy drama about mental health within a dysfunctional family, starring Sophia Di Martino, Olivia Colman and Julian Barratt. His work on the first series won him an RTS Award for Best Original Score, while he was also nominated for an Ivor Novello for the second series. Further TV works include scoring Neil Forsyth’s multi award-winning Guilt (2019 – 2023), the first series of the BBC1 comedy Ghosts (2019), written by and starring the Horrible Histories ensemble, and Women on the Verge (2018), starring Kerry Condon and created by Lorna Martin and Sharon Horgan.

He also wrote music for the BAFTA-nominated feature film Black Pond (2011) while still at university and co-scored BIFA-nominated The Darkest Universe (2016) with Ralegh Long.

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