Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy Award nominations for The Lost World (2001), Charles II: The Power & the Passion (2003), Longford (2006) and John Adams (2008).

BAFTA Award for Elizabeth I (2005), nominations for The Lost World (2001) and Jane Eyre (2006)

Ivor Novello Award for Close Relations (1998), Elizabeth I (2005), Blackpool (2004), nomination for Babs (2017).

Royal Television Society Award for Daniel Deronda (2003), Elizabeth I (2006), nominations for The Long Firm (2004), The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher (2011) and The Last Weekend (2012).

International Film Music Critics Award for John Adams (2008), nomination for Merlin (2008).

Credits

About

One of the most versatile and sought after composers working today, Rob is a multi-award winning composer with a huge array of credits across many genres. A BAFTA winner for his score for Channel 4’s Elizabeth starring Helen Mirren, he has also received 3 Ivor Novello awards, 3 RTS awards and 4 Emmy nominations for scores as diverse as John Adams, Blackpool, Jane Eyre, Longford, Daniel Deronda, Charles II, Babs and The Last Weekend.

Born in London in 1965, Rob studied film composition at the National Film & TV School in Beaconsfield, and whilst there got his first break scoring The Young Poisoner’s Handbook for director Benjamin Ross in 1994. From there he went on to score various TV series and movies, including Hillsborough (1996), The Girl With Brains in her Feet (1997) and David Copperfield (1999).

Rob’s remarkable ear for a memorable melody and gift for orchestral writing has graced many a period drama, from Love In Cold Climate, Henry VIII and Tess Of The D’Urbervilles through to BBC1’s recent World War One drama The Crimson Field. A suite from his much-loved music for Merlin was performed in the 2012 Proms In the Park season and his main theme for HBO’s epic mini-series John Adams has been much performed in the US.

Equally though, more recent scores for the psychological thrillers Hidden, The Last Weekend and the BBC1’s recent Quirke starring Gabriel Byrne have shown an innovative use of electronica that reflects a more left-field and minimalist aspect to Rob’s work. He has also produced jazz inflected scores for Spies Of Warsaw and more recently Babs, a biopic about actress Barbara Windsor for which the score received an Ivor Novello nomination this year.

A love of finding interesting musicians across the world to collaborate with has seen Rob recording in Johannesburg with the South African Broadcast Corporation Choir for Tom Hooper’s post-apartheid thriller Red Dust starring Hilary Swank and collaborating with Bollywood music stars Shankar Esshan Loy for West Is West, Andy DeEmony’s lyrical sequel to East Is East. He also recently sought out collaborations with Greek and Turkish musicians for ABC Network’s remake of Ben Hur starring Ray Winstone.

Rob has also periodically written concert pieces including “Evocations” in 2012 for string quartet and “Plath Poems” in 2015 for soprano, piano and string quartet. Based as he is in Brighton Rob also sings tenor in a local choir, The Brighton Singers for whom he has done many vocal arrangements and acted as musical director.