Philip Appleby

​Composer

Philip Appleby’s latest credits are two episodes in the long running BBC series Inspector George Gently, produced by Company Pictures – Gently With Class and Gently Northern Soul, both directed by Gillies MacKinnon. Earlier credits include the BBC costume drama The Wyvern Mystery for which he was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award and the BBC comedy series Born To Run, written by Debbie Horsfield and produced by Laura Mackie, for which he was nominated for the RTS Award. He also scored the Oscar winning short Franz Kafka’s It’s A Wonderful Life, written and directed by Peter Capaldi and produced by Ruth Kenley-Letts.



Philip’s musical style embraces everything from contemporary electronic scores to large scale choral and orchestral and even quirky children’s drama. He won critical acclaim for his work on Tony Collingwood’s Bafta nominated animation Rarg for which the British Film Institute gave him a best film music award that year and in the US the International Animated Film Society commended him for ‘outstanding achievement for music in the field of animation’.



Other credits include the BBC/WGBH thriller The Blue Boy, starring Emma Thompson and Adrian Dunbar; all five episodes of Julian Fellowes’ A Most Mysterious Murder, starring Michael Fassbender; the BBC TV film Zig Zag Love, starring Robert Carlyle; Granada’s crime thriller Butterfly Collectors; Maria's Child and The Grass Arena for the BBC’s long running Screen Two series and his powerful score for the BBC mini-series Tell Tale Hearts, starring Bill Paterson as a child killer, won many industry plaudits. He scored the D W Griffith segments of Photoplay’s history of the American cinema mini-series, plus their history of European cinema series The Other Hollywood.



He has also had great success with his music for popular children’s TV series, including 94 episodes of the BAFTA nominated Tracy Beaker, as well as the Tracy Beaker feature The Movie of Me. He also scored the BAFTA award winning Eddy and the Bear.



Philip originally trained as a trumpeter before going on to study composition at the Royal Academy of Music and later at Sussex University. He later enrolled at the National Film and Television School as their first official film music composition student and within a couple of years he was already establishing himself as a successful new name in TV scoring.





PHILIP APPLEBY
Credits Include


Features
THE ROOSTER MUST DIE – Square Elephant Productions 
           Prod. Debora Setnik   Dir. Parag Sankhe
THE KING’S BEARD – CITV – Prod. Christopher O’Hare  Dir. Tony Collingwood
P.O.V. – Parallel Pictures – Prod. Janet Radenkovic  Dir. Lesley Manning
FRANZ KAFKA’S IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE – Conundrum Films/BBC
                                         Prod. Ruth Kenley-Letts  Dir. Peter Capaldi
NOTHING PERSONAL – British Screen Productions / Channel Four Films
   Prods. Jonathan Cavendish, Tracey Seaward Dir. Thaddeus O’Sullivan

RARG – NFTS – Prod. Christoper O’Hare  Dir. Tony Collingwood

Television
INSPECTOR GEORGE GENTLY x 2  – Company Pictures – Prod. Faye Dorn 
          Dir.  Gillies MacKinnon 
A MOST MYSTERIOUS MURDER  X 5 -   Touchpaper  Television – Prod. Clare Alan
                                        Dir. Michael Samuels / Delyth Thomas / Dominic Santana    
ZIG ZAG LOVE – Machine Productions – Prod. Jane Dauncey & Jane Steventon
                                                                                         Dir. Gillies MacKinnon
BUTTERFLY COLLECTORS – Granada Drama – Prod. Hilary Bevan Jones         
                              Dir. Jean Stewart
THE WYVERN MYSTERY - BBC  Films -  Prod. Ruth Baumgarten 
                                                                                               Dir. Alex Pillai
BORN TO RUN – BBC – Prod. Laura Mackie  Dir. Jean Stewart
HARPUR & ILES - BBC – Prod. Jane Dauncey  Dir. Jim Hill
THE BLUE BOY – BBC/WGBH – Prod. Kate Swan  Dir. Paul Murton

D W GRIFFITH: FATHER OF FILM X 1 – Photoplay Productions. 

Prod. / Dir. David Gill & Kevin Brownlow

CINEMA EUROPE: THE OTHER HOLLYWOOD X 1 – Photoplay Productions
                        Prod. / Dir. David Gill & Kevin Brownlow

TELL TALE HEARTS – BBC Series x 3

Prod. Norman McClandlish & David Blair  Dir. Thaddeus O' Sullivan

GHOSTWATCH – BBC -  Prod. Ruth Baumgarten  Dir. Lesley Manning
ALIVE & KICKING - SCREEN ONE – BBC – Prod. David M.Thompson  Dir. Robert Young
MARIA'S CHILD - SCREEN TWO – BBC – Prod. Kenith Trodd  Dir. Malcolm McKay
NEEDLE – BBC – Prod. George Faber  Dir. Gillies MacKinnon



Childrens
THE STORY OF TRACY BEAKER – 94 eps BBC – Exec. Prod. Cas Lester
EDDY AND THE BEAR – Collingwood O’Hare – Prod. Christopher O’Hare 
                                                                      Dir Tony Collingwood
TRACY BEAKER’S ‘THE MOVIE OF ME’ – BBC – Prod. Jane Dauncey & Jane Steventon
                                                               Dir. Joss Agnew
DAISY-HEAD MAYZIE – Collingwood O’Hare – Prod. Christopher O’Hare

                                                                         Dir. Tony Collingwoood



 

​Philip Appleby working at Alexander Sound Studios.