Paul Farrer
| Paul Farrer | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1973 Worcester, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Composer |
| Known for | Composing themes and music for various TV shows, films and video games |
| Website |
paulfarrer |
Paul Myles Farrer (born 1973) is a British film and television music composer. He is best known for composing the music for various programmes including The Weakest Link, Dancing on Ice, Gladiators, The Krypton Factor, The Chase and the United Kingdom general election debates in 2010. He has composed music for many TV shows on networks in the UK, United States and Australia. He is also the creator, composer and on-screen conductor of the ITV gameshow, 1000 Heartbeats.
Early life
Farrer was born in Worcester, England in 1973. When he was eight, he joined the Worcester Cathedral Voluntary Choir, where he performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.[1]
He left school at 16, and began working in a recording studio, playing the piano, clarinet, violin, saxophone and trumpet.[1] He produced jingles for radio stations and set up his own company, before starting work for television.[1][2]
Television career
Farrer is known for composing the music for the BBC programme The Weakest Link.
Farrer also composed the music for The Jerry Springer Show, BBC's Dog Eat Dog and Riot Cops, Channel Nine's Torvill and Dean's Dancing on Ice, NBC's Saturday Night Live, and the Academy Awards.[1] He has also composed the music for the TV show Ant & Dec's PokerFace on ITV.
Other shows scored include ITV's The Big Quiz and Secret Dealers, Sky 1's The Angel and Nothing But the Truth, Channel 5's 19 Keys in 2003, Grudge Match, and That Puppet Game Show in 2013 for BBC One.
2006–07
In 2006, he scored the Fox Reality Channel series My Bare Lady, Jamie Theakston's The Search (Channel Four), Car Wars on BBC One and Alan Titchmarsh's The Great British Village Show for the BBC. His 2007 shows included Peter Jones' Tycoon, Families at War with Trisha Goddard for Five, The Iraq Commission for Channel Four and Marbella Belles for ITV.
2008
2008 saw the launch of the new Trisha Goddard show, daily on Channel Five, for which Farrer composed title music. In May 2008 Sky One's relaunch of Gladiators premiered; Farrer was commissioned to compose the theme and incidental music.
2009
2009 began with ITV's relaunch of The Krypton Factor, and a second series of Battle of The Brains hosted by Nicky Campbell, along with new series' of Dancing on Ice and Gladiators (all scored by Farrer) and scored the music for The Chase.
Farrer's music has also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Little Britain and The IT Crowd.
2010–11
In 2010, he has composed the music to Ant & Dec's Push the Button, 71 Degrees North both for ITV and Antiques Master for BBC One. He also composed the original music for the historic first ever UK election Debate screened on ITV on 15 April 2010. In 2011, he has composed the theme and incidental music to The Magicians for BBC One, CITV/Disney XD's Fort Boyard: Ultimate Challenge and Channel 4's Famous and Fearless.
2012
In 2012, Farrer was the music composer for BBC Two's new quiz show, Breakaway, which was hosted by Nick Hancock and began airing its 20-episode run on 12 March.
In October he was commissioned to compose the music for the 100th Anniversary Royal Variety Performance which took place at the Royal Albert Hall on 19 November 2012 in the presence of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. His score was performed by the live orchestra on the night and was conducted by renowned music director David Arch.
2013–14
TV composing commissions include Jo Frost: Family Matters, Secret Dealers, Judge Rinder, The Speakmans and The Real Housewives of Cheshire for ITV. The award-winning The Sheriffs Are Coming and First Time on the Front Line for BBC One. In July 2014 he completed the Theme tune and music score for the BBC's Tumble.
Film career
Farrer worked on music for the movie Domino, and has worked on movies that have headlined with Jason Connery, Brian Blessed and Oliver Reed.[1]
| Film Score | Year |
|---|---|
| The Bruce | 1996 |
| Macbeth | 1997 |
| King Lear | 1999 |
| Steel Tempest | 1999 |
| Hamlet | 2000 |
| Harvest | 2003 |
| Sindy: The Fairy Princess | 2003 |
| Little Dog Turpie | 2004 |
| Domino | 2005 |
| Ulysses Road | 2007 |
Other projects
Farrer has scored a number of videogames for the PlayStation. In addition to his music for The Weakest Link, being used on the Activision game releases for PS1 and PS2, he has provided music and sound design for Relentless Software's "Buzz!" series of videogames including "Buzz! The Hollywood Quiz", "Buzz! Quiz TV", "Buzz! Master Quiz", "Buzz! Brain Bender" and "Buzz!: Brain of the World".
In 2010, he completed the score to Sony's "TV Superstars" PS3 title, which makes full use of the Sony Move system.
He is also a regular contributor to "Sound on Sound" Europe's leading music technology magazine. Writing a monthly column called 'Notes From The Deadline' in which he recounts experiences he has as a media composer.
He wrote the music for the Toy Story CD-ROMS, and produced work for the Royal Air Force, Shell, Ferrari and Ford.[1]
In 2015, he created the UK game show 1000 Heartbeats.
Awards
He was the recipient of a BMI Composer Award and an Ampex Golden Reel Award.[1]
He is a member of both The Performing Rights Society (PRS) and The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.[3]
In 2010, Farrer became a member of The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "BBC – Hereford and Worcester – Entertainment – Paul Farrer". Retrieved 2 May 2009.
- ↑ Moodie, Clemmie (16 November 2007). "How four notes made music composer the other multi-millionaire of The Weakest Link". Daily Mail. Retrieved 2 May 2009.
- ↑ "Paul Farrer – basca". basca.org.uk. Retrieved 21 August 2013.