Debbie Wiseman: Songs, movies, biography and more facts

21 September 2018, 09:51 | Updated: 14 April 2022, 12:45

From her songs and movies to her biography, here’s everything you need to know about British composer Debbie Wiseman.

Debbie Wiseman OBE is a British composer, whose compositions can be heard in the soundtracks to television shows like The Coroner and Shakespeare & Hathaway – Private Investigators.

1. Debbie Wiseman’s biography

   Debbie Wiseman OBE was born on 10 May 1963 in London. She is a British composer, best known for her work in television and film, and has also worked as a conductor and a radio and television presenter.

   Debbie studied at Trinity College of Music Junior Department, before going on to study piano and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

   She is now one of the the UK's most successful female composers, and is a Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music, where she regularly gives lectures about the art of composing music for picture. In 2004, Wiseman was awarded in MBE for her services to the film industry and in June 2018 was made an OBE for services to music.

   

2. Debbie Wiseman’s songs

   Some of Debbie's best-known songs include soundtracks for television shows The Promise, Wolf Hall and Prophecies and Dreams; a piece for solo piano called The Quiet Room and a work called Flood, for singer Hayley Westenra. As Classic FM's Composer in Residence she has composed music for two albums (see below for more information). You can listen to her music on Spotify.

   

3. Debbie Wiseman’s television soundtracks

   Wiseman's TV music credits include The Coroner (2015), Father Brown (2013), Doc Martin (2004) and Shakespeare & Hathaway – Private Investigators (2018).

   She also wrote the music for Dickensian (2015), Wolf Hall (2015) and The Promise (nominated for a BAFTA for Best Drama Serial in 2011).

   

   RECORDING SOUNDTRACK WITH DEBBIE WISEMAN / EDIE FILM

4. Debbie Wiseman’s movie soundtracks

   Among her many film music credits are Tom and Viv (nominated for two Academy Awards, 1994), Wilde (nominated for Best Original Film Score at the 1997 Ivor Novello Awards), Haunted (1995) and Tom's Midnight Garden (1999).

   In the Classic FM Top 100 Movie Music Chart in 2010, Wiseman's score for Wilde was voted in by listeners at No. 12.

5. Debbie Wiseman’s husband

   Debbie Wiseman has been married to the music technician Tony Wharmby Jr. since 1987. The couple live together in London, where Wiseman grew up.

   

6. Classic FM's Composer in Residence

   Wiseman was appointed as Classic FM's Composer in Residence in 2015. Her commissions to-date include The Glorious Garden, an album of music with poetry by Alan Titchmarsh and The Musical Zodiac, a 12-movement suite reflecting the personality and unique quality of each star sign.

   From Saturday 22 September, Wiseman will present a major new series on Classic FM: Sounds and Sweet Airs will celebrate the music and the lives of the world’s greatest female composers, including Clara Schumann, Lili Boulanger and Fanny Mendelssohn.