Ben Foster

The story behind the sound

Born in Liverpool, Ben Foster is a four-times BAFTA-nominated composer with extensive credits in major productions across a variety of genres. His work can be heard most recently on Sally Wainwright's acclaimed drama Happy Valley for BBC, Adrian Dunbar’s Ridley for ITV and on the forthcoming The Future of Nature for BBC. Ben has also written music for shows including Torchwood, Thunderbirds Are Go and provided orchestral arrangements for over 100 episodes of Doctor Who. He has worked as an orchestral arranger for many of the world’s leading artists including Nick Cave, Dua Lipa, Paul McCartney, Elton John and in 2023 provided a string arrangement for ‘Now and Then’, the final ever song by The Beatles, working with Giles Martin. He has collaborated with Giles on a number of projects including the film Rocketman, and The Sound of Magic for Disney. Other work in film includes orchestration on major motion picture scores for a variety of Film composers including Jeymes Samuel, Marc Streitenfeld and Warren Ellis. Ben is frequently asked to conduct for other artists and composers, recently working with Peter Gabriel, Paul Weller, Hannah Peel and Will Gregory. Since 2012, Ben has been a frequent collaborator of David Arnold working on scores like Mog’s Christmas, The Tiger that Came to Tea and Good Omens. He has conducted most of the major orchestras in the world on stage and in the studio, most notable of which is his long-standing relationship of 20 years with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.