Adrian Johnston

Who is Adrian Johnston?

Adrian Johnston is a British musician and composer for film and TV.

Born in Cumbria, England, Johnston attended Edinburgh University, reading English. He has been a drummer in various bands including Moles for Breakfast, The Waterboys and The Mike Flowers Pops. During his twenties, he travelled the world providing music accompaniment to silent films at film festivals. He later scored productions for the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Johnston's first film score was for the 1996 Thomas Hardy adaptation Jude. He has also composed original scores for the 2007 film about Jane Austen, Becoming Jane, and the 2008 adaption of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. In 2008, he was awarded a BAFTA for the score of the BBC film Capturing Mary.

Johnston's score for Charles Sturridge's mini-series Shackleton won a 2002 Primetime Emmy. In 2009, he scored the British science-fiction procedural TV series Paradox. He composed the theme music for the BBC detective series Zen - winner in the 2011 RTS Awards, also the World War II drama The Sinking of the Laconia, Stephen Poliakoff's acclaimed 2013 TV series Dancing on the Edge, and the drama The 7.39.

Johnston currently resides in London and Samois-sur-Seine.