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After composing the score for the BBC's Trials of Life in 1990, Fenton went on to create the music for what became known as David Attenborough's Earth Trilogy: The Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet.
Fenton's music perfectly complemented the stunning visuals of the ocean's depths and the polar ice caps, adding an emotional weight to the narrative, using the full might of the orchestra to evoke everything from wonder and awe to tension and suspense.
Following the success of the documentaries, Fenton created a show - The Blue Planet in Concert - which has been performed by leading orchestras in venues around the world.
Among his other well-known soundtracks were The Long Walk Home, You've Got Mail, Sweet Home Alabama, The Lady In The Van and Mrs Henderson Presents.
Fenton also scored more films for British director Ken Loach than any other composer.
Their 18 collaborations included Ladybird, Ladybird; I, Daniel Blake and The Wind That Shakes the Barley, which won the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
He also founded the Association of Professional Composers, which later merged with The Ivors Academy; and he is one of only a handful of musicians to receive the Academy's fellowship, alongside Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Sir Elton John, Kate Bush, Bruce Springsteen and George Michael.
In addition, Fenton was a visiting professor at the Royal College of Music and the University of Nottingham. He was made a CBE for services to music in 2023.
The composer often said that his musical career had been an accident, but nothing gave him greater joy than seeing his work come to life.
On his episode of Desert Island Discs, Fenton chose one of his own compositions - Reunion, from the soundtrack to the movie Accidental Hero - as it reminded him of watching pianist John Lowe play the melody in the studio.
"If I was sitting on a desert island and thinking about what a good time I'd had writing music, which I have, I want just one thing to remind me about the best part - which is the fact that you write something and then you're so surprised and thrilled at the way it's played," he told Sue Lawley.
"For a composer, that's the biggest kick you can get."
