He was born in Wimbledon, London, August 25 of 1971, Talbot initially studied composition at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College under Robert Saxton. In 1993 Talbot first met Neil Hannon and began arranging and performing with his group The Divine Comedy. One of their tracks, "In Pursuit of Happiness", was used as the theme music for BBC TV's Tomorrow's World. Other works for television written by Talbot include the theme music for Young Musician of the Year, and the music for the highly successful BBC 2 comedy series The League of Gentlemen, which was awarded the Golden Rose at the Montreux International TV Festival. During 2004, Talbot was Classic FM's first resident composer. Talbot wrote a new piece of music, scored for up to five instruments, each month for the year of his residence.