The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Beeb to show unseen interview with Dr Who theme creator

Delia Derbyshire remembered

The BBC will next week air a previously unbroadcast interview with the late Delia Derbyshire, the synthesised music whiz who first realised composer Ron Grainer's famous Doctor Who score.

The interview, originally recorded by a BBC Scotland reporter in the late 1990s, was made after Derbyshire's pioneering work - no synths in the early 1960s, just audio oscillators and hand-spliced tape loops - began to find new favour with young electronic music makers and fans, and not just crusty old Doctor Who buffs.

Excerpts from the interview, along with previously unseen footage of Delia later in life at a Doctor Who convention, will be shown on Inside Out on Monday, 15 November on BBC One at 7.30pm.

Delia Derbyshire

The snag: it's only being shown in the West Midlands, but the rest of us will get to see it on BBC iPlayer shortly afterward, Gone Digital reports.

Derbyshire, who died in 2001 at the age of 64, will always be most fondly remembered for the first broadcast version of the Doctor Who theme, but she worked on many other shows during her long stint at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

The Corporation closed down the Workshop in 1998, electing instead to look outside for electronic music and sounds, now made much more cheaply on new technology undreamed of when Derbyshire and fellow Workshop workers Desmond Briscoe, Dick Mills and Brian Hodgson started out in the late 1950s.

Derbyshire's version of the Doctor Who theme was used from the show's first broadcast on 23 November 1963 through to the the end of strike-hit Season 17 in 1979.

In 1967, Derbyshire and then Doctor Who sound effects producer Brian Hodgson added extra audio effects to the theme, to the extent that many listeners believe it to be a new, faster version. It's not. however.

For a few seasons in the early 1970s, Derbyshire's version was tweaked with an initial 'stutter' to tie in with the new, colour title sequence introduced with third Doctor Jon Pertwee.

When the BBC took possession of its first synthesiser, an EMS Delaware, in the early 1970s, Derbyshire, along with Hodgson and recent Workshop recruit Paddy Kingsland, created an entirely new version of the theme, though it failed to find favour with BBC bosses. Indeed, it sounds very dated now in a way that even Derbyshire's 1963 original doesn't.

You can read a detailed history of the realisation of the Doctor Who theme penned by composer and Radiophonic Workshop archivist Mark Ayres. ®

Its amazing what you can do with a key and a piano string.

Its a sound that still makes the hairs on my neck stand up with excitement when I hear it on TV in another room.

4
0

rephlex

Delia Derbyshire is awesome and the defacto queen of early electronic music artists. Check out the album "Music From The BBC Radiophonic Workshop" on Rephlex records if you want to hear more from her and other early electronic pioneers.

Also, check out this "throwaway" track produced early in her career - predated modern dance music by more than thirty years! It sounds so up to date and fresh, it's unbelievable to think how old it is... anyway, link below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7512490.stm

3
0

Sculptress of Sound

BBC Radio 4 featured Delia Derbyshire on archive on 4 a while back if you get the chance to listen again (its not on iplayer at present - perhaps apply an eye patch and parrot) I'd recommend it!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rl2ky

3
0

...will always be most fondly remembered for...

White Noise - An Electric Storm

2
0

To Delia (The Original Aphex Twin)

We the hardcore raver and techno jogging fraternity salute you!

1
0

More from The Register

 breaking news
Apple cored: Samsung sells 10 million Galaxy S4 in a month
Beware of South Koreans bearing Android
Microsoft reveals Xbox One, the console that can read your heartbeat
Upgrades Live service – and no always-on requirement
US boffin builds 32-way Raspberry Pi cluster
Beowulf cluster built for the price of a single PC
Review: HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook
All roads lead to Chrome?
Euro PC shipments plummet into bottomless pit of DOOOOM
11th quarter of decline, 20pc drop on last year - Gartner
Nintendo throws flaming legal barrel at YouTubing fans
All your walk-through vid revenue are belong to us
Fairphone goes on sale to all
The Android handset that's PC can be yours

Hands on with Hyper-V 3.0 and virtual machine movement

Our award-winning Regcasts have teamed up with training provider QA for the deepest of deep dives into Hyper-V, including a live demo.

Understand VM movement - just click to play, or go here for a bigger version.