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The archive of the pioneering BBC Radiophonic Workshop is being made available for the first time for use by musical artists and producers in a move set to continue a legacy of helping invent and develop electronic music and sampling. The Workshop created legendary sounds and music for radio and TV series, such as Doctor Who, including its famous theme, Tomorrow’s World, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, giving, as the BBC noted, “the Tardis an engine and the Daleks a voice.”

The move comes thanks to a licensing deal and collaboration between Spitfire Audio, a London-based technology company that creates virtual instrument sample libraries used for music production, and BBC Studios. The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was launched in 1958, rose to prominence at its Maida Vale Studios in London, and closed in March 1998.

Spitfire touted that under the partnership “an unprecedented package of samples” will be available from Wednesday,...

Among another impressive stack of new horror titles looking to spook audiences at this year’s Sundance, “Rabbit Trap” joins a growing library of psychological folk horrors that have recently offered more (deeply) unsettling creeps than out-and-out scares.

Bowing in the Midnight slot in Park City on Friday and the feature debut of Brit director Bryn Chainey, the film doesn’t just boast an Oscar nominee in Dev Patel among its somewhat limited cast (there are only three characters in the entire feature), but comes with the backing of Elijah Wood’s SpectreVision.

Set in 1976 in rural Wales, “Rabbit Trap” centers on Daphne Davenport (“Blue Jean” breakout Rosy McEwen), an experimental electronic musician who, alongside her troubled husband and collaborator Darcy (Patel), has moved to a remote abandoned farmhouse in the countryside. It’s here where, equipped with a wild laboratory of analogue synthesizers, tape decks, theremins and very little else,...

An outlandish beat, a disquieting whistle, the sound of the Tardis popping in and out of existence lingering in the back… The Doctor Who theme is by far one of the most unique tunes in the history of television. Some would even say it is one of the most unique in the history of music, period. Originally composed by Australian musician Ron Grainer, the theme remains pretty much the same since the classic BBC sci-fi series aired its first episode, in 1963, though some alterations have been made by later composers working on the show. One of the first electronic television themes ever created, the Doctor Who intro - originally titled simply “Dr. Who” - has a wild history behind it. In an era in which now run-of-the-mill synthesizers were still far from becoming a thing, the song was put together through the use of hands-on techniques that go from recording...

Doctor Who's new themes have received overwhelmingly positive reactions from fans, particularly the theme for the Fifteenth Doctor, which is already a favorite. The latest theme for the show blends new sounds with elements from its past, emphasizing that this new era will incorporate and celebrate the best aspects of Doctor Who's history. Each theme reflects the personality and characteristics of the respective Doctors, with the Fifteenth Doctor's theme being energetic and bold, and Sunday's theme being tranquil and beautiful, hinting at their personalities and storylines.

Doctor Who unveils its newest themes, and fans can't get enough of it. BBC dropped the new themes ahead of Doctor Who's return for its three-episode anniversary special next month. The long-running sci-fi show is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Over these decades, Doctor Who has maintained the same iconic theme created by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire, though every era offers a slightly different version of it,...

The music of Doctor Who has brought chills, caused tears and inspired original works – not to mention raised a few eyebrows over the years. From the on-screen work of the show’s composers to novelty pop singles, trance epics, live proms, a surprising Glastonbury cameo, and the Master’s recent taste for dance-floor fillers, we track the music moments it’s hard to forget.

Across the Universe

There’s no denying that The Beatles’ Doctor Who cameo is a strange and somewhat gratuitous moment – but one that came very close to being so much more than that. The First Doctor has just acquired a “Time-Space Visualiser”, meaning that he can view what’s going on anywhere in all of time and space as if they’re watching the telly.

As far as the Doctor’s gadgets go, this is just a teensy bit overpowered, but anyway: after channel-hopping and spying...

Think back to June 2010. The air was filled with the sound of World Cup vuvuzelas and Dizzee Rascal. UK cinemas were set to welcome Hot Tub Time Machine. The shine had only recently worn off everybody’s crush on Nick Clegg. And beavers were being bred wild in Scotland for the first time in 400 years. Mad times. Mad times.

Into those mad times, came a mad man with a box. In April 2010, Matt Smith made his debut as Doctor Who’s Eleventh Doctor, with new showrunner Steven Moffat in tow. There were cracks in the universe and Rory dying and Vincent Van Gogh and James Cordon and a Pandorica. The Tardis exploded. A lot. Then just 24 hours after Eleven restored the universe in Series 5 finale ‘The Big Bang’, he also closed Glastonbury Festival.

It was an unusual moment, and a great one. Matt Smith certainly looked like he was enjoying himself.

As the Marvel Cinematic Universe has expanded into television, its musical reach has also grown, embracing diversity both in terms of its composers and the music they make.

English composer Natalie Holt (pictured above) brought unexpected sonorities to “Loki”; Cairo-based Hesham Nazih added specific Egyptian sounds to “Moon Knight”; and American composer Laura Karpman employed a traditional orchestra and choir on the animated “What If…?”

“Loki is sort of a likable baddie,” says Holt, “a grand, Machiavellian, Shakespearean character, so I wanted some kind of gravitas, classical weight, to his theme.”

Yet, in last summer’s six-part series, the Norse god of mischief (Tom Hiddleston) is also playing with time, which suggested more unusual sounds: the wailing of a theremin and its equally eerie French cousin, the ondes Martenot.

“I’d been listening to [Lithuanian theremin virtuoso] Clara Rockmore and [BBC Radiophonic Workshop pioneer] Delia Derbyshire,” Holt explains. “The sound of the theremin has stayed with me...

Laurie Anderson performed a pair of songs off her trailblazing 1982 album Big Science for the latest installment of NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts.

For the 20-minute set from New York’s Canal Street Communications, Anderson delivered “Let x=x” and her classic “O, Superman,” with the musician accompanied on keyboards by Roma Baran, who performed on and co-produced Big Science.

“We put this out a very long time ago… just yesterday,” Anderson said of Big Science, which was remastered and reissued on red vinyl in April, the first vinyl...

Electronic music — or, as we think of it today, most popular music — is so taken for granted that it’s easy to forget its original pioneers were iconoclasts of their time. Lisa Rovner’s new documentary Sisters With Transistors, about the women who expanded the technological and artistic possibilities of the form during the 20th century, presents those forebears with grace, accessibility, and a touch of the avant-garde.

Beginning with Clara Rockmore, the violin prodigy who dazzled audiences in the 1920s with her theremin (an electronic instrument played via hand movements through the air,...

Let’s get this out the way early – yes, you are correct, “Sisters with Transistors” is the best title for a documentary you have seen so far this year. Doing exactly what it says on the tin, Lisa Rovner’s debut feature is a secret history of electronic music, told via the women that made it happen. No Kraftwerk, no Robert Moog, and only the most cursory mention of Leon Theremin. Instead we hear – and hear from – ten unsung (or rather un-bzzzzzzzed. There’s little singing going on) geniuses of electronic art, drawn from across continents and musical styles, dating back to classical violinist Clara Rockmore’s adoption of the Theremin in the 1920s, and passing through avant-garde art pieces, movies, TV scores and commercials.

Laurie Anderson provides the narration – herself a pioneer of the form – as Rovner stitches her film together from archive audio and footage, with the odd...

Laurie Anderson narrates this fascinating film about the female pioneers of electronic music

What a joy is a documentary that neither talks down to its audience nor diminishes its subject. Lisa Rovner’s Sisters With Transistors is an unapologetically geeky look at the female pioneers of early electronic music which veers fearlessly into the experimental end of the knob-twiddling spectrum. Laurie Anderson narrates a fascinating film that takes in, among others, theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore; a beatifically smiling Suzanne Ciani sensually stroking a suitcase full of wires; Éliane Radigue, engrossed in her minimal tonal experiments; and the great Delia Derbyshire, with the mathematical precision of her diction and her demure slingback tapping to a throbbing loop of noise.

Related: Sisters With Transistors: inside the fascinating film about electronic music’s forgotten pioneers...

The unsung trailblazers behind electronic music are paid harmonic homage in Lisa Rovner’s enchanting documentary

Lisa Rovner’s superb documentary pays a deeply deserved, seldom-expressed tribute to the female composers, musicians and inventors from the brief history of electronic music. The focus falls on about nine or 10 women in the field, from experimental music pioneer Clara Rockmore, a Theremin maestro in bias-cut evening dress, through to the British composer and mathematician Delia Derbyshire (probably best known for co-creating the Doctor Who theme), up to Suzanne Ciani, the first woman to score a major Hollywood movie (The Incredible Shrinking Woman in 1981) and her contemporary, composer and early software designer Laurie Spiegel.

Related: The 20 best music documentaries – ranked!

"This is the story of dreams enabled by technology." Metrograph Pictures has released an official trailer for an acclaimed indie documentary titled Sisters with Transistors, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Lisa Rovner. The doc film tells the story of electronic music's female pioneers, composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to utterly transform how we produce and listen to music today. Narrated by legendary multimedia artist Laurie Anderson, it showcases the music of and rare interviews with many electronic heroes including: theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore; "Dr. Who" theme composer and master of tape manipulation, Delia Derbyshire; Daphne Oram, one of the founders of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop; Éliane Radigue, known for her work in musique concrète and tape feedback techniques; sound artist Maryanne Amacher, known for using psychoacoustic phenomena; co-creator of the world’s first electronic film score for Forbidden Planet, Bebe Barron; and others as well.

The SXSW Film Festival has announced the full list of 2021 Grand Jury prize winners.

The award ceremony honors the superlative creativity and talent demonstrated by filmmakers and designers in the SXSW Film Festival program. The festival virtually screened 75 features, 84 shorts and music videos, 11 episodic selections, 20 virtual cinema projects, 14 title design entries and 34 special events.

This year’s Narrative Feature Competition winner was the teen drama “The Fallout,” which was directed by Megan Park and stars Jenna Ortega and Maddie Ziegler. Meanwhile, Jeremy Workman’s documentary “Lily Topples the World” won in the Documentary Feature category.

“We are so honored by the 2021 filmmakers who entrusted their work to us for this online version of our event, and joined us on this new adventure in such a beautiful way,” Janet Pierson, director of film, said. “We are thrilled we could launch great new projects and talent in this pandemic year, and hope the films,...

Metrograph Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to “Sisters With Transistors,” a documentary about the women who were the pioneers of electronic music. The film will debut virtually on Metrograph’s website on April 23.

Directed by Lisa Rovner, “Sisters With Transistors” had its world premiere at the 2020 South by Southwest Film Festival and later played at AFI Fest.

“‘Sisters With Transistors’ was a true revelation to us,” said Metrograph Pictures’s head of distribution George Schmalz. “The untold story of the groundbreaking women who brought us some of the most revealing music ever created, ‘Sisters With Transistors’ is an impeccably crafted film that we’re thrilled to bring to audiences nationwide.”

The doc spotlights critical but little-known female leaders of electronic music, including Clara Rockmore, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire, Wendy Carlos, Maryanne Amacher, Eliane Radigue, Suzanne Ciani and Laurie Spiegel. “Sisters With Transistors” was narrated by Laurie Anderson.

[Editor’s note: “Le Choc du Futur” is one of more than 100 movies originally scheduled to screen at the SXSW Film Festival in March. After the coronavirus outbreak forced the festival to cancel, event organizers partnered with Amazon Prime to make seven of those features available to stream for free through Weds., May 6.]

Turn on just about any pop radio station at any point over the last quarter century, and chances are good that the vast majority of the sounds you’ll be hearing were created on machines. Yet on film, representations of musicmaking are still largely stuck in a more analog era. Maybe that’s due to a lingering generational bias, or maybe watching a girl strap on a Les Paul or sit down at a piano is just inherently more cinematic than watching her tapping away at an 808. Whatever the case, French musician Marc Collin’s debut feature “Le Choc du Futur...

Among the documentaries premiering at this year’s TriBeCa Film Festival is Stacey Lee’s debut feature-length project, “Underplayed,” about the gender inequality in electronic music. No stranger to the festival, Lee’s documentary short, “Live Fast, Draw Yung,” about a seven-year-old rap portrait artist and his relationship with his father, premiered at TriBeCa in 2015.

“Underplayed” was initiated by Bud Light Canada and presented to Toronto native and music video veteran Director X, who put Lee’s name forward. Shot over a period of six months, Lee brings viewers into the professional and personal worlds of established superstars like TOKiMONSTA and Alison Wonderland, newcomers like Sherelle and hardworking underground artists like Tigerpaw. Beautifully shot and creatively edited, “Underplayed” was made with an all-female crew.

“I’m a female filmmaker in an industry that is also underrepresented,” says Lee. “My own trajectory to being taken seriously was long and hard.”

While...

Scarlett Johansson in Under The Skin Edinburgh International Film Festival has announced it will host a retrospective entitled The Big Score, which will explore innovation in film scoring as part of next year's festival.

The section will include an in-depth focus on score pioneers Mica Levi and Delia Derbyshire (The Legend Of Hell House), a dynamic tribute to Ennio Morricone and an journey through jazz cinema.

Levi’s first score, for Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin (2013), earned her the Best Composer accolade at the European Film Awards in 2014 and a nomination for the BAFTA award for Best Film Music in 2015. Her second, Pablo Larraín’s Jackie (2016), saw her nominated for Best Original Score at the 89th Academy Awards.

Films include will include Michael Almereyda’s Marjorie Prime (2017), Pablo Larraín’s Jackie (2016) and Jonathan Glazer’s Glasgow-set Under The Skin (2013).

Senior Programmer and curator of The Big Score programme,...

"What I'm going to do with this instrument is something you've never heard!" 606 Distribution has just released the first official UK trailer for a French indie film titled The Shock of the Future, the feature directorial debut of musician Marc Collin. Collin is best known as the founder, with Olivier Libaux, of the project Nouvelle Vague, and has composed music for a few other films, too. Set in Paris in the late 70s, the film is about a woman named Ana who develops the "sound of the future" - some of the very first electronic music. Featuring the songs of Cerrone, Throbbing Gristle, Suicide, "Collin crafts a heartfelt tribute to the forgotten female electronic musical pioneers such a Delia Derbyshire, Laurie Spiegel and Suzanne Ciani told through the eyes of Ana, played with a ferocious charm by newcomer Alma Jodorowsky." Alma is the granddaughter of Alejandro Jodorowsky, and she...

Doctor Who is the most iconic theme of any British TV series ever, right? Well, not anymore, as a new national poll has seen a different show pinch the top spot to be crowned the UK’s favorite theme. And that show is Sherlock.

Classic FM, the BFI and Radio Times collaborated on this recent poll, asking Brits for their personal picks for the best theme in English TV history, and when the results came back in, Sherlock was the surprise first choice. Of course, Doctor Who nabbed the second spot instead and if you’re interested, here’s the full list – mostly comprising classic British shows from decades past.

Sherlock Doctor Who Robin of Sherwood The Persuaders! Inspector Morse Poldark The Avengers Thunderbirds The Adventures of Black Beauty Match of the Day Sherlock Season 4 Gallery 1 of 43

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In honor of Women's History Month, this March, Syfy Fangrrls is launching a new limited podcast dedicated to women in genre films whose accomplishments have gone unrecognized or have been forgotten. In today's Highlights, we also have details on the California run of Evil Dead The Musical and Popcornflix's first wave of streaming movies with Terror Films.

Syfy Fangrrls Presents Limited Podcast Series Forgotten Women of Genre: "Syfy Wire Fangrrls present: Forgotten Women of Genre.

March is Women's History Month and while Syfy Fangrrls celebrates women's achievements throughout the year, they’re going above and beyond for the upcoming month with a limited podcast series called Forgotten Women of Genre.

Science fiction, fantasy, and all associated genres have finally evolved from a niche interest into a mainstream staple. But the women who have been instrumental in creating and shaping the nerdverse have largely gone unrecognized. Until today. Forgotten Women...

This past Friday marked 55 years to the day when Doctor Who first arrived on British television screens. Over the past half a century, the sci-fi show has always changed with the times – take Jodie Whittaker’s casting as the first female Doctor in season 11, for example – and constantly regenerated itself.

There’s no better way to make that clear than in this awesome supercut from the official Doctor Who YouTube channel which features every single title sequence in the show’s history in an 11 minute video. You can relive the eeriness of the First Doctor’s opening from 1963 right through to the synths of the 1980s and the throwback theme of today’s version by watching it below.

We say every single title sequence, but for the sake of brevity the video leaves out a few one-off openings from over the years. For instance, every episode in the first half...

The Delian Mode

The work of Delia Derbyshire has been deeply influential to electronic musicians and fans for decades, but the last 10 years in particular have seen a surge of interest bring a lot more about her to light; 2016 alone produced a rerelease of BBC Radiophonic Workshop 21 (this time with credits) and a record of never-heard work. Recently I was reminded to check out 2009’s The Delian Mode, a short (25-minute) but insightful look into Derbyshire’s unconventional life and mind. The film itself mimics her experimental spirit with a collage of sound and images illuminating the labored, mathematical process behind some of her visionary sound treatments, most famously the original Doctor Who theme. It’s easy enough to appreciate Derbyshire’s artistry just by listening, but seeing her pre-synthesizer process broken down—in a modern world of wild sounds just a click or touch away ...

Andrew Reynolds is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Celebrating the third annual Delia Derbyshire Day BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight reporter Robin Warren went along to Home in Manchester to honour her pioneering legacy last Sunday. The uncredited creator of the Doctor Who theme tune, Derbyshire was a sonic innovator at the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop who received very little acclaim during her lifetime but...

The post BBC Radio Four’s The World Tonight Celebrates Delia Derbyshire Day appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Special Mention: Spirits Of The Dead (Histoires extraordinaires)

Written and directed by Federico Fellini (segment “Toby Dammit”), Louis Malle (segment “William Wilson”), Roger Vadim (segment “Metzengerstein”)

France, 1968

The first thing you should notice is the three directors: Federico Fellini, Louis Malle, and Roger Vadim. Secondly, take notice of the cast, which includes Brigitte Bardot, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Alain Delon, Terence Stamp, Salvo Randone, James Robertson Justice, Françoise Prévost and Marlène Alexandre. Spirits Of The Dead is an adaptation of three Edgar Allan Poe stories, one of which demands to be seen.

The first segment of the film, Vadim’s “Metzgengerstein”, is unfortunately the least impressive, but is still great in its own right, and features a marvelous performance by Jane Fonda. Malle’s segment, which is the second of the three, turns Edgar Allan Poe’s 1839 story into an engrossing study in cruelty and sadism. This episode is an engaging enough entry,...

Christian Cawley is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

For the first time in the 36-year history of Doctor Who Magazine – an entire issue devoted to the music and sound design of Doctor Who! From Delia Derbyshire’s groundbreaking experiments in the Radiophonic Workshop, to the acclaimed performances of Murray Gold’s orchestral scores at the Royal Albert Hall, The Music of Doctor Who explores...

The post Dwm Special: The Music of Doctor Who is Out Now appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Christian Cawley is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Here’s a beautiful segment from a Doctor Who DVD which has been uploaded to the official YouTube channel, with Delia Derbyshire, Dick Mills and more discussing how Ron Grainer’s iconic theme tune was brought to electronic life. It’s thanks to DVD extras like this – Masters of Sound, which features as an extra on the...

The post Watch Delia Derbyshire & Dick Mills Recall the Doctor Who Theme Tune’s Creation appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Holly Herndon is the latest in a long line of women electronic-music pioneers. Like Delia Derbyshire, Wendy Carlos, and Laurie Spiegel, she uses digital tools to create music that mines the way technology influences our perception of the world. She’s especially interested in the emotional impact of interpersonal relationships created online. To wit, her new record Platform, out May 19 on 4Ad, includes a love song dedicated to a fictional Nsa agent who’s spying on a paramour through the internet. “Talking about issues of the Nsa can be dry and didactic,” she says. “So I’m using pop as a carrier signal to talk about a real issue.” Traditionally speaking, this sort of heady, highly conceptual stuff doesn’t translate in the mainstream-pop world — the closest she can get is counting Björk and Thom Yorke as notable fans — but the “mainstream,” Herndon says, is a matter of context: “If...

Philip Bates is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Wow. Well, this is fascinating. If you’re anything like me, you always mean to tune in to BBC Radio to listen to all that fantastic, exclusive content, but never manage to find the time. Thankfully, a YouTuber has uploaded a complete documentary about someone whose work everybody reading this will know and love. Delia Derbyshire is responsible...

The post Sculptress of Sound: The Lost Works of Delia Derbyshire appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Join Digital Spy's TV Editor Morgan Jeffery for a blog delving into the very best in science-fiction, fantasy and cult television.

9 Things that Doctor Who series 9 must deliver

Doctor Who has only been off our screens a little while and already we're dreaming of the next series. Christmas is coming, of course, but Steven Moffat and company are by now well underway on work for the ninth full series since 2005.

Beyond Moffat's continued involvement (and Peter Capaldi's), details are scarce about what to expect from the next batch of episodes. So while we're still able to indulge in rampant speculation, here are 9 things we want to see when the Doctor returns to our screens.

1. More Missy

Post-grand reveal, did anyone else feel that the manic Missy - though magnificently portrayed by Michelle Gomez - ended up a little neglected in a finale episode that also had to resolve a Cyberman Invasion of Earth,...

Alex Skerratt is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Here’s an interesting piece from the archive. On 3rd September 1970, The Guardian ran a feature on the inner workings of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The workshop, as many of us know, was the birthplace of many iconic compositions and sound effects of British television, not least the original Doctor Who theme tune and the

The post From The Archives: Delia Derbyshire and the Radiophonic Workshop appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

Digital Spy presents Doctor Who Week - seven days of special features celebrating the return of the world's favourite sci-fi series, and the arrival of a brand new Doctor - on August 23.

You don't need a classic theme for a great TV show, but as programmes from M*A*S*H and The X-Files to The Wire and Buffy The Vampire Slayer have shown, it certainly doesn't hurt.

Below, we take a look at the history of the revolutionary Doctor Who theme and also explore how the show has intertwined with the wider world of pop.

'Doctor Who Theme' [Original Version] - The Radiophonic Workshop (1963)

"Did I write that?" Ron Grainer apparently asked on hearing the completed version of the original theme crafted by the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop. "Most of it," Delia Derbyshire kindly replied.

Grainer attempted to get Derbyshire a co-writing credit but the policy of the time was to keep Workshop members anonymous,...

Jonathan Appleton is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

A pair of compositions from electronic music innovator Delia Derbyshire are about to be released on vinyl in a special collector’s edition. Derbyshire, one of the great unsung heroes of the creation of Doctor Who, is best known for her brilliant and enduring realisation of Ron Grainer’s theme but this was just one of the

The post Delia Derbyshire 7″ Vinyl Limited Edition appeared first on Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews.

On this Check This is the short documentary 'The Delian Mode' about the genius behind the Doctor Who theme song Delia Derbyshire.

The Delian Mode is a a short experimental documentary revolving around the life and work of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire, best known for her groundbreaking sound treatment of the Doctor Who theme music. A collage of sound and image created in the spirit of Derbyshire’s unique approach to audio creation and manipulation, this film illuminates such soundscapes onscreen while paying tribute to a woman whose work has influenced electronic musicians for decades.

The film features interviews with Brian Hodgson and Dick Mills of the now defunct BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the founder of Electronic Music Studios Peter Zinovieff, musicians Peter Kember (Sonic Boom), Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Ann Shenton (Add N to X) as well as other friends and colleagues of Delia.

For info on Delia Derbyshire Day 2014 head here.

It has been a half century since we first walked through the doors of the Tardis and started our long love affair with a renegade Gallifreyan who called himself The Doctor. Over the years we have witnessed many changes to the program, from not only The Doctor himself, but also in the companions, story styles, sets, visual effects, and many other facets. But one of the biggest changes of the program has been in the music that accompanies the episodes. As musical styles and budgets changed, so did the soundtrack for the program. Now Silva Screen Records has released Doctor Who: The 50th Anniversary Collection, a 2-disc journey through the history of Doctor Who.

The soundtrack begins with Ron Grainer & Delia Derbyshire's original theme, which was used for the opening for the show from its start in 1963 until 1970. The theme was created using a single plucked string, white...

Music Composed by: Various Artists

Formats: Digital Download

Number of Discs: 2 (45 tracks, approx. 2 hour 37 minutes)

Label: Silva Screen Records

Overview:

Fifty years, 11 Doctors and 45 tracks, this is the release that Doctor Who fans have been waiting for.

Assembled after years of research and trawls through dusty archives and libraries it’s a compilation of the very special music that has accompanied the Doctor over his travels through time and space from William Hartnell in 1963 to present day Matt Smith.

From Ron Grainer’s iconic theme realized by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s Delia Derbyshire to Murray Gold’s orchestral tapestries, this is a sci-fi musical saga.

The esteemed collection of composers featured include Tristram Cary, Brian Hodgson, Dudley Simpson, Geoffrey Burgon, Paddy Kingsland, Roger Limb, Malcolm Clarke, Keff McCulloch, Dominic Glynn, John Debney and more.

The set includes liner notes from Doctor Who composer Mark Ayres on the history of...

For many, including myself, Tom Baker’s Fourth is the Doctor, the definite article, you might say. And though his scarf, floppy hat & love of jelly babies have helped, there’s a long-forgotten musical facet to his appeal.

All but the most dedicated of Whovians might not even know it exists, until now. Even though it involves a group who’d become one of the biggest electronic/pop acts of the Eighties, the Human League’s 1981 instrumental ‘ Tom Baker’, released towards the end of the great man’s time in the Tardis, remains to most a relic of a band having regenerated its line-up and in the process of finding its sound, one which even they themselves appear to have quickly disowned.

Nonetheless, let’s delve deeper, with a few timely diversions, and hopefully in the process raise it from a B-side (first issued with the ‘Boys & Girls’ single) to an undisputed A!

Feature Andrew Blair 19 Nov 2013 - 06:39

In this week of Doctor Who celebration, Andrew salutes just a few of the individuals whose talent and hard work made the show what it is...

In the history of Doctor Who there are many names in the end credits that always seem to stand out. For some reason, I always look out for Alec Wheal in Eighties Who credits or, since 2005, the Script Editor. Over the years there have been hundreds of unsung contributors behind the scenes, and this article seeks to celebrate a handful of those who put in one helluva slog for our benefit.

Oh, and in researching this article I discovered that Dorka Nieradzik – who worked on Logopolis, Revelation of the Daleks and Silver Nemesis to name but a few – now appears to be Clive Owen's personal Hair and Make Up Artist.

It's not really relevant or anything, but...

News Louisa Mellor 8 Nov 2013 - 10:11

Two shiny new box sets of retrospective Doctor Who music are coming your way to mark the 50th anniversary...

Family, friends, and Secret Santas will not lack for things to fill the stockings of Doctor Who fans this Christmas; the tricky thing will be choosing which commemorative box set or pack of collectible Tardis hankies to purchase.

Stuff the hankies, we say, and go for this neat-looking Silva Screen retrospective collection of Doctor Who music. It's an eleven CD set featuring music from each Doctor's era on the show, in presentation packaging that's shaped like a Tardis. We love it when they shape things like a Tardis.

In addition to that tidy package comes a four-cd set comprising music from across all Eleven Doctors' reigns, including previously unreleased material from the likes of Ron Grainier, Delia Derbyshire, Dudley Simpson, Paddy Kingsland, Mark Ayres and Murray Gold.

We had a feeling that An Adventure in Space and Time would be aired over the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who celebration weekend, but the exact day and time were still to be specified. We have confirmation of that now, November 22nd at 9/8c on BBC America. Wouldn’t want to miss it. Here’s the official press release.

Doctor Who’s First Doctor Regenerated in BBC America’s An Adventure in Space and Time Premiering on November 22 The story of how it all began stars David Bradley, Jessica Raine and Brian Cox

What do you get when you mix C.S. Lewis with H.G. Wells, and sprinkle in a bit of Father Christmas? An alien Time Lord exploring space and time in a Police Box spaceship called the “Tardis” (Time And Relative Dimension in Space). On November 23, 1963, a television legend began when the very first episode of Doctor Who was broadcast on BBC One.

Feature Jeff Szpirglas 30 Oct 2013 - 06:44

Classic Who had more than its fair share of really, really weird moments. Jeff picks 10 of the most bizarre...

There’s barely a second to waste in television today; most shows pack plot threads into running times more tightly than sardines. But back in the days of Classic Doctor Who, there was room for a story to breathe – admittedly, sometimes too much room. Spanning from the 60s to the 80s, when a televised shot could last longer than five seconds, Classic Who had its fair share of strange asides and mind-altering trips…

Ancient skull space-out (Image of The Fendhal – Part 1)

In two minutes of today’s Doctor Who, a lot of plot can happen, and frequently does. You’d never get something like the sequence that runs part way through Image of the Fendahl’s first episode, when Thea Ransome (Wanda Ventham) forms a...

The Doctor Who Title Sequence is a strange beast, it has changed almost as much as its titular character over the last 50 years. Since 2005 alone we have had 3 variations. Like the Doctor himself everyone has their favourite. The signature image that symbolises the adventures that are about to unfold. We have had variations on time tunnels, star fields and psychedelic swirls, each testing the ingenuity of their creators and anchoring the eras in the time in which they were produced.

Similarly the theme, created by Delia Derbyshire during many nights in the Radiophonic Workshop and written by Ron Grainer on a torn off piece of paper of all things. The theme has essentially remained the same at its core but has had many different reworkings.

Speaking of which, honourary mention must go to the group Orbital for turning a cult theme into an epic modern tune which wouldn’t be...

As I mentioned in one of my most recent articles (most recent here being a relative term…) Doctor Who as a whole is specifically designed to be as weird as possible.

Or to put it in a slightly more up-with-people kind of way, Doctor Who was specifically created to be a program that showed us things that no other program on television could, which is why the theme music was deliberately realized by the lovely and extraordinarily talented Delia Derbyshire to sound as unlike anything you’d ever heard anywhere else in the world.

Yet it’s really a shame that over the years the style of the theme tune has fallen into sounding exactly like most other sci-fi theme songs (full orchestra, a bit military.) But that’s another discussion for another day.

So given that the initial to do list for the show was – ‘Step One: Show lots...

Review Andrew Blair 12 Apr 2013 - 06:16

Some fine Doctor Who work from Brian Hodgson gets a CD release in May. Here's Andrew's review of the soundtrack to The Krotons...

Brian Hodgson: inventor of the Tardis dematerialisation noise (included on this disc), techbod for the original Dalek voices, and ambient soundscape purveyor to the stars. His legacy lives on in the current iteration of the Radiophonic Workshop, and restoration work by Mark Ayres. YouTube footage of a 'reunion gig' from 2009 can and should be searched for.

For those who aren't curious about the legacy of an old BBC department, old Doctor Who soundtracks are more useful than you might think. Trust me, you haven't Laserquested until you've laserquested to the soundtrack of Caves Of Androzani, and also acknowledged that 'Laserquested' is definitely a word.

What you could do to the soundtrack of The Krotons (the debut Doctor Who story for pipe-smoking extraordinaire,...

As long-time fans of Sound on Sight may know, many of us here are more than a little fond of Doctor Who. Not only does the Incomparable Kate Kulzick write a column covering the current series but for almost two years now we have been hosting our very own Doctor Who podcast dedicated to reviewing the good, the bad and the just plain weird of both New and Classic Who. In other words, our beloved website has slowly and rather deliberately been transformed into a virtual hive of Who, which is only fitting for such a venerable television institution that will turn fifty later this year.

It wasn’t always easy being a Whovian, especially growing up in Montreal, which is hardly a bastion of British broadcasting. For years I was the only Who fan I knew; I’m not saying that watching the show was illegal, but chances were...

London, Mar h 24: Sir Paul McCartney has revealed that one of The Beatles best-loved hits 'Yesterday' almost ended up as an electronic piece.

The 70-year-old singer told the Sun about how he approached the musical pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme - the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's Delia Derbyshire - to rework the song.

McCartney said that he even went round to visit Derbyshire, who died in 2001 aged 64, became famous for her work with synthesizers.

He added that his plan was to do an electronic backing for his song but the collaboration never happened and the song was played on conventional instruments.

The.

Doctor Who is well known for its theme. The original signature track was created by Delia Derbyshire and Ron Grainer at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and it had the most beautiful yet haunting sound to it at the same time. There was no face in the opening credits in the beginning. The series wouldn’t do this until Patrick Troughton took over as the Doctor in 1966. Frankly, the face is what makes the theme what it is as well, not just the music.

Throughout the years, the music and background has changed and so have the faces. From 2005 until 2011 there were no faces in the theme sequence. Until 2012, assuming because the 50th anniversary was coming up, Steven Moffat and the production team decided to bring back the Doctor’s face. Some of the newer fans thought this theme sequence was horrid, while the classic fans squealed with glee just to...

Sarah Winter has become the latest star to join The CW's drama pilot The Selection.

The English actress was recently cast in Doctor Who 50th anniversary biopic An Adventure In Space And Time.

The Selection follows a girl (Yael Grobglas) who engages in a contest to become the nation's new queen.

Winter will play a young woman named Ashley who also competes in the contest, TVLine reports.

She joins Anthony Head (Merlin, Buffy) and Lucien Laviscount (Waterloo Road) in The Selection, from writers Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain (The Vampire Diaries).

A relative newcomer, Winter will play Delia Derbyshire - the electronic musician who arranged Doctor Who's original theme tune - in An Adventure In Space And Time, which has been written by Mark Gatiss.

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Broadcast's final album, atypical as it may be, serves as a reminder of what a remarkable band they were

When Broadcast's Trish Keenan died of pneumonia in January 2011, it brought a sudden and shocking end to one of Britain's most singular bands. They emerged in 1996, not so much the height of Britpop as the zenith of its prematurely wizened kid brother, dubbed "Noelrock" by NME: trudging bloke-rock fast-tracked into the charts by the patronage of the then-omnipotent elder Gallagher brother, a man whose music tastes gave every impression of running to "a Saturday night session on a pub jukebox", as John Harris waspishly noted in his book The Last Party. Here it seemed, was proof that what you once might have called indie music had succeeded in taking over the mainstream largely by narrowing its horizons.

By contrast, Broadcast's sound suggested a boundless world of hitherto-unexplored possibilities. Their starting point...

Doctor Who from 2005 onwards hasn’t often had to worry too much about poor special effects. Given a devoted teams at The Mill and Millennium FX and a decent, if not exactly lavish, budget from the BBC, most of the time whatever Russell T. Davies and now Steven Moffat and co can dream up, the rest of the team can convincingly realise. But it wasn’t always so. In the 1960s, the budget was around £2000 an episode and many recordings were attempted in the tiny Lime Grove studios. Small wonder that several special effects shots fell short of the mark, even by the standards of the day.

But despite the willingness of modern, and usually snide, TV companies to mockingly reshow these embarrassing old clips, the fact is that from 1963-1989, Doctor Who created some innovative images which completely defied the microscopic budgets they were working with. In this article,...