Radio play about electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire

In the 1960s, Delia Derbyshire was one of the pioneering electronic musicians of the iconic BBC Radiophonic Workshop. She's best known for her absolutely exquisite 1963 electronic version of Ron Grainer's Doctor Who theme, which you can hear at left. Her masterful musical experimentation continued with electronic scores for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the films Work Is A Four-Letter Word, The Legend of Hell House, and, just before her 2001 death, a project with Spacemen 3's Peter "Sonic Boom" Kember. BBC Radio 4 produced a dramatization of her life story, starring Sophie Thompson, with music by another Radiophonic Workshop veteran, Elizabeth Parker.

"Delia Derbyshire: Blue Veils and Golden Sands" (via chris_carter_)

• [mtdna]

  Her Dr. Who theme is the best in television history. Hands down. Who’s with me?

  • [David Pescovitz]

    Certainly of the 1960s.

  • [ishotjr]

    Certainly the most evocative I can think of.  Partial to the Orbital version too:

    http://open.spotify.com/local/Orbital/The+Altogether/Doctor+Who/330 

    The modern theme is pants compared to either.

  • [Robert Drop]

    It’s absolutely one of the best, at the very least.  I certainly can’t think of another tv theme that manages to accomplish what she did with that piece.

• [ishotjr]

  I seem to remember listening to this some time ago – I think it might be a repeat – thanks for pointing it out though – can’t wait to Listen Again!  Delia’s story and music are both fascinating! :)

• [Gyrofrog]

  Also, this.

• [Amelia_G]

  I had no idea, thank you!
  This spring I visited Dublin for the first time and went to Trinity College to inquire about Terry Pratchett tourism. The place was gearing up for a party, with tents everywhere. They tested this song on the huge speakers, and it echoed beautifully around the quads.

• [timquinn]

  Holy cow, that clip probably represents the one and only legitimate use of video feedback in main stream media. Video feedback had a brief heyday in the early seventies before becoming the province of potheads and acid casualties. The obvious connection to fractals has never, to my knowledge, been examined. 

  • [mtdna]

    This is neat – someone used feedback through an LCD projector to make fractals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj9pbs-jjis

    I got it to work with my webcam by showing the output in four windows on my screen and then pointing the camera back at it.

    • [timquinn]

      Oy, that you tube clip was good. I love it that it is on his bedroom wall. 

• [Dominic Brown]

  I’m fairly sure that this theme, and the accompanying visuals, are one of just two memories I retain from my earliest childhood in Ireland. It still sends shivers down my spine. 
  @timquinn: I think Hofstadter addressed that connection in Gödel, Escher, Bach.Figure 81 (pp490–91 in my trade-paperback copy) illustrates it, and the connection to fractality and recursion is made in the text, though not (as far as I can see) in a single direct comparison. 

  • [timquinn]

    Thanks, I had forgotten about that, but of course it is probably where I first encountered the idea so many loops ago.

• [Steve Wells]

  It wasn’t until the Matt Smith theme that they really ruined it (really? lightning noises?), all prior versions were magical, but the original is still the best.

  • [penguinchris]

    The lightning noises are awful. I understand why they wanted to change it up but that was probably the worst thing they could have done without completely changing everything!

    What they should have done is toned it down a bit from the previous incarnation – bringing out a bit of the stark minimalism and otherworldliness of the original 60′s version with just a bit of fleshing out to match the intro visuals (which actually are also pretty awful – I liked the very cheesy visuals somebody clearly spent about ten minutes on when they launched in 2005).