Delia Derbyshire — The Sound Behind Dr. Who

Perhaps one of the most iconic pieces of original early electronic might arguably be the theme music for the BBC’s Dr. Who. When the show debuted in 1963, the first thing everyone heard was the work of an “assistant” in the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop by the name of Delia Derbyshire.

Like many at the time, she worked largely in the genre of Musique Concrète — the art of manipulating found sounds on tape, and like many in the Workshop, she also employed what would now be called circuit bending. Later in her musical career, she did also work with early EMS synthesizers, but she came to dislike the direction electronic music was taking in the late sixties and early seventies. At that time, she left the Radiophonic Workshop and moved to northern England. And, while she continued to compose, little of her late music was actually realized, although a trove of never-before-heard recordings was found in her attic after her death in 2001.

Included here is a collection of documentaries, interviews, and a music related to Delia and her work.