Dudley Simpson

Dudley Simpson, who has died aged 95, clanged and chimed the soundtrack to my childhood and had a musical accompaniment for every new twist that Doctor Who took in the Seventies yet how much did I know about Dudley Simpson? Very little except he was Australian. I wonder what he thought sometimes when presented with the footage of some of those stories and how he managed to think of something to match them. There is no other composer whose incidental music I know so well- in fact there are very few I could even name!

He was born in Melbourne in 1922 and began his musical career working as a pianist for a ballet company rising to become a conductor. It was the legendary ballerina Margot Fonteyn who persuaded him to come to England after she’d met him during an Australian tour and he became a conductor and musical director at the Royal Opera House. It was a chance meeting with a BBC producer in the Sixties that led to him working on a number of stories ultimately becoming in effect a permanent fixture on the show during the Seventies. His first ever score for the series -`Planet of Giants`- was acoustic though he soon became known for his electronic approach though in fact he would frequently compose scores that combined the two.

He composed the music for the majority of stories shown during the 1970s. Many of his themes are renowned amongst fans including the Master theme, use of military drums for the Ice Warriors and his music when the Doctor and Romana are dashing around Paris in `City of Death`. He was especially good at underscoring the monsters and villains but the music was never intrusive yet sounded like nothing else on television at the time giving the programme a unique signature. And he had to work quickly too having just two days to write two episodes. In the 1973 Radio Times Special he said: "What I do is mix `live` music with synthesised electronic sounds. I use about five musicians....I go in for a lot of keyboard sounds- electric pianos, organs or harpischords rather than concert grands- but I use clarinets, oboes and saxophones alot too." Surprisingly in view of how many stories he composed for he said he found the series "very hard to write for."

One of the best examples is his Keller Machine theme from `Mind of Evil` which though repetitive really evokes the fear that the machine itself is supposed to generate. It also includes his trademark of slightly distorting the sounds to great effect. His score for `Pyramids of Mars` is exquisitely melodramatic and marbled into the atmosphere of the story. In `Deadly Assassin` he goes all out with a church organ for some of the grandiose Gallifreyan pomp. I once read that an organist in a church who was also a fan played some of this as people were leaving the church! Simpson also did some especially strong themes for UNIT in a number of stories and had a marvellous knack of creating little snatches of music when characters were creeping about looking for something. And he knew how to chuck in a musical crash when needed best demonstrated when all of a sudden the Sontarans show up in `Invasion of Time`. His music is as ingrained in fans’ memory with the scenes it supports.

He was more versatile than we often think as many associate his music as a series of clanging notes but there was considerable variation as he was always astute in using the atmosphere of the story and presumably with guidance from the director to create something appropriate. Presumably for budgetary reasons he worked with a small group of musicians including horns, piano, percussion and then would combine with the Radiophonic Workshop. He even got to appear in the programme once as a conductor in the music hall in `Talons of Weng Chiang`. 

Of course he did a lot more than just Doctor Who notably the Blakes’s Seven and Tomorrow People themes and music for series such as Last of the Mohicans, Dombey and Son and The Brothers and worked on several films.