Beeb to show unseen interview with Dr Who theme creator

[Dusty Gozongas]

Heads up!

http://www.reghardware.com/2010/11/12/bbc_delia_derbyshire_doctor_who_interview/

[Ambient Sheep]

I think I may just have cum!!

Thank you very very much, it's the little things like this that keep me coming back here, I'd never have known otherwise (despite living in the West Midlands area at the moment).

[Johnny Yesno]

iPlayer link Starts 19 minutes in. One day left.

[The Cloud of Unknowing]

Thanks for the reminder.  Interesting little item.

Good to see Ray Gosling back on the telly as well.[nb]An jest[/nb]

[Johnny Yesno]

Interesting little item.

"Little" being the operative word. Nine minutes for such an important person in electronic music. Still, it's great news about the forthcoming CD compilation of recently unearthed tapes.

[The Cloud of Unknowing]

"Little" being the operative word. Nine minutes for such an important person in electronic music. Still, it's great news about the forthcoming CD compilation of recently unearthed tapes.

On the face of it, it's just a piece Maconie has done for the North West version of Inside Out (I think he's the regular presenter) which the West Midlands Inside Out took up an option on because of the Coventry connection, and ended up showing first.   With a bit of luck it's part of a longer programme in the making - one would imagine those interviews would have been set up with a view to eliciting much more information, but nothing on the internet points that way yet. 

[momatt]

Amazing!  Hope this is still available tonight.  Can someone please rip this so I can watch it over and over?

[bitesize]

yes, saw this when it was on - it was great but obviously far too short - here's hoping for a proper full-length doc at some point.

there is a much longer program on the Radiophonic Workshop from a few years ago called "Alchemists of Sound" - if you haven't seen it, well worth seeing. found a youtube link to part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKPGzX5kZd0 seems to have been uploaded in 10 minute chunks. it's brilliant.

[Phil_A]

It's disappointing there was so little actually new in that. I'm fairly sure most of the interview clips were from a local radio interview broadcast a few years before she died, so not really "unheard" at all.

There was a very good BBC7 show on Delia quite recently, in which her various surviving friends gathered to reminisce. I can upload it if there's any interest?

There's also this, which I've not yet seen:
http://thedelianmode.com/about

[momatt]

There was a very good BBC7 show on Delia quite recently, in which her various surviving friends gathered to reminisce. I can upload it if there's any interest?

That'd be great if it's not too much effort, cheers.

[Phil_A]

Here we are:
Sculptress Of Sound - The Lost Works of Delia Derbyshire

[gloria]

Here we are:
Sculptress Of Sound - The Lost Works of Delia Derbyshire

Brill!  Thanks Phil!

[Lfbarfe]

It's disappointing there was so little actually new in that.

Yes and no. It's disappointing to us, but on the other hand, it's good to see a relatively obscure, dead avant-garde composer getting 10 minutes on a regional BBC1 current affairs show.

[Ambient Sheep]

Here we are:
Sculptress Of Sound - The Lost Works of Delia Derbyshire

Thanks for that!


I too was a bit disappointed in all this "new interview" stuff, the small snippets of which didn't seem to be anything I hadn't heard before, although I suppose I could be wrong.  Interesting to see that footage of her at some Dr. Who convention though, but again, waaay too short (presumably because someone's going to make a bomb selling it privately on DVD).


Seeing David Vorhaus mentioned on that page Phil linked to reminds me of a documentary that nobody ever seems to mention, and that I've been meaning to bring up here (or possibly UKN) for a while now: "The New Sound of Music", a one-hour BBC piece about those new-fangled synthesiser things, probably broadcast around 1979.  I audio-taped some of it (sadly not all of it) at the time, I'll have to see if it still exists in my own personal archive.

Highlights that I can remember were Peter Howell demonstrating how he made the legendary Greenwich Chorus (as used all over Jonathan Miller's "The Body In Question") with the help of a vocoder, and how he made the sound of some robot mice with a huge modular synthesiser; but the bit that really sticks in my head was David Vorhaus demonstrating his "electric drainpipe".  A fascinating instrument, that I've never seen before or since, it seemed to be basically a bit of drainpipe with lengths of 1/4" audiotape stretched the length of it, and depending on where you put your fingers down on it, different sounds were generated.  (I assume it was using the electrical resistance of the tape to generate a control-voltage for some more conventional synthesiser that was out of sight.)

Anyone else remember this one?

[Johnny Yesno]

Here we are:
Sculptress Of Sound - The Lost Works of Delia Derbyshire

Thanks Phil.

[Dusty Gozongas]

Oh well. Shame it was a short 'un. Thanks to bitesize and Phil_A, however, for bringing some larger portions to the table.

[Brundle-Fly]

Is there an existing Ron Grainer version of the Dr Who theme before Delia transformed it?

[Ghost of Troubled Joe]

Is there an existing Ron Grainer version of the Dr Who theme before Delia transformed it?

Actually I'm sure I heard this somewhere. Grainer recorded an early version of the theme with some session musicians. His version was very jazzy and not at all scary. Of course we've all heard the story when Grainer heard Derbyshire's version- "Did I really write that?" he asked. "Most of it..." she replied wryly.

[Ambient Sheep]

Actually I'm sure I heard this somewhere. Grainer recorded an early version of the theme with some session musicians.

Really?!  I've never heard of that, and would love to hear it...although I'd imagine that if it still existed, we would have heard it by now.

I have the sheet music for the theme (I must dig it out and have another look), and it certainly looks terribly conventional written down like that.

[Brundle-Fly]

Actually I'm sure I heard this somewhere. Grainer recorded an early version of the theme with some session musicians. His version was very jazzy and not at all scary. Of course we've all heard the story when Grainer heard Derbyshire's version- "Did I really write that?" he asked. "Most of it..." she replied wryly.

Makes you wonder what fairydust she would have sprinkled on the already brilliant Tales Of The Unexpected Grainer tune?