Dudley Simpson

Dudley George Simpson (4 October 1922 – 4 November 2017) was an Australian composer and conductor. He was the Principal Conductor of the Royal Opera House orchestra for three years, although he is best known for his work as a composer on British television, especially his long association with the BBC science-fiction series Doctor Who, for which he composed incidental music during the 1960s and 1970s. When Simpson died aged 95 in 2017, The Guardian wrote that he was "at his most prolific as the creator of incidental music for Doctor Who in the 1960s and 70s, contributing to 62 stories over almost 300 episodes – more than any other composer."

Among his early television work was the music for Moonstrike (1963). Simpson was also responsible for the theme music for The Brothers (1972), The Tomorrow People (1973), Moonbase 3 (1973), The Ascent of Man (1973) and Blake's 7 (1978). He also composed music for several plays from the BBC Television Shakespeare series.

Early life and career
Simpson was born in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern East. He learned piano as a child, served in New Guinea during World War II and then studied orchestration and composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. Simpson became assistant conductor, pianist and later musical director for the Borovansky Ballet Company, forerunner to The Australian Ballet. He moved to the UK and after a season as guest conductor at Covent Garden, he became Principal Conductor of the Royal Opera House orchestra for three years. He accompanied the touring section of the Royal Ballet with Margot Fonteyn as principal ballerina.

Television work

Doctor Who
Simpson's first work on Doctor Who was during William Hartnell's era as the First Doctor in Planet of Giants, in 1964, but he is primarily associated with the programme in the 1970s. He also appeared on screen as a music hall conductor in the Fourth Doctor story The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977) at the invitation of Philip Hinchcliffe who was the series producer at the time. Simpson had to be paid a special fee for this appearance, as he was a member of the Musicians' Union and not Equity.

When John Nathan-Turner became producer of Doctor Who in 1980, he decided that the music needed to be updated, and took Simpson out for a meal telling him how much he appreciated his work on Doctor Who but that it would no longer be required as he intended to have the BBC Radiophonic Workshop provide music from that point. While Simpson was contracted to score Shada, the unfinished nature of that production meant he never started work. As a result, his last broadcast work on Doctor Who was for The Horns of Nimon. In the 2017 restoration of "Shada", a dedication to Simpson was shown in the end credits.

Blake's 7
Blake's 7 ran for 4 series totalling 52 episodes in all. Simpson provided the incidental music for 50 of the 52 episodes that were broadcast from 1978 to 1981, including the theme music. The two exceptions are the episode entitled "Duel" (the eighth episode of series 1) for which the director Douglas Camfield chose to use stock music, and "Gambit" (the eleventh episode of the second series) which was scored by the special sound creator of series 2 to 4, Elizabeth Parker.

The Tomorrow People
Another science fiction series Simpson developed for was The Tomorrow People, although his role was limited to producing the theme tune, with Brian Hodgson producing the series music.

Doctor Who credits
Between 1964 and 1980, Simpson composed the incidental music for the following Doctor Who serials:

 Planet of Giants
 The Crusade
 The Chase
 The Celestial Toymaker
 The Underwater Menace
 The Macra Terror
 The Evil of the Daleks
 The Ice Warriors
 Fury from the Deep
 The Seeds of Death
 The Space Pirates
 The War Games
 Spearhead from Space
 The Ambassadors of Death
 Terror of the Autons
 The Mind of Evil
 The Claws of Axos
 Colony in Space
 The Dæmons
 Day of the Daleks
 The Curse of Peladon
 The Time Monster The Three Doctors Carnival of Monsters Frontier in Space Planet of the Daleks The Green Death The Time Warrior Invasion of the Dinosaurs The Monster of Peladon Planet of the Spiders Robot The Ark in Space The Sontaran Experiment Genesis of the Daleks Planet of Evil Pyramids of Mars The Android Invasion The Brain of Morbius The Masque of Mandragora The Hand of Fear The Deadly Assassin The Face of Evil The Robots of Death The Talons of Weng-Chiang Horror of Fang Rock The Invisible Enemy Image of the Fendahl The Sun Makers Underworld The Invasion of Time The Ribos Operation The Pirate Planet The Stones of Blood The Androids of Tara The Power of Kroll The Armageddon Factor Destiny of the Daleks City of Death The Creature from the Pit Nightmare of Eden The Horns of Nimon''

References

External links

Category:1922 births
Category:2017 deaths
Category:Australian classical pianists
Category:Australian conductors (music)
Category:Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom
Category:Male pianists
Category:Male television composers
Category:Television composers
Category:University of Melbourne alumni