MOVIE MUSIC UK

Composer and conductor Dudley Simpson died in Sydney, Australia, on November 4, 2017, at the age of 95.

One of the most prolific composers in the history of British television, Simpson was best known for his extraordinary contribution to Doctor Who, writing incidental music for more than 60 stories and almost 300 episodes between 1964 and 1980. He also composed memorable themes and scores for The Brothers, The Tomorrow People, Blake’s 7 and numerous prestigious BBC drama productions.

Dudley George Simpson was born in Melbourne, Australia, on October 4, 1922. A gifted pianist from childhood, he won an interstate radio competition at 13 and subsequently became the station’s official accompanist. During World War II he served as a warrant officer with the Australian Army in New Guinea, where his hand was injured when a truck he was driving was struck during a Japanese bombing raid. Playing the piano became an important part of his recuperation.

After the war Simpson studied orchestration and composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and joined the Borovansky Ballet, initially as pianist and assistant conductor. He eventually became the company’s musical director in 1957. Two years later he travelled to Britain as a guest conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, subsequently becoming principal conductor of its orchestra from 1960 to 1963. His work included touring with the Royal Ballet and conducting performances featuring Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev.

Simpson entered television through producer Gerard Glaister, who commissioned him to score the BBC play Jack’s Horrible Luck in 1961 and later the wartime anthology series Moonstrike. This brought him to the attention of the producers of Doctor Who, and in 1964 he composed his first music for the programme, Planet of Giants.

Over the following 16 years Simpson became effectively Doctor Who’s resident composer. His tenure encompassed the eras of William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, with notable scores including The Evil of the Daleks, The War Games, The Dæmons, The Green Death, Genesis of the Daleks, Pyramids of Mars, The Robots of Death, The Talons of Weng-Chiang and City of Death. Working with extremely limited budgets, he moved between small acoustic ensembles, percussion and increasingly prominent synthesizers, giving each alien world and historical period its own musical identity.

Simpson even appeared briefly on screen in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (1977), playing the conductor at the fictional Palace Theatre. His long association with the series ended in 1980 when incoming producer John Nathan-Turner decided that future incidental music would be provided by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

His success extended far beyond Doctor Who. Simpson wrote the elegant theme for the family drama The Brothers, the electronic title music for The Tomorrow People, and the stirring orchestral theme for Terry Nation’s science-fiction series Blake’s 7. He also scored The Last of the Mohicans, The Ascent of Man, Madame Bovary, Sense and Sensibility, Dombey and Son, Oliver Twist, The Diary of Anne Frank and several productions in the BBC’s complete Shakespeare cycle.

Simpson retired from regular television work in 1987 and returned to Australia, where he continued composing concert music. His first marriage, to ballet dancer Jennifer Stielow, ended in divorce. He is survived by his second wife, Jill Bathurst, also a dancer, and their three children, Karen, Alison and Matthew.