Monday 6 November 2017

Dudley Simpson 1922 - 2017


Very sorry to hear that composer Dudley Simpson has passed away at the age of 95. He scored around 60 Doctor Who stories between Planet of Giants and The Horns of Nimon. He appeared on screen once, as the music hall conductor in The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Amongst his most noted pieces is the theme for the Roger Delgado Master. He was as much a part of the success of the early Tom Baker era as Philip Hinchcliffe and Robert Holmes, and he was pretty much the house composer for the period up until new broom producer John Nathan-Turner took over. An obvious highlight of the Graham Williams era is the score for City of Death.  There might be the odd good score for JNT stories, but there are far too many overblown turkeys which were all doomed to obsolescence thanks to their attempts at being contemporary. Simpson would never have inflicted scores such as those for Mawdryn Undead or Battlefield on us. Simpson's stuff is quite simply timeless.
RIP.

No comments:

Post a Comment