Guess what? BBC Singers to perform Doctor Who
NewsIn frantic need to find a role for the elite choir it sought to abolish, the BBC has assigned its finely-tuned BBC Singers to perform TV theme tunes this season.
Doctor Who @ 60: A Musical Celebration is another exciting new commission for the autumn. Since its launch on BBC Television in November 1963 Doctor Who has been delighting millions of fans all over the world as they have followed the adventures of the Time Lord.
With its instantly recognisable theme, specially composed music has always been at the heart of Doctor Who. In this celebration concert from BBC Hoddinott Hall in the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and The BBC Singers conducted by Alastair King, explore this music with works by Murray Gold, Segun Akinola, Dudley Simpson, Paddy Kingsland and of course Ron Grainer’s original theme as imagined by the BBC Radio Radiophonic Workshop’s Delia Derbyshire. Guests include Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies and composer Murray Gold who has recently returned to the show
‘TV theme tunes’ – rather condescending. Modern Doctor Who has a fine tradition of orchestral music, and I’ve been privileged enough to see at least two of the Doctor Who Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, in which the choir(s) played an integral part.
I stopped watching Dr Who when Russell Davies originally took over as the background music was so loud and intrusive.
Russell T Davies.
You could mute the sound and watch with subtitles.
I shouldn’t have to!
The BBC Singers recently boarded the Tardis together with their colleagues in the English performing groups, invited to hurtle through time and space….but back to the future? Or simply back to the day before the now infamous publication of the BBC
classical music strategy?(https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2023/bbc-new-strategy-for-classical-music#:~:text=At%20the%20heart%20of%20the,English%20Orchestras%20by%20around%2020%25.)
Everyone likes a winner, and this year’s BBC Proms are matching and exceeding the hype. Record sales and listening figures show that broadcast classical music in this country is a precious resource at the heart of British culture.
The Tardis has actually landed on Tim Davie’s lawn, and The Doctor steps out bearing a simple message from the listening public:
Don’t create the problem to fit the solution: value what you’ve got, and build it up to allow its full potential.
Why not? They’re on salary and thus already being paid whether they sing or not, and I’m sure they can learn the music very quickly.
It’s one gig, so not as if recording theme tunes will be their new role.
That said, my reaction to a concert consisting of ooh-aahing along would not exactly be “woo-hoo”, but at least they are getting paid for it, even though it seems a waste of their talent.
The music Murray Gold has written for Doctor Who is actually pretty good. We have actually been very lucky that some tv scores are written as orchestral music again. What I like about concerts of great film music (tv music very rarely) is how it exposes a whole new audience to orchestral music.
Condescending twaddle.
Neither condescending nor twaddle. What on earth do you mean?
Why not as long as they perform avant garde music: do they still?