Peter Howell is a musician and composer best known for his work, as a membe… Read Full Bio ↴Peter Howell is a musician and composer best known for his work, as a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, on Doctor Who. Howell's musical career began in the late 1960s working with John Ferdinando in various psych folk bands including Agincourt and Ithaca. His psych folk work also included a musical version of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and a comedy musical entitled Tomorrow Come Someday. Together, Howell and Ferdinando recorded five albums before Howell became a member of the Radiophonic Workshop. In 1970 he became a studio manager at the BBC and in 1974 he joined the Radiophonic Workshop with which he would associated until 1997. His work on Doctor Who began in 1975 when he provided incidental music for Revenge of the Cybermen and special sound for Planet of Evil but it is for his re-working of the programme's distinctive theme tune that he is best known.
When John Nathan-Turner became producer of Doctor Who in 1980, he decided that the music needed to be updated and commissioned Howell to provide a new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme to accompany a new title sequence. Whereas the original arrangement of the theme (written by Ron Grainer) had been realised by Delia Derbyshire using musique concrète techniques, Howell arranged Grainer's theme on analogue synthesisers. The result was glossier and more dynamic but less mysterious than Derbyshire's arrangement. Howell's new arrangement first appeared in 1980 on The Leisure Hive, for which Howell had also recorded the incidental score, and was used throughout Tom Baker's final season on the programme as well as Peter Davison's tenure as the Doctor. For Colin Baker's first season in 1984, Howell altered the theme slightly in pitch and this version continued to be used until the 1985 Colin Baker story Revelation of the Daleks. Between 1980 and 1985 Howell also provided incidental music for ten Doctor Who stories. In 1986, Nathan-Turner commissioned a new theme arrangement by Dominic Glynn which ended Howell's association with Doctor Who on television, although he did provide music for the radio series The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space as well as a new version of his theme for use in the Big Finish audio dramas.
Apart from his music for Doctor Who, Howell's Radiophonic Workshop work also included an album of original recordings in 1978 entitled Through A Glass Darkly (credited to Peter Howell & The Radiophonic Workshop) and "Greenwich Chorus", a piece which accompanied an episode of Jonathan Miller's popular The Body in Question which was controversial at the time for its use of the vocoder. Howell also composed the theme tunes to the popular Badger Girl and Spywatch series of the long-running BBC schools' programme Look and Read.
In recent years Howell's incidental music for the Doctor Who stories The Leisure Hive and Meglos has appeared on volumes 3 and 4 of the Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop compilation albums and much of his early folk material with John Ferdinando has also been re-released on CD.
When John Nathan-Turner became producer of Doctor Who in 1980, he decided that the music needed to be updated and commissioned Howell to provide a new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme to accompany a new title sequence. Whereas the original arrangement of the theme (written by Ron Grainer) had been realised by Delia Derbyshire using musique concrète techniques, Howell arranged Grainer's theme on analogue synthesisers. The result was glossier and more dynamic but less mysterious than Derbyshire's arrangement. Howell's new arrangement first appeared in 1980 on The Leisure Hive, for which Howell had also recorded the incidental score, and was used throughout Tom Baker's final season on the programme as well as Peter Davison's tenure as the Doctor. For Colin Baker's first season in 1984, Howell altered the theme slightly in pitch and this version continued to be used until the 1985 Colin Baker story Revelation of the Daleks. Between 1980 and 1985 Howell also provided incidental music for ten Doctor Who stories. In 1986, Nathan-Turner commissioned a new theme arrangement by Dominic Glynn which ended Howell's association with Doctor Who on television, although he did provide music for the radio series The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space as well as a new version of his theme for use in the Big Finish audio dramas.
Apart from his music for Doctor Who, Howell's Radiophonic Workshop work also included an album of original recordings in 1978 entitled Through A Glass Darkly (credited to Peter Howell & The Radiophonic Workshop) and "Greenwich Chorus", a piece which accompanied an episode of Jonathan Miller's popular The Body in Question which was controversial at the time for its use of the vocoder. Howell also composed the theme tunes to the popular Badger Girl and Spywatch series of the long-running BBC schools' programme Look and Read.
In recent years Howell's incidental music for the Doctor Who stories The Leisure Hive and Meglos has appeared on volumes 3 and 4 of the Doctor Who at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop compilation albums and much of his early folk material with John Ferdinando has also been re-released on CD.
Doctor Who
Peter Howell Lyrics
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@johnlarro6872
In my teens I used to go to sleep with my Walkman, with 1 of 2 things blasting in my headphones... The Beatles... or - this! Of course, back then, I had to record the theme tune from an LP, onto cassette, over and over and over... This is much better. :)
@leo-unddieAnderen
😁😀
@Tonystony1984
The bassist hits them strings hard perfectly 😎
@comradetman3784
This is honestly my favorite version of the theme in classic who granted its predecessor was good too , but this has that nostalgic 80s vibe I like a lot with it witch the other one doesn’t have
@charliegreyfriars3691
Technically this is a Tom Baker theme. Just saying. PS, I know I'll get lynched for saying but this is my favourite version of the theme. Thank you for this. ❤️
@whoniversal
You're very welcome! I think this might be my favourite arrangement too.
@charliegreyfriars3691
@@whoniversal Imagine this... it's first night of the 18th season. I've read Starburst and know change is coming. I'm over ruled as Buck Rogers is on ITV. I go to my cupboard of a bedroom with a portable black and white TV and episode one of season 18 begins. Even in black and white my mind is completely blown to pieces. Later in the run I get to see actual colour episodes live. Can you imagine what it was like for me to own season 18 when it was eventually released on DVD and Blu-ray? I know you can! Haha, that felt like therapy! ❤️
@whoniversal
Wow! Thanks for sharing that story! 😀
@johnlarro6872
@@charliegreyfriars3691 Peter is "my" Doctor. I know I saw Tom's last season when I was a little kid, but as far as I remembered, Tom had the "Tunnel" theme, and Peter had the "Starfield"... Imagine my surprise later in the 80's when the ABC began an epic repeat season of WHO, and we got to Leisure Hive... WOAH! Tingles up my spine! Starfield theme started here?! I had no idea!
@bioshock6935
It's is the best version by far as well. I went out and brought the single at the time as a kid when it first came out and for me technically Tom Baker was the best doctor who as well only being equalled by David Tennant the only 2 best actors to play as the doctor and i doubt we will get another one like them for a very very long time the why they are murdering the show today.
This needs tom's face on it not Peter Davison that's when i stop watching any more he just ruined it for me when he took over from tom and the rest of the actors just got even worst. Then it started to pick up from Christopher Eccleston but he didn't last long then we had the great Tennant as the doctor boy i just wished we had more of him then it all went down hill again bad story and bad take of the doctors