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.
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The Two Doctors Suite
Peter Howell Lyrics
No lyrics text found for this track.
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
Kristofer Stevens
Peter Howell really knew how to do Who. His revamp of the main theme tune was a careful and studied revision of the original Delia version, but using 80's techniques. His score for The Two Doctors, like The Five Doctors, is excellent as well.
RNW
I agree 100%.
Sounds absurd, but one particular cue Howell composed is so utterly wonderful I have it on repeat always...
It's from 'The Five Doctors' and is played underneath Susan and The First Doctor after he sits on a rock and she finds the TARDIS.... ending when they enter and Tegan and Turlough jump up...
Utter perfection
Tygravon
Nobody expects the Sontaran inquisition!
Jokes aside this story has some epic music even if the story isn't so good
Lenare
1:25 to 2:07 one of the most memorable Doctor Who themes from me besides the super iconic ones.
dredd1981
@Batman 66 Will they be "woke"? What am I saying? Of course they'll be woke and at some point the dr will give a monologue about 'heightism'
Batman 66
The sontarans are returning in s13 with new classic looking armour. Maybe they'll get this theme too god i hope
StonyD
I wish Murray Gold would have adapted this for the modern Sontarans...
ThePsycoDolphin
They should have reorchrastrated the sontaran march theme for their appearance in new who season 4. The daleks have a recognisable theme, the cybermen do, they should as well. It'd been BADASS.
A.C.V PRODUCTIONS
Forgotten how good this music was. Glad to see it finally got released on the DVD. Thanks for sharing :D
Rheinhard
Ever since I first saw this episode decades ago, I thought the Sontaran battle music @1:33 was one of my favorite pieces of SF movie martial music, up there with the Klingon Theme in Star Trek:The Motion Picture, the Imperial March from Star Wars, and "Gathering the Fleet" from Space Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers.