Doctor Who theme enters NFSA’s Sounds of Australia

The Doctor Who theme has been added to the National Film & Sound Archive’s unique Sounds of Australia collection.

The 1963 theme written by Australian composer Ron Grainer is believed to be the first electronic music theme for television.

It is one of 10 extraordinary audio recordings illustrating Australia’s cultural and political life and environment.

The 2024 additions include the first Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Australian to use recorded sound to document Aboriginal culture, hip hop, speeches, the launch of what is now SBS Audio, an advertising jingle for an iconic Australian beer, the last known recording of a now-extinct species and a pop music sensation.

Established in 2007, Sounds of Australia is the NFSA’s annual collection of sound recordings with cultural, historical and aesthetic significance and relevance, which inform or reflect life in Australia. Nominations from the public, of recordings that are at least 10 years old, are voted on by a panel of industry and NFSA sound experts.

“These new additions to the NFSA’s Sounds of Australia capsule, ranging from landmark speeches to iconic theme music, from enduring pop to the sad, final call of a now-extinct species, are collectively a testament to the power of audio,” said Meagan Loader, the NFSA’s Chief Curator. “It’s very meaningful to be able to preserve this diversity of content so that future generations will be able to understand and appreciate the sounds and their stories that resonated with Australians in 2024.”

The 2024 Sounds of Australia, in chronological order, are:

1. Women’s status in the United Nations Charter: an address to the first meeting of the Women’s International Radio League, Jessie Street – 1945
2. Speaking clock, Gordon Gow (Postmaster General’s Department) – 1954
3. Doctor Who theme music, Ron Grainer (composer), Delia Derbyshire (musician) – 1963
4. Victoria Bitter ad, John Meillon (voice), George Patterson (agency), for Carlton & United Breweries – 1968
5. Jimmie Barker Collections, Jimmie Barker – 1972
6. The earliest 2EA (now SBS Audio) broadcast recordings in language – 1975
7. ‘Kickin’ to the Undersound’, Sound Unlimited – 1992
8. ‘Chains’, Tina Arena – 1994
9. Last call of the Christmas Island Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus murrayi) – 2009
10. Nova Peris’ inaugural speech to Australian Parliament – 2013

The complete Sounds of Australia list (1896-2013) is available at nfsa.gov.au/sounds (from December 11, 2024).

The Doctor Who theme for the BBC TV series of the same name, was written by Australian composer Ron Grainer (1922-1981) and realised by English musician Delia Derbyshire (1937-2001) at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. It is believed to be the first electronic music theme for television. Grainer spent most of his professional career in the UK and is mostly remembered for his television and film scores, especially the theme music for Maigret, Doctor Who, The Prisoner, Steptoe and Son, and Tales of the Unexpected.  

Derbyshire, who realised Grainer’s score, created each note individually using musique concrète techniques: cutting, splicing, speeding and slowing segments of analogue tape recordings of white noise, a test-tone oscillator, and a single plucked string. At the same time, Brian Hodgson created the sound effects for the Doctor’s TARDIS, which features at the beginning of the theme. The 1963 arrangement served, with only minor edits, as the theme music until 1980. While numerous arrangements of the theme have subsequently been used for Doctor Who, Grainer’s melody has remained the same. The theme has been remixed, sampled, and covered many times since its creation, from Pink Floyd’s ‘Embryo’ (1971) to the Australian band FourPlay String Quartet in 1998.