Sauterne Bottle in B flat

Sountrack (and what a soundtrack this is) - BBC Radiophonic Workshop - first album - 1968

A procession of treated twangs and bleeps made from all sorts of everyday objects. The object of the album is to entertain rather than to inform. It says that in the sleeve notes but then goes on to have quite a few pages of information about the composers and the way in which they made the music. Delia Derbyshire is of course the original artist of the Doctor Who Theme though it was composed by Ron Grainer. This is like hearing history. I know that I was actually alive at the time many of these pieces were constructed but it is still quite like eavesdropping on something ancient. I had a paperback tie-in with Tomorrow's World at the back of which there was a collection of letters from people in which they requested certain inventions and technology. One of them asked for a machine which could reconstruct what famous people had actually said. The writer suggested that as energy was never destroyed; only turned into another form, then ancient sound could be reformed and replayed. The piece was illustrated with a cartoon of Henry V addressing his troops before Agincourt. He sat proudly on his horse and said "Good luck lads. Sorry I won't be coming with you!". If only! Of course the other requests were for Dandruff cures and four-legged chickens (how would you catch them? Boom-Boom) so this was a standout request. I do hope someone is working on it - the historical tape recorder not the chickens, though I can guess which one has most priority at present and a clue to it would be 'cluck'.

I have just been listening to the original Doctor Who theme tune. I never missed Doctor who until around the time of Sylvester McCoy. Maybe that was just my circumstances. The Paul McGann version in 1996 was quite good but having decent effects seemed to lessen the impact of the stories. I liked the John Pertwee ones best though Tom Baker was good as well. Some of them really did make me hide behind the sofa, though I'm not quite sure what protection I thought it would give against the Dalek exterminators or those weird sea-monsters had technology been wonderful enough to transmit them bodily through the TV. I wonder how many people believe that the people at the other end can see them? Tell anyone these days that something is possible and there is a good chance that they will believe you.