Radiophonic Workshop Videos

1959: Excerpt from the film 'House':
This pioneering and abstract animation from Poland contains Radiophonic-like music by Wlodzimierz Kotonski, with images similar to those later used in 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'. It typifies the experimental ideas at the time of the Workshop's creation.

1960s: Daphne Oram at Tower Folly

1960s: Radiophonic documentary footage

1960s: Radiophonic documentary footage. John Harrison, who worked with Dick Mills as part of Dickie Bird's original RWS engineering team, appears briefly in this video at 00:03:21.

1960: 'An Artist Speaks - Victor Pasmore':
This programme, broadcast on Monday, 15th August 1960, explores the constructivist art of Victor Pasmore. Although the title music by Phil Young is featured on the '21' Radiophonic LP of 1979 and is available digitally from Silva Screen Records, his incidental music can only be heard here. Additional information courtesy of David Huggins.

1962: 'World of Sound' extract:
This part of the programme, celebrating 40 years of radio, shows how 'Private Dreams and Public Nightmares' of 1957 was produced by Daphne Oram, despite the fact that the Workshop didn't exist at the time. It begins with an EMI TR/90 and tape loop in Room 12, and then a recording being made in Room 13, with Delia Derbyshire, behind the glass, miming to the original voice of Joan Sanderson. The 'Albert Hall' mixer is operated by Dick Mills, alongside an unknown secretary, with three BBC passive equalisers, known as Programme Effects Units (PEUs) and an Audio Baton graphic equaliser in view. The film then moves to Room 13, where we see the 'Longden' desk in its original position at 45 degrees, with Desmond Briscoe at the controls. Behind Jenyth Worsley and to the left of the loudspeaker are a line of tape machines: two Ferrographs, a variable-speed Reflectograph and possibly an Ampex recorder, the latter with backward-facing heads. To the left of these, next to a seated Maddelena Fagandini, is the large EMI BTR/2 tape machine. Right of the loudspeaker is the TR/90 and the Leevers-Rich 8-track.

1963: 'Snow':
The winter of 1963, with trains, people and landscapes, featuring the music of Johnny Hawksworth processed by Daphne Oram.

1963: 'Time on Our Hands' extract:
A view of an idealised future in the year 1988, which was never to come about, featuring music by Delia Derbyshire.

1963: 'Time on Our Hands' extract 2:
Another extract, this time of rather poor picture quality, but showing Delia's work in context.

1965: 'Tomorrow's World' documentary excerpt

1968: 'The World's First Robotic Woman', with music by John Baker

1969: 'The Same Trade as Mozart' - documentary excerpt 1

1969: 'The Same Trade as Mozart' - documentary excerpt 2 (poor quality)

1969: 'The Shagbut, Minikin and Flemish Clacket' - Behind the Scenes (David Cain)

1970s: Daphne Oram at Tower Folly

1970s: 'Artbeat' titles, with music by David Cain

1970s: John Baker on piano (attribution not confirmed)

1970s: Michael Rodd demonstrates musique concrete

1974: 'Lebesque Integration' by Richard Yeoman-Clark:
From the BBC's Open University broadcast of The Daniell Integral (Integration & Normed Spaces). Video extracted by Steven Norgate.

1976: Roger Limb demonstrates the music-making process

1977: Paddy Kingsland and a vocoder on 'Blue Peter':
Writing in 2019, Paddy said: "That was an EMI unit. I used it at Abbey Road on an album called 'Swag'. We tried to demonstrate it at an earlier date on 'Blue Peter' but it broke, so we had to come back later. I don't think it went into production, so that was a prototype. The cost of making those things was probably too high in those days for mass production!"

1979: David Vorhaus and analogue electronic music

1979: David Vorhaus and the Kaleidophon

1979: 'The New Sound of Music' documentary

1979: BBC 'Nationwide' reporter Vera Gilbert visits the Maida Vale studios to celebrate 21 years of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Broadcast on Monday, 2 April, 1979.

1980: 'The Sound of Sypher' documentary

1980s: Peter Howell and the 'Doctor Who' theme

1981: Peter Howell's Masterclass lecture

1981: An interview with Roger Limb

1982: 60 BBC Years
A demonstration of Radiophonic interval music during celebrations of the BBC’s 60th anniversary. From a video extracted by Ben Ricketts.

1982: 'Music Arcade' documentary excerpt

1983: 'Nationwide - The Evolution of the Radiophonic Workshop':
In this programme, originally broadcast on 30 March, 1983, Marshall Lee reports on the 25th anniversary of the Workshop, including interviews with its founder, Desmond Briscoe.

1984: Elizabeth Parker and music for 'The Living Planet'

1984: Elizabeth Parker - Extract from 'The Making of The Living Planet'

1984: 'Watch: Using Computers' excerpt, featuring Jonathan Gibbs and the Fairlight CMI

1986: Dick Mills ＆ Dudley Simpson

1987: 'Electric Music Machine' documentary

1993: 'Five Composers' documentary

2000: Peter Zinovieff on commercial sounds

2003: 'Alchemists of Sound' documentary

2006: '30 Years in the Tardis' documentary excerpt

2007: 'What the Future Sounded Like' documentary, with Tristram Cary

2008: 'Old Masters of New Sounds' documentary excerpt, with Dick Mills and Mark Ayres

2008: 'RWS 50' interview of Dick Mills and Mark Ayres

2009: Daphne Oram's 'Oramics' machine is saved

2009: 'The Delian Mode' documentary

2010: 'Inside Out' West Midlands - Delia Derbyshire

2010: Radiophonic Workshop Concert - Tribute to Delia Derbyshire

2011: The 'Oramics to Electronica' exhibition at the Science Museum

2013: 12 Again - 'Doctor Who Special'

2013: Dick Mills interview at 'Whooverville 5' (part one)

2013: Dick Mills interview at 'Whooverville 5' (part two)

2013: The Oramics machine at the Science Museum

2014: 'Do Analogue Sound Machines Dream of Digital Sheep?' documentary

2014: The 'Doctor Who' theme, performed by the Radiophonic Workshop, Festival No 6, Portmerion

2014: 'Pioneers of Sound' documentary

2018: 'It was 60 Years Ago Today...'

2019: 'Myths and the Legendary Tapes':
A look at he work of Delia Derbyshire.

2019: 'Percy Grainger's Synthesisers':
A short documentary on the Australian composer who devised machines to create what he called 'free music'.

2023: Doctor Who 60 Years Of Adventures - Brian Hodgson Interview:
Frank Cronogue interviews Brian Hodgson as part of the celebrations for six decades of 'Doctor Who'.

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