1. Delia Ann Derbyshire was an English musician and composer of electronic music.
24 Facts About Delia Derbyshire
1. 2.
Delia Derbyshire carried out notable work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop during the 1960s, including her electronic arrangement of the theme music to the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who.
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Delia Derbyshire has been referred to as "the unsung heroine of British electronic music", having influenced musicians including Aphex Twin, the Chemical Brothers and Paul Hartnoll of Orbital.
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Delia Derbyshire had one sibling, a sister, who died young.
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Delia Derbyshire's father died in 1965 and her mother in 1994.
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Delia Derbyshire's parents were from the town and most of her surviving relatives still live in the area.
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Delia Derbyshire was very bright and, by the age of four, was teaching others in her class to read and write in primary school, but said "The radio was my education".
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Delia Derbyshire's parents bought her a piano when she was eight years old.
9.
Delia Derbyshire approached the careers office at the university and told them she was interested in "sound, music and acoustics, to which they recommended a career in either deaf aids or depth sounding".
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Delia Derbyshire returned to Coventry and from January to April 1960 taught general subjects in a primary school there.
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Delia Derbyshire was not credited on-screen for her work until Doctor Who's 50th anniversary special, The Day of the Doctor.
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Many of these recordings, including compositions by Derbyshire using the name "Li De la Russe" were used on the 1970s ITV science fiction rivals to Doctor Who: The Tomorrow People and Timeslip.
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In 1967, Delia Derbyshire provided sound design alongside Guy Woolfenden's score for Peter Hall's production of Macbeth with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
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Delia Derbyshire composed a score for Yoko Ono's short film Wrapping Event, but no copy of the film with the soundtrack is known to exist.
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In 1973, Delia Derbyshire left the BBC and worked briefly at Hodgson's Electrophon studio, where she contributed to the soundtrack to the film The Legend of Hell House.
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Delia Derbyshire frequented the LYC Museum and Art Gallery established by Chinese artist Li Yuan-chia at his stone farmhouse in Cumbria and worked there as his assistant.
17.
Delia Derbyshire remained her partner for the rest of her life.
18.
Delia Derbyshire died of renal failure brought on by cancer, aged 64, in July 2001.
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The play starred Sophie Thompson as Delia Derbyshire and was written by Martyn Wade.
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Delia Derbyshire appeared as a character in it, portrayed by Sarah Winter.
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Coventry-based theatre company Noctium Theatre produced a play named Hymns for Robots about Delia Derbyshire's working life, which played at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe festival.
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Delia Derbyshire was featured in episode 4 of Mark Ronson's "Watch the Sound" 2021 documentary series on Apple TV+.
23.
On 20 November 2017, Delia Derbyshire was awarded a posthumous honorary doctorate for her notable contributions to electronic music, by Coventry University, who erected a plaque honoring Delia Derbyshire, on their Ellen Terry Building.
24.
The Delia Derbyshire building was officially opened in May 2024.