It is with sorrow that we report on the passing of Dudley Simpson.

Dudley worked on over 290 episodes of Doctor Who, writing the score to over sixty stories. His music provided the soundtrack to the majority of adventures of the first four Doctors. He also wrote title music for Blake’s 7 and The Tomorrow People.

Dudley was born in Australia on the 4th of October, 1922. He studied orchestration and composition at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. His entry into Television was meeting a BBC executive at a party. From there, it was his work on drama Moonstrike that bought him to the attention of Mervyn Pinfeld who recruited him to write music for the First Doctor Story – Planet of  Giants. He wrote scores to such memorable stories such as Fury from the Deep, Seeds of Death, Terror of the Autons, Genesis of the Daleks, and many many more.

In addition to being behind the scenes, he appeared on camera as the Conductor in episode 4 of The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Dudley also appeared at Whovention 2013, where he was able to regale attendees with stories from his time working on the show.

Dudley passed away in Australia, he was 95