Arena 'Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes

[kmoore]

Please, please, please, take the time to watch the Arena programme 'Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes' on BBC 4 tonight (20/05/2021) at Midnight (originally shown Sunday 16/05/2021). In the same vein as 'An adventure in time and space', it's possible the most unlikely sex, drugs and rock and roll features (based upon DW viewing habits) you'll see.

Billed under the uninspiring "A look at the life and creative output of Coventry born Delia Derbyshire, electronic musician, sound pioneer and female outsider in postwar Britain. From 1962 until 1973, she worked at the BBC's Radiophonic workshop" (I ask who apart from DW and those who recall the sounds in BBC programmes in the 1960's and early 1970's would be hooked by that wording?).

I watched this and was privileged to see a wonderfull visualisation of the person, her drives (good and bad) that led her into the occupation (and out) and early loss in 2001, through taped recordings, interviews with those who knew her and the dramatisation of some of this.

Hopefully the 'Woo, Woo' will make you laugh or cry.

[richardwoods]

Thanks for the tip. I’m now recording it.

[Brian Keen]

Many thanks. Set to record :-)

[RhysH]

Nice one - missed this post last night, but was able to download from catch up section on Sky this morning, so will have a watch of this over the weekend!

[Peter Stirling]

Being BBC I thought it would be packed with 'issues' about female equality of the day etc,but no it stuck to the truth that women were in fact a major force in TV in the 60/70s..some of the best producers were all women and Caroline makes an attractive and engaging Delia who is able to pursue her ideas.

Rather ironically I found the sound rather poor on this doc, lots of mumbling going on often drowned out by the music tracks..but it may have been my TV/me? but if it wasn't, suffice to say if a character needed to mumble on 60s Dr.Who we would have heard the dialogue clearly.

[Stephen Byers]

See here ...

www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=delia+derbyshire&page=1

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000w6tr

Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes

Arena

Docudrama that explores the life and creative output of Coventry born-Delia Derbyshire – electronic musician, sound pioneer and female outsider in postwar Britain. From 1962 until 1973, she worked at the BBC’s Radiophonic workshop, where she created the iconic Doctor Who theme tune, which remained uncredited in her lifetime.

Delia Derbyshire introduced avant-garde electronic sound to a whole generation through the medium of a children’s teatime television show. Sound was both a refuge for Delia and a haunting manifestation of something darker. Delia was three years old during the Coventry blitz listening to the electronic sounds of the air-raid sirens against a backdrop of her devastated hometown. Delia describes the sound of the ‘all-clear' and air-raid sirens as her first experience of electronic music.

This is a story where sound encapsulates the pain, violence and potential of modernity and positions Delia as tapping into a heightened realm, where her femininity and creativity are unshackled, amplified and set free. This essence in her music invites aggression and control, often unconsciously, from those around her. Her technical and creative brilliance, intuition and integrity is a threat that speaks to the devastating gender power politics of her age and which still persists today.

Delia’s story is told through two archives: the first, a collection of lost works, 267 reels of quarter-inch magnetic tape recordings of Delia’s work found in her attic after her death, the other, her school books, paintings and keepsakes, discovered in her childhood bedroom.

The combined archive, which now resides at Manchester's John Rylands library, is an incredible resource of unfiltered material. Delia’s poetic collages and atmospheric soundscapes reveal themselves as intriguing expressions of her extraordinary inner life. The drama begins with Delia Derbyshire as a time traveller and imagines a visitation where she brings with her fragments, objects and sounds from her past to bring her struggle and vision to life, finding solace in deeply personal soundscapes.

Her struggle with alcoholism, frustrations at her contribution been downplayed in a predominantly male workplace as well as her intense artistic collaborations and life on the fringes of relationships are all explored in the film - all themes that collapse into sound, texture and harmonies. Delia is portrayed through a mix of observation and imagination. No single perspective would be sufficient to gain a true understanding of Delia. The docudrama replaces biography and a biopic style with something more lyrical.

Its playful, psychedelic mix utilises archival materials, interviews with her collaborators and dramatisations while honouring the BBC Radiophonic Workshops arranger-composer's own questing spirit.

This is a life story told through sound, using both Delia’s own pieces of music alongside a soundtrack constructed from samples chosen with musician and performance artist Cosey Fanni Tutti from Delia’s attic tapes. It explores the fantasy of a collaboration, an exchange of ideas across eras between two fascinating musicians. It celebrates independence and imagination and looks at how, when that energy is evoked by women and creates a spark, the pattern seen throughout history is that it is often dismissed, ridiculed or downplayed. A cinematic exploration of a legendary musical figure, written and directed by Caroline Catz, who also plays Delia.

11 months left to watch

1 hour, 29 minutes

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[christian bews]

I watched it on Wednesday night and it was brilliant.I like Caroline catz & she suited the role of delia Derbyshire perfectly.

[Vaughan Stanger]

May 21, 2021 18:21:57 GMT christian bews said:

I watched it on Wednesday night and it was brilliant.I like Caroline catz & she suited the role of delia Derbyshire perfectly.

An engrossing 90 minutes.

[christian bews]

caroline catz should deserve a guest role in the next series of 'dr.who'.

[richardwoods]

May 22, 2021 23:11:08 GMT christian bews said:

caroline catz should deserve a guest role in the next series of 'dr.who'.

In character? Wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done something like that? Excellent program, really enjoyed it. A couple of points, Caroline Catz was excellent but maybe presented her as a little too glam? Also it was really clear how enigmatic Delia Derbyshire was, even her friends were quite sketchy about what made her tick other than Maths & sound. 10/10 though.

[rebeccajansen]

Haven't been able to watch it, did they make some mention of Daphne Oram and Maddalena Fagandini, two women who preceeded her at the Radiophonics Workshop department? I think Delia was wonderful but so often these others get forgotten!

[kmoore]

Sorry Rebecca, i've not been able to post before now. I've rewatched and Daphne Oram (No, and checking she'd left the BBC in 1959), as Delia joined in 1962 but is shown working alongside Maddalena Fagandini.

I don't know if this link will work in your location, but seems to be accessible via Youtube.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5YR50Kc17Y

The Youtube BFI Interview with CC provides a lot of background in how it became a labour of love project, with added information as to the background soundtrack running throughout.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH8qvNI06Ws

[rebeccajansen]

Excellent! Thank you very much, I can watch it there and in very high quality!

[rebeccajansen]

I've almost always really liked what I've seen under the title of Arena and this was no exception, but it is rather, er, 'artistic', still nothing about it offends me. Daphne Oram is mentioned once early on, and Maddalena is shown as part of the early days for Delia at Radiophonics. It was a nice surprise that Brian Jones crops up in two separate moments also! Jones was always the seeker, and often finder, of interesting sounds in The Stones. I wonder if some substances perhaps didn't agree with Ms. Derbyshire's system as it were, things going out of tune for her. Even marijuana can have profound and lasting effects sometimes. I think the position was not an ideal fit mostly and with limited opportunities in recording and even freelance with film... but something more seems to have been what pushed her away from more people hearing her work, though she did not interface well with some of the equipment that became standard in the late '60s into the '70s. Daphne Oram is a similar lost in the shuffle person with her Oramics process not apparently producing much in result. Raymond Scott in America at least kept up connections with others and eventually some of his work was reproduced by other artists where we would hear it when his own experiments remained on the shelf at his home.