Ron Grainer

Grainer trained as a pianist in Australia before relocating to Britain, where he built a career composing for television and film through the 1950s and 60s, developing a reputation for distinctive, memorable theme writing.

The Australian composer behind the original Doctor Who theme brought a similarly eerie electronic edge to a city emptied of everyone but the infected. He was best known internationally for his pioneering electronic Doctor Who theme, realized with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

His work helped popularize electronic scoring in British film and television more broadly, at a time when synthesized and electronically generated music was still considered a fringe technique.