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Dudley Simpson was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1922. His interest in music started when at the tender age of four, a herbalist that his mother used to visit told her that if he was given a violin, he would shake the timbers of the earth. That same year, his mother took him round to his grandfather's house to play the piano. Apparently he played the national anthem with one finger, almost perfectly! Then, as school pianist at his high school, he won a playing contest on the local radio station. They made him the accompanist on their children's programme. That really got him going in music.
When World War II broke out, Dudley was called up and saw more than his share of action. One day he was injured when the Japanese dropped a bomb on the truck he was driving, which happened to be carrying 3 one-thousand bombs! He lost several teeth and badly injured his hand. An American Sergeant came to visit him in the hospital and asked him if he wanted to play piano for the troops. It turned out to be very good therapy for Dudley.
After the war Dudley earned a living playing in restaurants and hotels while studying at Melbourne University. There, he met Sir Bernard Heinz who first mentioned the possibility of working overseas.
But there was real work more immediately available after Dudley got an introduction to Madame Borovansky of the Borovansky Ballet. "We got on like a house on fire and I could play anything she wanted by improvising. Eventually Boro himself came back from a tour, heard me playing and said 'How would you like to join the company? I'll put you in as pianist and assistant conductor.'"
It was while working for the Ballet that Dudley met Dame Margot Fonteyne in 1956. After she suggested moving to England, Dudley became the chief guest conductor at the Royal Opera House in 1960. His first encounter with the BBC came soon after. "I was at an after-theater party and got talking to this little fellow with a moustache who turned out to be Gerry Glaister. He said 'Do you write music?' and I said 'Yes I do but I've never had a break. I want to write for film and television particularly.' He said 'Well I'm doing this programme at the moment called Moonstrike. Two people have written a score, but none of us think it's right. How about you writing something for me - the only thing is that I need it yesterday.'" Dudley found himself with only one week to come up with an idea. "I didn't even have a piano to work on, so some of my mates went down to Chelsea and bought me an old piano and said 'Here you are Simmo, lock yourself away and get on with it.'"
Dudley worked on Moonstrike for a couple of years. "One of the people I worked with then was Mervyn Pinfield. He approached me about this new sci-fi show he was involved in and asked me if I'd like to write something for it. Of course I was thrilled to bits, and went down and recorded some music in Picadilly and it just went on from there. That score got me another one, and another one, and it stretched out until eventually it was my baby completely."
Dudley composed incidental music for Doctor Who between 1964 and 1979. It all began after that commission from Mervyn Pinfield (the director of the first 3 episodes of Planet of the Giants) with a story he remembers well. "When I wrote the first one, I used orchestral instruments entirely. We had a tuba at one end and a piccolo at the top because the story was to do with miniscules and giants. With only eight players that was all I could think of."
Up until season 11, Dudley used primarily synthesizers from the Radiophonic Workshop for his Who scores until they told Producer Barry Letts that he couldn't use their facilities anymore. Dudley then began writing for mostly acoustic instruments with synthesizer tones added in later as an accompaniment.
Dudley scored almost every episode of Doctor Who until 1979, when newly-hired Producer John Nathan-Turner decided that the music was one of the many changes he wanted for the 18th Season and let Dudley go.
Later, when Dr Who Director David Maloney became the producer of Blake's 7, he hired Dudley to do the theme and incidental music for that series. In 1981, Blake's 7 ended and Dudley worked on the music for many TV programmes, including Oliver Twist, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Goodbye Mr Chips.
When Dudley turned sixty-five in 1987, he decided he had had enough and returned home to Australia. He is pretty much retired now but still makes appearances at Doctor Who Conventions. But his musical legacy lives on...
PIANOFORTE with Vera Porter (Melbourne) and Leslie Curnow (Melbourne)
COMPOSITION AND PIANOFORTE in post war course at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music with John Ingram and Victor Stevenson
HONOURS DIPLOMA
ORCHESTRATION with Elford Mack (ABC Arranger)
COMPOSITION AND ORCHESTRATION with Dr Gordon Jacob (England)