The under-appreciated electronic music pioneer behind the Doctor Who theme is to be honoured posthumously with a doctorate from her hometown university as the programme gears up for the debut of its first female lead. Largely ignored in life and barred from working in studios because she was a woman, Delia Derbyshire, will be awarded an honorary PhD from Coventry University on Monday. Highly academic, she won a scholarship to study maths and music at the University of Cambridge, where she immersed herself in sound. She died aged 64 in 2001, and has since been widely acknowledged as a pioneer in electronic music, having inspired the likes of the Chemical Brothers and Sonic Boom. Linked to a touring play about her life, Hymns for Robots by Noctium Theatre, the partnership project will share the story of Derbyshire and her creations at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.

Source: The Guardian November 20, 2017 14:04 UTC