Doctor Who composer Delia Derbyshire's archive to be digitized

Just in time to celebrate her 80th birthday in May.

Manchester’s John Rylands Library is home to the Delia Derbyshire Papers and Sound Archive but will soon be much more accessible to people outside of the city, the Manchester Evening News reports.

Derbyshire was an electronic music pioneer primarily known for work remixing and recording the Doctor Who theme with innovative analog recording techniques.

Music charity Delia Derbyshire Day (or DD Day) has secured a £42,600 Heritage Lottery Grant that will allow them to digitize everything in the John Rylands archive, including “working notes and sketches from her days at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, sound cue sheets from Doctor Who, 267 audio tapes, newspaper cuttings clipped by Delia [and] her old school notebooks”.

DD Day will also be able to put on events to commemorate the archive and Derbyshire, kicking off with a celebration of what would have been her 80th birthday on May 5 with more events to follow in June and August.

“The point of what we’re doing is to highlight to people this wonderful archive that is hidden away… The project also focuses on the heritage of electronic music via the archive and works of Delia Derbyshire. A lot of kids still don’t realize that the Doctor Who theme was made by a girl,” DD Day’s project manager Caro C. says.

“We feel [her work] is a rich source of electronic music heritage right here in Manchester. This support will also help us develop as an organization which unlocks heritage through the arts.”