Peter Howell

Known for Sound

Peter Howell (born 1949) is a musician and composer. He is best known for his work on Doctor Who as a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Howell's musical career began in the late 1960s working with John Ferdinando in various psychedelic folk bands including Agincourt and Ithaca. Howell and Ferdinando recorded five albums before Howell became a member of the Radiophonic Workshop, with which he would remain associated until 1997. His work on Doctor Who began in 1975 when he provided some accompanying incidental music for Revenge of the Cybermen and special sound for Planet of Evil. When John Nathan-Turner became producer of Doctor Who in 1980, he decided that the music needed to be updated and commissioned Howell to provide a new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme to accompany a new title sequence. Howell's new arrangement first appeared in 1980 on The Leisure Hive, for which Howell had also recorded the incidental score, and was used throughout Tom Baker's final season on the programme as well as Peter Davison's tenure as the Doctor and Colin Baker's first season. Between 1980 and 1985 Howell also provided incidental music for ten stories of Doctor Who. In 1986, Nathan-Turner commissioned a new theme arrangement by Dominic Glynn, ending Howell's association with Doctor Who on television. Since 2013 he has been part of the Radiophonic Workshop Band, touring the UK and abroad with Radiophonic archivist Mark Ayres and other former members of the Workshop. In 2021, Howell published his autobiography Radiophonic Times via Obverse Books.Read more

Movies & web series

Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani

Doctor Who: Revelation of the Daleks

Doctor Who at the Proms

From Avalon to Argolis

Doctor Who: Earthshock

Doctor Who: Castrovalva

Doctor Who: Resurrection of the Daleks

Doctor Who: Frontios

Doctor Who: The Five Doctors

Doctor Who

Doctor Who: Enlightenment

Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death

Doctor Who: Kinda

Doctor Who: The Visitation

Doctor Who: The Keeper of Traken

Doctor Who: State of Decay

Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos

Doctor Who: The Two Doctors

Doctor Who: Arc of Infinity

Doctor Who: Attack of the Cybermen

Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead

Doctor Who: Logopolis

Doctor Who: The Leisure Hive

Doctor Who: Planet of Evil

Doctor Who: Terminus

Doctor Who: Black Orchid

Doctor Who: Full Circle

Doctor Who: The Mark of the Rani

Doctor Who: Planet of Fire

K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend

Doctor Who: Revenge of the Cybermen

Doctor Who: Time-Flight

Doctor Who: Warriors' Gate

Double Image

Dames of Classic Drama at the BBC

Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday

Doctor Who: The Awakening

Doctor Who: Snakedance

Doctor Who: Meglos

Doctor Who at 60: A Musical Celebration

Doctor Who: Warriors of the Deep

Doctor Who: The King's Demons

Doctor Who: Timelash

Doctor Who: The Twin Dilemma

Return of the Unknown

The Ties That Bind Us

A New Beginning

Adventures in Time and Spain