Malcolm Clarke

Malcolm Clarke (17 January 1943 – 11 December 2003) was a British composer and a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop for 25 years from 1969 to 1994.

Clarke proved somewhat controversial when he joined the workshop, due to his views that Radiophonic music should be, in his words, "fine art," a philosophy that was not shared by other workshop members at the time. He composed the incidental music for the 1972 Doctor Who serial The Sea Devils; only the second score that the workshop provided for the series. Clarke produced the music for this serial on the Radiophonic Workshop's EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer. The score was unusual and controversial for Doctor Who at the time, with producer Barry Letts insisting that substantial edits were made for the finished programme. The Radiophonic Workshop was not commissioned to produce music again for Doctor Who until 1980, when new Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner decided to fire regular composer Dudley Simpson and commission music from the Radiophonic Workshop instead. Clarke returned to the series to compose the music for the 1982 serial Earthshock, and continued to work on the series on a regular basis until 1986, composing the music for Enlightenment, Resurrection of the Daleks, The Twin Dilemma, Attack of the Cybermen and Terror of the Vervoids.

His most critically acclaimed work was probably 1976's radio piece August 4th 2026, based on a short story by Ray Bradbury.

Outside of the workshop, Clarke was an automobile enthusiast, and over a period of years built up a Bugatti from a collection of spare and scavenged parts.