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After completing his national service in the Royal Air Force, Brian Hodgson began his career on stage. He briefly trained as an actor before joining the BBC drama department as a studio manager. In early 1963, he moved to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, where he was assigned to create futuristic sound effects for the iconic TV series Doctor Who. One of his earliest tasks was producing the distinctive TARDIS dematerialisation sound. He achieved this by using the frame of an upright piano, scraping a front-door key along the bass string, then slowing and reversing the recording, adding feedback. Hodgson also worked closely with voice actors to create the sharp, staccato voices of the Daleks through electronic processing. He later recounted, "I'd done a voice for a robot butler in a children's radio series using a ring modulation system. We reused that technique, ensuring voice artist Peter Hawkins delivered lines monotonously, blending my treatment with his performance."
Between 1963 and 1972, Hodgson was responsible for all of Doctor Who's special sounds, from the Autons' energy bolt-firing wrist guns to Cyberman invaders and the Yeti roar, which was reportedly inspired by a flushing toilet recording. He utilized any available props, as generators or computers were not accessible, using sounds such as his dogs barking, bubbles blown through detergent, scaffolding poles dropping, and empty water cylinders being struck. From 1967, he collaborated closely with composer Dudley Simpson on incidental electronic music, noting, "Dudley was a great composer and musician but lacked technical skills. He would start with musicians in a studio session, and sometimes we'd electronically process the recording later on multitrack."
Hodgson left the BBC in 1972 to establish his own recording company, Electrophon. He composed music for Ballet Rambert and the film The Legend of Hell House (1973). In the late 1970s, he returned to the Radiophonic Workshop as 'organiser,' succeeding co-founder Desmond Briscoe. Hodgson retired in 1995, three years before the workshop closed. He later pursued a career as a hypnotherapist and counsellor and is believed to be living in England's Norfolk Broads.
