Myths and Other Legends

CD Tracklisting (Silva Screen FILMCD 088, 1991)

It was in 1984 that Reeltime Pictures' Keith Barnfather first asked me to work on a video series entitled Myth Makers, a set of interviews with the stars of the BBC Television series Doctor Who (this was well before I started writing for Doctor Who itself!). My original brief was to provide a theme tune (featured here in its 1986 rerecording) and a set of three variations on it (the appallingly-titled Mythterious, I Myth You and Mythed Again) to be used as 'stock' tracks. The Myth Makers series, in its early days, was always somewhat 'semi-professional', but as the productions became more adventurous I started providing cues composed for specific programmes. The Fox Goes Free is a suite arranged from the score of Myth Makers 12, which featured the late Ian Marter ("Harry Sullivan" in Doctor Who). The title comes from the name of the public house which served as one of the locations. The Park and Star Field come from Myth Makers 13, which profiled Sergeant Benton's alter ego John Levene (later to feature as the star of Wartime).

In 1987 Keith, and Myth Makers on-screen host Nicholas Briggs, decided that enough material was 'in the can' to provide the basis for Myth Runner: The Best and Worst of Myth Makers. This was a compilation tape featuring highlights and out-takes from the then 3-year run. The whole thing was wrapped up in an absurd plot which was an affectionate take-off of the film Blade Runner, and this is reflected in some of the music. The idea (of the Myth Makers series actually being perpetrated not by Briggs but by an android double, the Myth Runner) stuck, and for the next few Myth Makers releases, short sketches featuring the character acted as 'support features'. The Digitan and The Disappointment are two examples. Myth Runner II is a new arrangement of the closing title theme.

In 1985, animator and director Kevin Davies (whose credits include work on The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy television series, the films Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Space Jam, and genre documentaries such as The Making of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Doctor Who: (More Than) Thirty Years in the TARDIS - the latter two also featuring music by Mark Ayres) had the bright idea of trying to put together an animated series featuring some famous metallic monsters. The script was written, the voices were recorded (by Peter Hawkins and David Graham - the original Dalek voices from sixties Who) and the show was storyboarded but the project was eventually shelved. I had even put together a demo of some ideas for the music and that original recording, Daleks! (made on a four-track cassette machine, so forgive the hiss!), is included here in a slightly edited version. The first few seconds of this track actually belong with the last two items on this collection, Terror in Totters Lane and The Headmaster. These tracks formed part of one of my demo submissions to Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner in 1988. I reused my Dalek theme as part of these cues.

Most of the pieces on this recording are taken from my original stereo master tapes, and I'm afraid that some of these - The Park especially - show their age! In some cases I have taken the opportunity to remix tracks making very slight alterations (the final part of Myth Runner (Original Soundtrack) Part 2, The Digitan and The Disappointment). A few other pieces (I Myth You, The Fox Goes Free, Myth Runner II, Mythed Again and Running 1991) are entirely new recordings made for this album.

A selection of the material on this CD was originally released on a vinyl album with the same name (Metro Music International METRO-3, 1990), and prior to that on a privately-released limited-edition cassette, Myth Makers - The Music (1987).

Mark Ayres, May 1991 revised September 1997.