Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

On Christmas Eve, I managed to see ‘Doctor Who at the Proms 2024’ on BBC iPlayer. This was originally shown on BBC Two in the afternoon in the UK. In the past, ‘Doctor Who’ has had three Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London for 2008, 2010 and 2013.

This year for 2024, the Proms concert took place back in August, I believe, and was hosted by Catherine Tate, who plays Donna Noble in the TV series and Big Finish audios. As well as music, there were monsters, mayhem and a specially shot mini-episode shown there.

The mini-episode featured Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor and Jinkx Monsoon as Maestro from ‘The Devil’s Chord’ and is called ‘Bad Music’, I believe. Anita Dobson also makes a guest appearance as Mrs. Flood at the concert. Still have no idea who she is. 😀

Nicholas Briggs also makes his contribution to the Proms concert by voicing the Vlinx in the ‘Bad Music’ mini-episode. And there’s a Dalek who tells people to leave for the interval during the halfway point of the show. I thought we would be treated to some Dalek music.

I don’t usually attend these concerts in London and I didn’t attend the one in August 2024 when it happened. Mainly because I’m often the last to know about these events and I prefer going to conventions as opposed to seeing music concerts related to ‘Doctor Who’.

I did see ‘The Monsters Are Coming!’ stage show in Cardiff back in 2010 when it happened at the formerly named Motorpoint Arena (now called Utilita Arena these days). That had music performed from the new ‘Doctor Who’ TV series as well as monsters like the Judoon. 🙂

Also, the Proms concerts don’t excite me as much compared to other fans, as I’m sure there were many happy and enthusiastic fans attending the Proms back in August this year. I prefer there to be a variety of ‘Doctor Who’ music when it’s performed in a concert.

And I don’t mean just Murray Gold’s music from the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctor’s eras. I’d like there to be a combination of classic and new series ‘Doctor Who’ music in order to hear the variety of sounds heard in the TV show.

Music from the 1980s eras of ‘Doctor Who’ are very memorable to me compared to some of Murray Gold’s stuff. I wish the classic ‘Doctor Who’ medley from the 2013 Proms concert and from ‘Doctor Who at 60: A Musical Celebration’ in 2023 had been included.

It was good to hear Segun Akinola’s suite of Thirteenth Doctor music included in the 2024 concert. That and certain music from the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor eras are memorable compared to what’s been in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Doctor’s eras lately.

That’s not to say the music from Murray Gold lately has been awful. I enjoyed hearing the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday themes of ‘Doctor Who’ music in the 2024 Proms concert. It’s just I’ve not quite got myself invested with knowing the latest music by heart.

When music themes for companions like Rose, Martha, Donna, Amy, Clara and Bill get played, I recognise them enough having heard them being played lots of times. Maybe over time, I’ll get to hear the latest music more and recognise more in future music shows.

It was good to hear the Eleventh Doctor’s ‘I am the Doctor!’ music being performed along with the music for the Eleventh Doctor’s speech from ‘The Pandorica Opens’. Also, it was good to hear the Twelfth Doctor’s ‘Am I a good man?’ music being performed in the Proms concert. 🙂

I’m pleased the concert concluded with the ‘Doctor Who’ theme music as is usually the case with some of these concerts. Although, it was ruined when the ‘Twist at the End’ song sung in ‘The Devil’s Chord’ was performed in the Proms concert. That’s so cringy! 😐

Granted, there were more lyrics sung in the version performed in the Proms concert compared to what’s in ‘The Devil’s Chord’ TV episode. But that song really annoys me, especially when in the context of the story itself, it doesn’t make sense in terms of reality.

Despite that, I’m glad I saw the ‘Doctor Who at the Proms 2024’ concert on BBC iPlayer lately. I’m also pleased that in the ‘Vale Decem’ music being performed in the concert, the regenerations of all the Doctors, both classic and new series, got shown on screen. 🙂

And at least the 60th anniversary specials got a suite of music in the concert as well as the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby music from ‘The Church on Ruby Road’ and Series 14. I’m surprised ‘The Goblin Song’ wasn’t sung in the concert, though that could be a good thing. 😀

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂