As Class officially turns 10, the Doctor Who spin-off's original unheard theme tune has being unveiled for the very first time!
The series, created and written by Patrick Ness, followed a group of students at Coal Hill Academy who face monstrous alien threats.
Composer Blair Mowat, whose work also includes Nolly, The Guest, McDonald & Dodds, and Mark Gatiss's Ghost Story for Christmas, is partnering up with Silva Screen to release a 10th-anniversary digital-only edition of the Class bonus disc (rebranded as Volume II), complete with unheard additional tracks (including the initial opening title theme).
It will be available on 23 October – upon release, you'll be able to find a list of services where you can stream and download the album here.
Ahead of then, Radio Times readers can listen to the track early (check it out at the top of this page!), while Mowat also opened up about the experience of composing for the show:
When composing for Class, how much inspiration did you take from Doctor Who’s iconic music – or did you try to make it entirely different?
At the time, Doctor Who’s score was very orchestral, so I wanted to explore solo instruments and lean into synths and guitars. I took inspiration from the ethos of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the 1960s, particularly that spirit of experimentation, without trying to recreate its sound.
There are quite a few Easter eggs in the score. The metallic Shadow Kin “shing” sounds came from a custom one-string instrument, a nod to a technique used by Delia Derbyshire in the original 1963 Doctor Who theme.
I also brought in Melanie Pappenheim, who sang the Doctor’s theme in 2005, to record a new version for a flashback featuring the TARDIS. I even tried to sneak in a reference to “Three Guitars Mood 2”, the music Susan listens to in the Coal Hill classroom in An Unearthly Child, near the start of our first episode, but that one didn’t make the cut.
So, there were touches of familiarity for fans, but I wanted Class to have its own musical identity, with room to explore different sounds depending on the episode. As the series developed, we brought in a string ensemble alongside those elements to give it scale and emotion where needed.
How much did you work with the show’s executive producers, Patrick Ness, Steven Moffat and Brian Minchin? Do you remember anything specific they asked of you?
I worked very closely with Patrick, Brian and our producer, Derek Ritchie. Steven was working on Doctor Who series 10 and, I think, Sherlock too. He must have been one of the busiest men in television, so although he was involved, the others were my main collaborators on the music.
For each episode, Derek and I spent several hours with the episode’s director in an editing suite, talking through where music should come in and what it needed to do. It’s funny to think that in 2016 I’d get on a train to Cardiff for those sessions, whereas now they’d often happen over Zoom if someone was in a different location.
But going in person did mean I got to sneak onto the TARDIS and walk around Coal Hill Academy. Derek and I became close friends through that process and have remained so ever since. We’ve certainly discussed what a second series of Class might have entailed over a few pints!
It was quite stressful at times. Certain delays, combined with BBC Three wanting to release the first two episodes at once, meant I had far less time than I’d hoped to compose the score. I ended up working seven-day weeks. I’d been a Doctor Who fan all my life, so I squeezed in every last minute I could to make the score the best it could be in the time available.
Can you tell us about the process of composing this previously unheard theme?
It began as part of the 90-second pitch that got me an interview and eventually the job. At that point, I had very little to go on beyond a Radio Times announcement article, funnily enough.
I remember reading it while I was in the pub and thinking on the way home that I had to do the music for this show – so I picked up my guitar as soon as I got through the door and started playing with ideas for a pitch.
Once I was on board, I developed it further alongside another option, which became the closing credits theme and later, for licensing reasons, the theme for the audio dramas. I think some fans suspected the closing music had originally been pitched as an opening theme, so 10 years later I can confirm they were right!
I enjoyed creating the theme and it’s fun to listen to it again, but I preferred the other option I’d written, which became the end credits music. Both my pitches were written before the title animation existed. The opening titles were animated to the song they ultimately chose, so my versions don’t quite line up with the visuals if you try to put them together retrospectively.
Was it at all frustrating when a commercial song was used for the theme instead, or is that just part of the process?
Doctor Who has regeneration at its core, so I think there’s always room to try different approaches. However, as a composer, and with the legacy of Delia Derbyshire and Ron Grainer’s original 1963 Doctor Who theme in mind, my instinct was to create something original that would give Class a musical identity of its own. That’s why I was keen to offer a couple of options.
But it’s absolutely part of the process. There were no hard feelings about the decision. My job is to bring ideas and support the production team’s vision, and not everything you write is guaranteed to end up on screen.
What was behind the decision for you to finally release the unheard theme?
When Silva Screen first released the Class soundtrack, we created a bonus CD that was only available with a physical purchase of the album on CD or vinyl. With the CDs now out of print, we wanted to make that music available again.
The 10th anniversary felt like the perfect opportunity, and we’ve added six previously unreleased tracks, including this theme. The anniversary bonus album comes out on 23 October, with 76 minutes of Class music that has never been available to stream before.
The theme has been a completely secret piece of Class history for 10 years. It’s lovely to finally share it and give fans something unexpected for the anniversary.
What’s your hope for the future of Doctor Who – and would you like to see more spin-offs like Class?
It’s certainly an interesting time for the show, isn’t it? I’m excited by the BBC’s openness to a fresh approach in the tender language they released. More than 20 years after the revival, it feels like a good moment to explore how the show can evolve, creatively and in how it’s made.
As a fan, I’d love to see it back every year. Given the references in the tender to different writing and production models, I think sharing the writing more widely could take some pressure off one showrunner. And it could be interesting to explore a more serialised approach with multi-part stories.
That would give each world and its characters room to develop, while allowing sets and locations to be used across several episodes rather than establishing a new setting each week – which is exciting but makes the show challenging to produce. That approach could help the budget go further, while a broader writing team could make it possible to develop the next series during production of the current one.
Funnily enough, some of that sounds rather like how Doctor Who was made in the '60s, '70s and '80s! Television production has changed enormously in the last 20 years, so it’s about working out the best way to approach it now. The BBC also mentioned not being overly reliant on existing Doctor Who lore, which I’d welcome as a way of bringing in new audiences. However, I think a hard reboot that ignores past regenerations completely would be risky. For me, the idea of one character carrying all those memories and stories we’ve enjoyed is part of the show’s enduring appeal.
I’ve loved all the Doctor Who spin-offs we’ve had, but my biggest hope right now is to see the main show thriving and back on screen regularly. There’s still so much potential for it to capture the hearts of another generation, as it has so many times before.
The Class bonus 10th anniversary album will be available to download and stream from 23 October. Class is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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