Murray Jonathan Gold (born 28 February 1969) is an English composer for stage, film, and television and a dramatist for both theatre and radio.
[5] Gold has been nominated for a BAFTA five times in the category Best Original Television Music, for Vanity Fair (1999), Queer as Folk (2000), Casanova (2006) and twice for Doctor Who (2009 and 2014).
His score for the BAFTA winning film Kiss of Life was awarded the 'Mozart Prize of the 7th Art' by a French jury at Aubagne in 2003.
He wrote the theme tune for the Channel 4 series Shameless and scored the period drama The Devil's Whore.
[11][12] From 2005 to 2017 and since 2023, Gold served as musical director of science fiction drama Doctor Who for the BBC under executive producers Russell T Davies (2005–2010; 2023–present) and Steven Moffat (2010–17).
He has also been seen very briefly in the show itself, making a cameo appearance (and wearing a false moustache) in the 2007 Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned".
Although his music for the 2005 series of Doctor Who relied largely on orchestral samples, his later arrangements for the show, beginning with "The Christmas Invasion", have been more acoustic, often being recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, supplemented by vocal performances with Melanie Pappenheim and others.
The orchestral scoring (partly reflecting a larger budget) contrasts strongly with music for the classic 1963–1989 series of Doctor Who, as produced by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Mark Ayres et al., which generally had an electronic feel, with innovative instrumentation.
[15] Gold also wrote the theme tunes for Doctor Who spin-offs The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood, and composed music for the latter series alongside Ben Foster.
[19] In March 2010, his Doctor Who soundtrack entered UK radio station Classic FM's Hall of Fame as that year's second highest new entry.
Others of his plays include 50 Revolutions performed by the Oxford Stage Company at the Whitehall Theatre, London in 2000 and Resolution at Battersea Arts Centre in 1994.