Norman Kay (composer)

Norman Forber Kay (5 January 1929 – 12 May 2001) was a British composer and writer.

Kay, who was born in Bolton, was educated at Bolton School, the Royal Manchester College of Music and the Royal College of Music. Kay composed the incidental music for three serials in the first season of Doctor Who, including the very first, An Unearthly Child, as well as The Keys of Marinus and The Sensorites.

After leaving Doctor Who following its first season, Kay provided the incidental music for many of the Out of the Unknown stories during the rest of the 1960s, as well as composing the atmospheric theme tune of its first three seasons. Kay also provided music on productions such as Late Night Horror in 1968, as well as many other television productions. He also scored the 1968 comedy heist film Diamonds for Breakfast. Kay also worked as a music critic for The Daily Telegraph. He was the first British musician to write a study on Dmitri Shostakovich, a work that was well received.

In 1951 Kay married Mary Fieldhouse and the couple had three sons, Anthony Kay, Peter Kay and Simon Kay He later had a daughter Serena with partner Janice Willett a former producer with ABC Television Kay died in 2001 of motor neuron disease aged 72. He never divorced Mary Fieldhouse