Maddalena Fagandini

Who is Maddalena Fagandini?

Maddalena Fagandini was an electronic musician and television producer. She was employed by the BBC in the early 1950s as part of their Italian Service before becoming part of the pioneering BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1959. Her work with the Radiophonic Workshop involved creating jingles and interval signals, using musique concrète techniques, for BBC radio and television. In 1962 one of her interval signals was re-worked by future Beatles producer George Martin and released, under the pseudonym "Ray Cathode", as "Time Beat".

She left the Workshop in 1966, following the introduction of synthesisers, to become a television producer and director, working particularly in the field of language teaching. The first such series, Parliamo Italiano in 1963, was very successful. It was followed by further series, often combining both radio and television programmes, teaching Italian, Spanish and German. Maddalena also produced two television series of The Devil's Music, a historical exploration of black American Blues music, in 1976 and 1979, and one television series of Mediterranean Cookery in 1987.