While watching older BBC series I've noticed that the background music in a number of them sounds very similar. Here's an example from Doctor Who, this 'scary' theme really reminds me of the Thunderbirds type of orchestration and I'm sure there are many more shows of this era that use similar background sounds.
Is there any reason 1960s soundtracks sound so alike? Were the same people involved in different British productions, is it a result of the way these sounds were generated? When did this style fall out of favour?
Most if not all those old BBC shows had the sound effects and music produced by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop so its no wonder they sound alike.
This is very early electronic music, pre synthesisers, made by looping and often physically cutting and splicing tape recordings and the use of simple electronic oscillators- the Doctor Who theme is the classic example of their work.
Musical experimentation of this type- often called Musique concrète was a major movement in serious avant-garde music at the time, so no doubt other film and TV composers would also have been influenced by it as well.