The Daleks are one of the most iconic & fearsome creations in television history. Since their first appearance in 1963 they have simultaneously fascinated & terrified generations of British children their instant success ensuring & sometimes eclipsing that of Doctor Who. They sprang from the imagination of Terry Nation a failed st&-up comic who became one of the most prolific writers for television that Britian ever produced. Survivors his vision of a post-apocalyptic England so haunted audiences in the Seventies that the BBC revived it over thirty years on & Blakes 7 constantly rumoured for return endures as a cult sci-fi classic. But it is for his genocidal pepperpots that Nation is most often remembered & on the 50th anniversary of their creation they continue to top the Saturday-night ratings. Yet while the Daleks brought him notoriety & riches Nation played a much wider role in British broadcastings golden age. He wrote for Spike Milligan Frankie Howerd & an increasingly troubled Tony Hancock & as one of the key figures behind the adventure series of the Sixties
- including The Avengers The Saint & The Persuaders!
- he turned the pulp classics of his boyhood into a major British export. In The Man Who Invented the Daleks acclaimed cultural historian Alwyn W. Turner explores the curious & contested origins of Doctor Whos greatest villains & sheds light on a strange world of ambitious young writers producers & performers without whom British culture today would look very different.