The Daleks are one of the most iconic and fearsome creations in television history. Since their first appearance in 1963, they have simultaneously fascinated and terrified generations of children, their instant success ensuring, and sometimes eclipsing, that of Doctor Who.
They sprang from the imagination of Terry Nation, a failed stand-up comic who became one of the most prolific writers for television that Britain has 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, and Blake's 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, and on the 50th anniversary of their creation they continue to top the Saturday-night ratings.
Yet while the Daleks brought him notoriety and riches, Nation played a much wider role in British broadcasting's golden age. He wrote for Spike Milligan, Frankie Howerd and an increasingly troubled Tony Hancock, and as one of the key figures behind the adventure series of the Sixties - including The Avengers, The Saint and 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 and contested origins of Doctor Who's greatest villains, and sheds light on a strange world of ambitious young writers, producers and performers without whom British culture today would look very different.
'The book can't be faulted. Doctor Who wonks will lap it up' - Roger Lewis
'Well-researched and down-to-earth... Turner, who takes pleasure seriously, is an excellent cultural critic'
'There are few British SF writers more deserving of appraisal than Terry Nation ? so it's pleasing that accomplished author Alwyn W. Turner has taken up the task? compelling biography'
'An incisive social history of British TV's golden age'
'An utter delight... an excellent summation of Terry Nation's amazing and influential career'
'Alwyn W. Turner's book tells the entire fascinating and immersive story ? the author has done a remarkable job with this book and fans of TV and Doctor Who will much enjoy it? Well worth purchasing'
'Packed with informed opinion and analysis of all Nation's work, Turner's book is pretty much essential reading not only for anyone with an interest in Doctor Who and its most famous monstrous creations but also anyone interested in the history of British TV. Very highly recommended'
'[A] gripping tale of TV's greatest storyteller and plot recycler'
