Don't Forget the Diver

I've just added a couple more extracts from The Man Who Invented the Daleks to my website.

This takes me up to Chapter 3 and still there's no sign of the Daleks themselves. The first of the new extracts talks about the wartime radio hits Band Waggon and ITMA, while the second does at least feature Terry Nation, but only in the context of his working relationship with Tony Hancock.

I'm aware that most readers of the book are going to be those interested in Doctor Who, Blake's 7 and telefantasy generally, but part of the appeal of Terry Nation's career was that it covered so much ground. And those early days of radio comedy, and its gradual eclipse by television, are an endlessly fascinating area. For me, at least. But I'd hope that they're of interest to others as well.

Because this is the world that people like Nation and Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner came from - like almost everyone else in the country, they listened to the likes of ITMA when they were children. And although they may not be heard much anymore, those shows shaped a generation.

Terry Nation - the Top Ten Scripts

A personal choice of Terry Nation's ten best scripts, listed in chronological order:

The Saint: 'The Inescapable Word' (1965)
'It destroys all life, but leaves no trace of radiation. The classic death ray.'

The Baron: 'Countdown' (1967)
'Latin? I speak it with a fluency which can only come from a very superior English education.'

The Avengers: 'Legacy of Death' (1968)
'When it was known that your friend Steed had inherited the knife, men gathered like birds of carrion from the four corners of the Earth. Avid, covetous, rapacious, all desperate to own that cursed blade.'

Department S: 'A Cellar Full of Silence' (1969)
'Do you remember that devastating explosion that Mark Caine was involved in, in Epilogue to Hong Kong, after pursuing that beautiful blonde, Hussy Abundant, halfway round the world, and it was the explosion that blew her wig off and he realized it was a man?'

The Persuaders!: 'A Death in the Family' (1972)
'Are all the Sinclairs buried here?'
'No. Only the dead ones.'

The Incredible Robert Baldick: 'Never Come Night' (1972)
'He cannot resist the inexplicable. Almost any happening qualifies for his interest as long as it is out of the ordinary.'

The House in Nightmare Park (1973)
'Do I play the piano? Does Paganini play the trumpet?'

Doctor Who: 'Genesis of the Daleks' (1975)
'They talk of democracy, freedom, fairness. Those are the creeds of cowards, the ones who will listen to a thousand viewpoints and try to satisfy them all. Achievement comes through absolute power. And power through strength.'

Survivors: 'The Fourth Horseman' (1975)
'There was a state of emergency declared, but it was too late. There was nobody left to implement it. They even tried to set up a seat of government in the country. There was no hope of that, of course. The administrators died along with the rest of them.'

Blake's 7: 'Countdown' (1979)
'It happens to be the truth. If there had ever been a time when I could have given my own life to save her, I would have done it. The only grain of consolation that I have is that Anna knew that.'