Daleks have the backing of a Nation

http://cuttingsarchive.org/images/4/43/1975-10-11_Evening_Herald.jpg

Publication: Evening Herald
Date: 1975-10-11
Author:
Page: 7
Language: English

He lives in a large Elizabethan mansion with a Dalek at his gate.

It's where he dreamed up those metal monsters who plague the life out of Dr. Who where he thought out the end of the world for "The Survivors" television series; and where. he. invented ghosts and weirdies in a fascinating scarey-book for children called "Rebecca's World."

Terry Nation, who wrote the book as a gesture of love for his seven year old daughter Rebecca, believes children love to be frightened. Rebecca herself helped with some of the more bizarre characters in the story,, he says.

It was coffee break time in the ground floor parlour with the red walls. Kate, his Doncaster born wife, was dishing out coffee, while Terry explained that all the money from the book will help send-Rebecca and Joel (2) to school later.

"I have always believed that children like to be frightened. It's just as healthy an emotion as any other.

"I think the great success of 'Dr. Who' is that children really love the monsters. Only the adults complain, and the Children write and say, 'please don't listen to Mum and Dad.'

A coward

"Personally, I think some children's stories are awful. They're so terribly boring, for one thing — that little chap with the bell on his hat bores me to death. If you're going to read aloud to young children, why not have something the parents can enjoy as well?"

If Terry's writing seems to be obsessed with menaces and death relying plots, he claims it's only because he's a coward. I don't think I'm a violent person. It's just this fear of violence and how one copes with tricky situations. I start wondering how anyone would manage to escape after being hit on the head, tied up in a Cellar where the water is rising, and crocodiles are snapped" round their heels. I'm the coward, trying to represent everyone else who is cowardly about things," he says.

Alan Ladd

Apart from comic books, children's classics and the radio, Hollywood made the greatest impact, on his young life. And he wanted with all his tenage heart to be Alan Ladd, but when he tried the role he flopped.

"Beautiful women pursued Alan Ladd, to the end, asking him to light their cigarettes; while he was tough and sophisticated, flicking matches alight with his thumbnail.

"When I was 16, I bought myself a trench coat. It was miles too long, but I didn't care. Then, with a packet of cigarettes I used to turn up at the local dance halls and lean against the wall all night, flicking matches, blistering my fingers, with the famous Alan Ladd sneer on my face.

"But the girls never asked me for a light. Even the ugly ones ttayed away from me: I could' hear them, asking who the boys was with the funny mouth and the blisters."

Later when he worked as a stand up comedian, he was almost deafened by the silence after each performance. Then someone told him the jokes were just fine but he didn't know how to tell them.

Action-writer

So he became a scriptwriter instead, and in no time the spark of success became a regular conflagration. He wrote more than 200 radio shows for some of Britain's leading comics, including Eric Sykes, Frankie Howard, and Harry Worth, before being asked to work for television.

Then he rapidly achieved :fame as an action-writer with series like "The Saint," "The Persuaders," "The Avengers."

He's a friendly, unassuming man - who says he's going to stick at being 39 - still bemused and bewildered, by the success of it all when he strides out into his 35 acre garden with the weedy patch where the tennis courts will be..

"This whole bit has surprised me. I'm surprised at being interviewed by newspapers and asked to gon on radio to talk about what I've done.

"At times, I frequently wonder what I'm going to be when I grow up. It seems tome that Terry .Nation has done nothing yet ..."

Caption: Dalek creator Terry Nation at work in his study

Hollywood and back to end up in The 'Street'

Her name is Maria O'Brien and she once landed a role in a Sinatra film but was unable to take the job because she couldn't get a work permit to act in Hollywood.

Her latest part, however, is that of Candy Perkin, a girl trying to become a model, in Granada's 'Coronation Street."

Born in Stepney, London, Maria worked in a bank on leaving school. When she decided she really wanted to be an actress she couldn't get into drama school on a grant and she couldn't afford to pay for the course.

"I heard about a drama course at Twentieth Century Fox and I took a chance and flew to Hollywood.

"I stayed a year and was then offered a part in a film called 'The Detective' with Frank Sinatra and Jacqueline Bisset, and also a part in the TV series 'Batman.' But I couldn't get a working permit, so I came back to England."

Since then she has appeared in many television plays and series such as "Van Der Valk," "Z Cars," "Softly, Softly," "Barlow at Large," "Dr. Who," "Special Branch" and "Doomwatch." Her films include "The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom," "Tomorrow" and "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth."

Daleks have the backing of a Nation

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