Take a Dalek to the beach
- Publication: The Australian Women's Weekly
- Date: 1965-06-16
- Author: Nan Musgrove
- Page: 19
- Language: English
Australians can go to the beach next summer with a Dalek, a mechanical man from ABC-TV's popular science fiction serial Dr. Who.
IF you don't fancy an inflatable rubber bears Dalek, you can get a tin one that operates on batteries.
I don't think it will talk in its curious monotone and say "I-need-more-at-om-ic radi-auon," but it certainly will walk, says Mr. Dennis Scuse. general manager of BBC-TV Enterprises, who is on his first visit to Australia.
Merchandising is a new line for Mr. Scuse, who sells and distributes BBC programs, a business that brought his department's turnover to more than £1,000,000 sterling last year.
Mr. Scuse doesn't look a bit like what I imagined a BBC top-brass man would look. He is 6ft. 6in. tall (in his socks), favors double breasted, pin-striped navy suits, and might have stepped straight out of a BBC serial ?a lather jovial heavy.
Mr. Scuse is here to meet his customers, but spends what ever spare time he has looking at our TV.
He finds it very American in style and presentation, "mainly in the multiplicity of channels and the commercial approach to sponsorship."
He doesn't notice the Australian accent particularly It doesn't jar him.
"I really didn't notice it, except to register automatically that it was an Australian speaking.
"I watched The Mavis Brarnston Show the night Gordon Chater was away. I thought it extremely good.
"I was impressed to see that there were 15 writers? 15 people here who write this sort of material."
Mr. Scuse believes that the most endearing and successful characters ever produced on the BBC were writers Galton and Simpson's old Steptoe and his son Harold.
"The love-hate relationship between them was terribly appealing," he said. "There is a new series of 'Steptoe and Son' coming.
"Always remember, any show is only as good as its writers, and there aren't that many good writers in England, either.
"The moment the BBC finds a good writer it does everything it can to encourage him, it pays him progressively more, develops and produces his work to the best advantage.
"Our organisation is geared to this.
"We produce 85 percent of all the material we use. This costs us £A7000 an hour.
"We buy 10 to 12 percent of the remainder of our material from America--for instance, Perry Mason and Dr. Kildare. The remainder of our stuff is from Australia and Canada, and from Eurovision, which is mainly sport."
Other good news from Mr. Scuse is that a new series of Dr. Finlay's Casebook is on the way, more Comedy Play house, and several new series that sound interesting.
These include a soap opera serial called 199 Park Lane, a block of luxury flats, and is, I gather, a kind of gold plated Coronation Street.
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
- APA 6th ed.: Musgrove, Nan (1965-06-16). Take a Dalek to the beach. The Australian Women's Weekly p. 19.
- MLA 7th ed.: Musgrove, Nan. "Take a Dalek to the beach." The Australian Women's Weekly [add city] 1965-06-16, 19. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Musgrove, Nan. "Take a Dalek to the beach." The Australian Women's Weekly, edition, sec., 1965-06-16
- Turabian: Musgrove, Nan. "Take a Dalek to the beach." The Australian Women's Weekly, 1965-06-16, section, 19 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Take a Dalek to the beach | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Take_a_Dalek_to_the_beach | work=The Australian Women's Weekly | pages=19 | date=1965-06-16 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=23 December 2024 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Take a Dalek to the beach | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Take_a_Dalek_to_the_beach | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=23 December 2024}}</ref>
