A month-by-month account of the year in which Doctor Who and the Daleks dominated more than just the television ratings.

By ALISTAIR McGOWN

JANUARY

Two days after Susan’s screen departure in the Boxing Day 1964 episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Carole Ann Ford opened the Daily Mail Schoolboys and Girls Exhibition at London’s Olympia. The exhibition ran from 28 December 1964 to 9 January 1965 and featured two genuine BBC Daleks among its star attractions. Appearing alongside a driverless industrial vehicle called the ‘Brainy Train’, the Daleks were piloted by army cadets and members of the Boys’ Brigade. The Daleks caused daily three-hour queues; organisers were inundated with complaints from families who’d travelled in vain from as far afield as Bristol and Cardiff just to see them.

Northern fans could see another BBC Dalek at Manchester’s Belle Vue circus. The less fortunate could witness numerous homemade efforts in festive pantomimes, among them Ealing Town Hall’s Aladdin. On New Year’s Day, the TV feedback show Junior Points of View featured a similarly homespun Dalek puppet from Wokingham puppeteer Richard Giles; a musical variant, it was devised by Giles’ 16-year-old apprentice Carolyn Gilbert from hardboard, plastic and washing-up mops.

It seemed every child wanted their own Dalek. The first weeks of 1965 saw many receive a free cut-out Dalek, which was posted to all entrants in the previous month’s Daily Express competition to win a much-coveted Scorpion Automotives Dalek suit. According to The Guardian, January’s industry toy fairs expected the Daleks to be “the hottest property of the year”, with the BBC’s licensing agent Walter Tuckwell having already signed up two-dozen manufacturers.

TV Century 21, a new comic devoted to Gerry Anderson’s various puppet series, appeared from 19 January, its full-colour back-page picture strip The Daleks kicking off with an origins serial.

The rival TV Comic – which had been running its own, rather twee Doctor Who strip since the previous November – retaliated with a free sticker album called My New Book of TV Stars, with a William Hartnell sticker included. The same issue saw the beginning of the Who strip’s second serial, with the Doctor seeking to cure a strange alien sickness.

A Midlands band called The Earthlings attempted a Dalek invasion of the pop charts with their instrumental cash-in single Landing of the Daleks; recalling both The Tornadoes and The Shadows, it was released by Parlophone on 29 January. The brainchild of bandleader Graham Dalley and producer John Taylor, the single utilised Dalley’s resident group at Birmingham’s Barn restaurant, comprising guitarist Philip Nelson, drummer Bill Thorpe, bassist Vic Mortiboys and organist Ray Pritchard. An ex-RAF radio operator, Pritchard devised the record’s Morse Code SOS opening, which prompted BBC Radio to ban the record, lest it alarm unwitting listeners.

Below left: A newspaper cutting reports that the BBC has banned Landing of the Daleks, the new instrumental single by The Earthlings.

Left inset: A puppet ‘mop-top’ Dalek, designed by Carolyn Gilbert and sent in to Junior Points of View by Richard Giles.

The Daleks caused daily threehour queues; organisers were inundated with complaints from families who’d travelled in vain to see them.

Doctor Who hit a new ratings high of 13 million viewers with the second episode of The Rescue, which introduced new companion Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) and was written by outgoing story editor David Whitaker for his successor Dennis Spooner. The show’s appeal widened further with overseas broadcasts; having debuted in New Zealand in September 1964, it reached Australia’s ABC from 12 January and Canada’s CBC from 23 January.

FEBRUARY

As Christmas receded into the distance, comic Norman Vaughan, star of the longrunning Wimbledon panto Sleeping Beauty, had Scorpion Dalek suits up for grabs during the performances on 1 and 2 February.

Similarly, the household appliances manufacturer Hoover began a marketing promotion for its ‘futuristic’ Keymatic washing machine in conjunction with retailers nationwide, including the huge Co-op chain. Scorpion Dalek suits were offered free with any Keymatic bought, though smaller outlets would enter purchasers into Scorpion prize draws instead.

The Dalek suit must have been a sought-after item, as its hefty price tag of £8 15s 6d placed it firmly at the luxury end of the toy market.

Above: Daleks enthral young visitors to the Daily Mail Schoolboys & Girls Exhibition in London’s Olympia.