Lambeth Fantastical - April 2024
The Fifth Doctor, The Crossbow Marksman,
The Pioneer of the 'Talkies', and The Dalek Designer
Peter Davison was born in Streatham on the 13th of April 1951. Born Peter Moffett he attended Granton Primary School before the family moved to Knapphill in Surrey.
His first television appearance was also his first foray into the realms of the Fantastical. In the iconic 70s ITV scifi serial The Tomorrow People he played a villainous alien whose knowledge of Earth culture comes from watching Western movies. The character's sister was played by Sandra Dickinson, who would become his second wife. Dickinson subsequently played Trillion, the mathematical genius, in both the radio and television serials of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Davison, meanwhile, went on, via All Creatures Great and Small, to become the fifth regeneration of Doctor Who, a role he played from 1981 to 1984.His daughter Georgia, from his marriage to Dickinson, would later star alongside the tenth Doctor Who, David Tennant, as his cloned daughter in the aptly titled episode The Doctor's Daughter. Following a relationship which blossomed on the Doctor Who set Tennant and Georgia became husband and wife. Making her the Doctor's daughter who played the Doctor's daughter in an episode of Doctor Who called the Doctor's daughter, who then went on to marry the Doctor. Her son Ty who adopted the name Tennant then appeared alongside David Tennant in an episode of the comedy fantasy series Good Omens, as did Peter Davison himself. The entire Davison and Tennant clans appeared in the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary spoof The Five Doctors-ish, which was produced by Georgia Tennant and also starred Sylvestor McCoy and Waterloo born Colin Baker.
Born on the same day as Davison 26 years earlier in 1925 Conrad Philips, who spent his early life in Clapham, also made his name as an iconic character in a TV series. Having played support roles in 1950s shows such as The Scarlet Pimpernel, Robin Hood, and The Invisible Man he was cast in the lead role in The Adventures of William Tell in 1958, appearing in 39 episodes. He later appeared in the cult TV series The Prisoner, as well as Gerry Anderson's live action series UFO.
His Fantastical film credits include 60s horror movies Circus of Horrors, partially filmed on Clapham Common, and Shadow of the Cat. When William Tell was re-imagined in the 1987 TV series Crossbow, Philips was cast in the role of Stefan, Tell's older mentor.
Born on the 14th of April in Lambeth, Arty Ash (real name Richard Arthur Dodge), appeared in Clonk (1926), one of the first British talkies. His film career lasted until the mid-forties. In 1938 he appeared as Professor Graham in Chinatown Nights, part of a series of scifi films featuring the villainous Dr. Sin Fang, a character described by the writers as being as close to Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu as they could get without being sued. Ash also turned his hand to writing and co-wrote the script for the 1947 film version of Jack in the Beanstalk, along with Stanley Lupino's son Barry Lupino.
We started this month's blog with Doctor Who and we close with Raymond Cusick, designer of the Daleks. Cusick was born on the 28th of April 1928 in Waterloo's York Road Lying In Hospital (also birthplace of the sixth Doctor Who, Colin Baker). Between leaving school and military service in Palestine he attended art school as well as evening classes in maths and science at what is now South Bank University. All of which stood him in good stead for his future career as a set designer.
He began work at the BBC in 1960, having spent three years at the Wimbledon Theatre. The first show he worked on was serial The Stranger on the Shore whose theme tune by Acker Bilk became a huge international hit. His break on Doctor Who came when he replaced Ridley Scott, originally scheduled to work on the first Daleks serial in 1963. Given a budget of £250 for each Dalek and an extremely vague description of what they should look like by writer Terry Nation, Cusick worked in the BBC props workshop in Waterloo's Theed Street with improvised materials to devise the iconic pepperpot design which has stood the Daleks in good stead for six decades now.
Cusick would work as set designer on all the Doctor Who episodes featuring the Daleks between '63 and '66 as well as on the Doctor Who serials of The Sensorites, The Romans and Planet of the Giants. A falling out with the BBC over royalties for licenced Dalek memorabilia led to Cusick resigning. He went on to work as set designer on other TV serials such as When the Boat Comes In and The Dutchess of Duke Street.
Other News
My Lambeth Fantastical guided walk for April will be about the cult 1971 movie 'Melody' - readers of this blog can book using the code 'Beegees' for a 50% discount.
I will also be leading an evening Doctor Who - Whovian History tour in Waterloo for London Guided Walks on Thursday 25th April.
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