Lambeth Fantastical - June 2026
Raymond Cusick - Accidental World Builder
The first episode of the Doctor Who serial 'The Sensorites' was broadcast sixty-two years ago on June 20th 1964. At the time it was considered the most scifi storyline to date of the show, which was still less than a year old. The spaceships and strange world of the alien Sensorites were created by Lambeth born set designer, Raymond Cusick, who had a few months earlier made history with his iconic designs for the Daleks.
Trained at the Borough Polytechnic Institute (now Southbank University)
Cusick had accidentally fallen into his gig with Doctor Who as a result of a BBC double booking. Ridley Scott (Alien, Bladerunner etc) had originally been allocated the set designer position on thef first Dalek serial, but it turned out he was already scheduled to work on another show. So fortune smiled on Cusick whose first job had been set designs for the children's series 'Stranger on the Shore' (famous for its theme tune of the same name by Aker Bilk).
His work on Doctor Who took him on fantastical journeys to the far flung corners of the universe. Not only did he design the Daleks he also designed their home planet, Skaro, a post apocalyptic world of overgrown jungles, suffering from the aftermath of a nuclear war, as well as the futuristic Dalek City with its metallic labyrinth of corridors and sliding doors.
While the limited budget for the Daleks left him improvising with chicken wire, sink plungers, brake lights and gear sticks to create their famous pepper pot design, similar budget restraints on the Sensorites saw him turn to styrofoam and egg cartons to create aclaimed sets, inspired by Gaudi's breath taking Familia sa Grada church in Barcelona, depicting the geometric angles and images of the Sensasphere world. The strange topsy turvy features of the Sensorites themselves were the work of costume designer Daphne Dare who went on to be responsible for the costume and wardrobe on Ken Loach's 1968 masterpiece, 'Kes'.
Inside one of the costumes was Crackerjack stalwart, Peter Glaze.
By the time Cusick worked on The Sensorites he'd also designed the different environments—ranging from the acid seas to icy tundras featured in 'The Keys of Marinus' as well as the living quarters in the Tardis, seen for the first time in the short serial 'Edge of Distruction'.
Beyond The Sensorites the Daleks were revisited twice in 'Dalek Invasion of the Earth' and 'The Chase'. More alien world building was required for the planet Dido in 'The Rescue'. One of Cusicks most invovative set designs was for 'Planet of the Giants' where the Doctor and his companions have to navigate an oversized world in which they have been miniaturised, beating Irwin Allen's similarly themed 1968 American series 'Land of the Giants' to the punch by 4 years.
Cusick's relationship with the BBC meanwhile was becoming increasingly fraught as his requests for a share in the lucrative licensing deals for Dalek memorabilia were rejected on the basis that as an employee of the Corporation he wasn't entitled to inclusion in the royalties for his design.
As it happen it would be the Daleks 4th outing that provided the straw that broke the back of Cusick's camel. The grueling schedule on the epic 12 part 'Dalek's Master Plan' in 1965 had him complaining that he was working 24 hours a day 8 days a week. He tendered his resignation half way through the production and was infamously given a one off payment of £100 and a Blue Peter Badge in recognition of his lucrative Dalek design.
It was however one of Doctor Who's non scifi serials that laid the foundations for the next turn in his television career. For 'The Romans', broadcast in January 1965, he designed lavish sets depicting the ancient Rome of Emperor Nero where the Tardis materialises. This gave him the grounding for his subsequent post Doctor Who work as a sought after set designer for period dramas such as 'The Pallisers', 'The Duchess of Duke Street', and 'When the Boat Comes In'.
My previous blog on another Lambeth born innovator, who also had a huge hand in the creation on the Daleks, can be found here.
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