your comments
charlie
He's my uncle. I can't belive it - he designed the car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Doctor Who etc etc. I'm so lucky to have some one like that in my family. Just watching the shows like Chitty I think well how amazing is that and I just can't explain how good it was to have some like that in my family love u for eva xxx
Les Ward, Mayenne, France
My father also Les Ward worked for Bill at Shawcraft for a very long time. As a schoolboy I spent many happy school holidays helping Dad etc and remember meeting some famous people there i.e. Stirling Moss, Colin Chapman of Lotus and Diana Dors at Pinewood studios. Besides the Daleks they made lots of gear for the Bond movies.
Stephen Luscombe from Kensington
I used to live just down the road from Shawcraft,we'd see the Daleks, Chumblies et al being carted out of their tiny yard on Rockingham Road and off to Time & Space (BBC Shepherds Bush). We had a Dalek at our Scout Troop Fete, and I remember getting inside, and a strong smell of fibreglass. There was just a wooden slat for the actor to sit on and it was truly hard to push the flippin thing along with your feet ... happy days.
Christopher Blow, Adelaide, South Australia
My first job on leaving school in 1959 was with Bill at Shawcraft Models, Uxbridge. I spent about five very interesting years there - as well as the Daleks we had a lot of film industry work, model planes for travel agents and other television shows. The list is endless - I see on Google Earth the building is still there.
Haze from Newcastle
I've just come back from Prague and couldn't believe it when I went to a couple of different underground/metro stations and they were designed with a very similar design to the base of the daleks i.e. lots of convex/concave metallic circles in rows in diferent shades of metallic gold (or red or green depending on the station). The similarity was astonishing and made me feel as if I was on set of some Dalek film. Does anyone know if Terry Nation or Ray Cusick ever visited Prague and if they were influenced by the Prague Metro or perhaps the Metro planners were influenced by Dr Who?
Alan Rees, Merthyr Tydfil
Bill attended Cyfarthfa Grammar School. A centenary book will be published in 2012, and his Dalek's claim to fame will be featured.
Stephen Basford from Maidenhead
Bill Roberts, I am very proud to say, was my grandad (my mother's father). I grew up with the Daleks - amongst other artifacts. My mother has boxes of press cuttings and photographs relating to the various projects he was involved with. I enjoy telling my own children about their great-grandad as, unfortunately, they were not lucky enough to have been around before he died.
Mike Burke, Aberdeen
Bill was my uncle, actually my grandmothers' sister's husband. Growing up in Australia, we see more BBC repeats then anyone else on the planet, so we were all pretty familiar with Doctor Who. I would always manage to drop into conversation the fact my uncle built the daleks - more impressive than being the cousin of the actor who played Sonny Hammond in Skippy, as one of my friends was. I had only met him a couple of times, once in Oz, and again when I came over to the UK, not long before he died. He built a lot of props for Doctor Who and other TV series and films, including a model of the Bismark in the film 'Sink the Bismark', and, apparently Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, (or so I’m told). I’m well impressed with the new series. Apart from the better effects, there are some excellent scripts. Fantastic!
Alan Chewings from Nottingham
As a welshman now living in Nottingham I am proud to learn that Wales played an important part in the creation of the DALEKS.
Without the Daleks in the original series, Dr Who would never have been the success it is today.
Congratulations on the new series.
Chris Etherington from Manchester
Whilst Bill Roberts company, "Shawcraft" built the Daleks, It was Raymond Cusick who actually gave us the design of the Dalek as we know it today.
Ray' was paid an exgratia payment by the BBC and Terry Nation, Writer of the original, Daleks, Dr Who stories went on to become a millionaire, as he had the foresight to copyright the image of the Daleks in a deal with the BBC, who also own part rights to the Dalek image.
Steve from Belfast
It's funny how the BBC always tried to air-brush its own staff out of history. Not only Dalek designer Ray Cusick, but also Dr Who Theme tune co-writer Delia Derbyshire. It's too late for Delia, but don't repeat this Stalinism for Ray.
Wolf Valentine, Sydney
Bill was surely a talented builder [you'd have to be to make anything for a 1963 BBC budget], but let's not overshadow the role of Ray Cusick -- he designed the now famous gliding pepperpots, skirt and all, based upon nothing more than a brief verbal outline provided by scriptwriter Terry Nation. Ray's creative acumen went unsung for so many years [until championed by Jon Pertwee in the 1990s] that it almost seems disrespectful to be transferring it now onto a man who was, after all, little more than the Daleks' builder ...
Jordan Fenton from Melbourne
I got terrified when you said that Bill Roberts created the Dalek casing! (Thank you, Luke Harrison from Sunderland)
Four Daleks were built originally, and only two were given to Barnardos Childrens Home, from memory. They were returned briefly for "Dalek Invasion of Earth" (more information can be found at http://www.dalek6388.co.uk/)
Matt from Birmingham
The new Dalek look is brilliant. They havn't completely ruined it but they've done it just right so it looks fantastic.
Hugh from Brisbane
Good to see the Daleks back. Is the Master scheduled for a return as well? Diolch BBC Cymru.
Jim from London
The Daleks are great, I was very disappointed when the media said that the Daleks were not going to be in the new series. I am so glad the team got its act together and got them back, Awesome!
Jane Britcher, Broxbourne
I don't know Bill, but my late mother knew Terry Nation when she was a child growing up in Wales.
Luke Harrison from Sunderland
Actually the Dalek was designed by Raymond P Cusick who took the job on when Ridley Scott was unable to do so. As far as I know anly four Daleks were created for the original show and they were donated to a Barnardos Childrens Home afterwards.(Editor's Note: Bill was hired by Doctor Who production designer Ray Cusick to build the Daleks based on his blueprints)
Jeff from Peterborough
I've always thought Daleks had a hint of a Welsh accent...
Engineer who built Doctor Who's Daleks
