Raymond Cusick
Art
Biography
Raymond Patrick Cusick (28 April 1928 – 21 February 2013) was an English designer for the BBC. He is best known for designing the Daleks, for the science fiction television series Doctor Who. Cusick joined the BBC in 1960 as a staff designer and was responsible for the set design of many Doctor Who stories, creating not just futuristic settings but also historical sets and dioramas. Another BBC in-house designer, future filmmaker Ridley Scott, had been assigned to design the Daleks in 1963, but scheduling conflicts saw the job handed to Cusick. Cusick worked on other BBC television programmes including The Pallisers, The Duchess of Duke Street, On Giant's Shoulders, When the Boat Comes In, Rentaghost and Miss Marple. As Cusick was a salaried BBC employee at the time he designed the Daleks, he was not paid royalties. Given the large revenue generated by merchandise featuring Cusick's Dalek design, he felt that he should have been paid a royalty (as was script writer Terry Nation, who created the concept of the Daleks but did not design them). When Cusick left Doctor Who in 1966, unhappy with the lack of recognition he had received for his work on the series, the show's producer and head designer did arrange for the BBC to recognise his contribution with an ex-gratia payment of around £100. In the late 1970s, he was a designer for the James Burke BBC programme Connections.
Known For
The adventures of The Doctor, a time-traveling humanoid alien known as a Time Lord. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-traveling spaceship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Along with a succession of companions, The Doctor faces a variety of foes while working to save civilizations, help ordinary people, and right many wrongs.
Doctor Who
Out of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was a dramatisation of a science fiction short story; some were created for the series, but most were adaptations of already published stories. The first three years were exclusively science fiction, but that genre was abandoned in the final year in favour of horror and fantasy. A number of episodes were wiped during the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time.
Out of the Unknown
An anthology of 1920s set plays and musicals, transmissioned from 10 September to 10 December 1968 on BBC One.
The Jazz Age
To Serve Them All My Days is a 1980-81 British television drama serial, adapted by Andrew Davies from R. F. Delderfield's 1972 novel of the same name. David Powlett-Jones, a shell-shocked World War I veteran, becomes a teacher at an elite English boarding school, Bamfylde. The drama explores his personal growth, relationships, and evolving views on society over his 20-year career at the school.
To Serve Them All My Days
In 19th-century France, doctor's wife Emma Bovary seeks to escape her dull provincial life through various extramarital affairs and extravagant spending, leading to tragic consequences.
Madame Bovary
The saga of Manchester lad Joe Henshaw, a story that takes in family life, the trials and tribulations of the Labour movement and World War Two
The Gathering Seed
Travelling on the 4.50 from Paddington, Mrs McGillicuddy witnesses a murder on a passing train - but where is the body?
Miss Marple: 4.50 from Paddington
The very first crew of the TARDIS land in a petrified forest on an alien planet. Determined to explore, the Doctor leads his companions into the metal city, where they discover danger at every corner and what will become his deadliest enemy... the mutant Daleks. It's time to encounter the Daleks once again, but this time in a way you've never seen them before. Originally transmitted in December 1963 to February 1964, the seven original episodes of the first Dalek story have received a cosmic makeover, dazzlingly colourised and woven together into a 75-minute blockbuster with brand-new sound and a brand-new score created by Mark Ayres. The Daleks has been gloriously updated, whilst ensuring the original story remains as thrilling as it was in 1963.
Doctor Who: The Daleks in Colour
In the year 4000, the Daleks conspire to conquer the Solar System. Their scheme involves treachery at the highest levels and a weapon capable of destroying the very fabric of time. Only the Doctor and his friends can prevent catastrophe — and there is no guarantee they will escape with their lives...
Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan
In this completely TARDIS-based story, the crew find themselves and their ship acting very strangely indeed. Blame runs high for the Ship's unusual behavior, until the Doctor realizes the TARDIS itself may be trying to warn them...
Doctor Who: The Edge of Destruction
The TARDIS crew take up residence near Rome in 64AD, where Ian and Barbara are kidnapped by slave traders, and the Doctor's imitation of Maximus Pettulian sees him taken to the court of Emperor Nero where he inadvertently plays a part in deciding the course of history...
Doctor Who: The Romans
The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Susan, Barbara, and Ian to the planet Skaro where they meet two indigenous races — the Daleks, malicious mutant creatures encased in armoured travel machines, and the Thals, beautiful humanoids with pacifist principles. They convince the Thals of the need to fight for their own survival.
Doctor Who: The Daleks
The true story of Terry Wiles, born with no limbs in 1962 as a result of his mother's use of the drug thalidomide. This film tells the story of his childhood and adoption by the couple Len and Hazel Wiles who live on a remote farm, and the subsequent challenges and resistance to give Terry a 'normal' life.
On Giant's Shoulders
Documents the making of the Doctor Who Serial, 'The Edge of Destruction'. It was released on the DVD of the serial and hence in The Beginning box set.
Over the Edge: The Story of 'The Edge of Destruction'
A bed-bound Science Fiction author finds himself within one of his own fantasies after a mental breakdown.
Get Off My Cloud
The Doctor and his companions are pursued through time and space by the Daleks on the desert planet Aridius and beyond.
Doctor Who: The Chase
On the planet Dido, the Doctor, Ian and Barbara meet two survivors from a crashed spaceship who are terrorised by the monster Koquillion.
Doctor Who: The Rescue
A fictional look at what might happen if the Thames were to flood before completion of the Thames Barrier at the end of 1982. A series of freak weather conditions coincide and there is a real possibility that the Thames will flood as a surge tide is racing down the East Coast.
London Is Drowning
Designer Raymond Cusick recalls his work on The Keys of Marinus, and discusses the challenges that this story held, with its weekly changes of location and inventive set-pieces.
The Sets of Marinus
When the TARDIS malfunctions, it and its travellers land on Earth at the size of insects. They uncover a murderous plot involving a new insecticide, but how can they stop the crime in their miniaturised condition?