WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:16.680 When Doctor Who was first made it was something entirely new for the BBC. 00:16.680 --> 00:22.120 Never before had it attempted to make a continuing series of science fiction stories. 00:22.120 --> 00:26.720 Filmed throughout the year, week in, week out, designers would need to create new and 00:26.720 --> 00:33.160 fantastical surroundings and equally fantastical monsters. 00:33.160 --> 00:37.440 Contributing such props and models during the show's early years was Shawcroft Models 00:37.440 --> 00:38.680 of Uxbridge. 00:38.680 --> 00:48.680 Shawcroft Models who made the special props and effects for at least the first three years 00:48.680 --> 00:56.120 of Doctor Who were a freelance company that operated from a couple of sheds just west 00:56.120 --> 00:58.680 of London Airport. 00:58.680 --> 01:02.000 Shawcraft Models first began trading in 1947. 01:02.000 --> 01:06.420 The brains behind the little company was Bill Roberts. 01:06.420 --> 01:07.960 He ran Shawcraft Models. 01:07.960 --> 01:16.840 Well my father started his business off in a garage in our garden in Southall in 1947. 01:16.840 --> 01:24.720 I think within the few years after that, two or three years, he set up business, a partnership 01:24.720 --> 01:26.440 with two other men. 01:26.440 --> 01:31.280 With the company established, this three-way partnership was soon amicably dissolved. 01:31.280 --> 01:38.320 Reg, the eldest one, wanted to retire and the other gentleman followed suit a year or 01:38.320 --> 01:39.840 two later. 01:39.840 --> 01:45.200 In the early 1950s, Shawcraft relocated to Iver and then to a larger premises on Rockingham 01:45.200 --> 01:48.800 Road, Uxbridge in 1958. 01:48.800 --> 01:53.840 Now the sole owner, Roberts, an experienced craftsman, looked to expand the capabilities 01:53.840 --> 01:55.200 of Shawcraft. 01:55.200 --> 01:57.640 He loved working with his hands. 01:57.640 --> 02:01.600 He liked to carve things and make things. 02:01.600 --> 02:05.200 As soon as I went along there as the designer, I suppose like any good firm, the managing 02:05.200 --> 02:08.320 director comes along and has a chat to you and I got to know him quite well. 02:08.320 --> 02:14.360 He was a very nice guy, very, quite bright and inventive. 02:14.360 --> 02:19.920 I remember him saying to me one day, I'm 44 today and when you get to 40, it's like driving 02:19.920 --> 02:22.760 into gravel. 02:22.760 --> 02:28.520 Whenever I went out there, it was always a welcome and you look forward to going out 02:28.520 --> 02:33.600 there because it was always a break from the usual routine of what else you were doing. 02:33.600 --> 02:39.040 He was very good from the point of view that he intimated lots of ideas of his own which 02:39.040 --> 02:40.240 came onto it. 02:40.240 --> 02:42.400 He was a very useful person to have. 02:42.400 --> 02:48.800 Employing up to 20 men all year round and with talents ranging from arc welding to needlework, 02:48.800 --> 02:52.040 Shawcraft specialised in models for all kinds of industry. 02:52.040 --> 02:54.520 They were brilliant model makers. 02:54.520 --> 03:02.440 One of their main contracts was making models of aircraft for companies to show in their 03:02.440 --> 03:03.440 showrooms. 03:03.440 --> 03:08.840 The sort of thing you see a jumbo jet cut in half with all the seats, the engines shown 03:08.840 --> 03:09.840 and so on and so forth. 03:09.840 --> 03:12.120 He did a lot of exhibition work. 03:12.120 --> 03:18.280 It's possible that's where his models were first spotted. 03:18.280 --> 03:22.680 With such a breadth of abilities, it was only a short time until Shawcraft came to the attention 03:22.680 --> 03:24.080 of the British film industry. 03:24.080 --> 03:31.760 I think it's through word and mouth that his work was exceptional. 03:31.760 --> 03:39.400 There's lots of letters saying, thanking him for achieving what they'd asked for in such 03:39.400 --> 03:41.000 a short time. 03:41.000 --> 03:45.560 Did a terrific amount of work for Pinewood Studios. 03:45.560 --> 03:50.440 As the company expanded, film models, special effects and props became an increasing part 03:50.440 --> 03:52.440 of its turnover. 03:52.440 --> 03:56.800 Shawcraft provided some distinguished work on many films during the 1950s, including 03:56.800 --> 04:02.880 a 40-foot Titanic for Night to Remember, a 33-foot craft for Battle of the River Plate 04:02.880 --> 04:05.960 and all the ships in Sink the Bismarck. 04:05.960 --> 04:11.560 The company's growing reputation inevitably caught the attention of the BBC and soon Shawcraft 04:11.560 --> 04:15.200 found themselves in continuous demand for various programmes. 04:15.200 --> 04:19.200 There were no facilities at BBC for this particular type of work. 04:19.200 --> 04:24.200 These are early days, 1963, that sort of four era. 04:24.200 --> 04:26.720 There were no facilities of that nature in-house. 04:26.720 --> 04:30.600 I mean there was a special effects department but they were more interested in little comedy 04:30.600 --> 04:31.600 programmes and other things. 04:31.600 --> 04:32.600 They were doing small stuff. 04:32.600 --> 04:36.880 Vision effects consisted of just two people in those days and that was Bernard Wilkie 04:36.880 --> 04:38.800 and Jack Kyne. 04:38.800 --> 04:45.840 And when Verity Lambert asked to have the department do all the Doctor Who stuff, they 04:45.840 --> 04:51.760 said they wanted 4,000 square feet of working space and four more men. 04:51.760 --> 04:54.640 And the establishment said, no way. 04:54.640 --> 05:00.400 If you did have this sort of requirement, it was put outside to various contractors 05:00.400 --> 05:04.360 and they were nominated or put forward by the construction crew. 05:04.360 --> 05:13.360 I sent sketches and sections of things and they came up with the goods. 05:13.360 --> 05:20.480 He'd quite often didn't know how to tackle a job if he was asked for something. 05:20.480 --> 05:25.880 Someone had rung, say we need something that does this and does that and doesn't collapse 05:25.880 --> 05:31.480 and but it's got to be blown up and then reused again and all that. 05:31.480 --> 05:36.640 And he would be awake nearly all night trying to work out how to do something. 05:36.640 --> 05:38.640 He didn't like to be beaten. 05:38.640 --> 05:43.600 They would have taken on anything in any case because they just wanted to work and so on 05:43.600 --> 05:44.840 naturally. 05:44.840 --> 05:49.440 But they seemed to be able to cope with most things across the board. 05:49.440 --> 05:55.920 Many a time he and his men worked all through the night to get jobs done. 05:55.920 --> 06:00.160 Although they were model makers, they weren't visual effects designers. 06:00.160 --> 06:06.640 This was the reason that I had to design all the visual effects as well because they were 06:06.640 --> 06:09.720 going to make things for me and they made them very well. 06:09.720 --> 06:11.960 Very good, very competent, very reliable. 06:11.960 --> 06:13.920 And they were very receptive. 06:13.920 --> 06:18.040 There weren't many programmes that required their sort of work as it happens. 06:18.040 --> 06:22.160 Doctor Who was probably one of the principal ones I would think. 06:22.160 --> 06:27.440 There wasn't that much time because the turnaround on Doctor Who was very demanding. 06:27.440 --> 06:32.920 One of Shawcraft's earliest and most notable jobs on Doctor Who was the TARDIS console, 06:32.920 --> 06:36.200 providing the working control panels for the crew to operate. 06:36.200 --> 06:40.840 An iconic element of the programme, but it was their major involvement on the subsequent 06:40.840 --> 06:44.720 serial that brought Shawcraft their greatest recognition. 06:44.720 --> 06:46.840 The first Dalek story. 06:46.840 --> 06:50.640 The drawing was made and was sent to Bill Roberts. 06:50.640 --> 06:56.760 Before that I took him to lunch and explained the whole idea of the series and the Daleks 06:56.760 --> 06:58.040 and what they were and so on. 06:58.040 --> 07:02.520 At the time I was actually working as an assistant to Ray when he first started drawing them. 07:02.520 --> 07:07.160 So I mean his drawings and my little details I think were pretty good, well detailed. 07:07.160 --> 07:10.920 But they were the guys that said right we'll make it this way and this is the most sensible 07:10.920 --> 07:11.920 way to do it. 07:11.920 --> 07:16.880 I think you rely always, you rely on their expertise to add to yours. 07:16.880 --> 07:19.760 And I think in this case they added quite a considerable amount. 07:19.760 --> 07:24.160 I was wondering about fiberglass. 07:24.160 --> 07:29.280 I'd never worked with fiberglass before. 07:29.280 --> 07:35.720 So I took my sort of provisional design along to who I thought was an expert, Jack Kine, 07:35.720 --> 07:37.520 then head of visual effects. 07:37.520 --> 07:40.400 The original design was curved. 07:40.400 --> 07:45.760 He said it won't work, you won't be able to make a mould to reproduce that in fiberglass. 07:45.760 --> 07:50.880 I redesigned the base, suggested it was constructed in plywood. 07:50.880 --> 07:56.440 And I had a call from Uxbridge to visit Shawcraft, they'd done the first mould for the Dalek. 07:56.440 --> 07:59.920 And I said oh you've made the whole thing in fiberglass. 07:59.920 --> 08:04.160 Bill Roberts said well quite honestly Ray, we don't have carpenters. 08:04.160 --> 08:06.400 It would have pushed up the price. 08:06.400 --> 08:10.880 I would have had to have employed carpenters and it's easier to make it in fiberglass. 08:10.880 --> 08:13.280 They worked a lot with fiberglass and plastic tubing. 08:13.280 --> 08:17.960 So all of those aspects that they had been doing with their model making before obviously 08:17.960 --> 08:22.440 came into light when we started working on Daleks and other bits and pieces. 08:22.440 --> 08:26.480 You know, bubbles on the front of the Daleks and other things were very easily made. 08:26.480 --> 08:32.040 And very early vacuum forming, which obviously was essential to do that. 08:32.040 --> 08:35.000 There were very few people that were doing vacuum forming at that time. 08:35.000 --> 08:39.040 A lot of the refinements I left to Bill Roberts. 08:39.040 --> 08:41.400 Workmen like structure details. 08:41.400 --> 08:43.280 It was his responsibility really. 08:43.280 --> 08:49.800 I offered suggestions and he worked on this. 08:49.800 --> 08:50.800 He was a big man. 08:50.800 --> 08:59.160 I do know he said make it to fit me and then that should be a suitable size for whoever's 08:59.160 --> 09:01.680 going to work it from the inside. 09:01.680 --> 09:07.960 The Dalek guy, he said I found in a cardboard box an iris from an old camera. 09:07.960 --> 09:10.800 How about if I built that in to the eye? 09:10.800 --> 09:12.440 So it will iris in and iris out. 09:12.440 --> 09:13.440 I said that's good. 09:13.440 --> 09:16.600 So I've only got one so I can only do it for one Dalek. 09:16.600 --> 09:21.800 All these things will give them a false sense of security. 09:21.800 --> 09:28.520 There was a scene where a Dalek had to cut through one of the metal doors with an oxy 09:28.520 --> 09:29.520 settling welder. 09:29.520 --> 09:33.440 And this was devised up by Shawcraft Models. 09:33.440 --> 09:36.560 It is nearly completed. 09:36.560 --> 09:41.480 The fact that they produced these animals from Ray's designs and these things, you 09:41.480 --> 09:42.920 know, it was quite exciting. 09:42.920 --> 09:46.200 They have become a very national sort of figure and thing. 09:46.200 --> 09:50.680 So that all belies, I suppose, back to Shawcraft and the original work they did on them. 09:50.680 --> 09:56.080 They never believed that the Daleks would take off like they did. 09:56.080 --> 10:04.000 I think he was proud of all that he and his workmen achieved. 10:04.000 --> 10:09.280 Not only did Shawcraft build and refine the Dalek props, they also provided the bizarre 10:09.280 --> 10:12.560 creatures inhabiting the swamps of Skaro. 10:12.560 --> 10:21.200 Bill Roberts built this thing that looked a bit crossed between an octopus and a sort 10:21.200 --> 10:26.000 of a crab on a rubber bed ring with a hose that went off with air. 10:26.000 --> 10:29.640 So when the air was let in, the thing rose out of the water and it had two eyes that 10:29.640 --> 10:30.640 lit up. 10:30.640 --> 10:33.360 And it was very scary. 10:33.360 --> 10:37.240 Shawcraft continued to be utilised by Doctor Who as the programme became more and more 10:37.240 --> 10:43.360 successful, including creating the model voodoo ships for the Keys of Marinus. 10:43.360 --> 10:47.640 Shawcraft were also generally responsible for maintaining and renovating the Dalek props 10:47.640 --> 10:50.500 for subsequent appearances in the series. 10:50.500 --> 10:54.780 For the Dalek Invasion of Earth, designer Spencer Chapman liaised with Roberts to make 10:54.780 --> 10:57.600 some notable changes to the design. 10:57.600 --> 11:00.720 Quite a few alterations to the Daleks, you know, from the original. 11:00.720 --> 11:04.480 Not a great deal, but we changed the character, the shape of them quite a bit. 11:04.480 --> 11:09.120 And the major thing I think I did was to bung them up onto what I then called, which nobody 11:09.120 --> 11:13.320 believes I did, a hovercraft base so that we could actually get them flying because 11:13.320 --> 11:16.960 I knew that we were going to take them out into location work in London. 11:16.960 --> 11:20.160 And there was no way these chaps could sort of pedal along like they could in the studio 11:20.160 --> 11:21.160 floor. 11:21.160 --> 11:23.000 They had to move quite large distances. 11:23.000 --> 11:27.920 So I also made little tiny tricycles so that they actually steered them with their feet, 11:27.920 --> 11:35.360 but actually it was their hands on a sort of upside down cycle that kept them going. 11:35.360 --> 11:37.720 I had these strange gentlemen called Robomen. 11:37.720 --> 11:41.560 An important fact of those was their helmet, which they were, which obviously changed their 11:41.560 --> 11:44.200 whole aspect and sort of nullified their brains. 11:44.200 --> 11:49.000 Again, Shawcraft, although I did a drawing of it in bits and pieces, they were always 11:49.000 --> 11:52.400 coming up with saying, well, if you did that with this, it'd be much easier and it would 11:52.400 --> 11:56.240 look better and we can make it look like solid metal or gold, you know. 11:56.240 --> 12:00.960 They also made the unit that flops over their head eventually when they're laid down and 12:00.960 --> 12:01.960 they're turned into Robomen. 12:01.960 --> 12:06.400 They were a really reliable outfit. 12:06.400 --> 12:07.400 They were very good. 12:07.400 --> 12:10.120 I can't think of any problem I had. 12:10.120 --> 12:16.280 Every time I went there, bits that I'd roughly sketched out, designed, were well ahead of 12:16.280 --> 12:17.920 my expectations most of the time. 12:17.920 --> 12:20.240 I really knew what they were doing. 12:20.240 --> 12:24.760 Shawcraft's model experience shone through on the rescue, creating the crashed spaceship 12:24.760 --> 12:27.040 on the planet Dido. 12:27.040 --> 12:32.120 For the web planet, the company were again called on to construct the main monsters, 12:32.120 --> 12:33.120 the ant-like Zarbi. 12:33.120 --> 12:39.480 I did a sketch of what I thought was a suitable costume shape because of it having to fit 12:39.480 --> 12:41.400 onto a human. 12:41.400 --> 12:46.760 This had to be built up full size, clay, first of all, on an armature. 12:46.760 --> 12:48.360 They weren't great visualists. 12:48.360 --> 12:54.480 You had to give them the work and illustrate it as best you could to help them along whichever 12:54.480 --> 12:55.760 direction they were going. 12:55.760 --> 13:00.480 This clay model in sections, because it had to be put on like, say, a suit of armour, 13:00.480 --> 13:05.920 would be cast in bits and then the moulds would have been filled with fibreglass like 13:05.920 --> 13:07.360 a shell. 13:07.360 --> 13:11.480 Soon after, Shawcraft were building the spherical mechanoids. 13:11.480 --> 13:16.920 Large enough to house two operators and utilising a working flamethrower, the robotic creatures 13:16.920 --> 13:20.040 battled the Daleks at the conclusion of The Chase. 13:20.040 --> 13:25.560 The Daleks' master plan had the pyramid, which was large, covered an area of 30 by 13:25.560 --> 13:28.240 20 feet with a cycloth all the way around it. 13:28.240 --> 13:29.240 They made that. 13:29.240 --> 13:31.040 Four days shooting that at Ealing. 13:31.040 --> 13:34.240 We also shot a volcano, which they made for me. 13:34.240 --> 13:39.560 The operatives who worked it with the belching magma was done by two of their men. 13:39.560 --> 13:45.120 The guy underneath the volcano, because the volcano was about four feet above the ground, 13:45.120 --> 13:51.280 had a big polythene bag full of jelly, illuminated with red light, and he had to keep squirting 13:51.280 --> 13:53.800 this so that it shot up into the air. 13:53.800 --> 13:58.360 Having also built the dome-like chumblies for Galaxy 4, Shawcraft were again employed 13:58.360 --> 14:03.080 by John Wood for the Season 3 serial, The Celestial Toymaker. 14:03.080 --> 14:06.960 Shawcraft would have really enjoyed that one because of the association with toys. 14:06.960 --> 14:12.800 One of the toys which became giant toys was a robot, which was virtually a copy of a toy 14:12.800 --> 14:14.420 product robot. 14:14.420 --> 14:18.280 So they were able to see that right away, how it worked and everything else. 14:18.280 --> 14:20.360 They loved, they liked all that sort of thing. 14:20.360 --> 14:26.760 They also made a pedestal desk that moved around by itself, which was great fun. 14:26.760 --> 14:27.760 And also it sparked. 14:27.760 --> 14:32.600 A lot of toys used to spark at that time, so therefore this desk used to spark when 14:32.600 --> 14:36.280 it was called towards The Celestial Toymaker. 14:36.280 --> 14:41.760 Elements such as the light guns from The Savages, control panels from The Underwater Menace, 14:41.760 --> 14:47.000 and the Gravitron from The Moonbase all originated from Shawcraft's workshops. 14:47.000 --> 14:51.720 However, as the television industry developed throughout the decade, the company found themselves 14:51.720 --> 14:57.840 in strong competition from other contractors, as well as the BBC's own internal departments. 14:57.840 --> 15:01.940 Gradually our own special effects and our plaster workshops were starting to be much 15:01.940 --> 15:05.200 more involved with this sort of work. 15:05.200 --> 15:11.040 Before I'd finished doing Doctor Who, they'd already thought about getting sort of vacuum 15:11.040 --> 15:12.040 forming going. 15:12.040 --> 15:18.320 And I suppose really, obviously, the BBC, because of costs, would keep it in-house. 15:18.320 --> 15:27.200 The eponymous monster from The Macra Terror was deemed to be overly expensive. 15:27.200 --> 15:36.800 The chameleon space plane on The Faceless Ones fell off its wire and was damaged. 15:36.800 --> 15:41.080 Whilst they still provided occasional work on the series, the company's association with 15:41.080 --> 15:47.440 Doctor Who effectively ended with The Evil of the Daleks in 1967. 15:47.440 --> 15:52.840 Eventually drifting away from television and the film industry during the 1970s, Shawcraft's 15:52.840 --> 15:57.960 engineering side became more prominent, and expanded once more to include a totally new 15:57.960 --> 16:02.880 line of business, aircraft and commercial refrigeration work. 16:02.880 --> 16:08.880 After 40 years, in 1987, Bill Roberts decided to retire. 16:08.880 --> 16:12.000 Shawcraft came to an end a few years later. 16:12.000 --> 16:15.840 But for Bill, his retirement would be an active one. 16:15.840 --> 16:20.920 He had a double garage at home. 16:20.920 --> 16:26.960 He had his pillar drill there, and he had all sorts of equipment. 16:26.960 --> 16:31.440 And he still did bits and pieces for people. 16:31.440 --> 16:35.080 He did some fantastic work. 16:35.080 --> 17:02.920 It's nice to know there's some recognition there for him.