Recent Press Clippings

Raymond Cusick, designer of the Daleks in 1963 while working as a BBC special effects person, tells the Sun "Don't let the BBC exterminate my evil pepperpots" on July 8. "It'll be very sad if the Daleks are exterminated. When people remember Dr Who, they remember Daleks, it's as simple as that," he told the paper. "Good on The Sun for campaigning to bring them back." Cusick went into the creation of the Daleks for the article: "Terry [Nation] wrote the Daleks into Dr Who but no one knew what they'd look like. He gave me an hour to come up with something. There was a pepperpot on the table in front of me and I started sliding it and then did a couple of sketches -and the Daleks were born! I wanted them to glide along in a creepy manner. But we didn't have any money and couldn't rely on gizmos to move them around -so they had to be operated by a man sitting inside."

"Billie Begs Chris: Let's Move to L.A." says an article in the July 9 Daily Star, which says that "the 21-year-old Swindon-born star" and future Doctor Who companion "has set her heart on being Wiltshire's answer to Catherine ZetaJones and Chris [Evans, her husband], 38, is leaving nothing to chance. ... They're spending a lot of time in their home and she wants it to be their full-time base. She knows there are lots of good looking girls prepared to put themselves on the party circuit and flirt to get a deal. The only person Billie is prepared to woo to get a film role is Chris, so she pleaded with him to start up their own film firm too." The Sunday Mirror also noted, on July 11, that Billie and Chris have "hit a rocky patch". Says the Mirror, "When Billie Piper hooked up with Chris Evans, 16 years her senior, people doubted it would last. Nearly four years down the track, the pair are still together - but could Billie's new-found acting success bring about the end of their relationship?" Of course, it could all be just hype...

Billie Piper disappeared from the set of her new horror film "Spirit Trap"... with none other than Patrick Troughton's grandson, Sam Troughton, according to a July 12 Newsquest Digital Media report. "Starlet Billie Piper created a drama of her own while filming in Romania," says the article. "Film bosses panicked when Billie, who is the leading lady in the film, disappeared for three hours in Romania but later returned. Both Billie and Troughton were said to be embarrassed by the incident."

(Thanks to Paul Engelberg, Steve Tribe)