Well, first of all, think of yourself as sitting in a wooden bath chair at Eastbourne or at Brighton.
In this bath chair is a seat in which you sit on tie yourself in, so that when you moved, it moved.
In order to make the thing go it had a cycle chain.
So we pedalled away like mad to make it go.
And then we had a gear stick here to sort of do the guiding where the front wheels went.
But later on they improved it a bit and they put, um, castors on it, so just sort of Just walked ourselves around.
On the floor of the studio, which really had to be smooth and clear, you could go forwards, backwards, sidewards.
EVANS: You sat in the seat and the top was put on you, very heavy, and you would plug in your electrics, and you would have the eye at the top.
Smoke under the seat, maybe.
Lights just go in In synchronisation with Peter or Graham.
You had to learn that and press that I always said it helped it if you were an octopus with a Dalek because you were probably pressing that, moving the business with your nose, f*ring a g*n with your hand The g*n was a metal affair which simply went (WHISTLING) Stretch, close.
Stretch It looked so good, it wouldn't harm a fly.
Sometimes we altered those g*ns from a metal one to an actual g*n which fired, the plunger.
This sink plunger, which everybody called.
In fact, the plunger could be altered to be a magnetic tray.
And I as a Dalek could come trundling in with this metal tray And a little curtain which flopped down, so that when looking through the grill there was no chance for you, as another artist, to see through that grill and see somebody's head.
So we would work either one side or the other side.
It had this sort of tunnel vision which made it quite difficult to hear what people were saying.
But it was a bit claustrophobic.
And people said, ''How do you do it?
'' I say, ''Well, you've got to believe in what you are doing.
''They were Daleks.
'' I'd worked with Richard Martin, he was the first director of Doctor Who, and hadn't seen him for years and years.
And then, suddenly, there's the BBC on the phone saying, would I like to do this series because Richard Martin had now become a director.
So I thought, ''Oh, oh, oh.
So serious.
He must think I'm a really good actor.
'' And they paid me 2 7 pounds 1 0 shillings.
Ten shillings being like 50p now.
And filming was $25, done on a Sunday.
So I turned up to the filming, and was really quite pleased with myself.
I hadn't been sent a script and I said ''Richard, nice to see you.
''It's very kind of you to use me in your series.
'' And he said, ''Yes, well, we thought of you ''because you're small enough to get into one of these.
'' I became a Dalek from then on.
During rehearsals, we didn't have the top on the Dalek.
We'd just have the bottom bit.
So we would lounge about sort of You know, sort of, watching everyone working and being there when they needed us.
And then, towards the end of the week, the top would be put on with all the bits and bobs.
On Thursday, we would have a technical run.
For the electricians, the lights, the sound people, and, of course, for the lovely Verity Lambert.
That was her first big job, I think.
And she was very young and very glamorous, and so we used to nudge ourselves and sort of say, ''Verity's coming.
Verity's coming.
'' And there she would be, very cool and calm.
Apparently.
I don't know what she was feeling really.
She was just utterly charming.
And then we actually recorded it on the Friday.
So the turnaround was pretty quick.
And if there was any filming to do, we did that on the Sunday.
$25 extra, of course.
Did you know that we did some filming in Trafalgar Square?
Because that was really extraordinary.
It was very early on Sunday mornings, and was freezing.
And as I say, we were inside these Daleks.
Unless someone actually came and took the top off and let us out there was no way We were just stuck there for the day.
And there came a moment after a lot of filming and messing about and waiting for the sun and all that, when we wanted a pee.
I mean, let's be frank about it, that's what was needed.
And there weren't any loos and there was no one around to take the tops off, and I hit on the idea of using a grating.
Now, what could be more sensible than that?
And so I just sort of mosey on over to this grating, did what I had to do, and as I moved away, I was aware of all the other Daleks coming up in a little queue behind me to do exactly the same.
No one said a word.
We just did it, and left, went back to our positions.
For once, you didn't know there was a chap inside working the thing.
We kept the secret as long as we could.
Occasionally, you had visitors, children, and they'd say, ''Oh, the Daleks are in there, come and have a good look.
'' EVANS: People used to forget we were in there.
And there was a very interesting day when two actresses were having a very intimate conversation and leaning on me like this.
And then they said, ''sh**t.
'' And I sort of went.
And I'd have loved to have seen the looks on their faces.
It really was Dalekmania.
I mean, the Boys' and Girls' Exhibition was on, and we went along to that.
And as we came out, these children screamed and ran to their mums and wet themselves.
I mean, heady stuff, having that effect on people.
There was a bit of thinking, that was It had a bit more depth than I think people realised because they did try and equate fractionally with the German Stormtroopers during the w*r.
And there was a moment, uh, I think we were at the Albert Memorial by the Albert Hall, and we had these wonderful plungers at the front of the machines.
And these plungers were put up in the n*zi salute.
I don't know whether anyone took that on board, but it was definitely meant.
You know, we were equated with the baddies.
I was in the dressing room once, changing to, I think, the Slyther.
And we could see on the monitors that the Robomen, who had turned against the Daleks by this time, were throwing one of the Daleks up into the air.
And it was most extraordinary.
They did it over and over again.
And one rather camp dresser said to another, (LAUGHS) ''Oh, look! Whatever's happening there?
'' And the other one said, ''I don't know.
''Perhaps it's its birthday.
'' I didn't have a great deal to do with William Hartnell.
He was a great deal older than us.
And he had a lot of lines to learn.
And anytime he wasn't working, he would go and be quiet in a corner somewhere.
And you didn't go up and, sort of, make conversation 'cause You know, it was a lot for him to take onboard.
But any times I did see him, or he came past, we had the odd few words, he was most charming.
There's a lovely story that Bernard Kay tells about Bill having his own chair with his name on the back.
And Bernard got the stage staff to put the names of the whole of the cast on the back of other chairs.
So, when Bill came into rehearsals, and there they all were sitting in their own chairs.
He wasn't too pleased.
A Zarbi was a glorified ant.
It was made of fibreglass with pieces which went on your legs, your knees.
A body which held your body, and in front of your body, another section of the Zarbi.
When you operated the handles, you could fire like that.
It was heavy, it was awkward.
Underneath the head was a grill and you could look out of that grill.
You didn't see much.
You crashed into people more times than you missed them.
But it was possible to do it.
You couldn't stand up straight because the back of the body was taller than you were.
So the only way was to hunch yourself.
Well, when you're doing this with a heavy body, you know about it and you think, ''I must stand up straight.
''Please! It must be time to stand up straight.
'' And the only way you could do that was to put yourself on what we termed, a Zarbi block, which was a sort of 1 8-inch riser, which you could stand on and therefore, stand up straight.
And it was heaven.
On one occasion, I remember, towards the end of the night, I thought, ''I've got to stand up straight.
Oh!'' And I stood up straight and carried on standing straight and fell over all backwards.
I was then like a beetle with its hind, back legs swinging about.
Everybody was, ''Oh, you all right, John?
(STAMMERING) ''Can you get him out?
'' ''I'm all right,'' I said.
''I'm comfortable for the first time tonight.
'' (LAUGHS) I don't think people realised that as well as being a Dalek, I played the Slyther.
And that was something personal to me.
There were no other Slythers.
Just me.
And he looked as if he was something that had come out of the sea with lots of tentacles hanging here and there.
And arms all over the place.
And I thoroughly enjoyed that.
And he used to hang around corners and throb at people.
And then he'd leap out.
One episode finished with the Slyther menacing Bill Russell and another actor.
And then, the music came in just as I was about to do my worst, you see.
And in the following week, it started with the Slyther again.
But I'd been improved upon by then.
The costume wasn't finished.
But the second week, that was really quite something, with great big googly eyes and I really quite fancied myself.
Although Doctor Who was such a long time ago, I can go to a party and when people sort of say, ''What have you done?
'' I would tell them what I'm doing and what I'm planning to do.
But if they're not particularly interested, I would just drop into the conversation that I was a Dalek.
And I instantly have all their attention.
And they want to all know about Bill Hartnell, and the various people I worked with.
And, did I enjoy it?
And what were the Daleks like?
And what were the other Dalek operators like?
And I got their attention, you see.
Isn't that sad?
It was a great standard to start with.
And I think people who saw it believed in it.
You could believe in Bill Hartnell.
I guess being a Dalek makes me part of television history, doesn't it?
(LAUGHS) I'm quite proud of it actually.
Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!