Mr Williams, Mr Powell, and the Dalek Invasion of Swansea
Life at Blaenymaes Primary School
At Blaenymaes Primary School in the mid-1960s, education came from two sources: the thoughtful teachers in the classroom, and the terrifying Daleks we fought in the playground. Life at Blaenymaes Primary School was good, for the most part. I attended from the age of 8 to 11 and only remember a few teachers — but they left their mark.
There was Mr Williams, who played rugby and I think came from The Mumbles, the posh end of Swansea. Then there was Mr Powell, a gentle hulk of a man with a rich Welsh accent. Kind and soft-spoken, but not someone you wanted to mess about with. He had beautiful handwriting, and I remember being jealous of the kids who'd been at the school long enough to learn to write like him. I don't recall what subject he taught, just that his writing looked like it belonged in a book.
The Sunday School Crack-Up
Mr Williams, I believe, taught English and Religious Instruction. He was the first person to seriously challenge the Sunday School version of Christianity I'd absorbed up to that point, all fire, brimstone, and moral terror. He did it casually, by pointing out that Jesus and the two thieves weren't the only people ever crucified by the Romans. He mentioned how Crassus crucified 6,000 slaves along the Appian Way after the Spartacus Revolt.
I remember thinking: Hang on... they never mentioned that at Sunday School.
To be fair, Christian teachers and preachers will say they don't hide this — but they certainly don't go out of their way to mention it to kids. The crucifixion is made to sound like a one-off horror, unique and sacred. Mr Williams' comment cracked that illusion wide open.
The Dalek Invasion Begins
During break times, Steve Zodiac and Fireball XL5 were on their way out. Doctor Who and the Daleks had taken over. In our version of the game, the Daleks had invaded Swansea and were systematically hunting down the last few surviving humans, some of whom were right there in the schoolyard.
The Daleks, me and a few others, would run around with our arms stiffly outstretched like ray guns and sucker arms, shouting "Exterminate! Exterminate!" in our best tinny voices. Each playtime was a new invasion. Everyone was revived for the next battle.
Behind the Sofa Terror
Like many other kids, I watched Doctor Who and the Daleks on TV — usually from behind the sofa. The Daleks scared the shit out of me, and I was relieved to find out I wasn't the only one hiding while they coldly exterminated yet another poor soul. I remember the special effect when a Dalek fired its weapon, the screen would flash and sort of turn into an eerie x-ray negative. It was properly unnerving.
I was bitterly disappointed when I later saw the Doctor Who and the Daleks film at the cinema. Instead of the terrifying screen-flash, the Daleks just emitted some kind of gas in a puff of smoke, not nearly as scary.
The Allegory We Missed
I found out much later that Terry Nation, who created the Daleks, had written them as an allegory inspired by the threat of racial extermination by the Nazis — something that completely went over our heads as kids.