How two missing Children in Need Daleks were found

The Doctor's most fearsome enemy, the Daleks, are back in Swindon 20 years on from their last fundraising adventure.

But since their last outing for Children in Need they have been on an adventure - and it was not to their home world of Skaro.

"I would visualise Daleks patrolling, circling as they came in," said Dave Latham.

Three decades ago, he was a BT community relations manager in Swindon looking for ever more creative ways to fundraise for Children in Need.

BT had a base in the town, at the aptly-named North Star house, which had a big glass atrium and a gantry around it looking down.

He told BBC Radio Wiltshire: "I thought it would be great to turn this atrium into a space station."

His mind turned to who might live in that space station.

"In my time, the Daleks were fearsome, they weren't exactly cuddly. You wouldn't see them to open up a coffee bar or be your neighbour. They're not very nice.

"But what they do is attract people's attention."

A big day was made of it on 22 November 1996, with celebrities, including former Doctor Tom Baker and coverage on the charity TV special.

But, on a practical level, where do you get two Daleks from?

That is where John Chapman came in, a long-time enthusiast and former BT engineer.

"I thought it was completely mad but I was very pleased actually.

"I've been a Dr Who fan all my life. I'd attempted a Dalek before, in my mum's living room - not realising that when you build a Dalek they're quite big."

In fact, it was so big it "had to go out of the window".

It took him six months to build two.

"Back in the day, there were no plans you could send away for. So I got a model kit - a one fifth scale model. I scaled it up five times and produced my own plans."

However, to make two was hard - so he created a wooden one and used it to cast two fibreglass ones.

"Who would not want to build a couple of Daleks for Children in Need? Stressful, but fun."

He said you can get inside them but it was a "bit Fred Flintstone style, feet on the floor, trundle them along".

"They talk and they move. A static Dalek looks lovely, but when it starts to move and interact, it's something quite magical."

He said he has some "really good memories" of the 1996 event - especially when Tom Baker signed one of the replicas.

Afterwards, the villainous pair went into storage, only to return in 2003 for another event, but this time in Swindon's Designer Outlet Village.

But disaster struck, within weeks of the event, they had vanished.

"I was absolutely gutted. I couldn't believe someone would take something like that," Mr Chapman said.

"I think the thing that upset me most was all the time and effort had been lost forever."

Mr Chapman thought he would never see his creations again: "I had this thought of a skip with these two eye-stalks coming out from the top, thinking that's the end for them, they're exterminated."

Police were notified, but nothing conclusive was found.

Some 18 years later, Mr Latham got an unexpected phone call. They had been found.

"It was not a good year for me - I was receiving medical treatment and I was still recovering.

"I was sat on our sofa at home and the phone went. He said you're not going to believe this - I think we've got the Daleks back. I fell off the settee!"

Mr Chapman had called his friend after being emailed by a someone called John Darley - the man behind a website and forum called Project Dalek.

It is a place where people can download plans to make full-size models and help each other out. It has thousands of members.

Mr Darley had been approached by someone wanting to find out more about the background of a grey Dalek.

He said: "They wanted to find some provenance, if it was a genuine BBC prop, that would be something really special.

"I was given a load of photographs which I shared with a few other members... and suddenly a light came on."

They realised it was one of those that went missing.

Daleks had been stolen before as well - official props from the BBC itself in 1973. There was even a plea on Blue Peter to find them and they were recovered, but a lot sooner than these replicas.

It turned out a Scottish collector had bought it from a friend who lived in Wiltshire. It is unknown how the friend got them.

Mr Chapman went all the way to a Scottish police station to pick it up.

The other was found in Wiltshire.

He said they only needed a bit of work: "I was very surprised - they hadn't been trashed or damaged or broken that much.

"To see the Tom Baker signature again - that was wonderful."

Now with the Daleks back, the public can meet them again for Children in Need at the McArthur Glen Designer outlet in Swindon.

To hear the BBC Radio Wiltshire special on the recovered Daleks, click here.

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