Exterminate! Doctor Who's deadly foes the Daleks are making their way to Sittingbourne as part of the 10th Swale Film Festival.

The movie Doctor Who and the Daleks starring Whitstable horror actor Peter Cushing closes the seven-day festival on Sunday, September 25 at the Swale Media Arts Centre in Sittingbourne High Street.

Festival spokesman Cllr Ken Rowles said: "We have tried to pick films which have a connection with Swale. The Daleks, of course, were created by screenwriter Terry Nation who lived in historic Lynsted Park, a classic Georgian country house near Sittingbourne."

Welsh-born Nation first made his name as a comedy writer after failing an audition as a stand-up. He ended up working with comedians like Spike Milligan, Terry Scott, Eric Sykes, Harry Worth, Frankie Howerd and Tony Hancock.

He also wrote scripts for The Avengers, The Baron, The Champions, Department S, The Persuaders, The Saint and Blake's 7.

But his biggest claim to fame were the Daleks.

Nation, (August 8,1930 to March 9, 1997) originally turned down an offer to write for the new BBC series Doctor Who but later changed his mind after he and Hancock fell out. Nation wrote the second six-part series, originally called The Mutants, and unleashed the Daleks.

The design came from Ray Cusick, an in-house BBC designer. He landed the job because the original designer Ridley Scott (who went on to direct Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator and The Martian) was double-booked.

Speaking to Doctor Who Monthly in 1987, Nation admitted: “Raymond Cusick made a tremendous contribution. The salt cellar part is the legend: that gave him the idea for the shape.

"He was restricted by budget, obviously, but whatever the Daleks are or were, his contribution was vast.

"I think (the BBC) may have given him a £100 bonus but he was a salaried employee. I think he knew the nature of his work, it was what he did every week."

Nation was brought up during the Second World War and said he based the Daleks on the Nazis. He told Cusick he didn't want them to have legs so viewers wouldn't think they had actors inside them.

The job of building the first four was given to prop-makers Shawcraft Models in Uxbridge. The total bill was £250 but none were ready for the first transmission on October 28, 1963. So floor manager Michael Ferguson was forced to hold a swiftly assembled plunger and wave it to towards the actress at the end of the first episode.

A legendary cliffhanger was born.

The 1965 film, released in the same year as The Sound of Music and The Beatles' Help, was the first time audiences could see Doctor Who and the Daleks in colour. It featured the Daleks with plungers for arms and fire extinguishers for ray guns and also starred comedian Roy Castle as Ian, Jennie Linden as Barbara and Roberta Tovey as the Doctor's granddaughter Susan.

The festival returns on Monday, September 19, and will be showing films at the Media Centre and Sittingbourne's Avenue Theatre in Central Avenue.

They include the comedy Carry On Constable (1960) starring Eric Barker, who lived in Stalisfield Green near Faversham with his wife, actress Pearl Hackney, and animal adventure Tarka The Otter (1979) featuring Stanley Lebor who lived in Faversham. It is narrated by Peter Ustinov.

Whistle Down The Wind (1961) produced by Richard Attenborough and directed by Bryan Forbes stars a young Hayley Mills, Alan Bates and Bernard Lee, who lived in Faversham during the 1970s.

Bob Todd, who farmed in Faversham before becoming a much-loved comic actor, features in two classic comedy shorts Rubarb Rhubarb (1980) with Eric Sykes and Jimmy Edwards and Mr H Is Late (1988) with Eric Sykes, Cannon and Ball, Spike Milligan, Freddie Star and Mike Yarwood.

The Swale Film Society presents the silent German psychological thriller The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) at The Avenue (£4.50, £2.50 past members) and Swale filmmaker Al Carretta stars in the crime thriller Eight Hundred Dollar Value (2022), also at the theatre (£4.50).

The final day also features the British comedy Raising A Riot (1955) starring Kenneth More as a naval officer who struggles to look after his three children when his wife has to fly to Canada. It was shot at Shepperton Studios and on location at Conyer Quay, Teynham, and the black Barham windmill near Canterbury which burned down in 1970.

One of the children is an uncredited Caroline John who would later play Liz Shaw in Doctor Who.

Films at the arts centre are free to members. To book tickets or become a member (£10, £5 concessions) call 07831 563 354.