The 1970s. They were the best of times and the worst of times. Wealth inequality was at a record low, yet industrial strife was at a record high. These were the glory years of Doctor Who and glam rock, but the darkest days of the Northern Ireland conflict. Beset by strikes, inflation, power cuts and the rise of the far right, the cosy Britain of the post-war consensus was unravelling – in spectacularly lurid style. Fusing high politics and low culture, Crisis? What Crisis? presents a world in which Enoch Powell, Ted Heath and Tony Benn jostle for space with David Bowie, Hilda Ogden and Margo Leadbetter, and reveals why a country exhausted by decline eventually turned to Margaret Thatcher for salvation.

Terry Nation was one of the most successful writers for television to come out of Britain. Survivors, the show that was his vision of a post-apocalyptic England, so haunted audiences in the 1970s that the BBC revived it over thirty years on. Blake's 7 endures as a cult sci-fi classic and his most fearsome creations, the Daleks, ensured - and at times, eclipsed - the success of Doctor Who. Almost half a century after their first appearance, new additions to Dalek mythology continue to top the Saturday-night TV ratings. But while his genocidal pepper pots brought him notoriety and riches, Nation played a much wider role in British broadcasting's golden age. As part of the legendary Associated London Scripts, he wrote for Spike Milligan, Frankie Howerd and an increasingly troubled Tony Hancock, and was one of the key figures behind The Avengers, The Saint and The Persuaders! Now, The Man Who Invented the Daleks explores Nation's work's curious and contested origins, and sheds...