Katrin Thier visits the Set to Stun exhibition at Gunnersbury Park Museum, which runs from 20 October 2023 to 2 June 2024

Maybe I should start with a confession – until the Internet pointed me to this exhibition, I had not heard of Gunnersbury Park Museum. But I am not a Londoner, so I hope I may be forgiven for my ignorance: it turns out to be the local history museum for the London boroughs of Ealing and Hounslow. Nestled between Chiswick and Ealing, it is housed in an early 19^th-century mansion in an extensive (and much older) park, which had both been owned by the wealthy and influential Rothschild family for nearly a century before becoming a public park and museum.  

With Ealing Studios on its doorstep, and other film and television production sites within easy reach (like Shepperton Studios, and the former BBC Television Centre), it seems a natural choice for such a museum to dedicate a special display to their work, and the industries they have attracted. 

The exhibition consists of a dedicated space introducing its themes and scope, and continues into several other galleries, where it has been integrated into the permanent exhibit in various ways. This not only provides further context, but also suggests that it is worth sticking around and to explore the history of West London more widely. 

Entering the first room (next to the entrance and the shop), the visitor is greeted by a scale model of the Starbug from the 1990s series Red Dwarf. It is the centrepiece of a display case giving an overview of various aspects of film and television design through time: from 1930s costume design drawings, via filming models like the Starbug, to 21st-century animatronics; while sound design is exemplified by some creations of the Radiophonic Workshop playing in the background.

Part of the exhibition is built on the work of production designer Jeremy Bear, who is also responsible for the main feature of the introductory room: a wall inspired by his original set design for the 1972 Doctor Who serial The Mutants, with a central case holding a robot costume from The Robots of Death (1977); a concept model for this ensemble is displayed in the centre of the room. Other walls hold some of the concept drawings for The Mutants, alongside photographs of the finished sets, as well as a screen looping an interview with Jeremy Bear himself. 

Past the shop, a passage leads into the grandest rooms of the original house, where the Rothschilds showed off their wealth; in the drawing room to the left, a baroque fireplace has been enhanced by a set of monster masks, designed by advanced students from the Delamar Academy of Makeup and Hair, based in Ealing.

In the centre of the house, the Skylight gallery has become the home of by a full-size Imperial Dalek from Remembrance of the Daleks (1988; as filmed in a Hammersmith school); a survivor of a number of props cast for the explicit purpose of being beaten, blown up, or otherwise mistreated in ways unsuitable for the valuable fully operational Daleks.

The grand staircase by the shop leads to the first floor, where the Leisure gallery already has a case dedicated to local film-making (especially, but not restricted to, the Ealing comedies). In addition to the permanent exhibits, which already include some Whoviana, this case now also features the imposing full-size prop of Marvin the Paranoid Android from the 1981 BBC television version of The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, accompanied by some photographs of the previous lives of his chest unit – spot it in Alien (1979), Blake’s 7 (1978-1981), and The Robots of Death.

Further along on the same floor, above the Dalek, the Home gallery has been largely taken over by the exhibition, arguably its other core part. Acknowledging the usual theme of this room, there is a display of a sixties living room along one wall, generously populated by Doctor Who magazines, action figures and other paraphernalia. Pride of place is given to the First Doctor’s hat and ring, on loan from Willam Hartnell’s granddaughter (and biographer) Jessica Carney. Much of the rest of the room is given over to model and prop design for various classic television shows, including TARDIS models to different scales, a tripod from The Tripods (1984-1985), and (in drawers below the glass cases) assorted weaponry from Doctor Who‘s The Happiness Patrol (1988), and other BBC series Blake’s 7 and Red Dwarf. Another wall holds a painted storyboard for The Mutants, and those of us who are too short to quite see details at the top, the whole thing has been reproduced full-size on sheets of fabric that can be leafed through. Alongside are full-size 3D prints of a TARDIS model and one of the guns, for a more tactile experience.

The former servants’ staircase at the back of the building leads to the next floor; this also houses a lift that gives step-free access to all levels. On the top floor, the science-fiction element is more low-key. A Darth Vader costume from a major local company introduces the large Industry gallery, not so much making a statement, but issuing an invitation to explore very different kinds of local working life in the not-so distant past. Similarly, in the fashion gallery, a piece of Wakanda cosplay comfortably rubs shoulders with similarly impressive clothes from a longstanding multicultural community.

Heading back down the servants’ staircase to ground floor, the last gem is in the Toy gallery, tucked away near the far end of the building: the Dalek production line from The Power of the Daleks (1966), which had been populated with cheap toys from Woolworth’s, and was reconstructed by Mike Tucker for a 2020 DVD special (although by now the original toys have become so expensive that he mainly used casts from a single original). And just to prove that the toys may have changed, but the approach has not, there are also two toy Daleks adapted for use in The Day of the Doctor (2013).

If there is any time left, it can be spent wandering around the building, admiring the architecture and the sheer grandeur of the dining room and gallery with their vistas of the landscaped park, while taking in some of the smaller temporary exhibits – if there isn’t: the park will remain open until dusk. 

Despite (or maybe because of) its modest size, Set to Stun is an exhibition worth seeing, especially for those with an interest in the earlier days of British science fiction television. And if it may appear too small to warrant going into London from further afield, the house and park have enough to offer beyond the sci-fi it to make the trip worthwhile.

Also, did I mention that it’s free?

The exhibition runs until June 2024; the nearest tube station is Acton Town (zone 3; District and Piccadilly lines from central London; District line from Ealing Broadway).