It’s not very often you get the chance to talk to somebody who has influenced the lives of many people the world over. In September 2001, I spoke to living legend Gerry Anderson. He was busy promoting the return to our television screens of the digitally-restored ‘Captain Scarlet’, which was just about to be shown on BBC 2 in the UK. Anderson has, in my opinion, been instrumental in shaping many a childhood. His credits include, ‘Torchy the Battery Boy’, ‘Supercar’, ‘Stingray’, ‘Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons’, ‘Joe 90’, ‘UFO’, ‘Space 1999’ and of course ‘Thunderbirds’, to name but a few. But how did it all begin?

 

Gerry started his professional life in a film studio as a sound editor. “I suppose I must have been pretty ambitious because I got together with a few friends, we put in what little money we had into a pool and we opened our own production company. I mean today there are many production companies but at the time it was something very special to have one’s own production company. So we set it up and we bought a typewriter and printed a few letterheads, got a telephone, filing cabinet and then we just sat there and waited. Waited for somebody to ring and say, “Good Morning is that AP Films, we’d like to order 2 feature films, 4 documentaries and 6 commercials”. Well of course nothing happened and after about 6 months our money had gone and we were about to close shop when a woman by the name of Roberta Leigh, a writer of children’s programmes, came in and said, “Would you like to make 52 fifteen-minute films for children?”. And we said yes. Then she said, “And they’re to be made with puppets”. Well of course I was nearly sick on the spot. I saw myself as a budding Steven Spielberg and here I was going to make puppet films and all that happened really was that, I tried to make the puppet films different and as near to live action as possible, thinking that the broadcasters or financiers would look at these films and say to themselves, “This guy can make great pictures, let’s give him some live action films to make.” Instead of which they said, “Doesn’t he make good puppet films, let’s give him another series” and I just became trapped into this particular way of making pictures.”

 

Obviously not a big fan of puppets then, but how Anderson brought these shows to life was amazing. One thing I had to ask Gerry about was those puppet heads. In the early shows, the heads were all huge in comparison to the rest of the body. So why did this later change?

 

“What happened was I invented a system whereby the voices of the puppets, which were pre-recorded before we started filming, were played back on the studio floor and electronically we arranged it so that the recording made the puppets mouths move in sync with their dialogue, so that they appeared to be speaking. In order to do this we had to put an electronic brain inside the puppets heads and of course we couldn’t get them into the heads, so what did we do? We had to make the heads bigger and so up until ‘Thunderbirds’ people thought that this was intentional and that they were caricatures. After ‘Thunderbirds’ electronics had been made smaller and smaller and we were now able to get the components into normal sized heads and so suddenly on Captain Scarlet all the puppets looked much more lifelike because they were correctly proportioned all the way down, head to toe.”

 

So now you know!

 

I could spend a long time if I was to look at all of Anderson’s shows, however I don’t think the editor is keen for me to take over the whole magazine! Therefore I’ll concentrate on just a few of the biggies. Firstly ‘Thunderbirds’…

 

When ‘Thunderbirds’ was originally broadcast on television, it was dubbed the most expensive series ever made. It was first shown in October 1965 and pretty much became an instant hit worldwide, attracting an estimated audience of over one hundred million fans in 66 countries around the globe. A number which continues to grow daily.

 

The British made show was set in the year 2065 on a secret island base somewhere in the Southern Pacific. From here the Tracy family ran International Rescue, a global rescue service comprising of 5 main Thunderbirds. Thunderbird 1 - The one that looked like a rocket and could travel at 15,000mph, Thunderbird 2  - The Green one with a top speed of 5000mph, capable of carrying large payloads which were housed in the centrally mounted pod. (Prior to departure on a rescue mission a decision was made as to which pod vehicle was to be taken to the rescue zone.) Thunderbird 3 - Red with a top speed of 25,000mph, the space rescue rocket, Thunderbird 4 - the rescue submarine and Thunderbird 5 - the Space Station/Communications Satellite.

 

Did you know that ‘Thunderbirds’ was named after a US Air Force base in Arizona where Gerry Anderson’s brother learnt to fly? It’s incredible what you can find out when you start digging. The five Tracy boys were also named after famous American astronauts: Scott Carpenter, Virgil Grissom, Alan Shepherd, Gordon Cooper and John Glenn. Scott Tracy’s look was in fact based on Sean Connery. Lorne Greene (Bonanza) and Anthony Perkins (Psycho) formed the inspiration for Jeff Tracy and Brains respectively. Recall the phrase “F.A.B.”? I’m afraid it wasn’t short for anything, even though on one radio show I distinctly remember somebody calling in saying that it stood for ‘Fings Are Brill!’. What’s education coming to? I blame the 3 ‘R’s’ – Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.

 

‘Thunderbirds’ ran for a total of 32 episodes and other characters in the show included Lady Penelope, her butler and ex-safe cracker Parker, Brains (who really needed to get out a bit more), Tin Tin and the head of the household and International Rescue, Jeff Tracy. I nearly forgot, look out for the ‘Thunderbirds’ film. From various Internet sources I hear that shooting has just begun in Berkshire in the UK. The humble budget for this production? Some say £40 million, some say nearer £50 million. Other locations will also include Hawaii, New York, Los Angeles, Australia and Portugal. Sophia Myles looks as having been confirmed to play Lady Penelope, Anthony Edwards as Brains, with Bill Paxton and Ben Kingsley also starring among others and its director, Star Trek star Jonathan Frakes (Commander William T.Riker).

 

Moving onto another Anderson classic, ‘Joe 90’. Just check out the boy’s CV…

 

"He's only nine years old - but he is the world's most audacious special agent! There has never before been a special agent like JOE. For nine-year-old Joe can do anything, thanks to a fabulous electronic device which can transfer the brain patterns of those who are the greatest experts in their field. When he receives these brain patterns, Joe, with the aid of a special pair of glasses which have built-in electrodes, becomes a man in thought and deed... can become the greatest of all astronauts, a dare-devil pilot, an ace motorist, a brilliant brain surgeon or whatever else may be necessary for him as the most daring of all agents attached to the World Intelligence Network... yet he still looks what he really is - a normal, healthy schoolboy. Every assignment brings new excitement, new hazards and unexpected situations - for JOE 90 and viewers alike!"

 

Joe became the idol for many a young boy, only 9 years old and however normal he seemed, he was always off saving the day. Having hit the UK in 1968 this was the sixth of Anderson’s ‘Supermarionation’ outings. No not Super Mario! Gameboys hadn’t even been invented! Supermarionation saw the use of electronics so the marionettes lips moved in time with the vocal track.

 

Now not a lot of people know this, but ‘Stingray’ was the first series to be filmed in colour in the UK, even though being shown by the BBC in black and white, as colour TV didn’t start until 1967. In total 39 episodes were produced.

 

The show was again set in the year 2065, as was the ‘Thunderbirds’. This time however no sign of International Rescue, only WASP, the World Aquanaut Security Patrol. Their job, to simply preserve world peace, much easier said than done. Man, having conquered space in the future has now decided to explore underwater, but in doing so upsets one particular alien race who vow to invade the surface world in revenge. Their key weapon in the fight against the so-called Aquaphibians is Stingray, a futuristic, nuclear-powered submarine. Remember Marina? The tail-less mermaid who never spoke. What about the annoyingly catchy song always played at the end of each episode? Scary really when you think about it.

 

Just remember, anything can happen in the next half hour…

 

‘Captain Scarlet’ followed on from Anderson’s successful outing with the Tracy family and was originally shown in late 1967. The story involved yet another organisation, this time called “Spectrum”, attempting to save the world from the threat of the Mysterons. Invisible alien beings from Mars who could, after destroying the original, replicate and take control of any object or person. Set again in the year 2065. Spot a pattern forming here at all?

 

As lifelike as the marionettes may have seemed, they could never hold anything, they were only puppets after all. Therefore, real hands were used instead for any close-ups that required such an action. Okay it looks obvious, but for the 60’s this was way ahead of its time and with all the episodes now digitally re-mastered, they don’t look dated at all. The hero of the show was Captain Scarlet, real name Paul Metcalfe, who, having been taken over by the Mysterons, luckily, somehow, managed to retain his personality and from there on in was ‘indestructible’. Episode after episode, well 32 times in all, managing to defeat the Mysterons evil plans.

 

British character actor Francis Matthews provided the voice for our ‘indestructible’ hero, but how did he get involved in the first place?

 

“Well Gerry asked to meet me, I think he’d known some of my work and he asked if I’d go and see him at his studios and he told me about the new series he was preparing and he was looking for new voices to voice the new series and asked me if I could do some examples. I showed off in front of him and did a lot of English voices and he said that’s fine, but they’re all English and this is going to be an international series, it needs to be sold to America and I’m looking for the man to play Captain Scarlet but he should sound American or at least Trans-Atlantic. I said well the best accent I know for Trans-Atlantic is Cary Grant, so I said, “How would you like me to play him like Cary Grant?” and he said that would be absolutely marvellous, it’s the perfect voice, do that and I’ll employ you. That’s how I was asked to do Captain Scarlet.”

 

Remember how I mentioned earlier that in ‘Thunderbirds’ everybody used “F.A.B.” and how it wasn’t an abbreviation for anything? Well in ‘Captain Scarlet” there was a similar phrase “S.I.G.”. However, this did mean something, “Spectrum is Green”, good to go basically.

 

I am somewhat worried now however that come the year 2065, in the eyes of Gerry Anderson, not only will we be dependant on the assistance of a single family who lounge around a pool all day somewhere in the South Pacific, but also have to put up with repeated fierce attacks from below the sea by an alien race and also keep an eye out for aliens from Mars. At least for the latter I may be able to offer some advice, or at least Gerry and Francis may be able to. So how can you tell if one of your friends has been taken over by the power of the Mysterons?

 

Gerry reckons people really ought to know how to detect a Mysteron. “It’s really quite important. If for example you go to Madame Tussaud’s and you see a model of a famous person, it will look absolutely realistic, but if that famous person comes in and stands by the copy, you then realise that there are subtle differences and that’s how you detect a Mysteron. When you see somebody you have to listen for perhaps slightly different ways they express themselves, possibly the hair is different quality, you’d have to be pretty smart, but it’s well worth learning how to detect a Mysteron because it could save a lot of grief.”

 

Francis says they look dazed and confused. “When I’m in the presence of them as Captain Scarlet I can sense that they’ve been Mysteronized, because I was Mysteronized myself, although because of my fall, 800 ft, I was protected from the worst effects and maintained my own personality, but I’m in touch with the Mysteron ethic and so I can sense their presence.”

 

Good luck spotting the signs then and catch you next month, when I’ll be taking a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist.

 

Check out www.neilcarter.net/classics.htm for more links and programme details and catch Neil Carter’s breakfast show every weekday from 6 til 9 on BFBS Radio 1.