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
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
“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
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
Did
you know that ‘Thunderbirds’ was named after a US Air Force base in
‘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
Moving onto another
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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
Now not a lot of people know this, but ‘Stingray’
was the first series to be filmed in colour in the
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
Just
remember, anything can happen in the next half hour…
‘Captain
Scarlet’ followed on from
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.