• Click here to watch and download All About Thunderbirds from BBC iPlayer

iPlayed the BBC4 programme about the blokish love affair for all things Gerry Anderson last night. A wonderful nostalgia trip back to the early sixties, the programme kicked off with ‘Super Car’ (in those days they apparently used condoms to make the mouths move - cue boyish humour in the chemists) before moving on the Fireball XL5, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90. But of course, the star of the show was Thunderbirds - at its zenith in the late 1960s, the puppet-based action series was the most expensive TV programme ever produced in Britain.

It’s quite amazing to think that in their little workshop in Slough, they were the world leaders in special effects (all before CGI). And I don’t think I’m being too misty-eyed to state that the FX still stands up today. If anything, my love affair with Thunderbirds has grown stronger over the years. As a kid, I loved the explosions and the gadgets (and still do), but it is testament to the wonderful plots and an almost cinematic approach (Anderson was a frustrated movie maker) that has allowed Thunderbirds to endure over the years.

Interestingly, the shows were originally planned for only half an hour, but Lou Grade insisted that they be the full sixty minutes. This led to character development that was, at first, ‘filling’ for the seven episodes that had all ready been completed, but became the mainstay of the show’s enduring appeal.

The show’s special effects team split up after Thunderbirds and went on, in their individual capacities, to become the head of the BBC special effects unit, work on Alien and Terminator and have long lives spent in the movie industry.

For me? Well, I still get a shiver of unabridged wonder when I see Thunderbird 2 and hear that fabulous soundtrack - and it was all done with puppets…marvellous!

Interesting Stuff:

• If you look inside the hangar of Thunderbird 1, there is clearly a lemon squeezer glued to the wall.
• The enduring problem of using puppets was that they couldn’t get them to walk convincingly. Cue a whole range of gadgets to overcome this problem.
• “I wasn’t really interested in the plot, I just wanted to get to the vehicles and the explosions as quickly as possible.” Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit.

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