There was a special on BBC4 tonight celebrating the work of Gerry Anderson, starting off with SuperCar and ending with Space 1999. Many moons ago I was fortunate enough to be a friend of one of his nephews, whose flat in Birmingham was strewn with actual puppets from the various shows… not something you forget easily!
Strangely, there was no mention of the Thunderbirds movie or my favourite, New Captain Scarlet, a recent reimagining of the series with CGI graphics to replace the 1960s “Supermarionation” techniques [I’ve contributed text to the Wikipedia entry btw… I’m a kid at heart]
I guess Gerry wasn’t closely involved with these projects so they didn’t get a look-in on the programme. It’s a great pity as New Captain Scarlet in particular is great telly – it’s as dark and sinister as ever but has moved into the 21st century with new storylines and powerful female lead characters. The computer graphics used in the new series have to be seen to be believed – I suggest checking it out
[The above images are reproduced from the fantastic New Captain Scarlet Episode Guide on the ‘Fanderson‘ site]