This is my tribute page to a couple very far advanced for their time who had a very big influence on my childhood and imagination.
They developed Supermarionation.
Use video control on left to mute the music
Although I do remember Twizzle as a very young child, I do not remember Torchy.
My first reall memories of the Anderson's work would of been Fireball XL5, followed later by Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and then the Secret Service.
I first saw Captain Scarlet in around 1967/68 a long time before it was released on television. During the early hours way after television had closed down for the night, shows were sometimes broadcast so that they could be reviewed by the critics. I believe they were broadcast off frequency from the normal channels, but my mother found it by accident late one saturday night and called me down from my bed to see it.
As a child born before the Moon landings and the use of reusable spacecraft, I used to watch Thunderbirds in awe. The vehicles, the equipment and the technology seemed to be so futuristic, they had talking Robots and Computers before we even understood what a computer was. The aircraft they used could take off vertically, the Rocket was not only reusable but docked in a permanent Space Station.
They may not of been the Anderson's inventions, but as I have grown up I have seen so many of their ideas used in Thunderbirds develop and come alive. The VTOL technology later became evident to us with the Harrier Jump Jet, and in one episode they even had a helicopter that was identical to our modern 'Osprey' which converted to a plane after take off. There was also a futuristic Air Liner which was almost the same as Concorde a good five years before we first saw Concorde fly. Thunderbird 5 is what we now know as the ISS, the International Space Station. Thunderbird 4 is now the mini-submersibles now often used in research and in rescue. Even the mole resembled the modern day boring machines used to make the Channel Tunnel, and even back then they even had what we would now call a 'Thermal Lance' to cut through thick metals.
Bramen the Robot in Thunderbirds was the first Robot I can remember seeing, and the spinning Data reels in Stingray and from the 'Rat' in Joe 90, were my first understanding of what a computer was. It was all these things that sparked my interest in computers, communication technology, and of course U.F.O's
You may of heard their names but do you really know the many programs they made ?
They were also involved in many other films such as Crossroasds to crime & Doppleganger, and television series such as the Day after tomorrow
There were two series of Torchy each consisting of 26 episodes broadcast over 1958 - 1959
There were 52 episodes of Twizzle broadcast by Rediffusion in 1957 - 1958
Supercar was broadcast in 2 series, the first of 26 episodes, the second of 13 episodes over 1961 - 1962
Fireball XL5 was broadcast in 1962, it consisted of 39 episodes of 25 minutes each.
Thunderbirds was first shown over 1964 - 1965.
There were 32 episodes, each lasting 50 minutes split over 2 series.
There was also 2 Thunderbird films.
There were 39 episodes lasting 25 minutes each. Broadcast from 1963
There were 32 episodes of Captian Scarlet lasting 25 minutes each and broadcast from 1967
There were 30 episodes of Joe 90
UFO was broadcast over 1969 - 1970 in 26 episodes of 25 minutes each.
THERE WERE 48 EPISODES OF 50 MINUTES EACH WHICH WERE BROADCAST BETWEEN 1973 - 1975
Terrahawks were shown over 1983 - 1984 in 39 episodes lasting 25 minutes each.
Dick Spanner P.I. was broadcast over 22 episodes
