5-4-3-2-1... Classic Thunderbirds Are Go again!

Roll back half a century, and this corner of Slough was a sea of strings and plastic, paint and explosives. AP Films was in full throttle. Having made Stingray, the first British series filmed entirely in colour, the company was creating Thunderbirds, a thrilling adventure series that would take over the world.

And now the rocket-propelled craft of International Rescue have flown a complete circle. Today the same end of Stirling Road is occupied by a new generation of film-makers who have adopted the puppets-and-models techniques of their forebears.

The studio is filled with the same sights and sounds: the heroic Tracy brothers, Lady Penelope and Parker, people in peril, and Thunderbirds 1 and 2 coming in to land...

This year’s 50th anniversary of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s show has been an exciting time for fans, with ITV’s computer-animated version on Saturday mornings – and now three special episodes are being made for DVD in the old-fashioned way.

Stephen La Rivière, 30, who has masterminded the retro project and is the producer and director, describes it as his “happiest and best film experience”, adding, “Every day I come in and I can’t quite believe that we’re doing this.”

Stephen chronicled the TV hits of the Andersons (which also included Fireball XL5, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and Joe 90) in his book Filmed in Supermarionation, which he then turned into last year’s acclaimed film documentary of the same name… “Which then led me to this.”

To mark the 50th anniversary, Stephen thought, “Well, what better way than to go back to what they were doing and have a little celebration of what once was.”

Stephen knew how much affection there was for Thunderbirds, but he had it confirmed when 3,378 backers pledged £218,412 towards the new episodes. It’s the most successful UK film project ever funded on Kickstarter. Much of the money came from Japan, where Stephen lived for two years and where Thunderbirds is “absolutely massive”.

YESTERDAY ONCE MORE

When Radio Times visits the set, the first new story, entitled The Abominable Snowman, is nearing completion after a month’s filming. The other two are Introducing Thunderbirds and The Stately Home Robberies. All three are using the soundtracks of audio-only adventures released in the 1960s, so all the original voice artists are present and correct.

In the studio, Scott Tracy is being prepared for a scene on an ice-cave set carved out of blocks of polystyrene, one man is sculpting a mask that arch-villain the Hood will use as a disguise, and a model boat is being adapted in the workshop.

As you’ll see in this trailer (below), getting the details just right has been vital. All the puppets have been reconstructed as faithfully as possible, while the sets, including the famous Tracy lounge, were re-created from books, photos and even a 3D computer programme.

“We pride ourselves on our attention to detail,” says Stephen, who admits he’s a perfectionist. “The portraits, the desk area, the rocket painting… these are the sort of things that people latch onto, because they remember them. So if those are wrong the rest of the room is wrong.”

Even the models and puppets are suspended on the same kind of fine tungsten wires. “I won’t have anything flown on nylon because it cheapens what they [the AP Films crew] were trying to do. You’ve got to be able to believe when you watch them that they could have been shot in the 60s.”

So the 30-plus people working on the “Thunderbirds 1965” project have all but torn up the modern rule book, turning their back on CGI and motion capture in favour of a process that Gerry Anderson came to hate for its difficulty.

But it was Supermarionation’s very uniqueness that children and adults enjoyed so much. There was nothing to compare with Thunderbirds, and even though it only ran from 1965–6, repeats in subsequent decades, even on the BBC, gave it a long and happy life, as did video and DVD.

“We don’t have that much time, and in film terms, £200,000 isn’t a lot of money,” says Stephen, “but what we don’t have in money we make up for in sheer love and enthusiasm. We are all fans that are professionals, who are now using both sides of that to come and make this.”

He tells me that one technician whose CV includes Bond and Batman has turned down Star Wars to take part. And model-maker David Tremont, who worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, came over from New Zealand’s WETA Workshop to be involved…

MODELS MAKETH FAN

David tells Radio Times: “I’ve always made models. It was Thunderbirds that inspired me as a child. Peter Jackson was… quite a few people in the industry across the world were. And 50 years later the show has come full circle. It’s brilliant.”

He believes that the physical sets and puppets, tangible things that children could replicate, were integral to Thunderbirds’ appeal. “It’s the child’s dream of being able to physically make that stuff by hand. You’d race down to the tool shed and get blocks of wood and cardboard boxes and start your journey into an incredible world. But you can’t do that with digital [CGI].”

“Whether it’s just a shoe box painted red and wooden wheels put on it. That’s brilliant in kids’ imagination. With the digital stuff, they just want to go to the toy shop and buy the blister pack with their imagination already in it. So yes, digital has its place, but it won’t inspire.”

Stephen has even persuaded David Elliott, an experienced director on the Andersons’ shows, to helm the second story. “He just snapped back into it,” says Stephen. “He’s brilliant, and genuinely helpful for bringing us little tips.”

CALLING INTERNATIONAL RESCUE

Right now, the crew is setting up a relatively simple close-up of Scott in the Hood’s mountain lair. But every day on set is a problem-solving adventure. Inevitably, mistakes are made. Stephen says, “We blew up a console and then realised that we had a couple more shots to go before it was blown up!”

I get to control the Brains puppet. He’s heavier than you imagine and not just because of his vast intellect. All the puppets, created in one-third scale, have large heads that house mechanisms for operating the eyes and mouth.

Multi-tasking Justin T Lee, who is on puppeteering duty today, says, “It’s more caricatured, therefore you can get away with doing more interesting movements.”

“Thunderbirds is a great concept for a show… the whole action thing, the heroes rescuing people in distress. In storytelling terms it’s very appealing.”

Sylvia Anderson, now 88, has given her blessing to the project, as has ITV and Jamie Anderson, son of Gerry who died in 2012. And although for the time being the stories will only be seen by backers on Blu-ray and DVD, Stephen says, “We hope that these episodes will in time become part of the Thunderbirds canon and enjoy a long life of their own.”

A LOST ART... FOUND!

It’s clear just wandering around the studio, seeing familiar (fibreglass) faces, Lilliputian landscapes and the levels of craft involved, that a lost art has been revived. Just as before, even the costumes are specially made: quite a task where fashionista Lady Penelope is concerned!

Futuristic craft are everywhere: on a table sits a tiny Zero-X from the 1966 Thunderbirds Are Go movie, there’s a Sunprobe rocket parked outside the workshop, and a huge Thunderbird 3 is casually plonked in a corner. But Stephen has no time for plastic prima donnas: “These models are here to work. They’re not here to be lovingly revered and that’s the mindset that they [the original technicians] would have had. If it gets dropped, if it breaks, that’s part of the process!”

So yes, repairs are often needed.

Before I leave Slough, and all the friendly bombs that are dropping on it once again, I’m treated to some just-edited clips that could have been lifted directly from the 60s. One line from nosey Parker is a particular delight: “I don’t want to blow my own ’ooter, m’lady, but getting out of that nick was a pushover!”

It’s clearly a labour of love for all involved, including Stephen. “I’ve loved this show since I was a kid. I was genuinely fascinated about how it was made. So the chance to make Thunderbirds is one of my dreams come true. But this for me is also a way of paying tribute to people whose work I’ve really admired.

“I’m really happy that we get to bring them back one last time. Because I imagine this will be the last time this ever happens.”

Photos credited to: Stephen La Rivière.