Meet the puppeteer who gave life to Captain Scarlet and Lady Penelope

As Scalextric launches its slot-car version of FAB-1, Lady Penelope’s pink Rolls-Royce from Thunderbirds, Radio Times Magazine spoke to puppeteer Mary Turner, now 90, about bringing “Lady P” and other classic characters to life.

Mary’s interest in the craft began after the war when her artist mother signed up for a puppetry class at the local polytechnic: “After a term she came home with this little figure on strings, a marionette, and I was amazed at what it could do. I think I was caught up on it then.”

Mary studied sculpture at art college, and taught for two years. “I saw on the television that this series had started called The Adventures of Twizzle. That was Gerry’s first one [in 1957, with Arthur Provis; together they formed AP Films], and it was quite different from any other puppet series that had been on, more innovative and generally much better. And I thought, that’s what I’d like to do.”

Her friend and fellow member of the Puppet Guild Christine Glanville, who worked at AP Films, told Mary the company wanted puppeteers for a new show called Torchy the Battery Boy. Mary got the job, and she also began to sculpt the character heads, from the next project onwards (western series Four Feather Falls in 1960).

To begin with, the programmes were made in the ballroom of a house overlooking the Thames at Maidenhead, but as techniques were refined and the shows became bigger, the production company moved to new premises in nearby Slough.

It was when Gerry married Sylvia and they made shows together that the public really paid attention, from Supercar and Fireball XL5 to Stingray and Thunderbirds, whose secret agent Lady Penelope and her cockney chauffeur Parker were an instant hit. And it was Mary who helped create the elegant Lady P.

“Sylvia was the one interested in the characters and characterisations of the puppets, whereas Gerry was more to do with the special effects and technical side. She would describe what sort of character she wanted and then you would do your best to follow her direction.

"At some point we’d paint up the plasticine head that we’d modelled and put it on screen to see if there was anything that could be done to improve it." In other words, the puppets had a screen test just as live actors would!

Mary adds: “Sylvia was very fussy about Lady P. She wanted a sophisticated lady; I modelled what I thought would be best, and I’d take it to her and she’d want a bit done here and there.

“Eventually we were both happy with it, so it was modelled up and made in fibreglass, as they all were. Sylvia got a wig made at a proper wigmaker’s, we put the wig on and we both looked at it and decided that it was definitely starting to look like Sylvia herself!”

So Mary puts paid to the story that Lady Penelope was based on Sylvia, and says she just ended up resembling her. "Yes, there are lots of stories around... One I heard was that she was based on a local hairdresser. Well, I’d never been to the hairdresser there anyway! So it wasn’t based on Sylvia but it became like Sylvia."

Mary believes Sylvia’s input to the shows should be credited as much as Gerry’s. “So much was due to her. He took centre stage for some reason. In the early days when we were making the films it was more that men were the head of whatever you happened to be doing.”

Mary and her colleagues brought the characters to life from a puppet "bridge" constructed above the sets. "The puppets were quite heavy but that was just as well because when the strings are eight foot long and you’re high up above them, they need to have a bit of weight.”

And occasionally, things could get a little hairy on the bridge. “Sometimes there had to be a fire in the shot and the special effects men would come in with these oily rags, set fire to them and you can imagine the smoke that came up into our faces. We weren’t given masks or anything like that!”

Overall, she says, it was a happy environment to work in: "Especially at the beginning. We were young and keen and anxious to do our best."

The company name changed to Century 21, and Supermarionation series kept coming, with Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90 and The Secret Service (whose hero Mary modelled on its voice artist, Stanley Unwin, famous for his gobbledygook language). But the transition from caricatured puppets to more proportional ones wasn't liked by everyone.

"I didn’t, personally. They were no longer puppets, they were more like mannequins, but then Gerry and Sylvia wanted to get into live action and I suppose that was more appealing to them to go in that direction."

The strings were finally snipped on these unique productions in 1969. A sad day, as Mary recalls: "I had to go into the workshop, there were three or four working in there, and tell them that we were all going to be made redundant. I think they’d guessed anyway by that time.

"The studio had to be cleared out and put back to what it was, which was a shell of a factory, and things were left lying around. The manager who was left there to clear the place out said, 'If there’s anything you want here, take it because it will only be thrown away.' And there were a whole lot of puppet heads on top of a sort of indoor roof. So we collected up a few."

Among those that Mary took home were Lady Penelope and Gordon Tracy from Thunderbirds, and Captain Scarlet.

Post-Supermarionation, Mary teamed up with the company's cinematographer John Read and they embarked on animation projects using a rostrum camera, before returning to puppet work on the popular children’s shows The Adventures of Rupert Bear (1970), Here Comes Mumfie (1975–8) and Cloppa Castle (1978–9), with Mary now directing.

She later worked on the 1986 Jim Henson fantasy film Labyrinth. "Just for a short time. It was very interesting, but I preferred working on the series. Because it was such a big thing and there were so many people about, you didn’t have a definite thing to do."

But back to Thunderbirds. Mary is impressed by the Scalextric FAB-1 slot car – “It looks very good. The detail is nice” – and says of the Anderson adventures she worked on: “They were successful because each series was that much better than the ones before. And they were something really different from what other people had been doing.”

Things came full circle in 2015 when Mary got to work on Thunderbirds once more, on three new episodes made in the traditional way, in the same road in Slough that had been home to Supermarionation's heyday. And she was back on the puppet gantry in 2019 for an episode of Endeavour whose storyline involved a puppet company. On both she teamed up with her former colleague, original Thunderbirds director David Elliott.

Elliott, who died earlier this month, once said: "Mary was the puppeteer. Anything you wanted, no matter how awkward, and boom – it was done."

Film-maker Stephen La Rivière, who orchestrated the puppet work on both projects, is equally impressed with Mary's talents: "The Supermarionation puppets were curious theatre/film hybrids, with long wires, which meant that although they looked like stars, they behave like divas. Mary has the magic touch to make it look like no effort at all.

"Even more impressive are her sculpting skills – imbuing these oddly proportioned characters with heroism, beauty, and charm. With a long career, Mary is this country’s most successful puppet talent."

WIN A FAB-ULOUS PRIZE BUNDLE worth £263.99! Two RT readers will each receive: a new Scalextric FAB-1 Slot Car (worth £53.99), with working lights and Lady Penelope and Parker, signed by Mary Turner and David Graham, who provided the voices of Parker and Brains; a Scalextric Knight Rider vs Back to the Future Racing Play Set (worth £160); and a Thunderbirds Complete DVD Box Set (£50). To enter, go to radiotimes.com/thunderbirds – closes 11:59pm Friday 15th December. (You can order the Slot Car from
https://uk.scalextric.com/products/thunderbirds-fab-1-c4479)

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