158-514: Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward is a fictional character introduced in the British 1960s Supermarionation television series Thunderbirds , which was produced by AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment . The character also appears in the film sequels Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) and Thunderbird 6 (1968), the 2004 live-action film Thunderbirds and the CGI remake series Thunderbirds Are Go . In
316-620: A "trademark". According to Sylvia Anderson, the term was used to "distinguish the pure puppetry of the stage from our more sophisticated filmed-television version". Lou Ceffer of the website Spy Hollywood calls Supermarionation a "marketing term". A 1960s supplement of the British trade newspaper Television Mail described Supermarionation as a "technical process" whose main features, besides electronic puppet control, were use of 35 mm colour photography, 1 ⁄ 5 -scale filming stages, back projection , live-action inserts and live action-style special effects, and video assist to guide
474-415: A "used" look. Toy cars and vans were used when filming vehicles in long shot , and vehicles built in-house were equipped with basic steering and suspension for added realism. To simulate dust trails, the crew fitted the vehicles' undersides with miniature fans and Jetex pellets that emitted chemical exhaust or jets of air. Another of Meddings' inventions was a closed, cyclical effects stage nicknamed
632-518: A 2014 interview, Thunderbirds co-creator Sylvia Anderson explained: "I said to myself, 'What do the Americans think of us Brits? They think we're either Cockneys or posh ladies in stately homes . OK, that's what we'll give them.' So you've got Parker , the Cockney chauffeur, and Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, who lives this glamorous life in her big house." Anderson said that she made Penelope
790-419: A Supermarionation production. Supporting characters were played by puppets known as "revamps", which had plastic heads. These marionettes started their working lives with only a mouth and eyes; their faces were remoulded from one episode to the next. The most striking moulds were retained and, as their numbers increased, photographed to compile an internal casting directory. Wigs were made of mohair or, in
948-417: A car battery. The Andersons' puppet work also included The Investigator (1973), a pilot for an unmade Supermarionation series. This featured both marionettes and live actors but did not include the term "Supermarionation" in the credits. Noting that Gerry Anderson would have preferred to make live-action productions instead of puppet series, Percy argues that his style of filming was developed to "make
1106-492: A departure from APF's earlier series, each episode's titles include a story preview in the form of a fast-paced action montage. Simon Archer and Marcus Hearn compare this device favourably to a film trailer . The montage is followed by introductions for each of the Tracy brothers plus Brains and Lady Penelope, the characters' portraits being superimposed on various vehicles and settings. John Peel describes this as "ostensibly
1264-404: A journey that took eight hours. In the end, 21 miners were saved and the other 29 died. Seeing the advantages of faster emergency response, Anderson came up with the idea of an "international rescue" organisation that uses supersonic aircraft to transport equipment quickly over long distances. Wanting to set this concept apart from APF's earlier productions, Anderson tried to pitch the stories at
1422-468: A level that would appeal to both adults and children. Whereas earlier series had aired in afternoon children's timeslots, Anderson wanted Thunderbirds to be shown during the evening to attract a wider family audience. Series co-creator Sylvia Anderson recalled that "our market had grown and a 'kidult' show [...] was the next step." The Andersons retired to their holiday villa in Portugal to expand
1580-477: A method of chemically darkening them to keep them as thin as possible. During filming, the wires often needed to be further concealed using "antiflare" spray (grease mist) or various colours of paint to blend in with the sets and backgrounds. Balancing the weight was crucial: puppets that were too light would be difficult to control; too heavy and their wires would not bear the load. Inserts of real human hands, arms and legs were used to show complex actions that
1738-422: A nearby United States Army Air Forces base. Drawn to the "punchiness" of " Thunderbirds ", Anderson renamed the series, whose working title had been " International Rescue ", as well as the star vehicles, which had initially been designated Rescues 1 to 5 . His inspiration for the launch sequences of Thunderbirds 1 , 2 and 3 came from contemporary US Air Force launch procedure: Anderson had learnt how
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#17327973443161896-488: A new, flexible material, but the results proved unsatisfactory and the idea was abandoned. As the reduced head size made it harder to sculpt faces in Plasticine, guest characters were now played by a group of permanent, all-fibreglass puppets that were made to the same standards of workmanship as the regular characters. Likened to a " repertory company ", these puppets could be superficially altered from one appearance to
2054-490: A nod to Supermarionation, the series was credited as being "created in Hypermarionation". According to Anderson, Hypermarionation was not simply animation, but a "photo-real" production method combining CGI, high-definition picture and surround sound. Garland suggests that through Hypermarionation, Anderson sought to achieve a "hyperreal simulation of his live-action film utopia". In 2014, a Kickstarter campaign
2212-540: A practically all-male society. She lived a life of her own, but she enjoyed participating with International Rescue where necessary." The original character has been well received by commentators. Starburst magazine calls Penelope one of the series' "best-loved characters". According to Angus Allan , Penelope and Parker "became a cult in themselves." Commenting on the Thunderbirds cast, writer John Peel singles out Penelope for particular praise, referring to her as
2370-557: A private yacht named FAB 2 , a champion racehorse or helijet named FAB 3, and Seabird , a 40-foot (12 m) cruise ship. Several Seabirds have been constructed, since they are frequently destroyed in use. The seat of the Creighton-Ward dynasty is Creighton-Ward Mansion, an 18th-century stately home in Foxleyheath, Kent. The first mansion was built on the site of a Norman castle by the first Lord Creighton-Ward after he
2528-608: A puppet series called Moon Rangers . The episode features story-within-a-story marionette sequences that were written and filmed as a tribute to Supermarionation. The puppet series Space Patrol , created by Roberta Leigh and Arthur Provis and filmed by Leigh's company National Interest Picture Productions , used marionettes similar to those of APF's early series (including the use of automatic mouth movement). However, they were made in natural body proportions. The Japanese series Aerial City 008 (1969) and X-Bomber (1980) also featured Supermarionation-style puppets, with
2686-404: A result, Thunderbirds became not only APF's longest and highest-budgeted production, but also one of the most expensive TV series ever made up to that time. The total budget for the 26-episode Series One was about £1 million (roughly £24 million in 2023). The production, which had been shooting two 25-minute episodes every two weeks, faced significant challenges in the transition to
2844-480: A return to the 'series stars' concept long known in TV"; Garland states that the imagery demonstrates Anderson's commitment to "incremental realism" through convergence of human and puppet characteristics. Jonathan Bignell suggests that the use of portraits conveys Anderson's partiality to "visual revelation of machines and physical action". According to Daniel O'Brien, author of SF:UK: How British Science Fiction Changed
3002-513: A second chance to in life; a lovable rogue who could be the driver of her pink Rolls‑Royce . That's how Penelope and Parker evolved. — Sylvia Anderson discusses the character's conception The character's attire was inspired by contemporary Carnaby Street and Parisian fashions, with Vogue and Harper's magazines used as points of reference. Silks, leathers and furs were supplied by London department stores such as Liberty and Dickins & Jones . According to Anderson,
3160-408: A secret agent as she "loved the idea of an adventurous secret life." She compared Penelope favourably to the women characters of AP Films' earlier puppet series, which in her words "were just there to look good", adding that when the company moved on to Thunderbirds "the role of women was changing, and I knew Lady Penelope had to be up there with the boys." In her autobiography, she said that she wrote
3318-588: A secret agent. It was while working as the chief operative of the Federal Agents Bureau (FAB) that Penelope first met Jeff Tracy , the founder of International Rescue, and immediately accepted his invitation to become IR's field agent in London. In the episode " Vault of Death " it is shown she is not a very good driver. Penelope is stylish and fashionable in every aspect of her life. She is a world-renowned supermodel and celebrity and has appeared on
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#17327973443163476-702: A secret base on an island in the Pacific Ocean. International Rescue operates a fleet of technologically-advanced rescue vehicles, headed by five craft called the Thunderbird machines . The main characters are the leader of International Rescue, ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy , and his five adult sons, who pilot the Thunderbirds . Thunderbirds premiered in September 1965 on the ITV network and has since aired in at least 66 countries. Besides tie-in merchandise , it
3634-584: A surface realism often associated with naturalism) borne of an unfulfilled desire to make live-action films for adults", further commenting that Anderson's typecasting as a puppet TV creator "led him on a lifelong quest to perfect a simulation of reality". He notes that Anderson's involvement with puppets began at a time when Western puppet theatre "had become increasingly marginalised to a niche, to an association with children's entertainment", and that APF's productions used an "aesthetic of incremental realism" to appeal to children and adults alike (a target audience that
3792-610: A third unit to film model aircraft. This increased APF's total number of crews and filming stages to five each. A typical episode contained around 100 effects shots, with Meddings' team completing up to 18 a day. An addition to the team was Mike Trim , who assisted Meddings in designing the futuristic vehicles and buildings of Thunderbirds . Together, Meddings and Trim pioneered an "organic" design technique that involved embellishing models using parts from children's toys and off-the-shelf model kits . Models and sets were also "dirtied down" with powder paint or pencil lead to create
3950-408: A three-metre-high (9.8 ft) ceiling. As the art department 's sets needed to conform to the effects department's scale model designs, each team closely monitored the other's work. According to Sylvia Anderson, art director Bob Bell 's challenge was to produce complex interiors on a limited budget while resisting the effects team's push for "more extravagant" design. This task was complicated by
4108-521: A typical live-action series. He explained that fast cutting was needed as the puppets' lack of facial expressions made it difficult to keep the audience's interest for more than a few seconds at a time. Lew watched ["Trapped in the Sky"] and at the end he jumped up shouting, 'Fantastic, absolutely fantastic! This isn't a television series – this is a feature film! You've got to make this as an hour!' [...] I'm glad we did it, because it made
4266-421: A vacuum cleaner. The special effects in every APF series from Supercar to UFO were directed by Derek Meddings , who later supervised effects on James Bond and Superman films. Realising that Thunderbirds would be the "biggest project [APF] had worked on", Meddings knew that the effects department needed expansion. He therefore created a second unit , led by his assistant Brian Johncock , and
4424-471: Is Aloysius "Nosey" Parker . He is descended from a long line of Cockney retainers who have served the British aristocracy for centuries. However, finding it difficult to obtain a stable job, Parker fell in with the criminals of the London underworld. He secured a reputation as the world's foremost safe-cracker and cat-burglar , which resulted in his serving a sentence at Parkmoor Scrubs Prison. Following his release, he quickly returned to his criminal ways, and
4582-525: Is Penelope's cook. She has a sizeable repertoire of dishes, much to Parker's disgust. Perce is the gardener for the 2,000-acre (8.1 km) Creighton-Ward estate and a friend of Parker. Penelope owns a six-wheeled Rolls-Royce called FAB 1 , painted in her trademark shade of pink. The vehicle is driven by Parker. FAB 1 is equipped with various features to assist Penelope's field operative work, such as machine guns, bulletproof glass , water skis for sea excursions, and radar-assisted steering. Penelope also owns
4740-429: Is a British science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson , filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) and distributed by ITC Entertainment . It was filmed between 1964 and 1966 using a form of electronic marionette puppetry called " Supermarionation " combined with scale model special effects sequences. Two series, totalling 32 fifty-minute episodes, were made; production ended with
4898-584: Is a master criminal known as The Hood . Based in a temple in Malaysia, and possessing powers of hypnosis and dark magic , The Hood exerts telepathic control over Kyrano, his estranged half-brother, and manipulates the Tracys into rescues that unfold according to his own designs. This gives him opportunities to spy on the Thunderbird machines and, by selling their secrets, make himself rich. Thunderbirds
Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward - Misplaced Pages Continue
5056-426: Is also Alan's girlfriend; and Tin-Tin's father Kyrano , the Tracys' retainer . In this remote location, International Rescue is safe from criminals and spies who envy its technology and attempt to acquire the secrets of the Thunderbird machines. Some of International Rescue's operations are triggered not by innocent misadventure, but rather sabotage or criminal negligence. For missions involving undercover work,
5214-506: Is the colour pink." In the period 1965 to 1969, Lady Penelope stories were adapted into comics form, first in the comic TV Century 21 , and then in her own spinoff title . Lady Penelope, again voiced by Sylvia Anderson, appeared to the character of Edina Monsoon in a dream sequence in "Hospital", a 1994 episode of the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous . Also in 1994, Virgin Atlantic named its first Boeing 747-400 after Lady Penelope;
5372-483: Is under surveillance or that she is in danger, she can meet Parker at a nearby village without anyone knowing. Penelope also owns Bonga Bonga, a sheep station in the Australian outback housing 200,007 sheep. The property was acquired by Bertie "Buster" Creighton-Ward. The open-plan lounge, with its modern fabrics and simple geometric designs, is in sharp contrast to the detail of Creighton-Ward Mansion. "Penelon"
5530-720: The International Rescue Corps , was named after the organisation featured in the series. Set between 2065 and 2067, Thunderbirds follows the exploits of the Tracy family, headed by American industrialist and ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy . Jeff is a widower with five adult sons: Scott , John , Virgil , Gordon and Alan . The Tracys make up International Rescue, a secret organisation founded to save human life. They are aided in this mission by technologically advanced land, sea, air and space vehicles that are called into service when conventional rescue methods prove ineffective. The most important of these vehicles are
5688-540: The Strategic Air Command kept pilots on permanent standby, seated in the cockpits of their aircraft, ready for take-off at a moment's notice. In the DVD documentary The Thunderbirds Companion , Anderson explained how rising production costs made overseas distribution particularly important and essentially caused Thunderbirds to be made "as an American show". During the characterisation and casting process,
5846-516: The Thunderbird machines and the main locations, Tracy Island and Creighton-Ward Mansion. The finished island model was a composite of more than a dozen smaller sets, each of which could be detached from the whole and filmed separately. The mansion was based on the Palladian house at Stourhead in Wiltshire. In the absence of Reg Hill, the lead designer on APF's earlier productions, Meddings
6004-461: The Thunderbird 2 launch as "probably the most memorable" sequence that his team devised for any of APF's productions. The basic form of Thunderbird 3 was influenced by the Soyuz rocket. The largest of the spacecraft's filming models was six feet (1.8 m) tall. Ocean scenes featuring Thunderbird 4 were particularly difficult to film due to the mismatched scales of the model and the water in
6162-470: The Thunderbirds puppets to the accurately-proportioned ones that made their debut in Captain Scarlet : "The [ Thunderbirds ] puppets were easier to operate and more enjoyable because they had more character to them [...] Even some of the more normal-looking faces, such as Scott and Jeff, for me had more character than the puppets in the series that came afterwards." Rimmer speaks positively of
6320-601: The aircraft's registration , inspired by FAB 1, was G-VFAB. The aircraft was retired in September 2015. In 2003, Virgin Trains West Coast named locomotive 57307 Lady Penelope . It retained the name when sold to Direct Rail Services in 2013. Supermarionation Supermarionation (a portmanteau of the words "super", " marionette " and " animation ") is a style of television and film production employed by British company AP Films (later Century 21 Productions) in its puppet TV series and feature films of
6478-427: The solenoid – located inside the puppet's head – that synchronised the movements of the flexible lower lip with the syllables in the character's pre-recorded dialogue. The head had to be large enough to accommodate the solenoid, causing the torso and limbs to look disproportionately small. The puppets' likenesses and mechanics are fondly remembered by crew member Wanda Brown, who preferred
Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward - Misplaced Pages Continue
6636-421: The "meritocratic professionals" embodied by the Tracy men. He also describes the character as a "pop feminist" and an "emblem of Swinging Sixties femininity", comparing her to Emma Peel and Modesty Blaise . Considering Penelope and Parker to be "amongst the most popular and recognisable TV characters ever created", Robert Sellers comments that they "[stole] the show", with Penelope in particular "following in
6794-610: The "one character in the show who positively shone". He approves of her characterisation as a secret agent obliged to play the role of a "bored aristocrat", identifying parallels with male literary characters such as James Bond , Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel . Commentator Bill Osgerby argues that Penelope and Parker were added to the series to "play up to American perceptions of the British class system ", noting Penelope's status as an "aristocratic amateur" in contrast with
6952-424: The "rolling road", an adaptation of the technique whereby foreground, middleground and background elements of road sequences were created as separate rolls of looped canvas and spun at varying speeds. In the pursuit of realism, newly built models and sets were deliberately "dirtied down" with paint, oil, pencil lead and other substances to give them a used or weathered look. Jetex propellant pellets were fitted to
7110-403: The "rolling road": consisting of two or more loops of canvas running at different speeds, this device allowed shots of moving vehicles to be filmed on a static set to make efficient use of the limited studio space. Airborne aircraft shots were mounted against a "rolling sky", with smoke fanned across the stage to simulate passing clouds. One of Meddings' first tasks was to film stock footage of
7268-715: The 1960s. These productions were created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed at APF's studios on the Slough Trading Estate . The characters were played by electronic marionettes with a moveable lower lip, which opened and closed in time with pre-recorded dialogue by means of a solenoid in the puppet's head or chest. The productions were mostly science fiction with the puppetry supervised by Christine Glanville , art direction by either Bob Bell or Keith Wilson , and music composed by Barry Gray . They also made extensive use of scale model special effects, directed by Derek Meddings . The term "Supermarionation"
7426-603: The Andersons referred to as " kidult "). Garland suggests that this drive towards increased realism echoed "19th-century marionette theatre's own attempts to distinguish itself from other forms of puppetry (especially glove puppets ), which also involved a tethering to the newly-emergent realist aesthetic across the arts". In 1983, Gerry Anderson returned to puppetry with his independent science-fiction TV series Terrahawks . The characters of this series were made as three-foot-tall (0.91 m) rubber hand puppets, operated from
7584-461: The Andersons' top priority was to give the series transatlantic appeal, increasing the chances of securing a US network deal and the larger audiences that the American market had to offer. British, Canadian and Australian actors formed most of the voice cast . To ensure transatlantic appeal, it had been decided that most of the main characters would be American; therefore, it was essential that
7742-808: The Battery Boy . This series used puppets with wooden bodies and heads of "plastic wood" (a mixture of cork dust, glue and methylated spirit ). The heads incorporated moveable eyeballs and a hinged jaw that was opened and closed with a string. In practice, jaw movement was difficult to control due to the bobbing of the puppets' heads. By now all puppet sets were three-dimensional. They had also become more detailed, being made mostly of cardboard with fibreglass props. After Torchy , APF severed ties with Leigh and produced its first independent series, Four Feather Falls , using funding from Granada . The puppets now had hollow fibreglass shells for heads and tungsten steel wires instead of strings. Meanwhile,
7900-465: The British aristocracy too." As well as Jeff Tracy, English-Canadian actor Peter Dyneley voiced recurring character Commander Norman, chief of air traffic control at London Airport. Many of Dyneley's guest characters were upper-class Englishmen. Shane Rimmer , the voice of Scott, was cast based on his performance as Russell Corrigan in the BBC soap opera Compact . Fellow Canadian Matt Zimmerman , who
8058-482: The Creighton-Ward Mansion sets, Bell and his team strove for authenticity, ordering miniature Tudor-style paintings, 1 ⁄ 3 -scale Georgian - and Regency -style furniture, and carpeting in the shape of a polar bear skin. This realism was enhanced by adding scrap items acquired from electronics shops and household waste. For example, Virgil Tracy's launch chute was originally the pipe on
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#17327973443168216-478: The Penelope and Parker puppets needed to fit inside it, the largest model of all was the seven-foot-long (2.1 m) FAB 1, which cost £2,500 to build (about £64,000 in 2023). The car's name and colour were chosen by Sylvia Anderson. Rolls-Royce Ltd supervised the construction of the plywood model and supplied APF with a genuine radiator grille for close-ups of the front of the car. In return for its cooperation,
8374-560: The TV serial Quatermass and the Pit , provided the voices of Tin-Tin Kyrano and Grandma Tracy. Together with Sylvia Anderson, she was also responsible for voicing most of the female and child guest characters. Some small roles were played by Paul Maxwell , John Tate and Charles Tingwell ; Maxwell and Tingwell joined the cast in Series Two after working on Thunderbirds Are Go . None of
8532-557: The World , the title sequence encapsulates the reasons behind Thunderbirds ' enduring popularity. Dyneley's countdown is particularly well remembered and has been widely quoted. Dean Newman of the Syfy channel ranks Thunderbirds eighth in a list of "Top 10 TV title sequences", while Den of Geek 's Martin Anderson considers the sequence the best of any TV series. Thunderbirds
8690-666: The actors put on convincing accents. The only American actor on the cast was David Holliday , who had been spotted in London's West End and given the role of Virgil Tracy. Following the completion of Series One, Holliday returned to the US. For Series Two and the feature films, Virgil was voiced by Jeremy Wilkin . British actor David Graham was among the first to be cast. He had previously voiced characters in Four Feather Falls , Supercar , Fireball XL5 and Stingray . Outside APF's productions, he had supplied one of
8848-581: The age in which we lived, and although we prided ourselves on setting new boundaries, I suppose we were too obsessed with the Space Age , nuclear power and their consequences to be more aware of green and other more down-to-earth issues." Brian Viner writes that the character smoked "with the élan of Grace Kelly ". In a negative preview of the live-action film, XPosé magazine commented that Penelope seemed to have "turned into Barbara Cartland , as though someone's decided that her defining character trait
9006-426: The background colours of the set. Glanville explained the time-consuming nature of this process: "[The puppeteers] used to spend over half an hour on each shot getting rid of these wires, looking through the camera, puffing a bit more [paint] here, anti- flare there; and, I mean, it's very depressing when somebody will say to us, 'Of course the wires showed.'" Positioned on an overhead gantry with handheld cruciforms,
9164-423: The car for much of the time, so it would be much easier to make them convincing." According to interviewer Kevin O'Neill , this use of future settings for greater realism "almost accidentally" ensured that all of APF's subsequent series would be science fiction. In 2006, Anderson stated that the transition to this genre "wasn't a conscious move at all", but rather a natural progression given the basic deficiencies of
9322-416: The case of the Penelope puppet, human hair. Bodies were built in three sizes: "large male" (for the Tracys and The Hood), "small male" and "small female". Sylvia Anderson, who was also lead costume designer, devised the main characters' attire. To increase the puppets' mobility, the costume department avoided using stiff synthetic materials, opting for cotton, silk and wool instead. Between 1964 and 1966,
9480-520: The challenge facing the effects department was to strike a balance between the "conventional science fiction imperative of the 'futuristic'" and the "seeping hyper-realist concerns mandated by the Andersons' approach to the puppets". Thunderbirds has been praised for the quality of its effects. Jim Sangster and Paul Condon, authors of Collins Telly Guide , call the miniature model-work "uniformly impressive". To Paul Cornell , Martin Day and Keith Topping ,
9638-485: The character to convey "not only the daring and panache of a secret agent, but also the poise of a cool and beautiful aristocrat". Penelope would ultimately be modelled on and voiced by Anderson. The original template for the character was a model in Vogue magazine. However, after a number of test sculptures were rejected, designer Mary Turner instead chose to base the look on Anderson herself (a decision of which Anderson
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#17327973443169796-453: The character was not based on a particular person, but was instead the result of "drawing all the fantastic elements from the original and adding my own personal twists to make it my own." Born on 24 December 2000 ( Thunderbirds ) or 2039 ( Thunderbirds Are Go ), Lady Penelope is the 26-year-old daughter of aristocrat Lord Hugh Creighton-Ward and his wife, Amelia. The early years of her life were spent at Creighton-Ward Mansion. Later, her father
9954-412: The characters were sculpted in duplicate. The puppets had replaceable heads with different facial expressions: in addition to a blank-looking "normal" head, each main character was given a "smiler", a "frowner" and a "blinker". The finished puppets were about 22 inches (56 cm) tall, or 1 ⁄ 3 adult human height. Each puppet had more than 30 individual components, the most important being
10112-416: The collapse of a nearby dam flooded an iron mine in the municipality of Lengede , trapping 50 men underground. Efforts to save them were hampered by the length of time it took to bring rescue equipment to the site. Lacking the means to drill an escape shaft, the authorities were forced to requisition a heavy-duty bore from Bremen , more than 80 miles (130 km) away, and transport it to Lengede by train, in
10270-437: The company asked APF to add a miniature Spirit of Ecstasy and ensure that character dialogue refer to the car's make by its full name, "Rolls-Royce", not the abbreviation "Rolls". Scale explosions were created using substances such as fuller's earth , petrol gel, magnesium strips and Cordtex explosive. They were filmed at high speed – up to 120 frames per second (fps) – then slowed down to
10428-443: The company's puppet techniques more lifelike. When we got to making this better class of puppet film, I was looking for a more fitting way to explain how our productions differed from those of our predecessors. I wanted to invent a word that promoted the quality of our work, so we combined the words "super", "marionette" and "animation". It didn't mean anything other than that, and it certainly didn't refer to any specific process. It
10586-466: The components in the head was rejected in favour of moving the entire lip-sync mechanism to the chest, where it was connected to the mouth by a cable that ran through the neck. This made it possible to shrink the heads and make the puppets of Captain Scarlet and later series in natural proportions. Around this time, Century 21 also tried to make the puppets' faces more lifelike by crafting them in
10744-418: The control wires make this impossible) or pick up a coffee cup (although their fingers are not in fact jointed)." If particularly dexterous actions were required, the crew would film close-up inserts of a colleague's hands interacting with full-size props. The puppet stages were one-fifth the size of those used for a standard live-action production, typically measuring 12 by 14 metres (39 by 46 ft) with
10902-545: The cover of Chic magazine. Her clothes are specially created for her by top fashion designers such as Elaine Wickfern and François Lemaire, who named a revolutionary new fabric "Penelon" after her. She wears an exclusive perfume called "Soupçon de Péril", mixed for her by Jacques Verre. Whenever Penelope is in Paris, she always drinks Pernod . She takes tea almost religiously and can communicate with International Rescue via her Regency teapot. Lady Penelope's butler and chauffeur
11060-411: The crew. According to Chris Bentley, the term encompasses "all of the sophisticated puppetry techniques" used by APF – the foremost being the automatic mouth movement – "combined with the full range of film production facilities normally employed in live-action filming" (such as front and back projection, location shooting and visual effects ). Other commentators have cited the complexity and detail of
11218-429: The deliberate caricatures of its earlier series. Jeff Tracy was modelled on Lorne Greene , Scott on Sean Connery , Alan on Robert Reed , John on Adam Faith and Charlton Heston , Brains on Anthony Perkins and Parker on Ben Warriss . After several test heads were rejected, Turner modelled Lady Penelope on Sylvia Anderson, the character's voice actress. Anderson was initially unaware of this. The heads of
11376-474: The department's stock comprised more than 700 costumes. Since we always tried to minimise walking, we'd show the puppets taking one step only, then promptly cut. Through interspersing the programmes with "meanwhile" scenes – that is, showing what else was going on in the story at the same time – we would then cut back to the puppet who was now already in his craft. — Writer and director Alan Pattillo on
11534-561: The door, you'd cut to the reverse angle and that would be the puppet of Stanley Unwin ... I used Stanley Unwin, married to his own puppet, to enable him to do all the things that the puppet couldn't do." Special effects were created with miniature models and sets in a range of scales. A wide variety of materials were used in their construction – for example, rock faces were made from painted blocks of polystyrene, while miniature vehicles incorporated recycled household objects and parts from toy model kits. The lighting used for effects shooting
11692-404: The effects were "way beyond anything seen on TV previously". Impressed by their work on Thunderbirds , Stanley Kubrick hired several of Meddings' team as effects supervisors on 2001: A Space Odyssey . The title sequence , storyboarded by Gerry Anderson, opens with the following countdown: "5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – Thunderbirds Are Go!", provided by Peter Dyneley as Jeff Tracy. In
11850-406: The effort we were putting in and offer us live-action films ... When we did those early things we asked ourselves what we could do to improve them. Christine Glanville , who was so important to us as we went on with the puppets, came up with improvements all the time. — Sylvia Anderson on the making of APF's early productions (2001) Gerry Anderson's first experience with puppet filming
12008-625: The elaborate style of puppetry" used in APF's productions. Anderson denied that the term referred to a process, stating that he coined it as a promotional tool to separate APF's output from other children's puppet series like Muffin the Mule and Flower Pot Men . This was motivated by his embarrassment in working with puppets as opposed to live actors, and his wish to dispel the notion that APF's marionettes were "the sort of puppets that were used in pre-school programmes". He also likened Supermarionation to
12166-430: The fact that the legs of each puppet were controlled by only two strings, which made complex articulation impossible. According to Sylvia Anderson, the re-design exacerbated the puppets' core deficiencies: "The more realistic our puppets became, the more problems we had with them ... It was just possible to get away with the awkward moments in Thunderbirds because the proportions of the characters were still caricature. It
12324-475: The five " Thunderbird machines", each assigned to one of the five Tracy brothers: The family live on Tracy Island , International Rescue's secret base of operations in the South Pacific Ocean . They own a luxurious villa that they share with four other people: Grandma Tracy , Jeff's mother; scientist and engineer Brains , who designed the Thunderbird machines; Brains' assistant Tin-Tin , who
12482-447: The hero of Four Feather Falls , avoids walking by riding a horse called Rocky, while the characters of Fireball XL5 , Stingray and Thunderbirds achieve the same through use of personal hovercraft. Supercar and Stingray ' s focus on their eponymous car and submarine, as well as Stingray ' s depiction of Commander Shore as a paralytic reliant on a futuristic "hoverchair", are examples of other devices used to overcome
12640-415: The hinged jaw gave way to an electronic lip-sync mechanism. Designed by Hill and Read, this was powered by a solenoid , mounted in the head and fed electric current by two of the wires. Lip-syncing was a key step in the development of Supermarionation, and Four Feather Falls is regarded by some sources as the first Supermarionation production. The mechanism made it easier for the puppeteers to operate
12798-414: The historic building to better suit her double lifestyle by installing a satellite antenna, a number of two-way video communication consoles for contacting International Rescue, and a safe with state-of-the-art alarm system and CCTV. A forensic laboratory was built on the site of old servants' quarters. An underground river with a boat runs beneath the estate, and if Penelope thinks that Creighton-Ward Mansion
12956-495: The hope that the results would bring them bigger-budget commissions with live actors. To add to this more sophisticated look, the series often used three-dimensional sets instead of traditional flat backgrounds , while puppeteers Christine Glanville and her team operated the marionettes not from the studio floor, but from a bridge above it. Following the completion of Twizzle , APF was unsuccessful in securing new clients, so accepted another puppet commission from Leigh: Torchy
13114-415: The idea that Russia was the enemy with a whole generation of children watching", Gerry Anderson decided that The Hood (voiced by Barrett) should be Asian and placed his temple hideout in Malaysia to defy viewer expectations. Although Lady Penelope and Parker (the latter voiced by Graham) were among the first characters to be developed, they were not conceived as main characters. Parker's Cockney accent
13272-445: The integrity to match the material." The final Supermarionation series, The Secret Service , used footage of live actors to such an extent that the result according to Stephen La Rivière was "half-way between live action and Supermarionation". Its protagonist, Stanley Unwin, was modelled on the comedian of the same name , who both voiced the puppet character and served as its human body double in long shots and other scenes where
13430-456: The latter of the two referring to its filming style as 'Supermariorama' in reference to Supermarionation. In South Africa, similar techniques were used to make Interster (1982–86). The American puppet series Super Adventure Team (1998) was created in imitation of Supermarionation but with more adult themes and suggestive situations. Team America: World Police , a 2004 puppet film by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone ,
13588-453: The liberated footsteps of Cathy Gale and Emma Peel." Anderson argued that the character "broke the mould" for depictions of women in children's television. She also believed that after Penelope's early appearances, in which she played more of a supporting role, the character quickly rose to prominence: "All the heroines in our previous series had been perfect foils to the action-man heroes, but now, with Lady Penelope, we had an action girl who
13746-465: The main characters were first sculpted in either Plasticine or clay. Once the features had been finalised, this served as the template for a silicone rubber mould. This was coated with Bondaglass ( fibreglass mixed with resin) and enhanced with Bondapaste, a putty-like substance, to accentuate its contours. The Bondaglass shell was then fitted with the solenoid, plastic eyes and leather mouth parts, as well as incisor teeth – a first for
13904-434: The marionettes in time with their dialogue as it was no longer necessary to learn the characters' lines. According to Anderson, as exaggerated movements were no longer needed, the puppets were finally able to speak "without their heads lolling about a like a broken toy." By now the puppeteers' movements were guided using a basic form of video assist: a TV camera mounted directly behind the film camera, which relayed footage to
14062-431: The need to make puppet series as science fiction (2006) In a 1977 interview, Gerry Anderson said that the steps taken to make the puppets more lifelike were an attempt to "make the [puppet] medium respectable". On the preparations for Supercar , APF's first science-fiction production, he remembered "[thinking] that if we set the story in the future, there would be moving walkways and the puppets would be riding around in
14220-453: The new company and play a significant role in the development of its productions. The puppets of Twizzle had papier-mâché heads with painted eyes and mouths and were each controlled using a single carpet thread. Speech was indicated by nodding the heads. Somewhat embarrassed to be making a children's puppet series, Anderson and Provis decided to produce Twizzle in the style of a feature film, incorporating dynamic shooting and lighting in
14378-416: The new format: nine episodes had already been fully or partly filmed, scripts for ten more had been written, and major rewrites would be needed to satisfy the longer running time. Anderson lamented: "Our time-scale was far too drawn out. ITC's New York office insisted that they should have one show a fortnight [...] Everything had to move at twice the speed." APF spent more than seven months extending
14536-453: The next – for example, by adding or removing facial hair. In a 2002 interview, Anderson said that during the production of Captain Scarlet he was hoping to move into live-action television and that he endorsed the new puppets as a compromise for his inability to use live actors. In 2006, he recalled that Century 21 had been " typecast " for its puppetry: "[S]o, knowing it was the only thing I could get finance for, I desperately wanted to make
14694-589: The organisation incorporates a network of field agents led by English aristocrat Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward and her butler Aloysius Parker . Based at Creighton-Ward Mansion in Kent, Penelope and Parker travel in FAB ;1 : a specially-modified, pink Rolls-Royce . International Rescue members acknowledge orders with the expression " FAB " (a shortening of the 1960s buzzword "fabulous", spoken as an initialism: "F-A-B"). International Rescue's most persistent opponent
14852-470: The original Dalek voices on Doctor Who . Cast at the same time as Graham was Australian actor Ray Barrett . Like Graham, he had worked for the Andersons before, having voiced Titan and Commander Shore in Stingray . With experience in radio drama, Barrett could perform a wide range of voices and accents in quick succession. Conscious of Cold War political sensitivities and not wanting to "perpetuate
15010-503: The personality of their precursors, also stating that the increased emphasis on realism hampered the puppeteers' creativeness. Fellow sculptor Terry Curtis believed that the re-design took away the puppets' "charm". According to director Desmond Saunders , APF was trying "anything to get [the puppets] to look like ordinary human beings. But they are not ordinary human beings! ... I often wonder it if would have been better to make them more like puppets, not less like puppets." A drawback of
15168-422: The premise, script the pilot episode and compose a writers' guide . According to Sylvia, the writing process entailed a "division of labour", whereby Gerry devised the action sequences and she handled characterisation . The decision to make a father and his sons the main characters was influenced by the premise of Bonanza , as well as Sylvia's belief that the use of more than one heroic character would broaden
15326-437: The puppet film as 'respectable' as possible". She also comments that APF's filming techniques "would not only result in a level of quality and sophistication not seen before in a family show, but also give birth to some of the most iconic series in the history of British children's television." Garland describes the underlying theme of Anderson's work as a "self-reflexive obsession with an aesthetic of realism (or more accurately
15484-555: The puppet filming, the other to be added to the soundtrack in post-production. The tapes were edited at Gate Recording Theatre in Birmingham. The lead puppet sculptors were Christine Glanville and Mary Turner, who also served as lead puppet operators. Glanville and Turner's team built the 13 members of the main cast in six months at a cost of between £250 and £300 per puppet (about £6,400 and £7,700 in 2023). As pairs of episodes were being filmed simultaneously on separate stages,
15642-430: The puppet was impractical to use. According to Anderson, this was another way of avoiding the problem of lack of mobility: "I came up with the idea of getting Stanley Unwin to do all the walking shots, and driving shots in this Model Ford T [the character] had. If, for example, you had a sequence where Stanley Unwin would arrive at a building in his Model T, he would ... get out, walk down the path, and as soon as he opened
15800-422: The puppeteers coordinated their movements with the help of a viewfinder -powered CCTV feedback system. As filming progressed, the crew began to dispense with wires and instead manipulate puppets from the studio floor using rods . Due to their low weight, as well as the fact that each of their legs had only one control wire, the puppets were unable to walk convincingly. Scenes involving movement were filmed from
15958-517: The puppets Each puppet's head was fitted with around ten fine tungsten steel wires. During filming, dialogue was played into the studio on modified tape recorders that converted the feed into electronic pulses. Two of the wires relayed these pulses down to the solenoid, completing the Supermarionation process. The wires, which were sprayed black to reduce their visibility, were made even less noticeable by applying powder paint matching
16116-430: The puppets could not perform, such as operating machinery. In a 1965 interview, Reg Hill estimated that the Supermarionation productions contained "three or four times" as much cutting as live-action features because the puppets' lack of facial expression made it impossible to sustain the viewer's interest "for more than a few seconds" per shot. The puppets' distinguishing features were their hollow fibreglass heads and
16274-414: The puppets' lack of mobility. Because we had characters who couldn't stand properly without their knees sagging, and characters who had no expression, it was very difficult to play a love scene and impossible to have a fight. And so it seemed the way to go was anything that was fast-moving and had a lot of excitement, so it seemed that science fiction was the best option. — Gerry Anderson on
16432-496: The puppets' still being "very much caricatures", since it made them "more lovable and appealing [...] There was a naive quality about them and nothing too complex." The faces of the main characters were based on those of real-life actors and entertainers, often selected from the Spotlight casting directory. According to Glanville, APF wanted to give the Thunderbirds characters "more natural" looks to distinguish them from
16590-763: The puppets, models and sets as aspects of Supermarionation. Marcus Hearn states that the term reflected Gerry Anderson's desire to "promote his company's collective ingenuity as a proprietary process" and "[ally] his productions with Hollywood photographic techniques such as CinemaScope and VistaVision ." He adds that it "encompassed the full panoply of APF's expertise – production values in model-making, photography, special effects, editing and orchestral music that had never been so consistently applied to any type of children's programme, let alone those featuring puppets." We were determined to break away from [children's puppet programmes], so we treated those programmes as if they were something really special and hoped people would see
16748-409: The puppets. Sylvia said that the reasons were budgetary, due to the fact that APF could not yet afford to work with live actors: "... we were picking subjects that we could easily do in miniature scale." David Garland calls character movement Anderson's " bête noire " and states that the puppets' limited mobility resulted in "vehicle-heavy science fiction" becoming his "preferred genre". He considers
16906-446: The rockets were slow to ignite, the current quickly caused the wires to overheat and snap, potentially damaging the model and setting fire to the scenery. Conditions on the overhead platform were often dangerous due to the heat and smoke. Though many of the rocket exhaust sound effects were taken from an audio library, some were specially recorded at a Red Arrows display at RAF Little Rissington . Critic David Garland suggests that
17064-513: The same puppet techniques as the original, have also been produced. Widely regarded as the Andersons' most popular and commercially successful series, Thunderbirds has been praised for its special effects, directed by Derek Meddings , and its musical score by Barry Gray . It is also remembered for its title sequence , which begins with an oft-quoted countdown by Jeff Tracy voice actor Peter Dyneley : "5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – Thunderbirds Are Go!" A real-life search and rescue service,
17222-471: The scripts himself. Direction of episodes was assigned in pairs: veterans Pattillo and David Elliott alternated with the less-experienced Desmond Saunders and newcomer David Lane for each month's filming. Due to the complexities of setting up takes, progress was slow: even on a productive day, the crew could rarely complete more than two minutes of puppet footage. In an interview, Hill pointed out that Thunderbirds contained several times as many shots as
17380-467: The series much bigger and much more important. But it was still a very, very difficult job. — Gerry Anderson on the format change On viewing the finished pilot, " Trapped in the Sky ", Grade was so impressed with the series that he told Anderson to extend each episode from 25 to 50 minutes – long enough to fill a one-hour commercial timeslot. He also increased each episode's budget from £25,000 to £38,000. As
17538-449: The series' appeal. The Tracy brothers were named after Mercury Seven astronauts: Scott Carpenter , John Glenn , Virgil "Gus" Grissom , Gordon Cooper and Alan Shepard . I started to think that there really ought to be dumps around the world with rescue gear standing by, so that when a disaster happened, all these items of rescue equipment could be rushed to the disaster zone and used to help to get people out of trouble [...] I
17696-650: The shooting tank. The crew used creative camera angles and fast cutting to give these shots a sense of realistic perspective. Thunderbird 5 , which Meddings found the hardest to design, was based on the shape of the Tracy Island Round House. With stock footage providing most of the space station's appearances, the model was rarely filmed. Pod Vehicles were designed episode by episode and were built from balsa wood, Jelutong wood or fibreglass. To save time and costs, some minor vehicles were built entirely out of parts from radio-controlled model kits. As
17854-402: The sixth episode of the second series after Lew Grade , APF's financial backer, failed in his efforts to sell the programme to US network television. Set in the 2060s, Thunderbirds was a follow-up to the earlier Supermarionation productions Four Feather Falls , Supercar , Fireball XL5 and Stingray . It concerns the exploits of International Rescue, a life-saving organisation with
18012-424: The smaller heads was that they upset the weight distribution; this made the puppets harder to control, to a point where they would often have to be fixed to G-clamps to be kept steady. In addition, problems achieving realistic depth of field made it considerably harder to film close-up shots. A major limitation of the marionettes was their inability to walk convincingly. This was due to their low weight and
18170-424: The solenoid dictated the puppets' body proportions. Head-mounted solenoids made the heads oversized compared to the rest of the body; the latter could not be scaled up to match as this would have made the puppets too bulky to operate effectively, and would have required all the set elements to be enlarged. According to commentator David Garland, the disproportion was influenced partly by "aesthetic considerations ...
18328-622: The solenoids that powered the automatic mouth movements. Character dialogue was recorded on two tapes. One of these would be played during filming, both to guide the puppeteers and provide a basis for the soundtrack; the other would be converted into a series of electrical signals. When activated by the signals, the solenoid in the head caused the puppet's lower lip to open and close with each syllable. The heads of regular characters were entirely fibreglass; proto-heads were sculpted in clay or Plasticine and then encased in rubber (or silicone rubber ) to create moulds, to which fibreglass resin
18486-477: The standard 24 fps to give an impression of greater weight and scale. Gunpowder canisters were ignited to create rocket jets. The wires that electrically fired the rockets also allowed one of the crew, holding a cruciform and stationed on a platform over the stage, to "fly" the model across the set. The most unwieldy model was Thunderbird 2 , which Meddings remembered as being "awful" to fly. There were frequent problems with unreliable rockets or weak wiring: if
18644-424: The studio floor in a process called "Supermacromation". This was similar to the techniques employed by American puppeteer Jim Henson . In 2004, Anderson created a Captain Scarlet remake titled New Captain Scarlet , which was produced using computer-generated imagery (CGI) and motion-capture techniques. Motion capture was used heavily for action sequences as it provided more convincing character movement. As
18802-443: The term to increase the "respectability" of puppetry, a medium he had not originally intended to work with. According to Sylvia, the productions were described as "Supermarionation" to distinguish them from traditional puppet theatre. Noting that a major disadvantage of APF's marionettes was their inability to walk convincingly, commentators have argued that the term expressed Gerry's preference for artistic realism and his wish to make
18960-473: The theory being that the head carried the puppet's personality". It resulted in many puppets developing caricatured appearances, though Anderson stated that this was not intentional. Between Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons , the development of miniaturised electronic components prompted APF – now called Century 21 Productions – to create a new type of puppet. The option to downsize
19118-413: The thing look as close to live action as possible. And I think it was that that drove me on to bring in all the improvements and techniques." Thom believes that the re-design reflected Anderson's desire for greater "realism and spectacle". Not all of Anderson's colleagues welcomed the change. Puppet sculptor and operator John Blundall pejoratively referred to the new puppets as "little humans" that lacked
19276-531: The three were credited for their performances. Dialogue recording was supervised by the Andersons and associate producer Reg Hill , with Sylvia Anderson in overall charge of voice casting. There was one recording session a month and the cast acted out two scripts at each session. Guest parts were not assigned by the producers, but rather negotiated among the actors. Villains of the week were typically voiced by either Barrett or Graham. Two recordings would be taken: one to be converted into electronic pulses for
19434-498: The undersides of miniature ground vehicles to emit jets of gas resembling dust trails. Over time, the effects used for puppet gunfights became more elaborate: whereas gunshot effects in Four Feather Falls were created by simply painting marks on the film negative (which showed up as white flashes on the finished print), for later series the puppets' miniature prop guns were fitted with small charges that were fired using
19592-484: The unnatural proportions of the puppets: Bell struggled to decide whether the scales should match their bodies or their oversized heads and hands. He used FAB 1 to illustrate the problem: "As soon as we positioned [the puppets] standing alongside [the model], they looked ridiculous, as the car towered over them." He finally adopted a "mix-and-match" approach, by which smaller items, such as tableware, were scaled to their hands and furniture to their bodies. While designing
19750-455: The unveiling of Lemaire's new all-Penelon collection be held on board the aircraft Skythrust , designed by International Rescue's engineer, Brains . Thunderbirds script editor Alan Pattillo admired the character, finding her more interesting than the Tracys: "All the men had to do was pilot these marvellous craft [...] Penelope was much more flexible. She wasn't living on this island in
19908-479: The use of marionettes – the kind of puppet "perhaps most unsuited" to an action format – to be "one of the most striking paradoxes" of the Anderson productions. Carolyn Percy of the Wales Arts Review comments that the inclusion of "futuristic vehicles" like Supercar allowed APF to devise "more exciting and imaginative scenarios" and "work around the limitations of the puppets ... to give their 'acting'
20066-464: The various monitors around the studio. The term "Supermarionation" was coined during the production of Supercar , APF's first series to be made for Lew Grade 's distribution company ITC Entertainment . Its final 13 episodes were the first to be credited as being "filmed in Supermarionation". The puppets and puppet sets of Supermarionation were built in 1 ⁄ 3 scale, the former being roughly two feet (61 cm) tall. Each marionette
20224-400: The waist up, with a puppeteer holding the legs out of shot and using a "bobbing" action to simulate walking or running. Dynamic shots could also be eliminated altogether: in an interview with New Scientist , director of photography John Read discussed the advantages of bypassing the puppets' lack of agility – so that they "appear, for example, to walk through doors (although
20382-424: The world of Thunderbirds , Penelope is employed by the secret organisation International Rescue as its London field agent. The puppet character of the TV series and first two films were voiced by Sylvia Anderson . In the live-action film, she was portrayed by Sophia Myles , while in the remake series she is voiced by Rosamund Pike . The original puppet character was devised with transatlantic viewers in mind. In
20540-399: The writers on the series initially had trouble devising substantial plots for the character, prompting her to encourage them to write Penelope into more episodes. During the production of the 2004 live-action film , actress Sophia Myles had a movement director to help her give the character a graceful walk. In an interview with Starburst magazine, Myles said that her interpretation of
20698-432: Was a personality in her own right." When Thunderbirds was repeated on the BBC in the early 2000s, the character was criticised for smoking, wearing furs and not using seat belts in cars. Anderson commented that smoking and fur-wearing in particular were likely to be viewed by modern audiences as politically incorrect, calling them two of several "stereotyped prejudices" in Thunderbirds . She elaborated: "We were limited by
20856-482: Was acting in the West End, was hired at a late stage in the casting process. He was given the role of Alan on the recommendation of his friend, Holliday: "They were having great difficulty casting the part of Alan as they wanted a certain sound for him, being the youngest brother. David, who [was] a bit older than I am, told them that he had this friend, me, who would be great." Christine Finn , known for her role in
21014-430: Was additionally tasked with designing the five Thunderbirds and FAB 1. The filming models of the six vehicles were built by a contractor, Master Models of Middlesex. Models and puppet sets combined, more than 200 versions of the Thunderbird machines were built for the series. During the design and filming process, Meddings' priorities were realism and credibility. With the exception of Thunderbird 5 , each vehicle
21172-412: Was applied to create the finished shells. Guest characters were played by puppets called "revamps", whose faces were Plasticine sculpted on featureless fibreglass heads. This allowed the revamps to be re-modelled from one episode to the next and play a wider range of characters. Many regulars were modelled on contemporary Hollywood actors. The puppets' eyes were moved by radio control. The placement of
21330-686: Was based on the mannerisms of a waiter at a pub in Cookham that the Andersons sometimes visited. On Gerry's recommendation, Graham started making trips to the pub to pick up the accent. Anderson's first choice for Penelope had been Fenella Fielding , but Sylvia insisted on taking the part herself. Her Penelope voice was intended to emulate Fielding and Joan Greenwood . On Penelope and Parker's secondary role as comic relief, Gerry explained, "We British can laugh at ourselves, so therefore we had Penelope and Parker as this comedy team. And in America they love
21488-539: Was built in three or four scales. Thunderbird 1 ' s swing-wing design was motivated by Meddings' wish to come up with something "more dynamic" than a conventional fixed-wing aircraft. He was unhappy with the Thunderbird 2 prototype until he inverted the wings to be forward-swept . This decision was not based on any expert knowledge of aerodynamics; in Meddings' words: "[A]t the time, all aircraft had swept-back wings. I only did it to be different." He described
21646-427: Was created by fashion designer François Lemaire, who named it in honour of his favourite model, Lady Penelope. This fabric has extraordinary properties: Penelon can be converted into any costume design, squeezed into a space the size of a match box and be fashioned to resemble any other material. The fabric is sought after by Lemaire's rivals, and after Penelope discovers that they have bugged his office, she suggests that
21804-416: Was devised by effects director Derek Meddings to allow filming of dynamic shots in confined space. It involved painting the sky background on a canvas, which was then wrapped around a pair of electrically driven rollers, and creating an impression of movement by running the canvas around the rollers in a continuous loop as opposed to moving the miniature aircraft itself. Thunderbirds saw the introduction of
21962-406: Was discovered by Penelope while attempting to crack the safe of an oil tycoon. Penelope had learned of Parker's talents and offered him a partnership in her spy work for International Rescue. He is now a loyal and indispensable assistant to Penelope and IR. " Give or Take a Million " is the only episode of the series in which Penelope appears without Parker. Lilian (or Lil, as she is known by Parker)
22120-484: Was filmed at APF's Slough studios between 1964 and 1966. In preparation for the new production, the company increased the number of full-time crew to 100. Shooting on Series One began in September 1964 after five months of pre-production. Due to the series' technical complexity, this was a period longer than for any of the earlier productions. To speed up the filming, episodes were shot in pairs on separate stages and by separate crews, designated "A" and "B". By 1964, APF
22278-496: Was first used during the production of Supercar , whose final 13 episodes were the first to be credited as being "filmed in Supermarionation". Some sources consider its precursor, Four Feather Falls , to be the first Supermarionation series because it saw the introduction of the electronic lip-syncing mechanism that featured in all of APF's later puppet productions. The term was coined by Gerry Anderson, who regarded it as APF's trademark. In later life, he said that he invented
22436-464: Was five times as strong as that normally used on a live-action production. Effects were typically shot at high speed (72 to 120 frames per second ) with the footage slowed down in post-production to give a sense of greater weight or steadiness, thus making the sequences look more realistic. High-speed filming was essential for shots on water in order to make the small ripples inside the filming tank look like ocean waves. As sets were built to scale, it
22594-457: Was followed by two feature films: Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6 . Periodically repeated , it was adapted for radio in the 1990s and has influenced many TV programmes and other media. Its other adaptations include an anime reimagining ( Thunderbirds 2086 ), a live-action film ( Thunderbirds ) and a part-CGI, part-live-action remake ( Thunderbirds Are Go ). Three supplementary episodes, based on tie-in audio plays and made using
22752-459: Was in 1956, when Pentagon Films – a group of five filmmakers including Anderson and his friend Arthur Provis – was contracted to make a series of Noddy -themed TV advertisements for Kellogg's breakfast cereal. Around this time, Pentagon also produced a 15-minute puppet film called Here Comes Kandy . These early efforts were noticed by children's author Roberta Leigh , who had written a collection of scripts titled The Adventures of Twizzle and
22910-448: Was inspired by Thunderbirds and has been described as an imitation or spoof of Supermarionation productions. Stone and Parker dubbed their filming process "Supercrappymation" (or "Supercrappynation") as the wires were deliberately left visible. A Stargate SG-1 episode, " 200 " (2006), features a self-parody in which the characters are played by Supermarionation-style puppets. Thunderbirds (TV series) Thunderbirds
23068-509: Was knighted by Elizabeth I , who was a regular visitor. The current mansion was built by Lord Cuthbert Creighton-Ward in 1730 after he burned down the previous house during a gunpowder experiment. Lord Cuthbert asked architect Colen Campbell to design the iconic Palladian edifice, which has been designated a Grade I listed building by the World Heritage Organisation. When Penelope became a secret agent, she renovated
23226-583: Was later elected head girl . Upon leaving Roedean, Penelope attended a finishing school in Switzerland. Here, she became a skilled skier and linguist, being able to speak fluent French, German and Italian. On the outside, Lady Penelope is just another member of the British high society, as well as a fashion icon. However, after completing her education in Buckinghamshire, she rejected the aristocracy's endless round of social engagements and became
23384-429: Was later when we had developed a more realistic approach ... that the still imperfect walk was [all] the more obvious." To limit the need for leg movement, many scenes featuring walks were filmed from the waist up , with motion implied by a puppeteer holding the legs out of shot and bobbing the marionette up and down while pushing it forward. Other scenes showed puppets standing, sitting or driving vehicles. Tex Tucker,
23542-406: Was launched to fund a remake of the anime series Firestorm , to be produced using a technique called "Ultramarionation". In the 2010s, Stephen La Rivière and his production company Century 21 Films began a revival of Supermarionation. Their productions are listed below. Century 21 Films also worked on "Apollo", a 2019 episode of Endeavour that is set partly in a TV studio which is making
23700-603: Was looking for a film company to turn them into a puppet TV series. By this time, Anderson and Provis had left Pentagon to form their own company, Anderson Provis Films (AP Films or APF). They accepted the commission, disappointed not to be working with live actors but realising that they needed Leigh's investment to stay in business. Before starting production, Anderson and Provis hired three staff: continuity supervisor Sylvia Thamm (former secretary at Pentagon and Anderson's future wife), art director Reg Hill and camera operator John Read . All three would later be made co-directors of
23858-536: Was not immediately apprised). Interviewed by the Daily Mirror in 1968, Turner commented: "We wanted a glamorous blonde and [Anderson] was the obvious choice." One of my favourite books was The Scarlet Pimpernel . I was fascinated by the idea that you could be one person by day and someone completely different at night. So I thought about the lady of the manor with her lovely car, doing all her good works. And then I thought there would be someone she would give
24016-402: Was often hard to maintain a realistic sense of depth. Underwater sequences were filmed not in water, but on dry sets with a thin aquarium between the set and the camera to distort the lighting. Bubble jets and small fish were added to the aquarium to create forced perspective . Beginning with Stingray , shots of aircraft in flight were filmed using a technique called the "rolling sky", which
24174-538: Was our trademark, if you like. — Gerry Anderson on the origin of the term (2002) The term was coined in 1960 by Gerry Anderson. Sources describe Supermarionation as a style of puppetry, a production technique or process, or a promotional term. Emma Thom of the National Science and Media Museum defines it as APF's use of electronics to synchronise puppets' lip movements with pre-recorded dialogue. According to Jeff Evans , it "express[es]
24332-429: Was requested by the government to travel to India to organise a tea-growing community. The Indian climate did not agree with Penelope, so she returned without her parents to England, where she was put into the care of a governess, Miss Pemberton, with whom she quickly bonded. At the age of eleven, Penelope was sent to the prestigious Roedean School . She excelled in many subjects and became very popular among her peers; she
24490-433: Was suspended and controlled with several fine tungsten steel wires that were between 1 ⁄ 5000 and 1 ⁄ 3000 of an inch (0.0051–0.0085 mm) thick, replacing the carpet thread and twine strings that had been used prior to Four Feather Falls . To make the wires non-reflective, initially they were painted black; however, this made them thicker and more noticeable, so manufacturers Ormiston Wire devised
24648-481: Was the UK's largest commercial user of colour film, consuming more than three million feet (570 mi; 910 km) of stock per year. Like their previous three series, the Andersons devised Thunderbirds as a 25-minute show. In late 1964, Alan Pattillo , a long-time writer and director for APF, became the company's first official script editor . This reduced the burden on Gerry Anderson, who had grown weary of revising
24806-502: Was the fifth series to be co-created by Gerry Anderson and filmed by his production company APF, whose studios were located on the Slough Trading Estate . Pitched in 1963, the series was commissioned by Lew Grade of ITC, APF's parent company, following the commercial success of Stingray . The series' premise was inspired by the West German mining disaster known as the " Wunder von Lengede " (Miracle of Lengede). In October 1963,
24964-473: Was thinking, 'Rescue, yes, rescue, but how to make it science fiction? What about an international rescue organisation?' — Gerry Anderson on the premise The series' title was derived from a letter Gerry had received during World War II from his brother Lionel, an RAF flight sergeant based overseas. While stationed in Arizona, Lionel had made reference to Thunderbird Field ,
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