The year is 2065, and a philanthropic, fabulously wealthy ex-astronaut \u2013 Jeff Tracy \u2013 dedicates his life to saving humanity. Their headquarters? A mid-century vintage James Bond-style villa, situated on an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. From here, Jeff and his five handsome, talented sons blast off in hi-tech vehicles to stage daring rescues. These almost totemic, futuristic feats of engineering? Thunderbirds.<\/p>\n
First airing in 1965, the TV series had a daring, strikingly optimistic view not just of the future, but of humanity as a whole. It all started when its creators, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, who were already making ambitious and successful TV shows, learned of a disaster unfolding in Germany. A mine had collapsed, sealing 50 men deep underground, and a group of brave volunteers set out to rescue them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something he became obsessed with,\u201d says Jamie Anderson, son of Gerry and Sylvia, and CEO of Anderson Entertainment. \u201cThe idea that these people were trapped, and suffering, and that they had no idea that not too far away, people they\u2019d never met before were making great efforts to save their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
This moment, Anderson says, led to the creation of Thunderbirds: \u201cHe thought, what if you could create a group that could get anywhere in the world, super fast, and rescue people in danger?\u201d<\/p>\n
Gerry Anderson with two of his most famous puppets, Lady Penelope and Parker. Photograph: Yui Mok\/PA<\/p>\n
Thunderbirds charts the adventures of International Rescue, a secret organisation dedicated to carrying out this wonderfully optimistic mission. Anderson says his father grew up in poverty during the second world war, which claimed the life of his brother, who was killed during RAF operations. \u201cA child growing up in that is going to seek the opposite, right?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
In fact, Gerry\u2019s brother Lionel was another direct inspiration for Thunderbirds. \u201cLionel was one of those really annoying people who was handsome, smart, witty, artistic, could dance, was musical, confident \u2026 this guy had it all, did it all. He was the original Tracy brother! You can spread all those characteristics across the boys, and they\u2019re kind of like the light of Lionel hitting a prism and being split into the five brothers,\u201d says Anderson.<\/p>\n
Those five brothers became the pilots of the Thunderbirds, the futuristic vehicles deployed by International Rescue. Brothers, it should be noted, played not by humans \u2026 but marionettes. But why puppets?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey never wanted to use puppets!\u201d says Anderson. \u201cThey wanted to make Hollywood epics with real, proper actors, not with fibreglass marionettes. So much of Thunderbirds is born out of embarrassment. Working with these \u2018bloody puppets\u2019, dangling by carpet thread, with painted-on eyes. Dad\u2019s constant quest was, what can we do to make them look better? To de-puppetify the puppets?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The sheer scale of Thunderbirds becomes almost overwhelming when you realise that Gerry and Sylvia were essentially turning out 50-minute-long films, cast entirely with puppets, moving through and interacting with countless bespoke sets and props, acting out deceptively complex stories in globe-spanning locales. The level of detail in Thunderbirds remains, to this day, bewildering.<\/p>\n
Over its 36-episode run (followed by two feature-length films), viewers watched in awe as Thunderbirds plunged them into stories flitting between classic disaster films, spy capers, space-age sci-fi and cold war intrigue. And for each challenge, International Rescue had an answer. Thunderbird 1, a sleek hypersonic rocket plane, was used for recon, piloted by Scott Tracy. Thunderbird 2, a surreal snub-nosed aircraft carrier, carried pods which deployed a never-ending array of specialist equipment, piloted by Virgil. Thunderbird 3? A spaceship piloted by Alan. Thunderbird 4 was a sleek little submarine, piloted by Gordon, and deployed by Thunderbird 2. Finally, Thunderbird 5, the space station from which International Rescue handled worldwide comms, helmed by John Tracy.<\/p>\n
But which Thunderbird is the best, and why is it Thunderbird 2? \u201cYes, that is the question,\u201d says Anderson. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously 2!\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the series focused on the Tracy brothers and their valiant rescue missions, the spotlight was often stolen by Lady Penelope: a model, socialite and a secret agent who frequently collaborated with International Rescue. She brought a touch of MI6 mystique and humanity to the proceedings. Often accompanied by Parker, her resourceful valet, she was based on \u2013 and voiced by \u2013 Sylvia, who injected heart and warmth into the show. \u201cSylvia brought in such an awareness of culture and character and style,\u201d says Anderson. \u201cThe look, the feel of the 60s, which was always looking towards the future. It was bright, positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
So positive, in fact, that it went on to inspire the creation of a real International Rescue (the International Rescue Corps) in the 1980s. \u201cDad was president, and I was briefly vice-president, before it closed a few years back. They were volunteers who went around the world and helped people in need, so there was a real-life impact.\u201d<\/p>\n
After more than 60 years on television, Thunderbirds remains an incomparable piece of TV history. It\u2019s a show about a billionaire who dedicates his life, time and money to helping those in need \u2013 with no strings attached. And doesn\u2019t that just sound FAB?<\/p>\n
Thunderbirds is available to stream on 9Now in Australia, on ITVX in the UK, and on Peacock Premium in the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The year is 2065, and a philanthropic, fabulously wealthy ex-astronaut \u2013 Jeff Tracy \u2013 dedicates his life to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-910397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=910397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}