Missing Thunderbirds footage found in British garden shed
- Reference: 1728455229
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/10/09/missing_thunderbirds_footage/
- Source link:
The family of a recently deceased former editor of the show found a collection of 22 rusty and cracked film cans in their Buckinghamshire shed. The film inside is currently being restored and digitized. They contain a lot of old material, but also some extended scenes and a previously-unseen new ending to one episode.
Stephen La Rivière of Century 21 Films – who is leading the restoration drive – [1]told the BBC recovering the footage “took weeks, bit by bit."
[2]
"Every night I'd get a link for a download of the latest one that had been scanned … you'd never know what you'd get. Eventually, listening one night … this one played out and it was not the same as broadcast."
[3]
[4]
If you’ve never watched the show, the video below offers a good primer and a peek at the recovered footage.
[5]Youtube Video
[6]
Thunderbirds was originally conceived as 30-minute episodes, but some were extended at the request of management. It's thought that the extra footage came from one of these extended episodes that never aired.
[7]Tracy brothers are back: Thunderbirds Are Go! again in 5... 4... 3...
[8]Thunderbirds , Captain Scarlet creator Gerry Anderson dies at 83
[9]Space: 1999 returning to TV?
Thunderbirds was the invention of British auteurs Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and was broadcast in 1965. It told the tales of International Rescue, a clandestine group set up by an American financier and his five sons to save human lives. The team had five aircraft, Thunderbirds 1 through 5, which roamed space, the surface and underwater realms of Earth doing the right thing – mostly.
The series was filmed using a process they called “supermarionation” – wire controlled puppets that had basic electronics installed to move the characters' mouths in sync with the recorded script. It was a technique the duo used to great effect in other shows such as Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Fireball XL5, Sting Ray, and Joe 90 – and the team behind Team America: World Police appear to have been inspired by the technique.
The show was screened again on British television in the 1990s and gained a new legion of fans. However, this success did not translate to the silver screen, with the 1960s films Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6 flopping. The 2004 film Thunderbirds is best forgotten.
It's hoped the new footage will be released next year as part of the celebrations of the show's 60th anniversary. Sadly it won't be seen by David Graham, who voiced four of the show's characters and then influenced a new generation as the voice of Grandpa Pig in the children's show Peppa Pig. Graham [10]passed away last month at the age of 99. ®
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[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1e848ewnlno
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZwZUV4p0bT2mC0zlRIercwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZwZUV4p0bT2mC0zlRIercwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZwZUV4p0bT2mC0zlRIercwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGvn-dntlU8
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZwZUV4p0bT2mC0zlRIercwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2013/02/05/thunderbirds_series/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2012/12/26/gerry_anderson_dies/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2012/02/10/space_1999_re_imagination/
[10] https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/sep/21/david-graham-voice-of-thunderbirds-and-peppa-pig-characters-dies-aged-99
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Funderbirds Are Brilliant!
Thunderbirds are _still_ go!
SIG
Recovering lost films from collectors is an interesting subject
Radio Free Skaro has an interview with Tim Burrows (Missing Episodes Podcast) on the subject. Not just about Doctor Who episodes but covering the efforts of Film is Fabulous https://filmisfabulous.org.uk/ which include cataloguing the estates of deceased collectors.
https://radiofreeskaro.com/2024/07/07/radio-free-skaro-968-we-are-going-to-be-too-late-again/
I remember it well. I know I would have watched the short version when it was first broadcast, but only remember the long version with the dangerous cutting gas. I didn't realize there were two and I had seen both.
Movie failed as it was too American, even being directed by Jonathan Frakes couldn't save it.
Was that the puppet film, that had a close-up of a real hand moving a slider; or the "live-action" film, that had a close-up of a fake-hand moving a slider?
[I laughed _SO_ hard when I saw that!!]
Yes, the story I heard was that it was Sylvia's hand.
"Laughed so hard". You would have been laughing even more if it had been a puppet hand doing the reaching: it was unable to grasp an object.
It worked for me as a nipper. It was "slow", but better than all the ADHD-inducing animation we get nowadays.YMMV.
F.A.B.
As I think [1]Lady Penelope might have said.
I suspect Sylvia Anderson's hand could be seen in the fashions of her Ladyship's wardrobe and the other marionettes as well as in UFO (and Space: 1999?) Curious how the actual fashions of the future* were somewhat bland in comparision with those envisaged in these productions.
* as indeed was the future itself.
[1] http://digitalspyuk.cdnds.net/17/38/1600x800/landscape-1506097971-lady-penelope.jpg
Yus m'lady
That's all
David Graham
You Forgot he was Kaganovich in Series 2 and Morty Black in Series 4 of When The Boat Comes In...
We know "Thunderbirds" is fiction...
" International Rescue, a clandestine group set up by an American financier and his five sons to save human lives ... doing the right thing – mostly "
I think not instantiated in this world. Doing the thing of the Right might be as close as our world might get.
I wonder when Space Karen turned up in Thailand with his little submarine whether he was channelling Jeff Tracy ?
He has the rocket and his cybertruck wouldn't look out of place in Thunderbirds etc, although subsequent events suggest he was was more likely possessed by The Hood .
If his eyes do light up like red leds (or a Cylon's) he can always blame his "special" K intake.
Re: We know "Thunderbirds" is fiction...
Erm... ?
F.A.B.