Thunderbirds - Gerry Anderson dies

[Wyvernfan]

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/news/showb...on-dies/73094/

RIP

[J Boyle]

His shows were a part of a lot of people's childhood.
Something to be pleased with.

RIP

[MSR777]

A very sad piece of news indeed. As a master of his craft, he leaves us with a great legacy of marvellous childhood TV memories. Long live Stingray!,

RIP Gerry, and thanks.

[allan125]

Sad news - but once again, after watching the BBC news, nobody mentions Four Feather Falls - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Feather_Falls which I enjoyed watching way back in 1960, as well as the later Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet etc.

cheers

Allan

[MSR777]

Didn't he also do Twizzle and Torchy the Battery Boy? And no, I'm not old enough to remember them first time around

[Al]

Very sad news...
RIP

[Tangmere1940]

You know when you have made it big time in the historic aviation world when you are the BBC's first port of call because they need to interview an 'expert'. The topic they wanted to talk to me about for BBC 5........?

Thunderbirds.

(RIP Gerry.)

[Moggy C]

No!

You have really made it big time in the historic aviation world when you take a top-down narrative that has been firmly established in legend and write a radical re-evaluation that dismantles this mythical retelling of events.

Surely you know this?

Moggy

And indeed farewell to an excellent purveyor of science fiction to the kids of post-war Britain.

[allan125]

Didn't he also do Twizzle and Torchy the Battery Boy? And no, I'm not old enough to remember them first time around

Yes he did - and I did watch them the first time round as well!!

And, having read the post above, I personally blame Andy Saunders for the BBC not giving Four Feather Falls a mention - typical expert, only gives his own slant on the story, never mind the facts!!

Allan

[DazDaMan]

Genuinely sad news. I was always partial to Thunderbirds and a bit of Stingray....

[charliehunt]

Farewell to Supermarrionation!! A marvellous, creative innovator who broke a few rules, and ended up establishing an iconic set of characters and films. Brilliant.

[hampden98]

We should not mourn but celebrate one of the greatest and most creative children's TV show geniuses ever!

They should definitely play this at his funeral
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWfu6rslHDs

[BSG-75]

This was truely sad, Thunderbirds and later Space 1999 were a part of my childhood that I remember fondly. I think that Gerry Anderson never got the recognition he deserved for the technical skill in his shows (look at Space 1999 now, the models and effects stand up well...)

Thunderbirds had a genuine charm, I don't think anybody ever died did they ? and the four people trapped would always fit in the Mole (coolest thing ever) or the special basket that Brains made. Captain Scarlet was quite dark, but still excellent, less childlike (if you look, the Thunderbird puppet heads are oversized for the bodies like childrens, in Scarlet they are scaled to "adult size).

And again, shame on Hollywood for the awful Thunderbirds film.....

RIP Mr Anderson.

[spitfireman]

A new film due out 2013, UFO

http://www.ufo-themovie.com/shado/

and Space 1999 will become 2099

http://io9.com/5884500/why-space-209...-of-space-1999

Baz

[ZRX61]

I wonder if you'll be able to see the strings when they lower his coffin into the hole?

[AMB]

Very sad news. As a young boy I watched every Gerry Anderson TV series when they were first broadcast from Twizzle and Torchy through to Terrahawks, although I wasn't a fan of the latter series. Very honoured to have met Gerry when he came to our local theatre and gave a lecture with films on the making of his series. He brought some actual studio models used in Thunderbirds and you can see these here on the stage in this photo I took at the time.

RIP

[bazv]

Yes very sad,but I tended to watch his later stuff for some obscure reason !

nothing at all to do with the lovely Gabriella

[TonyT]

Most of the complete series are on Amazon at the moment, Thunderbirds on DVD for £15-99 is a bargain for nine DVDs

See

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joe-90-Compl...dp/B00006FI5Z/

[19kilo10]

Im a big Space 1999, UFO fan. RIP.

[AMB]

Most of the complete series are on Amazon at the moment, Thunderbirds on DVD for £15-99 is a bargain for nine DVDs

See

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joe-90-Compl...dp/B00006FI5Z/

I have them all aparft from Terrahawks of which I didn't like much.

[TonyT]

Cool, I just bought the Thunderbirds, j90, captn Scarlet and stingray complete sets..... Do you have the xl5 one and is it any good? Do they do s1999 and UFO?

Tempted to get those too if Car MOT gets passed...

[hampden98]

[MSR777]

I'm sure that Gerry wouldn't complain!

[mrtotty]

I loved Thunderbirds as a boy.

In New Zealand, we got Thunderbirds, Joe 90, Supercar and Space 1999.

Even aged ten, I knew that an aircraft like Thunderbird 2 could not really fly, but that was hardly the point.

My favourite episode? The Fireflash and the elevator cars, without doubt. The sweating puppets were just cool.

[charliehunt]

Yes very sad,but I tended to watch his later stuff for some obscure reason !

nothing at all to do with the lovely Gabriella

Ah, yes indeed - and her character was called Gay, as was she, in the golden days before that delightful name was highjacked!! A bit of trivia, if you didn't know, her late brother was the musician Nick Drake.

[mrtotty]

Funny about the changing meaning of the word 'gay'.

As I remember, Dr Who used to gad about with a teenage boy - Adric, or something? - not to mention the relationship between Batman and Robin or Bert and Ernie.

One couldn't get away with doing that nowadays. Word meanings and perceptions are constantly changing, sadly in many cases.

[Flying-A]

His shows were widely shown -- note the mention at 0:22:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfNno3EkGIM

WKBS-TV Channel 48, Philadelphia, 1965-1983, RIP.