A Labour of Love

Although he's now famous for such classic TV shows as Stingray (1963), Thunderbirds (1964), Captain Scarlet (1967), UFO[DVD only] (1970) and Space: 1999[DVD only] (1975), Gerry Anderson started his career as an assistant editor in features at Gainsborough Studios in the 1940s, where, among other things, he helped to prepare a less wicked version of The Wicked Lady (1945) for US consumption. In the 1950s Anderson moved to Pinewood, later forming a production company, AP Films, with cameraman Arthur Provis. The intention was to produce independent features, but after six months with no work Anderson's career took an entirely unexpected turn.

Amazon.co.uk contributor Gary Dalkin spoke to Anderson in February 2002, while he was back at Pinewood hard at work as ever, this time on a new series for Japanese television. The conversation began when Anderson was asked how he felt when the offer came in to make his very first puppet show, The Adventures of Twizzle (1957), for commercial television?

"Well, if you've ever been hungry... We desperately needed the money. We'd started this company, we were on the point of bankruptcy, we were all very, very downhearted. We knew we had to close the company. Then somebody came along and said would you make a television series and we said Yes! Yes! Yes!. It was only later in the conversation that Roberta Leigh said it's got to be made with puppets. Well I'd hardly seen a puppet in my life. I'd never touched one. I didn't know how they worked. I thought it was an absolute disaster. But of course now my wife Mary often says to me, 'If you look at all the programmes made on world television over the last 35 years there's nothing that looks like your puppet shows'."

I'd hardly seen a puppet in my life. I'd never touched one. I didn't know how they worked. I thought it was an absolute disaster

The Adventures of Twizzle was a success and one thing led to another--including Supercar (1960) the first of many shows backed by the legendary TV mogul Lew Grade.

"It's very difficult to make puppets do anything believably," Anderson reflects. "As we progressed we found new ways, tricks and innovations to either get them to do things or make it look as though they were doing things. But the one problem that was totally insurmountable was getting them to walk. That's why I came up with the idea of Supercar . I thought, if we fit them in a car and whiz them around at great speed the puppets will just have to sit there but the show will move very fast. The show came out and it worked and I was very pleased with the format. Then I would meet friends and they would say, 'Hi Gerry, I see you're into science fiction now'. And I would say, 'Am I?' And really, I was as naive as that. From then on if I went to see Lew Grade he expected science fiction. He wouldn't back anything else."

"We built an aquarium which stood on a stand so the bottom was about four feet off the ground. The aquarium was only six inches (15 cm) in depth. Behind it we would put a paper cyclorama on which we painted the seabed, and we put in a couple of rocks and a bit of sand, and we would light that with a revolving disc which had irregular-shaped holes cut in it so as it revolved slowly it made the water look as if it was twinkling. Then we would put fish in the aquarium, and the trick was that the fish were all the same species, but we had big fish and baby fish, and we then filmed through the aquarium and the fish looked as if they went way back into the distance. Then we would 'fly' Stingray behind the aquarium on wires, so it never got wet. We never actually filmed underwater at all."

We would "fly" Stingray behind the aquarium on wires, so it never got wet. We never actually filmed underwater at all

"We applied for permission to fly a tiger moth under a bridge on a part of the M4 that had been completed but wasn't yet open. It was a hell of a job getting permission, but they said we couldn't fly under the bridge. What we could do was put the tiger moth's wheels down on the motorway, keep the tail up, taxi under the bridge and then take off again. We paid the police to be present. We hired our own private fire service. And the woman flying the tiger moth was a lady called Joan Hughes who was a great flyer. During the war she was an ATA pilot, picking up all kinds of aircraft from the factories and flying them to RAF airfields.

Our production manager was immediately arrested, and while he was saying "We didn't intend to do that, it's all a mistake", there was a shout from the camera crews, "Here she comes again!"

Given the success of Anderson's shows its surprising to realise that hardly any of them ran for more than a single season. Put it down to the vagaries of US TV.

"First let me say, Lew Grade is probably one of the nicest men I've ever met in my life. I would never say a word against him. What happened is simply this: it's very, very difficult to sell a British show to America. Whatever the Americans might say, they are very nationalistic and they didn't really want foreign shows over there. So Lew in particular had to work very hard to get a sale in America and I had a studio which had 250 people on the payroll and so I had to keep working. It was quite difficult to go to Lew and say 'We've just finished this series, can we go on immediately and make another?' And he'd say, 'Hang on a minute, I haven't even sold it yet!' Once he had sold it, it was difficult for him to go straight back and say, 'Do you want another series?' So it was due to the way things were at that time."

In retrospect, which were the most difficult to work with, actors or puppets?

Finally, considering why the old shows still appeal so strongly today, Anderson replies simply:

"I think, if it is possible to find a reason at all, it's because we took our work very, very seriously. Everybody on the unit worked very, very long hours. We tried desperately to get everything right. It was a labour of love."

·Ed Bishop and Gerry Anderson on UFO
·Gerry Anderson on Thunderbirds
·Captain Scarlet : meet the Spectrum team