Into the Space Age: Making Supermarionation with Gerry and Sylvia Anderson (BTS Compilation)

Video Description

Join Gerry and Sylvia Anderson as they remember their path to television stardom in this compilation of documentaries profiling each of their early hits: The Adventures of Twizzle, Torchy the Battery Boy, Supercar, and Four Feather Falls. From the toy box to the space age, the Supermarionation story is one of cult creativity and technical innovation. From the swinging sixties through to the 1970s, Sylvia and Gerry experienced a phenomenal run of success; from Supercar to Thunderbirds and from Stingray to Captain Scarlet and beyond. For the first time, through the use of two career-spanning and in-depth archive interviews, the former couple are able to recall this period of their lives on equal footing – telling the AP Films and Century 21 Productions story how they remember it. The Adventures of Twizzle and Torchy the Battery Boy both told tales of toys who magically came to life. Though simple in their storytelling, they each sew the seeds of bigger and better productions to come. Four Feather Falls premiered on ITV in 1960 and featured the adventures of Sherif Tex Tucker, his horse Rocky, his dog Dusty, and the denizens of the titular town in which anything can happen – anything at all. A mid-century mixture of cowboys, bandits, and adventure. The first series to make use of lip sync technology that ushered in a wave of Supermarionation success, Four Feather Falls paved the way for later hits like Supercar, Stingray, Thunderbirds, and Captain Scarlet. Supercar ran on ITV for two series totalling 39 episodes first broadcast in 1961 and 1962. It starred Graydon Gould, David Graham, Sylvia Anderson, George Murcell and Cyril Shaps. Fireball XL5 was a science-fiction puppet television series that followed the missions of Fireball XL5, a vessel of the World Space Patrol that polices the cosmos. Commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac, XL5 is crewed by Doctor Venus, Professor Matic, and Robert the Robot and defends Earth from interstellar threats while encountering a wide variety of alien civilisations. It began its UK television run in October 1962 and aired on NBC in the United States. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Find us online! • Century 21 Films Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/century21films/ • Century 21 Films Twitter - https://twitter.com/century21films • Thunderbirds Twitter - https://twitter.com/thunderbirds65 • Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/century21films • Website - https://www.century21films.co.uk • Shop - https://century21films.bigcartel.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------- About Us: Century 21 Films Ltd is a multi-faceted production company whose work spans drama to documentary, miniature effects to puppet shows. It was founded by a group of filmmakers who first collaborated on Filmed in Supermarionation, the story of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's hit puppet shows including Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlet. Since then, we have worked for a multitude of high-profile clients including ITV, BBC, Mammoth Productions, British Film Institute and the Halifax working on projects such Thunderbirds, Endeavour, Doctor Who and The Twilight Zone. In addition to our regular filmmaking services, we specialise in ‘Supermarionation’ - the puppetry filming technique used to make shows like Thunderbirds and have collaborated with ITV repeatedly to provide specialised services. Our work has been featured on The One Show, This Morning, Good Morning Britain, BBC News, ITV News and Mastermind. #filmedinsupermarionation #thunderbirds #century21films