News
Merry Christmas from TV Century 21!
Those in the UK can enjoy many Anderson shows over the holidays, so go nuts. For the rest of us, time to dig through our DVDs for festive treats.
Although it really doesn't matter what episodes to watch, there are many winter/Christmas-themed episodes to while away the festive season. The most well-known of course if "Give or Take a Million", the last episode of Thunderbirds.
Its not the greatest episode, but it has the right tone and is as festive as they come.
Have a great Christmas everyone!
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- Written by: Simon Wickes
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Sunday 9th I flew back home after attending the Barry Gray Centenary Concert in the Royal Festival Hall on the south bank of the Thames in London the evening before. I had had a fantastic night – the first performance where Thunderbirds roared from the orchestra live since the unbeatable “Filmharmonic ‘78” concert by Barry Gray himself. It was so long overdue! I got goose bumps hearing the Thunderbirds incidentals and Zero-X taking off. So why did I mark the concert with a 7 out of 10 instead of a 9 out of 10 I wondered. And then it occurred to me: I was there both as an admirer of Barry Gray’s work but also as a seasoned concert audience member.
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- Written by: Theo de Klerk
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Producer, and now author, Stephen La Rivière, recently announced that he has just completed writing a book about the 1960s years of the Gerry Anderson productions, from Supercar to Secret Service. The book is to be titled "FILMED IN SUPERMARIONATION: A HISTORY OF THE FUTURE" and is due out early in 2009. There is no cover as yet, but it is already available for pre-order from Amazon UK for £26.99 and (probably incorrectly priced) from Amazon USA for $26.57. It is the result of 4 years of work, including exhaustive research in addition to interviews with remaining cast and crew.
The book will be full colour and available in both hardback and softcover editions. If the name of the author sounds familiar, its because he is the chap behind the wonderful "Full Boost Vertical - The Supercar Story" documentary DVD which came out a few years ago. I found that a very interesting documentary and fully expect this book to be both revealing and almost certainly controversial as it will challenge some of the "well known facts" of Anderson lore.
Not so much an official press release, than a series of teasing tidbits, the full book announcement is included after the jump.
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I know this is somewhat off-topic, but The Prisoner was an ITC series and many Anderson fans are also fans of the 60s cult TV series. For that reason, I wanted to pass on this interesting bit of info. Basically, ITV (UK) and AMC (US) are doing a joint production of a new series of The Prisoner starring Jim Caviziel and Sir Ian McKellen. The show is currently in production in Namibia where they have constructed a "could be anywhere" village made up of architecture from all over the world. They are currently in week 5 of location shooting. It will be a six-part mini series which will be a "re-imagining" of the original show, which does make me cringe a bit, but I think it will address issues of today in much the same way the original series addressed issues of the late 1960s. Don't know for sure, but it looks like it will hit TV screens about this time next year. AMC has a blog with the production diary and some photos. There are also interesting video clips here. I'm not normally a big fan on 60s remakes (Avengers movie, I'm looking in your direction), but this looks promising. Be seeing you.
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Details are sketchy at the moment, mostly consisting of brief news articles in papers around the world. The Sun in the UK, ThaIndian (Thailand) and the Melbourne Herald Sun paper in Australia have all reported on this.
They all appear to say the same thing, with little details. Gerry Anderson is the only person who can do Thunderbirds right (take that Jonathan Frakes, et al). Although I'm sure he can buy the rights, its unknown how long it will take and then how long it will take to decide on the show format and produce it. Remember how long New Captain Scarlet took from initial concept?
As usual, we'll keep you posted.
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The sixth issue of the fan magazine Andersonic is now available. The UK-based magazine is in colour and is 40 pages long. It includes articles, photos and more. Although I am yet to see an issue (on order), the current issue looks quite interesting with the following content:- The Art of Ron Embleton - the work of TV21's Scarlet and Stingray artist.
- Lord Parker's 'Oliday - Bingo! A classic episode reviewed.
- Alpha Incident Log - Strange goings on with glowing rocks and Irish Cowboys...
- Faith in Science - The contributions of Barry Morse and Johnny Byrne to Space:1999.
- Identified Retrospective - Seven different writers share their thoughts on UFO's opener.
- SHADO Test Paper - Ed and Alec's Fun Page.
- Interview - Gerry Anderson discusses UFO, New Captain Scarlet... and lemmings.
- Writing the Tracys - exploring Thunderbirds' popularity with writers.
- Winged Assassins - what makes Captain Scarlet the odd one out?
- Mission of the Darians - Mutant! Classic Space:1999 episode reviewed.
- The Fall of Troy - Stingray's Forbidden Shakespearian roots.
- Watching the Watchers - the arrival of the 21st Century in our living rooms.
- Trap for a Rhino - New Captain Scarlet episode appraised.
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A drink company by the name of "Drench" just did a TV advert for the UK featuring a very animated Brains puppet. Its quite fun to watch and certainly shows some of Brains' hidden talents.
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- Written by: Simon Wickes
- Category: Thunderbirds
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- Written by: Simon Wickes
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