Fanderson Gold was held at the Bank Holiday weekend 24-26th August 1996 in the Oatland Park Hotel in Weybridge, Surrey, some 20 miles south of the London Heathrow Airport and almost "around the corner" for most APF studio guests. In fact Reg Hill even lives in that town although he did not take part in this convention.

Fanderson Gold - a visitor's report

Theo de Klerk

Theo de Klerk, finally meeting his favourite Tracy Brother

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Introduction

The hotel was pleasantly spacious for the convention itself . The largest room was used for the main events, the opening and closing ceremonies, evening buffet and entertainment. It had a large back- projection videobeam that showed all three Anderson feature films from laserdisk in widescreen format. The adjacent smaller room was used as the model room where various replicas and original puppets and models were shown. One of the Canadian delegates came for the sole purpose of seeing two original Space:1999 Eagle models. He also found out what Bank Holiday meant in England: no way to cash any Traveler Cheques. At the other side of the hotel two medium sized rooms were used as a dealer room and a continous video room where selected episodes from all series were shown on a smaller videobeam screen. Finally, a marquee outside was used for workshops given by fans and studio guests.

Negative points of the hotel were an extremely poor "finger dipping buffet" where the nearest Wimpie would provide better value for money. Because of its four star rating it also had quite high hotel prices (but anything around London is ridiculously priced) for rooms where often you could not even stand straight in the bath/shower because of the inclining roof. Ignoring this however, most attendees can look back at a very succesful convention and a big compliment to the Fanderson organising committee. Well done, boys and girls!

Themes

Because so many Gerry Anderson shows had an anniversary this year, as well as Fanderson itself - a healthy teenager of 15 years old! - the convention was divided into three parts, a day each:

1. Saturday was APF days: all shows from Twizzle to Thunderbirds
2. Sunday was Century 21 day: Captain Scarlet, the feature films, and series upto UFO
3. Monday was Group Three and beyond: Space:1999, Into Infinity, Terrahawks to Space Precinct.

Each day had its own set of guests who would talk in the main hall - first by interview, later by questions from the audience. The program ran from 9 am to 7.30pm after which dinner and the evening program was started and informal gatherings.

Events took place simultaneously in the various rooms and apart from the interviews with the guests. The workshops in the marquee were repeated some times so no one had to miss out.

Monday 26 was also the 51st birthday of guest Mike Trim, a designer who did most of the Captain Scarlet and subsequent series models. An event he tried to ignore but was reminded of by the fans.

Stephen Brown at the Fanderson sales desk.
Fanderson did well in selling their exclusive merchandise

Trading and Collecting

The dealers could try to sell their items on the first two days, the fans could sell or swap their items on the third day. Some dealers had reasonable to good offers for mint and not so mint items like old annuals of Torchy or Four Feather Falls or TV21. There was one dealer who left after the first day probably without hardly any sale as his prices were outrageous. Most others did fairly well. The fans obviously did not compare notes first as one dealer was quoted to say that someone bought an item of his at three times as much as the same item offered by his neighbour. Fanderson itself also had a special sales table manned by Stephen Brown. He too did good business on selling the commemoration coffee mugs for 30 years Thunderbirds, 25 years of UFO and 15 years of Fanderson. Special editions brought in from the dutch local fanzine TV20 containing Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds Merchandising Guides and a photonovel of Thunderbird Six also went fast as reasonable prices.

Meeting the fans

Although people could sign up for a single day, many of the attendees stayed for the full three days. Those staying at the hotel almost went on from 9 am to way beyond midnight. The peak of the attendees seemed to be present on the second day - possibly because Sunday is a convenient day if you have a family and shopping to do the day before. Most delegates were British, but some came from Canada, the USA, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy.

The hotel was large enough to accomodate the people without getting a crammed feeling. From the point of the organisers, a 100 or so more people would have been nice to get further away from the break-even point and make some more profit for future activities. Also the convention had to compete with other conventions held at the same weekend . I would guess some 150-200 people attended at any one time. This may seem little compared to some Star Trek conventions, but it fits nicely with the intimacy of the Gerry Anderson series. It also gave all attendees ample opportunity to study the models at leisure - even completely by themselves sometimes - or talk to the guests privately or in small groups. Unfortunately in every crowd there are the one or two persons that seem to have no modesty: one came with a bag full of articles to be signed by Gerry and an Italian guy was so pre-occupied by the UFO series that he seemed to approach designer Mike Trim the way Tigger meets Pooh.

Glo Thorogood as the Hood

It must be stated here that Fanderson members in general act quite normal and do not dress up nor speak Klingon. Where Star Trek conventions seem loaded by these type of people, Fanderson members have a much larger interest in the production values of the series rather than to be absorbed into the make-believe world. So do not expect a carnival appearance. The only exception being during the fancy dress competition. This year that was won by Glo Thorogood who came up as The Hood, complete with flashing eyes. Quite an achievement also because she had to do the walk without her glasses on without which she doesn't see to clearly, let alone when the eyes start shining!

Meeting the guests

Some of the guests would be present only during a limited period of time. Especially Gerry Anderson himself made a quick appearance and disappearance after an interview, a signature session and a meal. But most others were happy to mingle with the fans and let themselves be flattered by the admiration the fans showed for the work they had done - be it operating puppets, building models or composing music.

It's important to stress that all guests come because they want to, and do not consider this as a paid performance. Some actors or film crew people will only appear for a (large) sum of money - none of the Fanderson guests gets any other than expenses paid and even that many decline because of the good time they've had at each occassion.

Mike Trim, visual effects designer for most of the series from Thunderbirds "End of the Road" onwards to UFO. (he did Eddie's tractor, but also the MSV and Angel jet) stayed in the hotel for all three days and was very easy-going for any fan who wanted to know how things were done. Many words of advise of how to make your own model and what sort of tricks-of-the-trade to apply were given. Needless to say Mike was very popular with the modelmaking fans. And there are some very serious modelmakers amongst them! He had left the trade after UFO and was currently a teacher in design, but a previous meeting with fans and this current convention had sparked the light again and he was currently part-time involved in a film project.

Christine Glanville demonstrates the "puffer"
used to remove the shining of the wires.

Christine Glanville, puppeteer on all the puppet series, including Terrahawks and Space Precinct, was coming in on Saturday and Monday and had a workshop on how to operate puppets and to compare the advantages of marionette puppets versus glove puppets or radio controlled ones. She has a radiating personality and obviously enjoys working with puppets in any size or format. Her experience and annecdotes on events that happened on the film stage were catching and it she is very much a person that given one word will be able to talk candidly on many of the puppeteer-related subjects. It comes as no surprise that her two identical talks on the two days were hardly identical at all. Only the treasures she brought along were the same: puppets of Lady Penelope and Parker, Scott, Virgil, Mrs. Applebee and Jeff Tracy and her toolbox without which no puppeteers seems able to survive in the APF studios. (Read the complete presentation given by Christine Glanville).

A remake Jeff Tracy and Virgil with an original Mrs Applebee.

The talk was ad-libbed, triggered on questions from the audience. "Some other puppeteers feel a bit uneasy with all the attention given to them. After all, it was only our job at the time and not that important." But it is wonderful to be here and to see so much genuine interest in the puppets and how to operate them. Even see new owners of those puppets wanting to learn all about how to operate them. I really get a kick out of these events and am on a high now. The others don't know what they're missing. And in a way my being here is also saying "thank you" to all these fans.

Christine was interviewed on stage together with Zena Ralph, costume designer for the puppet shows. Zena was a bit overwhelmed by it all and being a part-timer on the shows did not know or remember a lot of details of her work at the APF studios. "It was only my work," she said in a down-to-Earth manner.

Ed Bishop and Dolores Mantez on stage revisiting UFO experiences.

A similar attitude as Christine's is held by Ed Bishop, Cmd. Straker from UFO and voice of Captain Blue. During an interview he said that although he had done many things in this career, UFO seems to stand out as the longest continuous role of which he has fond memories. He appreciates the interest people take in his career and as a person. He'll try to attend the conventions whenever work permits him because it is a way to give something back from the industry to the audience. But also to the industry itself, as Ed makes no problem if asked to appear in an examination film for a Film Academy student. Everyone has to learn and the pro's should help the new generation along. Ed was around for most of the Sunday afternoon and talked to many people. His interview was conducted along with Dolores Mantez, who played the Moonbase Controller in UFO. She obviously found that Ed had the main lead in the series and she was only a supporting actor, getting a bigger part when Gabriella Drake had left the series. "So I did my job as good as I could, but it was a job". She was less forthcoming with stories and memories than Ed possibly because the job at that time did not seem to be part of a cult-series-to-be. Ed, as a true gallant hero, helped her out.

George Sewell (UFO's Alec Freeman)

A similar side-role in UFO was given to David Warbeck, one of Sky-1 and Skydiver's captains when Peter Gordeno left the show. David has no trouble talking about his career and his obvious taste for gorgeous women. As such it is no surprise he was once considered a potential new 007 to follow in Sean Connery's footsteps. However the interview went, it always diverted quickly from UFO to his other films - many of them Italian spaghetti westerns. David was an entertaining talker but shed no light on UFO.

Other guests that were giving interviews and talks were Zienia Merton (Space:1999's Sandra Benes), George Sewell (UFO's Alec Freeman), Derek Wadsworth (Space:1999 Year 2 composer) but I was wrapped up in one of Christine's workshops so don't know what happened with their interviews.

Workshops

Christine Glanville in her workshop in the Marquee.

The highlights of the convention to me were the workshops in the marquee. This was the first time such an activity was organised by Fanderson at the initiative and control of Katie Bleathman. A job well done and worth to be repeated.

The workshops were usually running for 2 hours or more and included subjects to suit all tastes. Their success depended highly on the involvement of the participants. More themes were suggested than was actually time for and some themes did not appeal to many people and therefore got cancelled.

Some of the items are discussed below.

C21 Files

Make your own radio play based on a story by Sam Mitchell (ghost writer of the Derek Meddings book). People could take on roles and get the radio play going. Even Ed Bishop participated and took one of the voices.

Can I give you a hand?

David Finchett demonstrates how to make puppets. He's got quite a collection of original and replicate puppets from the Anderson shows and talked about how to restore them to their studio-shape. What to do and what to avoid. Christine Glanville sat in and learnt a few things too. She too had some advise for David. Wonderful sessions with lots of interaction of the attendees.

Christine Glanville gives additional information while
David Finchett explains how to restore puppets to former glory

Help, How do I...

Workshop for artists to discuss their techniques. Included Graham Bleathman, Lynn Simpson and Mike Trim.

No strings attached

Do we really want a souped up feature film of our puppet films into live action? A heated debate.

Who's pulling your strings

Christine Glanville talks at length about how to operate a puppet. Assisted by the gorgeous Scott Tracy, she can talk all day without becoming boring and telling something new all the time. My personal Top Item.

Christine Glanville shows how the puppet is walked:
two wires at its knees and pulling those forward
rather than upward.
Christine Glanville explains why a puppet cannot throw its
leg from the hip which is needed to imitate a normal walk
rather than a puppet walk.

Yes, I know it looks good but will it really fly?

Phillip Atcliffe, an aerospace engineer from the University of West England (UWE), talks about why certain crafts used in the Captain Scarlet, Joe-90 and UFO series may well fly or not and how they could be re-designed. Mike Trim would comment from the designers point of view but the conclusion was that most crafts would indeed fly (even with wings swept forward) and that reality is only now catching up with the art of the sixties ("I knew that all along," Mike smiled).

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A live performance is given on Barry Gray's 1959 Ondes Martenot,
the forerunner of today's synthesizers.

 

Chris Trice, modelmaker, adds the last craters to the
original model of Moonbase Alpha in the modelroom of the convention.

 

A remake Scott Tracy from the original mould and the
fully original Lady Penelope of Gerry Anderson.

 

Christine Glanville meets a surprise visitor,
director Desmond Saunders.