Last weekend I had the great pleasure of attending an event celebrating Thunderbirds at the Nottingham Puppet Festival. The five-day even celebrated all forms up puppetry with events across the city. One of them was a screening of the classic 1966 film Thunderbirds are Go. Just prior to the screening I gave a brief talk about the evolution of Gerry Anderson puppetry from 1957 to 2018… 51 years in 12 minutes. It was pretty quickfire.
I was joined by the multitalented Richard Gregory (Terrahawks, Dick Spanner, Space Precinct, Firestorm) – who also brought along three special guests: Scott Tracy, Titan and Zelda! Richard demonstrated Titan and Scott for a captivated audience.
We covered everything from the Supermarionation lip sync, eyes, and puppeteer gantry, to the more modern changes in Terrahawks and our new Ultramarionation puppets.
Hundreds of Anderson fans were in attendance, and as always it was a complete mixture of ages and genders – from 5 to 75! Fans were also treated to a short exclusive trailer for Gerry Anderson’s FIRESTORM, our new Ultramarionation production, which went down extremely well with young and old alike.
The quick talk was followed by a Q&A session, where we squeezed in as many questions as possible before the screening started. It was also the first time I’d ever seen Thunderbirds Are Go on the big screen!
We had a great day in Nottingham, and hope to see the Thunderbirds at the Nottingham Puppet Festival again in the not too distant future. Thanks to everyone who came along!
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