Between 1957’s The Adventures of Twizzle and 1969’s The Secret Service, the puppets used in the television shows and films produced by A. P. Films and Century 21 Productions were continually refined and improved, ultimately resulting in the more lifelike correctly proportioned marionettes seen in Captain Scarlet and onwards. However, in those early days of the late 1950s, the human …

We’re sad to learn of the passing in January 2021 of Shaun Whittacker-Cook, who served as Special Effects/Visual Effects Director on some of the most popular Gerry and Sylvia Anderson shows. Born in 1935, Shaun had previously worked with special effects artist Les Bowie before joining A.P. Films during production of Thunderbirds. By this time the Supermarionation series was shooting …

1983’s Terrahawks saw Gerry Anderson return to television puppetry with Supermacromation – his first style of puppet to be fully operated by hand, as opposed to the string marionettes he was most associated with. However, few people realise that several of those earlier Supermarionation puppets had also been worked by hand from below the frame from time to time! For …

Last week saw several items of interest to Anderson fans go under the hammer at the Ewbanks auction house, who had previously played host to a massive auction of material from Bray Studios (including original Terrahawks props, models and puppets) back in November 2020. On February 24th an auction of vintage toys and models opened with a selection of Anderson …

by A21 Reporter Andy Clems Continued from previous report The Baker’s hand was almost at the release for the case. Matthew reached forward and hit a button on his miniature control panel. A tiny red light illuminated to show the latches had been sealed. The Baker pressed the latch. Matthew held his breath. The case remained closed. Through the tiny …

by A21 Reporter Andy Clems Seated at the head of the conference table in a secure top secret lair known as The Bakery, Aristotle Spode AKA ‘The Baker’ looked at the other twelve faces in the room and smiled conspiratorially. There they were, the top thirteen criminal brains in the country, gathered in one room for a single purpose, to …

Missed part one and two? Read part one here, and part two here. Hot on the heels of Captain Scarlet the next television series produced by Century 21 arrived in 1968. Joe 90 saw the focus of the stories shift away from the traditional sci-fi adventures of the past to smaller-scale character-based tales, but still incorporating plenty of action and …

The Coastal Action Research Establishment (CARE) at Holt Bay on the south coast of England has been spared from disaster thanks to an unlikely hero, a country vicar named Father Stanley Unwin. Father Unwin, a mild mannered member of the clergy, had been visiting a friend, Professor Graham, on Friday evening. The Professor is the head of research at the …

One of the defining characteristics of Gerry Anderson as a producer was his desire to create the very best work possible, with each production building upon and improving the successes of the last. This can be seen in his push to continually refine the puppets his team were working with, and the evolution in puppetry from 1957’s The Adventures of …