I was saddened to hear of the death of Sylvia Anderson, the co-creator of the tv series Thunderbirds.
She provided the voice of Lady Penelope, a character who would occasionally talk to her teapot. As someone who often shouts at his kettle to “hurry up and boil,” I have some empathy.
Lady Penelope was a secret agent – and nothing says “secret” more than riding around London in a six-wheeled pink Rolls Royce with built-in machine gun, missile launcher and tyre slashers. Surely a Ford Focus would have been more discreet?
But Thunderbirds had many other flaws…
I couldn’t help thinking that International Rescue wouldn’t have to defuse so many bombs with seconds to spare or rescue people from crumbling buildings at the last minute if only they had boarded their rockets quicker.
It would sometimes take Scott Tracy 20 minutes to inch his way into Thunderbird 1and shout from his cockpit to Alan to get out of the retracting swimming pool before he got decapitated so as he could take off.
Likewise, Virgil would have to ask Tin-Tin if she’s finished with the ironing board before he could launch.
And why did they have to change into Wellington boots first? It takes ages to pull boots on. No wonder they were always late arriving to a disaster. Surely, a nice pair of slippers would have been quicker and more comfortable for a long flight?
And when they did finally arrive, they had the slowest cutting equipment and blow-torches known to man. It’s as if Jeff Tracy spent so much money on rockets, he couldn’t afford any decent power tools.
In later years, I remember watching Anthea Turner building a working model of Tracy Island on Blue Peter.
I did try to follow her instructions but got confused and used too many empty washing up bottles and ended up building a life-size working model of Anthea Turner instead– which I gave to my brother to play with and he later married.
He thought she was F.A.B.
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