Thunderbirds at 60 - Exhibition and Presentation with Dee Anderson, Mary Turner & David Hicks at Slough Museum

Slough Museum has been running an excellent exhibition to celebrate 60 years of Thunderbirds since early October with various regularly changing displays and happenings along the way. Sunday November 23rd saw the biggest event so far where a capacity crowd was treated to presentations and Q&A sessions with Dee Anderson, the daughter of the show's creators Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, puppeteer Mary Turner and cameraman and director of photography David Hicks. There were fascinating insights from all three speakers into the making of the iconic Sci-Fi series packed with behind the scenes information, anecdotes and technical information. Dee explained fondly what it was like growing up in such a creative family and admitted it did make her popular with her classmates. She also told us how the character of Parker was inspired by a waiter in a local pub who had once been a butler for the Queen and she spoke warmly about the musical maestro Barry Gray, who provided so many of those magical theme tunes. An audience member chipped in with the link between Barry Gray and The Who, which of course was of particular interest to me. Mary explained how she created those wonderful puppets and that Sylvia was especially fond of Lady Penelope when she saw how the design resembled her looks. 

David worked on the anniversary episodes and talked about the technical side incuding the various cameras, lighting and special effects. Of course, in those days there was no digitial film or CGI, everything was strictly analog and do it yourself. Apparently, David is writing a book about his experiences which will be something to keep an eye out for. There were also some former Century 21 employees in attendance and it was nice to see them enjoying the reunion with their colleagues. The museum, which is located on Slough Trading Estate just around the corner from the Anderson's original AP Films/Century 21 Studios, has some fantastic displays of puppets, stage sets, posters, comics, toys and memorabilia that will delight the die-hard fan along with the more curious visitor. The Museum Manager, staff and volunteers were all excellent and deserve a lot of credit for a thoroughly entertaining day.

The Exhibition runs until December 20th and is open Fridays 11am-4pm and Saturdays 10am-2pm but please check with the museum before visiting. For more information on Thunderbirds check out the web-site here and for all your merchandise needs, please visit the Gerry Anderson Store here. Here are some more photos...

All photos copyright Retro Man Blog 2015