60 years ago today, the world first witnessed the countdown to a remarkably adventurous television series bursting with stylish action, sophisticated puppetry, ground-breaking special effects and awe-inspiring heroism. September 30th 2025 marks 60 years of Thunderbirds, the Supermarionation TV series that many consider to be Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's greatest creative achievement. In honour of Thunderbirds' diamond anniversary, let's celebrate the series!

Stand By for Rescue

The astounding creative success and everlasting popularity of Thunderbirds has its roots in AP Films' increasing confidence in production winning science fiction puppetry and the company's increasingly honeyed relationship with media mogul Lew Grade. Thunderbirds didn't occur within a vacuum of events. By the mid-1960s, AP Films had carved out a distinctive identity for itself within the British and global television landscape as reliable producers of quality space adventure entertainment. Even prior to the dizzying heights of Thunderbirds, the company had enjoyed rapturous success with their earlier productions.

After several earlier dabbles in the world of puppetry, 1961's Supercar had unlocked the creative potential brought by turning to science fiction in bringing the company's flourishing puppetry techniques to life and in doing so caused a tidal wave success in merchandising. The outer space action of Fireball XL5 and underwater aquatic fantasies of Stingray easily capitalised on this winning formula of puppet-based TV adventure. What direction then would AP Films' next production take?

Thunderbirds' premise reflects Gerry's fascination with real-world developments in technologies and engineering. The core idea for Thunderbirds emerged on Gerry's reaction to a German mining disaster and the subsequently achingly prolonged timelapse within which rescue equipment could be delivered to the danger zone. What if there was some form of international rescue organisation that could respond to any danger anywhere in the world? Taking the idea to Lew Grade, Gerry's proven track record at that point ensured that Grade backed the idea with little hesitation. The new series began pre-production in 1964 under the provisional title of International Rescue, before Gerry's remembrance of his brother Lionel's active service in the RAF, and his involvement in a certain romantic wartime drama being filmed at the base where Lionel was stationed, prompted a name change - Thunderbirds.

The Countdown is On

Production on Thunderbirds began in late 1964. Gerry and Sylvia composed the script for the opening episode, Trapped in the Sky, which would doubly serve as the series bible, guiding future scriptwriters on how to formulate their own contributions. Among other key contributors to Thunderbirds was special effects maestro Derek Meddings, who designed the Thunderbirds craft, collaborating closely with art director Bob Bell, another crucial individual in crafting Thunderbirds' visual style.

Alan Pattillo served as the series' script editor, along with directing the first episode and writing several more, with other writers including Alan Fennell, Martin Crump, Donald Robertson, Tony Barwick, and Dennis Spooner. David Lane, Desmond Saunders, David Elliott, and Brian Burgess undertook directorial duties, while Christine Glanville and Mary Turner were chiefly in charge of designing, sculpting and operating puppets. The series' ensemble cast comprised of Peter Dyneley, Shane Rimmer, David Holliday, Matt Zimmerman, David Graham, Ray Barrett, and Christine Finn, a plethora of vocal talent spearhead by Sylvia Anderson. 

Much as the pair had done with previous space-age heroes, Sylvia would then flourish Gerry's formative concepts further with a firm grasp on character visualisation, determining appearances, personalities and their voice casting. Gerry and Sylvia's complimentary skills, he technically minded and she comparatively creatively inclined, would find themselves most eloquent expressed in the fully formed worldbuilding and characterisations of Thunderbirds.

In keeping with their previous efforts, Thunderbirds began life as a half-hour series of episodes. A much-told tale from Gerry himself states that when Lew Grade viewed the first episode, Trapped in the Sky, his response was so enthusiastic that he instigated Thunderbirds be upgraded from half-hours to 50-minutes per episode. While many of the early episodes were indeed stretched out to accommodate this (often with noticeable onscreen clues as to their expansion), recent research from Century 21 Films suggests that Trapped in the Sky was always produced as 50 minutes in length.

It's worth remembering, however, that despite the loaded importance which we've come to place on how this drastic changeover in the series' making, Thunderbirds would ultimately be presented to the world in a flexible form. Publicity material and press coverage detailed the series has being made-up either of 32 full hours or 64 half-hours, depending on the desires of broadcasters.

With this renewed approach needing to be applied while the series was already in production, AP Films became a swarm of activity like never before. Conceptually, Thunderbirds was already enlarging AP Films' creative reach, but was now coupled with extending pre-made episodes. Thunderbirds' premise of a family-run, international rescue organisation devoted to saving lives in the technologically advanced future world of 2065 was gargantuan in scope. Adventures could take place anywhere in the world, under its oceans or within the depths of outer space - and were now twice as long per episode as the likes of Stingray or Fireball XL5.

AP Films were occupying studios based in Slough following Lew Grade's acquisition of the company prior to the making of Stingray. Now, the company would utilised dual stages for filming puppetry and special effects scenes, allowing for simultaneous filming of episodes, which undoubtedly proved useful (if still hectic) in returning to previously filmed episodes to film their expanded scenes. Thunderbirds represented a vast galvanising of AP Films' operations. 

Such was the bullish confidence that Grade had in this latest venture from his puppet proprietors that a big-screen equivalent of Thunderbirds and a further run of six episodes for the 1966 September TV season were greenlit before the first series had made it to screens. Thunderbirds Are Go and the eventual follow-up, Thunderbird 6, would prove to be their own unique sagas within AP Films' history - and their misfortunes at the box office would cement Thunderbirds not only as being the peak of Supermarionation's popularity, but its curtailing by the time 1969's The Secret Service came into being.

Thunderbirds debuted in September 1965 to instantaneous success. Another infamous tale is how the series' was swiftly culled following a mismanaged bidding war between the big three American TV networks in getting Thunderbirds established in the lucrative Stateside market. Without a network sale, Thunderbirds' expensive status couldn't be justified indefinitely - so the story goes. However, ITC's business model was always to have a conceptually fresh series ready to tantalise networks and audiences with each new broadcast season. Was Thunderbirds always destined to end swiftly?

Rescue Stations

Thunderbirds blasted AP Films' creative imaginations and technical skillsets to absurd heights. Set in the far-flung world of 2065, Thunderbirds showcases the high-flying adventures of International Rescue, a private emergency response outfit run by the Tracy family, who operate under a strict cloak of secrecy to protect the technological secrets of their incredible Thunderbird machines from being stolen for evil means. In the wrong hands, I.R.'s fantastic technology, way ahead of its time, could be utilised to destroy life. 

Spearheaded by ex-astronaut and former civil construction and engineering businessman Jeff Tracy (voiced by Peter Dyneley), his five sons each pilot one of the Thunderbird machines, each designed for specific rescue functionalities, their fantastic qualities made possible by engineering genius, Brains. Wherever disaster strikes and normal means of rescue simply aren't possible, International Rescue is go!

Thunderbirds blends a breath-taking scale of adventure with a grounded identifiableness of heroes within its outlandish set-up. No mission is too small or large for the heroic members of International Rescue to undertake, but beyond that intense sense of jeopardy that often demands International Rescue's intervention, the series' family set-up of heroes gifts Thunderbirds with a warm likeableness.

Thunderbirds taps into the anxieties of a world overrun by technological advancements, often produced for the benefit of humanity's improved existence, but at the cost of ignoring that same supposed value for preserving life. In the world of Thunderbirds, everything is at risk of collapse or detonation. In the age of post-war fascination with nuclear advancements, Thunderbirds showcases the spectacle of runaway disasters through mankind's hubris of its insatiable quest to dominate fields of science, engineering, nuclear armament, aviation and beyond.

Beyond such hard sci-fi leanings, Thunderbirds made an abundance of room for the enjoyably absurd. International Rescue maintains a global network of secret agents to assist in peacekeeping efforts, one of which remains a formidable pop culture icon who easily transcends the series' trappings. The aristocratic London agent Lady Penelope, accompanied by her ex-safecracker chauffer Parker, provide a hearty blend of deft humour and spy-fi action for Thunderbirds. The series would extend its storytelling ideas into such fancifully strange concepts as exploding dog food, aristocratic kidnappings, and pop music used as a means of military sabotage. Thunderbirds' boldly imaginative scope embraced an eclectic array of story subjects and memorable characters that always succeeded in treating its varying subject matter with severity - International Rescue always remain the only ones who can be trusted to save the day! 

Beyond the Countdown

In spite of its brief lifespan on TV screens and in the cinemas, Thunderbirds remains the Gerry Anderson series that many people across multiple generations cherish. Has there ever been a TV series with such a brief selection of onscreen adventures that remains formidably entertaining, 60 years since its debut? 

Thunderbirds' cinematic special effects and incredible vehicle designs have long been acknowledged as having an inescapable impact on much science fiction film and television in the decades that followed. However, at the series' heart, it's the selfless heroism of the Tracy family that rings resoundingly clear over half a century since Jeff Tracy announced that first ever countdown. While so much science fiction is, by it's very nature, a genre propelled by grim scenarios of death and destruction, no episode of Thunderbirds ever ended without International Rescue performing some magnificently daredevil rescue.

Thunderbirds' optimism in championing life-saving actions remain an inspiring testament to the creative ingenuity from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, and all at AP Films who were involved in bringing the series to life.

Celebrate Thunderbirds' 60th anniversary by exploring our spectacular and ever-growing range of Thunderbirds releases this year! From classic comic compendiums to superbly detailed models and high-definition Super Space Theatre compilations, there's a veritable swarm of releases to add to your collection.

You can also pre-order the Thunderbirds 60th Anniversary Collectors Edition Blu-ray for the ultimate high definition Thunderbirds viewing experience! Get ready to relive the astounding adventures of International Rescue like never before with this definitive presentation of the classic series!

As we celebrate Thunderbirds' landmark anniversary, we're also looking ahead to what the future may hold for Thunderbirds - stand by for further transmissions in 2026 all about the hidden dangers of Thunderbirds!

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