Fireball XL5 at 60: the 2022 celebrations
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From the archive: 27 October 2022. This report previewed the celebrations for Fireball XL5’s 60th anniversary on 28 October 2022. The schedules, launches and limited streaming window were specific to that date.
Sixty years of the World Space Patrol
Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Fireball XL5 first reached British television in 1962. Its 39 episodes followed Steve Zodiac, Doctor Venus, Professor Matthew Matic, Robert the Robot and Zoonie on adventures beyond Space City. The 2022 anniversary celebrated the programme through comics, audio, music and video.
The anniversary comic anthology
The 336-page hardback gathered the Fireball XL5 comic-strip stories from TV Century 21, with seventeen pages of new linking material by Lee Sullivan. His story connected the World Space Patrol with characters from Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlet.
Read the archived edition guide for the original contents and launch context.
Cloud of a Billion Lights on vinyl
The full-cast audio adventure Cloud of a Billion Lights was re-edited for a 2022 vinyl release using the classic “21 minutes of adventure” format. Written and directed by Nicholas Briggs, it starred Marc Silk, Genevieve Gaunt, Briggs and Jamie Anderson. The announced pressing was limited to 1,000 copies.
Read the original vinyl release story. That report records the historical edition and does not promise current stock.
Music and anniversary videos
The anniversary also coincided with the audio release of Stand by for Action: Gerry Anderson in Concert, recorded at the April 2022 concert hosted by Jon Culshaw. The programme included Fireball XL5’s opening and closing themes.
On the official Gerry Anderson YouTube channel, a motion-comic presentation revisited Barbara Shook Hazen’s Little Golden Book story, produced by Ross Arrowsmith and narrated by Wayne Forester. Chris Dale also counted down five memorable guest villains.
The Space City Specials programme
Network’s Space City Specials was advertised as an anniversary streaming event. Its announced programme included You’ve Never Seen This, Planet 46, the colourised Four Feather Falls episode First Train Through and the colourised Fireball XL5 episode The Sun Temple.
The free account instructions and twelve-hour viewing window belonged to the 2022 event and are no longer a current viewing offer. This is the original trailer:
Continue into the Fireball XL5 hub for the series, its characters and current routes to more Anderson adventures.
