Meet the miniature agents
Our introduction explores John, Julie and a very unusual 1973 pilot.
Watch the introduction →Uncommissioned television pilot
The Investigator
An alien visitor recruits John and Julie, shrinks them to miniature size and sends them on a mission in Malta. Explore the ambitious—and troubled—pilot that attempted to bring puppet heroes back into a live-action world.
- Pilot produced in 1973
- Puppetry and live action
- No full series was commissioned
The Investigator
Where to begin
A few rewarding routes into this world. Choose the one that catches your imagination.
The difficult Malta shoot
Read the production story and discover why the pilot never became a television series.
Read the production feature →Look closer at the vehicles
Explore the car and boat created for the tiny investigators.
Explore the machines →The Investigator
Machines
Choose a machine to discover its role, its story and where it can take you next.
The Investigator car
John and Julie’s bright, futuristic car carries them through Malta at their reduced scale. The radio-controlled prop caused problems during filming; a version later reached toyshops as Dinky’s Armoured Command Car.
- Designer: Reg Hill
- Later toy: Dinky 602
The Investigator boat
The second miniature vehicle gives the pair a way to travel over water. Although no television series followed, its design survived as Dinky’s Coastguard Amphibious Patrol Boat, an unusual afterlife for a pilot’s machinery.
- Designer: Reg Hill
- Later toy: Dinky 674
The Investigator
Characters
Meet the people at the heart of this world. Open a card and follow their story.
John
One of the two young recruits reduced to a third of their normal size, John carries out the Investigator’s mission on Malta. Shane Rimmer supplies his voice as well as the story behind the pilot.
- Voice: Shane Rimmer
- Partner: Julie
Julie
Julie joins John in the attempt to prevent the theft of a valuable icon. The puppet character and the surrounding live-action locations make her small scale an essential part of the pilot’s unusual visual approach.
- Voice: Sylvia Anderson
- Partner: John
The Investigator
The benevolent alien recruits John and Julie to help humanity, supplying their miniature vehicles and new abilities. Peter Dyneley provides the commanding voice of the mysterious presence directing their first mission.
- Voice: Peter Dyneley
Watch, listen and discover
A quick introduction
Discover the story, production and distinctive world of The Investigator in this official Gerry Anderson introduction.
Watch the introduction →Find services by country, with free and paid options.
Where to watch full episodes →Stories
Go deeper into this world
Fresh perspectives, familiar heroes and adventures beyond the screen.
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Bring the adventure home
Explore the available editions and stories connected with this world.
From the archive
The story of The Investigator
Explore the production, the people and the original archive material behind this world.
A curious return to Supermarionation
In 1973, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson explored a new way to combine puppetry with live-action locations. The Investigator centred on a benevolent alien visitor who recruits two young people, John and Julie, to help make Earth a better place.
His approach is unusual: he reduces the pair to one-third of their normal size and provides them with a special car and boat. Their first mission takes them into an attempt to steal a valuable icon on Malta.
A pilot, rather than a finished series
The Investigator was made as a television pilot in the hope of securing a series commission. Filmed on Malta, it returned to the mixture of puppet characters and real locations previously explored in The Secret Service.
A completed series did not follow. The surviving pilot is best approached as an experimental part of the Anderson archive: a chance to see an idea being tried, and to understand why some productions never developed beyond their first story.
When the production fought back
The location shoot was troubled by bad weather and technical problems. The radio-controlled car could respond unpredictably to interference, and the team returned from Malta without all the material they had hoped to film. Completing the story required compromises.
The project was devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. Shane Rimmer developed the story, Sylvia wrote the script, and the voices included Rimmer, Sylvia and Peter Dyneley. Those familiar names make it a particularly intriguing detour for anyone interested in the people behind the better-known shows.
The machines had an afterlife
Although the television series did not proceed, Dinky Toys released versions of the car and boat. The designs reached toyshops as the Armoured Command Car and Coastguard Amphibious Patrol Boat, without the abandoned programme becoming a household name.
The John and Julie puppets also returned in a different form in the 1977 Jif dessert-topping commercial Alien Attack. Their reuse is a small but revealing example of how characters and production assets could travel between projects.
Look inside the archive
Read the full production story of The Investigator, including its difficult shoot and the later lives of its vehicles and puppets. It also features in our guide to the lost worlds of Gerry Anderson.
Watch the introduction
Follow the creative thread
Your next world awaits
Shared makers, familiar ideas and unexpected connections. Choose your next world.
The Secret Service
The miniature-agent connection
Discover the earlier series that placed a shrunken assistant at the heart of secret missions.
Explore the world →
The Protectors
The live-action years
Explore the international adventure series from the same period of the Andersons’ careers.
Explore the world →
SPACE POLICE
Another pilot with a future
Compare a shelved experiment with a later pilot whose ideas eventually reached television.
Explore the world →