Thunderbirds are go

Set in the year 2065 and first screened in 1965, the cult science fiction series follows the fortunes of the Tracy Family who run International Rescue from their secret island base.

Viewers tuned in each week to see Brains, Scott, Virgil, Alan and the unstoppable Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward join forces to help stop a new disaster wiping out the human race.

Now all 32 episodes have been remastered and are going to be shown on BBC2, starting tomorrow.

The man originally responsible for pulling the puppet's strings was creator Gerry Anderson. He finds it easy to explain why people have remained fascinated by the show.

''There was really something for everybody in Thunderbirds,'' says Anderson. ''Each episode would take a group of people and put them in jeopardy. So you had a basic action plot. Then there would be the Tracy family coming to their rescue and a love interest between Alan and Tin-Tin and finally comedy provided by Lady Penelope and Parker.

''I think my wife Mary hit the nail on the head when she said that really there was nothing else that looks like Thunderbirds.''

There is an old showbusiness adage of never working with children or animals, but Anderson had rather different problems dealing with his wooden charges.

''You would set up a shot, for example, Lady Penelope on a miniature set and you would light it very, very carefully and then you look through the camera and paint every single wire in the background,'' he recalls.

''You are just ready to shoot and 'ping' - a wire would go and her head would fall over to one side, so it would be half an hour before you could shoot again.''

Although he was responsible for pulling the strings of the Tracy family, Joe 90 and the indestructible Captain Scarlet, Anderson also turned his hand to live action with shows like UFO, Space 1999 and Space Precinct - so he knows the perils of working with real actors too.

Anderson started working in television in the late 1950s, as a director for Roberta Leigh on her children's shows, The Adventures Of Twizzle And Torchy.

But it was not until 1962 when he created Supercar that Anderson started to dabble with science fiction for the first time.

Next came Fireball XL5, which followed the exploits of Steve Zodiac and his crew. This was followed by Stingray which was, in turn, superseded in 1965 by his finest moment - Thunderbirds.

He openly admits he has a soft spot for one of the characters, the long suffering chauffeur of Lady Penelope - Parker.

''I do like Parker, after we had made him we started looking for the character's voice, we used to go to a pub in Cookham on the River Thames and there was a great waiter called Arthur.

''When the meal was over he used to come over and tell us 'ow he used to work for 'er Majesty at Windsor Castle. One day I just thought, 'This is the ideal patter we need for Parker'.

''So we sent David Graham, who did the voice, down to the pub to have a meal every day and chat up Arthur so he could pick up his mannerisms. As a result, I've always had an attachment to the character.''

Anderson's favourite Thunderbirds episode is the very first one, Trapped In The Sky, and he has a great affection for the show although he does have one regret - getting rid of the original sets and characters.

''Our studios were choc-a-bloc and we wanted to clear the place so we could start filming Captain Scarlet.

''At the time we didn't know the show was going to be such a success so I told the production team to take what they wanted and everything else went up in smoke on a bonfire in the back garden.''

But for all the fans of the show who crave to see more of the Tracy family there is a glimmer of hope that they may live again - even if it is in a slightly different form.

''I have made a computer generated version of Captain Scarlet which took 16 weeks to make a five-minute episode,'' says Anderson. ''Carlton is currently deciding whether to give the show the go-ahead.

''So Captain Scarlet could come back to life and who knows that one day Thunderbirds could live again.''

l Thunderbirds starts on BBC2, tomorrow at 5.25pm.