The Tracy family is an apparently unassuming group of physically fit, young males who sit around on an island and do nothing all day. Their father, multi-millionaire tycoon Jeff Tracy, seems happy to let them wallow in their lethargy, leading to frequent assertions that he’s a terrible father and probably shouldn’t be sponging off social security anyway. However, what the rest of the world doesn’t know is that Tracy Island is in fact the headquarters of that fantastic secret organisation International Rescue, which exists to help out absolutely anybody in hours of dire calamity and danger. When certain doom is on the horizon for some unlucky sod trapped underneath a truckload of iron girders with a bomb in his pocket and a nut allergy, the Tracy brothers rush to the scene in their fabulous Thunderbird vehicles to rescue the blighter at no extra cost to you, the average day-to-day taxpayer. With the aid of its network of special agents situated all over the world, International Rescue is sure to save the day whatever the odds.

And that’s what Thunderbirds is all about when you get right down to it (and, contrary to the backs of the original R2 DVD covers, their mission is not to "battle the forces of evil," thank you very much). Another of the Anderson puppet series filmed in stunning Supermarionation, Thunderbirds is arguably the most memorable of the lot and retains a firm grip in the public consciousness and in 60s nostalgia television programmes, being even more successful than its successor, Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons. Whereas that later show had a certain grim edge to it, with ordinary innocents getting bumped off all over the place by our Martian aggressors, Thunderbirds is a series where the goodies always win even if things are looking a bit shaky in places. Though this threatened to make Thunderbirds a tad predictable, the fun of the programme was in seeing exactly how those magnificent men in their rescue machines would aid the victim of the week and get him out of the scrape that he or she had found themselves in. More so than in Captain Scarlet, the special effects and model work of Thunderbirds was brought to the fore, with more multiple explosions then you could wave a Mole at. Each episode also had a 50 minute running time, a luxury not afforded to the other Supermarionation shows (and a decision made relatively late in the day, as many of the early scripts, written to a 25 minute duration, had to be padded out a bit to accommodate the new running time). Thunderbirds has lost none of its adventure and excitement over the years and every episode is fantastic fun to watch (aside from the rubbish ones which aren’t). In some ways Thunderbirds can even be seen as being far darker now than it was back in the 60s, as a considerable number of episodes (including the first one) involve aircraft-related terrorism, an issue that obviously has a lot of clout in today’s modern world. And yet, at the end of the day, it’s still a relatively light-hearted series that merely seeks to thrill and to entertain. The sets, models and effects are superlative and Barry Gray’s dramatic and stirring music has never been better. In this guide I shall attempt to take you throughout the two television series (spanning thirty-two episodes) and the two cinema films, you lucky lucky things. What I will not be doing is mentioning that godawful live-action film remake, as Kinggodzillak has already ripped that little baby apart quite satisfactorily already.

First, as is custom, a rundown of the regulars:

The five Tracy brothers, who operate the vehicles and do all the rescuing:

Scott Tracy (voiced by Shane Rimmer): The senior brother, who controls Thunderbird 1, the reconnaissance craft. As such his duties are supposedly to arrive on the scene before everybody else and then radio back to base to let them know what equipment they'll need. However, he never gets to do this as Thunderbird 2, with accompanying vital rescue stuff, is almost always launched at roughly the same time anyway, meaning that Scott's position as Mr Advice is severely reduced. Otherwise he's meant to oversee and co-ordinate the rescue operations, though, again, the other Tracy brothers seem quite competent enough anyway. Scott's official role in proceedings is therefore fairly nebulous, though he goes out on nearly every rescue. He'll either leap into the fray to get his hands dirty or, more often than not, he'll sit at his mobile control desk and twiddle his thumbs a bit. Scott's also fairly arrogant and is obviously an attention seeker, yelling out "Here I go!" whenever he leaves the Tracy Island lounge.

Virgil Tracy (David Holliday & Jeremy Wilkin): Virgil pilots Thunderbird 2, which is usual central to every rescue operation. As such he has the most responsibility but you'll never hear him brag about it, oh no. Indeed, he's actually a very likeable sort of chap, the sort of man you'd happily have a pint with down the pub. He plays a good piano, too. Virgil must surely have something of a throat problem which gets fixed between series 1 (episodes 1-26) and series 2 (episodes 27-32) as he suddenly sounds much clearer and more precise. Behind the scenes, David Holliday had gone walkabouts - whether he quitted or couldn't do it we don't know - and was replaced with the adequate Jeremy Wilkin.

Alan Tracy (Matt Zimmerman): The youngest and most irritating brother, Alan's primary role is to zip about in Thunderbird 3 on space rescues but seeing as there are only three throughout the entire series he tends to put his nose into lots of other areas too. He sometimes relieves John by manning Thunderbird 5 for a spell and often goes out on rescues with Virgil in Thunderbird 2 when an extra chap is needed. Alan spends most of the series bitching and whining about things, usually whenever his girlfriend, Tin-Tin, isn't talking to him. Annoyingly he completely two-times the poor girl in the first feature film when he seems desperate to the point of adolescent hysteria to get into the knickers of Lady Penelope, another further blot on his record. The second film reveals that he also shoots wild animals for fun and so I don't think I need to deliberate further the overall deficits of his character.

Gordon Tracy (David Graham): Always chirpy, is our Gordon. He's always smiling about something. It's nice that he manages to retain such high self-esteem considering that he's rarely invited out on rescues in favour of Alan going instead. Gordon comes into his own during sea rescues, however, as he is the aquanaut in charge of Thunderbird 4, in itself a pod vehicle carried by Thunderbird 2 and only designed as a "scout craft". Why Gordon was lumbered with a substandard Thunderbird I don't know. Still, he keeps on smiling nevertheless. Good ol' Gordon.

John Tracy (Ray Barrett): If you thought Gordon didn't get enough to do, pity poor John. His participation in the series amounts to sitting around in the space station, Thunderbird 5, and listening in on other peoples' conversations over the radio. Whenever somebody is in danger he swiftly sends a call to Tracy Island and then… sits down and has a coffee. Or looks out of the window. John is only seen to go out on one rescue during the series and even then is surplus to requirements. Apparently, behind the scenes, Gerry Anderson never liked the character because of his "all American" clichéd qualities: this sounds like a pitiful excuse because he created all the characters himself with his wife and if he didn't like John as a character he could always have changed him. Another rumour says that Sylvia wanted the puppet to be based on Adam Faith and Gerry got jealous and made sure that the puppet was used as scarcely as possible. Whatever the reason, John remains my favourite of the brothers, mainly out of sympathy for the poor bugger.

The other residents of Tracy Island are a rather eclectic lot.

Jeff Tracy (Peter Dyneley): He of the overactive gonads, Jeff is the very rich father of the five Tracy brothers, though the mother is mysteriously never seen or mentioned. Jeff generally keeps a competent head on his shoulders and his mental faculties are certainly sharper than those of Colonel White. Still, his general opinions of procedure and secrecy seem to veer wildly between episodes: he'll shout at one child for stowing away aboard Thunderbird 2 and then invite another kid over himself and dress as Santa Claus for his delectation. A curious man.

Brains (David Graham): He who designed and made everything. Yup. The Thunderbirds, the base, the desks: everything. Quite a productive chap, really. He sometimes goes out on rescues when superior technical expertise is needed but spends most of his time sitting in his lab and playing chess or designing robots. He also stutters, much to the mirthful amusement of absolutely nobody.

Tin Tin (Christine Finn): Employed by Jeff to act as a secretary and as a walking blow to feminism, Tin Tin is likely Japanese and occasionally gets to go out on rescues. She's also silly enough to have acquired Alan as a boyfriend, though I'm sure she's only in it for the sheet fumbling. It can't be for his personality, can it?

Kyrano (David Graham): Tin Tin's father and general manservant for Jeff Tracy. Quite why Jeff keeps importing Japanese slaves I don't know but it's his island and I'm sure he keeps things ethical. Kyrano rarely does much of interest or of aid to the organisation he now works for. Indeed, he's actually a deficit as he's prone to being mentally overpowered by his half-brother, the Hood, and forced to yell out vital top secret information to the surprise and alarm of nobody around him.

Grandma (Christine Finn): Grandma's purpose in the series is to suddenly appear without warning and scare the heck out of me. She's a frightening old thing and no mistake but keeps herself useful by making clothes and apple pies in equal measure. Presumably her multi-billionaire son can't spare the cash to put her into a 5 star retirement home and is content to work her into the ground until the point of complete exhaustion, whereupon she'll be given a burial at sea via Thunderbird 4. Or perhaps I'm being morbid.

And, finally, the other three important regulars:

Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward (Sylvia Anderson): International Rescue's wealthy London agent, usually dispatched from her mansion to anywhere in the world to deal with a situation when an agent already there would probably suffice. Penelope has pretensions of being a docile and very refined young lady though this exterior merely masks her bloodthirsty desires. Whereas it is International Rescue policy to save lives, Penelope usually takes them, speeding off in her Rolls Royce and ordering her chauffeur to gun down assorted villains and make sure they'll never be poking their noses round the door of the job-exchange ever again. A third of the episodes usually directly involve Penelope investigating things before needing to be rescued herself. I'm not overly fond of her, to be honest.

Parker (David Graham): A character I loved as a child, I no longer hold much enthusiasm for the exploits of butler, chauffeur and dogsbody Parker, mainly because he's always used as comedy-fodder for jokes that aren't funny. If there's a patented comedy moment you can be sure that Parker will be involved somehow. Otherwise he's a shady criminal type in Penelope's employ; Penny makes good use of his nimble fingers on occasion. To get into buildings, you filthy devils.

The Hood (Ray Barrett): The recurring villain of the series, the Hood pops up in six episodes (and, arguably, in both films) in order to obtain material gain, which is usually connected with him getting good quality photos of the Thunderbirds. He's a terrorist who lives inside a temple deep in the Malaysian (?) jungles and often mentally assaults his half-brother, Kyrano, from afar. The Hood ends most of his episodes trapped in an exploding vehicle but apparently has mastered the Mysteron art of retro-metabolism as he never, ever dies.

And, as a side note, fans of Doctor Who may like to know that several of the actors mentioned above appeared in 60s stories. Shane Rimmer is one of the Clantons of The Gunfighters, appearing alongside David Graham as Charlie the Barman. David Graham was also a Dalek voice artist (to be honest, quite a poor one) and the voice of the Hood himself turns up to play Koquillion in The Rescue. So there we are.

I'm sure you all know what the Thunderbirds themselves look like, but, in case you don't, here they are:

In addition, Thunderbird 2 can carry one of six pods, each of which contains a variety of smaller rescue vehicles. Thunderbird 4 is one of them but the Mole is another that has lurked in the public memory for some time, despite only appearing in three episodes. We'll see them all over the course of this episode guide.

I think all that seems clear enough so I'll be leaving you now. Join me soonish for the beginning of the guide proper with the fantastic first episode, Trapped in the Sky! In fact, here's a trailer for it:

YouTube

FAB!