Supermarionation Movie Blockbusters!

The wonderful Talking Pictures TV channel recently broadcast 'Captain Scarlett' here in the UK. I didn't watch it. It's not my cup of tea. 


"Why?" I hear you ask. "It's the popular Gerry and Sylvia Anderson supermarionation TV series from the sixties featuring an indestructible secret agent and his battles against intangible slow speaking aliens from Mars."

"Ah, but it isn't." I say (somewhat smugly). "Take a note of the extra 't' at the end of 'Scarlett'. This is in fact the 1953 movie 'Captain Scarlett' - a period adventure film that starred Richard Greene - TV's Robin Hood - as a Napoleonic swashbuckler who attempts to save a Princess from a dodgy marriage. So not really my cup of tea in any world even though it was shot in Technicolor in Mexico and was Brazillian actress Leonora Amar's final film." (You can tell I've looked it up on Wikipedia, can't you!) 

I thought it would be a tremendous wheeze to create a cinema poster for the indestructable Captain Scarlet based on the original one for 'Captain Scarlett'. So I did.

And as usual, I got carried away. I also did ones for 'Stingray' (Based on the poster for 'War Gods of the Deep' (1965) aka. 'City Under The Sea', 'Fireball XL5' (Based on the poster for 'Rocketship XM' (1950) and er... 'Timeslip' (Based on the poster for er... 'Time Slip' (1950) a movie that shares the same name as the eponymous children's TV serial from 1970.)  

If you've enjoyed these efforts, why not buy me a coffee via my Ko-fi account to show your appreciation. Even if you don't, the link will also take you to a Gallery featuring what I consider my finest pieces of work. Both of them. Thank you. 

Six Gerry Anderson Shows Finally Get Their TVTimes Covers!

I've been doing a bit of design prep for SHADOcon - a convention dedicated to Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's UFO During the process of putting together stuff for the day, it occurred to me that none of their series actually made the cover of the TVTimes. A shocking omission by anyone's standards. 

It was left to their eternal rvival the Radio Times to give Thunderbirds cover status in the 90s during one of the BBC's re-runs of the show. 

Never mind, I said. Let's put things right with the aid of Photoshop...

Crossroads Mini-album Adventures from Century 21 Discovered in Skip!

There was a skip of stuff at the bottom of the street where I live. I had a rummage through it as any good citizen would and what did I find...? A selection of old single records no less. So I scraped the now rancid baked bean juice from them and took them home.

There were fourteen of them in all - mostly original sixties releases. In amongst them was a pleasant surprise!

An original Century 21 mini-album!

Sadly, it was not that 'Doctor Who' Dalek one with the odd narration on it. It was one of the very rare 'Crossroads' ones that I'd only heard talk of in very exclusive and hushed conversations at comic marts. 

If I recall correctly, Century 21 tried their hand at releasing non-Gerry Anderson material back in the mid-sixties and they dipped their toes into new markets with a handful based on the ATV soap opera. 

Needless to say, it didn't really catch on. I mean, who wanted to pay and listen to a show in sound only when they can watch it four nights a week for free on the telly. 

I put the record on and found it to be crap. They used a dreadful 'space-age' version of the 'Crossroads' theme performed on a theremin and the narration by 'Sandy' was inaudible - either due to poor mixing or the actor's adenoids. 

Pretty shit day really...

More "rare" Century 21 Mini-albums here.

TV21 - Today's News Tomorrow from Yesterday!

Paper arrived this morning...

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Unreleased Century 21 Mini-albums Uncovered...

In the mid-sixties, you couldn't move for Century 21 mini-albums - 7 inch 33rpm records each with "21 minutes of adventure". The likes of Scot Tracy and Lady Penelope narrated bite sized audio cut downs of classic Thunderbirds rescues whilst Steve Zodiac and Venus kidnapped a young boy and played sound effects from the moonshot to him. There was even a chance to go on a date with Troy Tempest...!

No Gerry & Sylvia Anderson puppet series was left untouched... except perhaps 'The Secret Service'. (We don't talk about the priest and his little gardener any more...)

There were a few that didn't get released. They tried to make them more instructional at one point but the arrest of Captain Zodiac and Dr. Venus and their subsequent trial put paid to that. 

One oddity was their 'Daleks' record - a laboured re-telling of "Doctor Who's" battle with the Daleks on the planet Mechanus featuring the soundtrack of the final episode of 'The Chase'. It was narrated by an enthusiastic David Graham and book-ended by Eric Winstone's dance band version of the Doctor Who theme. They were going to do another Dalek themed one for Christmas and prepped a cover for it - until someone told them that the series' special Christmas episode - which occurred halfway through a mammoth twelve part Dalek adventure - had replaced the Daleks with a silent movie skit that wasn't really suited to audio... despite Tristram Cary's fun music. 

Here's a selection from the archives. As always, none of this was ever released. It was just another dream episode...!

SUPERMARIONATION SCANDAL! What if the 'Daily Mail' had published 'TV21?

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