Author Archives: Jack Knoll

In Conversation With Peter Borg: The Making of Gerry Anderson’s The Investigator

For the first time in over 50 years, Maltese actor Peter Borg speaks about his experiences making the Gerry Anderson pilot film, The Investigator.

Coming November 2nd 2024: Thunderbirds The Movie | A 20th Anniversary Retrospective

In celebration of Thunderbirds Day, today we’re releasing a new trailer for our great, big, spectacular retrospective video about the 2004 Thunderbirds movie. Enjoy glimpses at some of the faces reflecting on 20 years of Jonathan Frakes’ live-action take on Thunderbirds, including some special guests who helped to bring the film to life.

UFO ‘Shadow Play’ and Space: 1999 ‘The Armageddon Engine’ by James Swallow

James Swallow’s new novellas, UFO: Shadow Play and Space: 1999: The Armageddon Engine, are an absolute treat for anyone who loves the detailed, high-stakes drama of the live-action Anderson canon. Swallow demonstrates how to immerse the reader in these worlds, capturing every inch of SHADO HQ and Moonbase Alpha with such vividness that they feel more real than ever before. You can practically hear the hum of the technology and feel the weight of the pressure building as both stories unfold.

David Graham (1925-2024)

David Graham, the actor who brought us the voices of Parker, Brains, and countless other Supermarionation characters, has died at the age of 99. Grandpa Twink, Fernando, Red Scalp, Big Ben, Dr. Beaker, Mitch the Monkey, Zarin, Bill Gibson, Professor Matic, Zoonie, Lt. Ninety, Boris Spacespy, Oink, Aloysius Parker, Brains, Kyrano, and Gordon Tracy… ThoseContinue reading “David Graham (1925-2024)”

Filmed In Malta: Rare 1970s Interview with Gerry Anderson

Thanks to the team at Filmed In Malta, I am delighted to share and analyse two archive newspaper reports from The Times of Malta dated 1971 and 1973, which shed some light on Gerry Anderson’s visits to Malta during the filming of both The Protectors and The Investigator. They are revealing glimpses into the shift in Gerry Anderson’s career, as well as the British film industry as a whole during the early 1970’s.

VIDEO: The Complete Map of Four Feather Falls Explained

In 1959, musical maestro Barry Gray approached Gerry Anderson and the AP Films team with a concept for a television series set in the Wild West. AP Films had recently started developing the technique that would later become known as Supermarionation to produce puppets with automatic electronic lip sync. Having worked for several years under the control of children’s author Roberta Leigh on The Adventures of Twizzle and the first series of Torchy The Battery Boy, Barry Gray’s Western series was the stepping stone for AP Films to become television producers in their own right. 

The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity REVIEW

Appreciating the timeline surrounding The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity and its inherent ties with Space: 1999 make for some interesting food for thought. The first season of Space: 1999 was shot between November 1973 and February 1975. It was a long and expensive shoot, the fruits of which would not be screened until September 1975. ITC more desperately than ever wanted to make its money back from a US network sale. The fate of the series, and seemingly Gerry’s future prospects would be measured on its American reception. Always looking forward and keen to improve, Anderson already knew that some changes to Space: 1999’s format were needed for the second season even before the first had been transmitted. He requested that script writer Johnny Byrne conduct an analysis of the first season to find its strengths and weaknesses.

LIVE STREAM: Battle of the Thunderbirds Craft

There’s something major going down on Tracy Island. On Friday, February 16, 2024 at 7:00 PM GMT, I’ll be hosting and participating in a debate over on the official Gerry Anderson channels across YouTube, Facebook, X (Twitter), and beyond. We’re settling an age-old argument between Thunderbirds fans – which is truly the greatest of the International Rescue craft?