By Ken Parker
Forgive my absence for the past few months. I really wanted to get this latest blog post
done a few weeks ago but alas, it was not to be. There is a lot to cover so here we go.
Sylvia Anderson - The amazing Sylvia Anderson, half of the creative team that
brought us
Thunderbirds,
UFO,
Captain Scarlet,
Stingray,
Space: 1999 and so
much more has passed away at the age of 88.
Her death, on March 15 was very depressing for me. She was such a creative force behind so many
of those TV shows that I love and her involvement has been often over
looked. Her voice talent gave us the
memorable Lady Penelope from
Thunderbirds and Venus from
Fireball Xl5 but there is so much more
that she did. Even as far back as
The
Adventures of Twizzle and
Torchy the Battery Boy she had an involvement that
would grow with
Supercar,
Fireball Xl5 and
Stingray. The highlight of her work would come with the
highlight of the Supermarionation format with
Thunderbirds and
Captain Scarlet.
Sylvia’s work on costumes, characters and scripts complimented Gerry’s emphasis
on special effects and hardware. The
combination of Andersons was a perfect storm of quality that would be abandoned
after they
divorced one another in the 70’s.
Her work in television is sometimes in the shadow of Gerry
but cannot be lessened because of that. The
fact that she was a powerful woman in the television world puts her on par with
Verity Lambert of
Doctor Who fame around that same time period in the U.K. Sylvia was probably better known because of
the popularity of the Anderson series around the world. I never met Sylvia but she seemed like a
wonderful woman and continued to work on projects and meet the fans at
conventions. She even voiced great aunt
Sylvia in the new
Thunderbirds Are Go TV series last year.
Her presence will be missed.
Prayers and thoughts for all her family and friends, especially Dee, who
has been so instrumental in keeping the connection between her mother and her
fans so strong over the past years.
