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REVIEW: He’s the man responsible for aliens attacking the world, blowing the moon out of Earth’s orbit and turning a bunch of puppets into superstars.
But what was Thunderbirds, Joe 90, Captain Scarlet, Stingray and Space: 1999 creator Gerry Anderson really like? That’s the question at the heart of Benjamin Field’s intimate and emotionally charged documentary Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted (which debuts on Sky TV’s Rialto Channel at 8.30pm, tonight, August 10).
Drawing on 30 hours of previously unpublished audio interviews recorded for two biographies, it aims to tell Anderson’s somewhat tumultuous life story through his own words.
Accompanied by modern-day and archival input from friends and family (especially the youngest of his four children – Jamie), it rather controversially includes extensive use of a “deep fake” of Anderson in an attempt to add weight to his testimony. I’m not sure that it needed it, but it doesn’t feel offensive – or ghoulish – in this context.
What fans of Supermarionation should be wary of though, is that this not the inside story on how Virgil, Brains, Lady Penelope or Troy Tempest were brought to life (If you’re after that, you should check out Stephen La Riviere’s excellent 2014 Filmed in Supermarionation – currently available for free on Beamafilm).
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Gerry Anderson with two puppets from one of the multiple much-loved TV series he helped create – Thunderbirds.
Yes, it does more than hint at the motivations for his storytelling – the death of his beloved older brother Lionel during World War II, a somewhat strained relationship with his mother – and Uncharted does confirm what you long suspected about Terrorhawks’ Zelda, but the shows are somewhat secondary to the tale of how Anderson acquired six Rolls Royces, four children, three marriages and lost his fortune twice over.
You’ll learn how the young Anderson originally wanted to be an ornamental fibrous plasterer (until he discovered working with the material was giving him dermatitis), that he initially wasn’t a fan of making “puppet films” and all about the rise and fall of his creative and romantic partnership with second-wife Sylvia.
He claims the idea of them being a husband-and-wife team was pure media invention, the pair actually part of a four-pronged creative collaboration. But it’s also clear that Anderson was clearly hurt by how their marriage dissolved and especially the resulting seven-year divorce and custody proceedings that followed, which despite court orders in his favour, ended with him being estranged from his eldest son George Jr.
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In Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted, the secrets of his shows are somewhat secondary to the tale of how he acquired six Rolls Royces, four children, three marriages and lost his fortune twice over.
Throw in the poignancy and sadness of Anderson’s final years, as dementia took hold, and Uncharted isn’t an easy watch, or your average, frothy showbiz doco, but if you want a deep dive into the psychology behind the derring-do and the family dynamics of the Tracys, the Shores, or the McClaines, then this might just prove to be enlightening and engrossing viewing.
Gerry Anderson: A Life Uncharted debuts on Sky TV’s Rialto Channel at 8.30pm, tonight, August 10.
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