Confession time: Thunderbirds was my favourite Gerry Anderson series until I discovered Secret Service whilst homesick here in my secret base in a French forest. It is the perfect storm of proper un-hinged mad British absurdity! I would love to know more about this gift to humanity. 👍♥️🇬🇧
The sci-fi gadget story of a "Sensory Array System" is a great basis for TV or movies. The movie "Brainstorm" was taking the concept to a logical extreme.
The greatest tragedy is that 'The Secret Service' is absolutely brilliant. It is that same sort of 'Deep English' weirdness that is all the way through other shows of the time, like 'The Avengers', 'The Prisoner', 'Department S', and 'Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'.
@@TheWishp - I grew up with AP/Century 21 Films shows - and yet, as it was never shown in my TV region, was completely unaware of 'The Secret Service'. I had been puzzled as to why Dinky made a Model T Ford, that had a C21 copyright next to it in their catalogue. And then, years later, about 1976 time, I went to a jumble sale (remember those?), and, as was my habit, and still is, I looked for annuals, particularly ones based on TV shows. One I found had a comic strip story which had a C21 copyright on it. 'The Secret Service', and a photo under the title of the puppet Stanley Unwin. Great story, as you'd expect, but what the hell was it? Scroll forward to the 1980's. There appeared, in my local comic shop, copies of a fan made magazine called 'S.I.G', after the codeword in 'Captain Scarlet'. There were quite a few issues there, and several mentions of 'The Secret Service' in them. Joy of joys! A Supermarionation show I had not seen. I have the series on DVD now, and love it. I would describe it as 'Batshit Crazy', and yet it works. A mate of mine, who is an Anderson fan, too, wondered if the show was Gerry's 'mid-life crisis' show - one can't help but wonder if Gerry lost the plot slightly, and made this deliciously skewed confection, that would baffle most American viewers, and a lot of UK ones, too. It's definitely in a similar sort of headspace as 'The Prisoner', where similarly Patrick McGoohan, and George Markstein went from the superb and easy to watch 'Danger Man', to the 'what the f**k did I just watch?' dislocated wonderfulness that is 'The Prisoner'. And don't forget, that the seed of 'The Secret Service', is the very cool, but 'Avengers' like 'Joe 90' episode, 'The Unorthodox Shepherd', with a deaf Vicar who can tell what kind of handgun you have, by the noise it's safety catch makes. I always found that ridiculously cool.
It was, and still is, de rigueur to criticise and / or rubbish The Secret Service. But, it wasn't all that bad as a series. Sure it was a bit off-beat but the three things that one needed to enjoy it were ; 1. See it for what it was. 2. Suspend disbelief and 3. Possess a sense of humour. And I think that the majority of the critics posessed very little of those points. It was tragic that the US held so much sway over whether a series would be successful or no. Americans, I think, don't usually appreciate British humour ( Irish humour is worse! ) and as for confusing them? Well, that can apply to much more than a kid's TV programme. I just think that some people couldn't get themselves past Thunderbirds!!
Personally I think it was Gerry looking for an excuse to end the puppet era, as his intention originally was to do live action in first place but was pressured into doing puppet shows.
Despite Jamies dislike of Joe series the workmanship and detail of the sets and action is truly top of their game. Cheers and thank you.
What does it matter what Jamie thinks? Is it important what the other Anderson children think of each show?
This era has always been so fascinating at Century 21- the transition from Marionettes to live acting. As for the Drag Queen on the bike!!!!???🙃
2:50 Egads mates! Captain Black is back! 👍👍10⭐
Confession time: Thunderbirds was my favourite Gerry Anderson series until I discovered Secret Service whilst homesick here in my secret base in a French forest. It is the perfect storm of proper un-hinged mad British absurdity!
I would love to know more about this gift to humanity. 👍♥️🇬🇧
As a child, I recall watching Fireball XL5 and Stingray on our black & white TV.
My favorite of all the puppet shows. Hijacked is a favorite episode of all the shows.
the way how Gerry explained the idea behind Joe 90 made the series more sensuble and understandable so to speak
good interview (43 episodes) good they Recycled the music into UFO and space 1999 (1973) informative content.
That was brilliant! A shame they didn't have the confidence to press on with it. ='[.]'=
The sci-fi gadget story of a "Sensory Array System" is a great basis for TV or movies. The movie "Brainstorm" was taking the concept to a logical extreme.
The greatest tragedy is that 'The Secret Service' is absolutely brilliant. It is that same sort of 'Deep English' weirdness that is all the way through other shows of the time, like 'The Avengers', 'The Prisoner', 'Department S', and 'Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'.
Agreed, it is a joy to watch to this day. Naturally Lady Martha was the highlight of the series 😊
@@TheWishp - I grew up with AP/Century 21 Films shows - and yet, as it was never shown in my TV region, was completely unaware of 'The Secret Service'. I had been puzzled as to why Dinky made a Model T Ford, that had a C21 copyright next to it in their catalogue. And then, years later, about 1976 time, I went to a jumble sale (remember those?), and, as was my habit, and still is, I looked for annuals, particularly ones based on TV shows. One I found had a comic strip story which had a C21 copyright on it. 'The Secret Service', and a photo under the title of the puppet Stanley Unwin. Great story, as you'd expect, but what the hell was it? Scroll forward to the 1980's. There appeared, in my local comic shop, copies of a fan made magazine called 'S.I.G', after the codeword in 'Captain Scarlet'. There were quite a few issues there, and several mentions of 'The Secret Service' in them. Joy of joys! A Supermarionation show I had not seen. I have the series on DVD now, and love it. I would describe it as 'Batshit Crazy', and yet it works. A mate of mine, who is an Anderson fan, too, wondered if the show was Gerry's 'mid-life crisis' show - one can't help but wonder if Gerry lost the plot slightly, and made this deliciously skewed confection, that would baffle most American viewers, and a lot of UK ones, too.
It's definitely in a similar sort of headspace as 'The Prisoner', where similarly Patrick McGoohan, and George Markstein went from the superb and easy to watch 'Danger Man', to the 'what the f**k did I just watch?' dislocated wonderfulness that is 'The Prisoner'.
And don't forget, that the seed of 'The Secret Service', is the very cool, but 'Avengers' like 'Joe 90' episode, 'The Unorthodox Shepherd', with a deaf Vicar who can tell what kind of handgun you have, by the noise it's safety catch makes. I always found that ridiculously cool.
Well Gerry Anderson, (R.I.P.) your FAB shoe Joe 90 is about to become Real Life.
?
You not hear about the Elon Musk AI Chip Implants @@dogwalker666 ? Bill Gaites, and the Democrats want to make them mandatory.
Oh my @@dogwalker666 USA Congress is about to go AI according to Chuck Schumer on Forbes channel 🤯
@@OdeeOz lol
@@dogwalker666 I bet you didn't bother looking up what I told you, huh?
i had a love hate relationship with Joe 90, i loved the show , but looking like him at school i was always called joe 90 XD
It was, and still is, de rigueur to criticise and / or rubbish The Secret Service. But, it wasn't all that bad as a series. Sure it was a bit off-beat but the three things that one needed to enjoy it were ; 1. See it for what it was. 2. Suspend disbelief and 3. Possess a sense of humour. And I think that the majority of the critics posessed very little of those points.
It was tragic that the US held so much sway over whether a series would be successful or no. Americans, I think, don't usually appreciate British humour ( Irish humour is worse! ) and as for confusing them? Well, that can apply to much more than a kid's TV programme.
I just think that some people couldn't get themselves past Thunderbirds!!
Gerry Anderson presents himself as someone who had no ability to convince Lew Grade of what he was trying to achieve. 'Lew doesn't like it' (shrug).
i blame the americans , fussy bloody lot !
Think Lew was looking for an excuse to end the puppet era, and that was Stanly
Personally I think it was Gerry looking for an excuse to end the puppet era, as his intention originally was to do live action in first place but was pressured into doing puppet shows.
@@paynemationmedia1092 Yes, good point!
I t is s t r à n g e but beauriful I thank you for them alls
Fun fact: Joe 90 was the great great Uncle of Ben 10.
Both Joe 90 and Secret Service were dire. A real shame considering the fantastic series that preceded them.
I love the secret service, it’s very British, including some fruity undertones here and there.
LOL Gerry definitely wanted Secret Service to fail (to get into live action) and even made the titles as dreary as possible.
I wasn't keen on Joe 90 as a kid probably because I was jealous of him because he got too drive cool cars and fly planes. 🤢
Stanley Unwin..... 😂😂😂😂😂😅😅😅😅