Lady Penelope (left) and her faithful chauffeur Aloysius Parker (right) have been given slight tweaks for the 2015 remake of Thunderbirds . FIVE. FOUR. THREE. TWO. ONE. Thunderbirds are Go! Again! Yes, 50 years after the futuristic puppet show launched and landed all over the world, ITV is bringing it back. However, the jerky puppets that rescued the world from all kinds of disaster have been replaced by computer-generated figures. In a nod to 21st-century political correctness, there are also more women and several multicultural characters have been added. Geeky scientist Brains has lost his bow tie for an open-neck shirt and has been given an Indian accent. Even Lady Penelope and her faithful chauffeur Aloysius Parker have been given slight tweaks for 2015. Lady Penelope is this time voiced by Gone Girl actress Rosamund Pike. She has also lost the twin-set and pearls and looks a much more modern, dressed down lady secret agent. Parker, meanwhile, returns with his original voice, that of 89-year-old David Graham, but has dropped his chauffeur uniform and sports a roll-neck sweater. His new look is completed by swept-back, grey-streaked hair. Thunderbirds aired here between 1964 and 1966 and repeated in 1992 and 2002. There were 32 50-minute episodes over two series, shown in 66 countries. The show spawned a merchandising frenzy, with more than 3,000 Thunderbirds products, from puppets and lunchboxes to T-shirts, so much so that December 1966 was dubbed Thunderbirds Christmas. This is not, however the first attempt at a remake. Thunderbirds, a 2004 Working Title film with real actors (including Ben Kingsley as arch-villain The Hood), was an unmitigated disaster, losing almost £20 million at the box office. Even Gerry Anderson, the show’s co-creator, called it ‘the biggest load of c**p’ he had seen and rejected an offer of £400,000 for just going to the premiere. ‘Remaking something as iconic as Thunderbirds means that your feelings of excitement are mixed with apprehension because you don’t want to do anything to tarnish it,’ says Giles Ridge, the show’s executive producer. ‘We didn’t want to mess too much with Thunderbirds but needed to make it in a way that would excite 21st-century children.’ In a nod to 21st-century political correctness, there are also more women and several multicultural characters have been added . As with the original, at the heart of Thunderbirds are the five gung-ho Tracy brothers, all named after real astronauts on America’s Mercury space mission in the early 1960s: Scott (Carpenter), John (Glenn), Virgil (Grissom), Gordon (Cooper) and Alan (Shephard). Their mission is to save the world through their secret organisation International Rescue. Inspired by their widower billionaire father Jeff, (a stalwart of the original series but missing in this) they live on Tracy Island in the middle of the South Pacific in 2065. Lady Penelope (pictured as a puppet) has lost the twin-set and pearls and looks a much more modern, dressed down lady secret agent in the new remake . When they hear of trouble anywhere on the planet their swimming pool slides open to allow a rocket (Thunderbird 1) to take off. There are also an aircraft carrier, submarine and spaceship based on the island. The original show was made on a factory estate in Slough, Berkshire, on a shoestring budget, but the new production team spans the globe. Main writer Rob Hoegee is in Los Angeles but watches script readings on Skype. Peter Jackson’s animation workshop Weta in New Zealand made the 26 episodes (a further 26 are already commissioned) using a mixture of live action and computer graphics. Despite all the new technology, the backgrounds are models, including an 18ft-high Tracy Island. Gerry Anderson and his wife Sylvia came up with Thunderbirds after a mining disaster in West Germany in 1963. On the original show everyone had to multi-task; for Sylvia that meant voicing Lady Penelope, International Rescue’s London agent. Rosamund Pike says she didn’t hesitate when she was offered the role. ‘As soon as ITV asked me,’ she says, ‘I knew it would be very exciting. ‘Lady Penelope often plays up to the frivolous elements of who she is — a girl who loves clothes, pink cars, little dogs — to blindside people and conceal what she really is up to at any given point That is usually breaking in somewhere she shouldn’t be, finding secrets in dangerous situations.’ Her car is no longer a Rolls (no brands are used in children’s television programmes now), but thankfully she still has Parker. ‘The producers met me for coffee,’ says David Graham. ‘I think they wanted to see what sort of shape I’m in, but I was thrilled to be able to recreate this character. Parker was originally just a minor character, but he eventually became Gerry’s favourite.’ Parker returns with his original voice, that of 89-year-old David Graham, but has dropped his chauffeur uniform (pictured) and now sports a roll-neck sweater with swept-back, grey-streaked hair . Parker has retained his distinctive cockney-trying-to-be-snooty accent. David says: ‘Gerry took me to lunch and said: “I want you to listen to the wine waiter.” So the waiter came over and asked if we would like to see the wine list and he just had this great accent. I’m not sure he knew we modelled the voice on him.’ There has been a concerted effort to increase the female and multicultural roles in the show to make it appeal to aspirational girls and boys of all races. Merlin actress Angel Coulby plays Kayo, an ‘adopted little sister’ to the Tracy brothers who is in charge of security for Tracy Island. Former Casualty actress Adjoa Andoh voices Colonel Casey, commanding officer of the Global Defence Force. Thunderbirds aired here between 1964 and 1966 and repeated in 1992 and 2002. There were 32 50-minute episodes over two series, shown in 66 countries .
Fifty years after the futuristic puppet show launched ITV is bringing it back.
It is computer-generated with more women and multicultural characters.
Lady Penelope lost twin-set and pearls and looks like a lady secret agent.
Parker has dropped his chauffeur uniform and sports a roll-neck sweater.
Thunderbirds, ITV1 tomorrow at 5pm.