COSFORD GUEST TALKS: ALAN SHUBROOK

Following Sylvia Anderson’s talk, Alan Shubrook took to the stage to present his slide show dealing with the series special effects.

He was nursing a very bad throat and was in mortal danger of losing his voice but, in true heroic style he soldiered on.

He talked about how Derek Meddings and later on, Mike Trim came up with the designs for the fantastic vehicles, and what materials were used to create the buildings.

The slide show was full of behind the scenes photos, with Alan describing the scenes.

 He shared the secrets of how the special effects technicians got over all the niggling problems they were always coming across.

  One problem was that when the rock face was lowered on Tracy Island it left a gap which Thunderbird 2 would get stuck on.

A second shot had to be filmed from a new angle and the gap filled with card so the Thunderbird could smoothly run out of its hanger.

Another fact was that the water tank used in the studio was so big it had to be constructed and sealed in two halves, and took half a day to fill!

Following the lecture, Alan signed autographs. He’d prepared a nice glossy special anniversary souvenir brochure packed full of info about the making of Thunderbirds, using lots of behind the scenes photos.

One photo in the brochure did catch my attention showing lighting cameraman, Harry Oakes taking a light reading against a fibreglass model of an Orbit lolly ice, used for one of the Lyons Maid commercials.

As Alan points out, little if anything has been written about how these commercials were made.

Alan goes on to say, that these were filmed at weekends meaning you didn’t get a break, although there was something quite surreal about launching a lolly on a Saturday morning on the Slough Trading Estate.