The latest
edition of Fanderson’s FAB magazine has part 1 of an article written by Marcus
Hearn on Keith Shackleton’s one and only appearance at the 2015 ‘The Future was
Fantastic’ Fanderson Convention.
The article
features parts from Keith’s interview, transcribed by Stephen Brown.
As most
Gerry & Sylvia Anderson fans know, Keith, who sadly passed away last year,
was AP Films and Century 21’s commercial Director. I was lucky enough to meet
Keith and see him being interviewed, along with a packed audience at ‘The
Future is Fantastic’ Convention, way back in 2015, and I thought it would be
nice to share my memories of what I considered to be a perfect gentleman.
The highlight for the Sunday at
F.I.F. was the appearance of merchandise supremo, Keith Shackleton.
I have to say that seeing Keith, he
comes across as well spoken, very genuine,
as honest as the day is long, in fact, quite the perfect gentleman.
Keith first met Gerry Anderson during
their days as non-commissioned officers in the RAF. After they left the air
force, each went their separate ways, although both remained friends.
In 1960, Gerry persuaded Keith to
join A.P. Films as merchandise director, during which time Supercar was being
made at the Slough studios in Ipswich Rd.
Keith mentioned that Supercar was
popular in America, and a company over there wanted the publishing rights. As part
of the deal Keith was able to secure the UK publishing rights for several
American series like The Man from UNCLE
and Dr Kildare (He said was quite pleased with a series of pulp Dr Kildare paperbacks that sold really well
in the UK and made the company a fortune)
Remaining on the subject of
publishing, Keith got on well with Alan Fennel, who at the time was deputy
editor of TV Comic. In 1961 Keith sold the licence for the Supercar comic strip
to TV Comic which was to be written by Fennel. They soon formed the Supercar
Club and within three weeks it had 70,000 members, all paying the membership
fee of half a crown.( 2/6d) Supercar was
a lucrative commodity. By 1963 merchandise sales for the show was
over a quarter of a million pounds.
He also spoke of his advice to Gerry
not to sell AP Films to Lew Grade and ATV.
The cinema advertising company, Pearl & Dean had offered to buy half
the firm, with what Keith considered a much better deal, but Gerry stuck to his
guns, feeling that ATV was the way to go.
He talked about TV Century 21, which
was something he was proud of. He’d
approached Lew Grade with the idea of a publication called Century 21, a name
which had been bandied about for a while, particularly with regards to Fireball
XL5’s original title. The company itself needed a new slicker name and Century 21
sounded right. (It has been suggested that Keith came up with the name,
although he did dispute that)
It was intended that this new publication
would promote A.P.Films’ new Thunderbirds series, and Keith eventually struck a
deal with City Magazines who were very enthusiastic, however they opted to
alter the title to TV Century 21, which more accurately described the content.
With this new series now in full
swing, Jack Rosethal’s toy company which was naturally doing very well
producing the Thunderbirds toys was eventually bought out by A.P. Films in
1965. Although, Keith did make special mention that he was particularly pleased
with the Dinky toys being produced by Meccano in Binns Road, Liverpool.
Following Thunderbirds, Keith became
a little disillusioned with the new series, Captain Scarlet, which he felt was
too dark for a child audience, a difficult to pitch.
Eventually, Keith left Century 21
Productions. However, he did return but as part of a separate company called
Century 21 merchandise which later became Century 21 Ltd. With this company he
would licence products for, amongst others, ABBA, The Power Rangers, and Kate
Bush.
Oh, and as a footnote, prior to his
talk on stage I did manage a brief chat with him and asked the question, did he
remember Project Sword?
He did remember it, as a totally separate
merchandise venture which owed its creation to Jack Rosenthal , whose toy
company by that time belonged to ATV.
However, as Gerry Anderson considered he was the ideas man he
subsequently had no interest in it at all.
Keith also had no recollection of Solo comic, which might have been
something that City magazines themselves came up with under licence.
Thanks, a good article, both the man and your text.
ReplyDeleteThanks Andy, kind of you to say so.:)
DeleteHi Scoop. You may think what the 'l' does it matter, but it's Alan Fennell, not Alan Fennel. Good article.
ReplyDeleteWotcha spelling nazi :D
DeleteA really interesting read, Scoop. I thoroughly enjoyed it :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Tony, I'm glad I got see him.:)
DeleteExcellent article with a lot of info I did not know - mucho gracias!
ReplyDeleteThanks Zigg, glad you enjoyed it.
Delete