After a couple of weeks of rumours, I'm pleased to read that Talking Pictures TV, here in the U.K. has now officially announced that they will be screening Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's much-loved science fiction series, FIREBALL XL5 !
The mighty World Space Patrol vessel is due to blast off on TPTV on Saturday, 3rd June.
The series hasn't been on terrestrial TV since the mid eighties when episodes were shortened to allow for timings in ITV's morning schedules. Some even had the entire end titles and memorable song cut - sacrilege!
Well, my heart is still a Fireball, so I'll be certainly be tuning in, even though I've got some old super 8 films of the series, several episodes originally released on video, two DVD boxed set versions, and the latest Blu-Ray release!
Way back in 1962 the series started out as a hybrid live action /puppet series featuring the character , Joe 90. That idea was dropped in favour of puppets, with the Reg Hill designed spacecraft originally being named Century 21 (A sneak preview of the design appeared in the 1962 Supercar annual)
Here's a photo I took in 2015 of APF's merchandise director, Keith Shackleton discussing the early concept of the space series.
Finally, a photo of one of the original surviving puppets, owned by mega Fireball fan, Bob Bailey.
Steve Zodiac - The Fastest Guy Alive!
Thanks for the heads up, Scoop. Great news that the XL5 will soon be back on UK telly. Looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteNo problem, Tony There's a fair amount of interest about this on social media. I wonder if Supercar might get an airing too?
DeleteCall me an iconoclast, but I'd love to see a colorized version, just like a Season 1 of Lost in Space!
ReplyDeleteI lot of people would love to see XL5 and Supercar colorized, Lewis. Network have already colorized three episodes and a two episodes of Supercar. They aren't perfect but certainly look okay to me.
DeleteSome very good publicity images here from Mike Burrows Photography......model photography excellent !!! will be watching the repeat showing on Talking Pictures of Fireball XL5....Richard Dixon TPD STUDIOS UK .
ReplyDeleteAlways a great photo from Scoop - and I’m always slightly surprised to see the XL5 in color - to my memory, it’s black and white! Fireball XL5 was my first Supermarionation crush. Although Supercar did air in the US, it was not broadcast in a regular time slot, and was hard to find. Fireball, however, was on every Saturday morning like clockwork for maybe a year, and boy oh boy did I get hooked on those space-age adventures! SFZ
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