[tv show] Berkshire: Unseen Thunderbirds film cans found in garden shed

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Link: Berkshire: Unseen Thunderbirds film cans found in garden shed - BBC News

 

Film cans containing unseen footage of the Thunderbirds TV show have been found in a garden shed.

 

A family found the cans - light-tight containers used to enclose film - in the shed belonging to their father, an editor on the show who died recently.

 

Stephen La Rivière from Century 21 Films, which received the 22 old cans, said they mainly contained Thunderbirds material from the 1960s, including an alternative version of an episode that was never broadcast.

 

It is hoped the footage - filmed on the Slough Trading Estate in Berkshire - can be shown to the public as part of the series' 60th anniversary next year.

 

Mr La Rivière said he was contacted by the family last year.

 

He said they were difficult to identify because of the condition, but "clearly the majority of it was Thunderbirds".

 

The only way to get a proper look at the material was to transfer it to digital, and so began the "very, very slow" process of scanning it.

 

"It took weeks, bit-by-bit," said Mr La Rivière.

 

"Every night I'd get a link for a download of the latest one that had been scanned... you'd never know what you'd get."

 

A lot of the material was the same as what had been aired.

 

"Eventually, listening one night... this one played out and it was not the same as broadcast," Mr La Rivière said.

 

He said it turned out to be an alternative edit of an existing episode, which had a previously unseen scene.

 

Mr La Rivière said the film can was damaged, exposing the contents to the elements, so there was some restoration work to do on the material first.

 

But then he hoped it could be shown to the public in 2025, after 60 years of "lying around waiting to be discovered".

[LeMarchand]

 

Thunderbirds Are Go!

 

Again.

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Thunderbirds Are Go again! Locked away in a garden shed for nearly six decades, newly unearthed film reels have shone new light on the making of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's cult television classic. Join us as we go behind the scenes of the scanning and cataloging of a treasure trove of previously lost television moments.

 

Filmed in Supermarionation, Thunderbirds has endured since its first broadcast in 1965. In this "making of" documentary series, meet the crew of scriptwriters, directors, editors, puppeteers and special effects artists (who also made shows such as Fireball XL5, Stingray, and Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons) as they reveal the space age secrets that blasted UK television into the 21st century and inspired films such as Star Wars and James Bond. In addition to crew interviews, we’ll be aided by original documentation, and original studio film material presented for the first time — and in 4k!

 

Experience Thunderbirds like never before with lost deleted scenes and alternative edits!