Arthur Provis has died

We are saddened to hear that the co-founder of A.P. Films, Arthur Provis, has died. Born in 1925 in Reading, Berkshire, Arthur made a career as a photographer in the Navy before founding A.P. Films with Gerry Anderson in 1957. Together they went on to produce Twizzle and Torchy the Battery Boy before pioneering the Supermarionation […]

On This Day In Anderson History – 10th March

TODAYS ARRIVALS 1925 – Arthur Provis 1933 – Martin King     UK PREMIERE BROADCASTS 1960 – 5.00pm – Four Feather Falls – Frame-Up – (Anglia, Associated-Rediffusion, ATV Midlands, Granada, Scottish, Ulster, Tyne Tees and T.W.W.) 1963 – 4.50pm – Fireball XL5 – The Forbidden Planet (ATV London, Ulster, Westward and Channel) 1966 – 7.00pm […]

FAB Annual 2024

100-page hardback A4 book, featuring: FAB Diary: 1964 new Fireball XL5 comic strip The Recurring Villain The Incredible Journey of FAB 1 The Girls From FAB archive Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons interviews with Francis Matthews, Cy Grant, Liz Morgan and Ed Bishop Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons V New Captain Scarlet The Man Behind The […]

David Elliott (1931-2023)

It is with great sadness that Fanderson has learned of the death of David Elliott on November 10th at the age of 92. David was one of the first recruits to AP films when Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis were contracted by Roberta Leigh to produce The Adventures Of Twizzle in 1957. His first encounter […]

George Sewell (1924-2007)

Actor George Sewell, who died in April aged 82, was the last surviving lead actor of Gerry Anderson’s UFO series, his younger co-stars, Ed Bishop and Michael Billington, having predeceased him in 2005. In the first 17 episodes of the series, Sewell played SHADO deputy Colonel Alec Freeman, Commander Ed Straker’s closest friend who often […]

Roberta Leigh (1927-2014)

Roberta Leigh, the prolific author and pioneering female television producer who produced AP Films’ first two television series, The Adventures Of Twizzle and Torchy The Battery Boy, died on 19th December 2014 at the age of 87. She was born Rita Shulman in London’s East End on 22nd December 1926, but was evacuated to North […]

John Read (1920-2006)

Supermarionation cinematographer John Read, who died in April, was one of the founding directors of AP Films. Initially the company’s sole camera operator on The Adventures Of Twizzle and Torchy The Battery Boy, he later became director of photography on all of the company’s film and television productions from Four Feather Falls to Captain Scarlet […]

Derek Wadsworth (1939-2008)

Derek Wadsworth was a superb jazz trombonist and among the most gifted and versatile composers for film and television of his generation. His career spanned half a century during which Wadsworth played, arranged or conducted for virtually every big name in popular music. He maintained that there was always something new to learn about orchestration […]

Gerry Anderson MBE (1929-2012)

Gerry Anderson was the creator of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Space:1999 and many other cult television programmes. Gerald Alexander Anderson was born in 1929 in Hampstead, London. With initial ambitions to be an architect, he studied plastering at building school, but the experience was short-lived when it was discovered that he was allergic to plaster. Instead, […]