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 […]
As a celebratory free gift to new members in August – our 40th anniversary month – we’ll include a copy of either Journey To The Moon or Great Themes From Thunderbirds mini album on CD (as stocks last) in their membership package. Join Fanderson now to get this great free offer! And don’t forget we’ve […]
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, 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 […]
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 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 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, […]
This article was originally published in the FAB Anniversary Extra, October 2006. It was freely adapted and updated from the author’s own article, ‘A Decade of Fanderson’, which originally appeared in the Fanderson 91 convention book, in FAB4 (1992). Fanderson, The Official Gerry Anderson Appreciation Society, celebrated its 35th anniversary in 2016. With the aid […]
Sheriff Tex Tucker maintains the peace in Four Feather Falls, Kansas with the aid of four magic feathers which enable his dog and horse to talk and his guns to swivel and fire automatically whenever he is in danger. AP Films/Granada Television Produced: 1959-60 First UK broadcast: 25th February 1960 39 episodes x 13 minutes […]
The adventures of a boy doll who travels by rocket to Topsy Turvy Land where toys can walk, animals can talk and cream buns grow on trees. AP Films/Pelham Films/Associated Rediffusion Produced: 1958-59 First UK broadcast: Sunday 11th January 1959 – 5.00pm ABC Midlands and ABC North 26 episodes x 13 minutes Producer: Roberta Leigh […]
