Thank you all so much – are you a winner?

Thank you to everyone who took part in our 2024 advent calendar – raising funds for our charity of the year, chosen by Fanderson members – Demelza.

Throughout December we offered a variety of lucky dips, charity raffles and charity auctions. Together, we’ve made a great start in our fundraising for the year. We’re still in the process of totting up all the takings, but will confirm the figure in FAB Express.

Thanks also, once again for the generosity of donations from Najmie Allette, Stephen Brown, Dan Buckley, Matt Buckley, Catherine Ford, David Leach, Christina Lima, Andrew Staton and Nick Williams. If you have something that you’d like to donate for next year’s fundraising efforts, please get in touch at fanderson.org.uk@outlook.com with details.

Below we’ve listed the lucky winners of each item. We’ll be in touch with auction winners in the next few days to arrange payment, and will then post the items. We’ll start posting raffle and lucky dip prizes next week.

CHARITY AUCTIONS

Highest bid from Lyndsay Jones

Highest bid from Stephen Carson

Highest bid from Martin Ackroyd

Highest bid from Robert Hill

Highest bid from Lyndsay Jones

Highest bid from Nigel Williams

Highest bid from Stephen Bushell

Highest bid from George O’Hara

CHARITY RAFFLES

Winning ticket bought by Ian Haworth

Winning ticket bought by Gary Davis

Winning ticket bought by Andrew Biggs

Winning ticket bought by Christian Tarpey

Winning ticket bought by William Squires

Winning ticket bought by Lyndsay Jones

Winning ticket bought by Chris Drake

Winning ticket bought by Elizabeth Stanway

Winning ticket bought by William Squires

Winning ticket bought by Mark Wrighton

Winning ticket bought by Keith Jones

Winning ticket bought by William Squires

FREE LUCKY DIPS

Won by Keith Jones and Mark Wrighton

Won by Andrew Scott

Won by Andrew Scott

Won by Dean Bommer


See our ongoing Charity Fundraising items, sales of which are also helping Demelza.

Advent Calendar terms and conditions apply, in addition to Fanderson’s standing Terms and Conditions.

Cor blimey, mi’lady, what a whopper!

Over the last 12 months Fanderson members have helped to raise an amazing £6978.81 for Actors’ Benevolent Fund, from activities including 2023 advent calendar, Summer Solstice Spectacular and special items available for a donation to the charity.

Parker’s on his way now to ABF with a whopper of a cheque!

Alison Wyman, CEO of Actors’ Benevolent Fund, says:

“A huge THANK YOU from the Actors’ Benevolent Fund (ABF) to all Fanderson members who have kindly donated to support the work of the ABF. The trustees of the ABF are very grateful for your support which will enable us to help more actors and stage managers in need.

We know these are challenging times for the performing arts profession, with fewer opportunities for actors and stage managers. This has created significant financial pressures as well as challenges with mental health and wellbeing.

In 2024 we launched a new strategy for the future ‘Acting for Impact, which has the aim of helping more people in more ways to achieve meaningful and sustainable change. So far we have developed new types of grant support and also launched wellbeing workshops and webinars. This year we are on track to directly help more people than last year, and we aim to help even more people next year!

The support from Fanderson members will help us to achieve that, and so from us to you a great big THANK YOU!”

Fanderson has a great reputation for supporting worthwhile causes, and over the club’s 43 years members have raised in excess of £60,000 for the likes of Alzheimers Society, Baby Lifeline, Children In Need, Diabetes UK, The Film And TV Charity, Hearing Dogs For Deaf People, Macmillan Cancer Support, Orchid, Silverline, Terrence Higgins Trust, Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal and many more.

Our 2023/4 fundraising is in aid of Demelza. Our first fundraising even for them is our 2024 Advent Calendar with offers right up to Christmas Eve, and many then running until 31st December.

Special thanks to Chris King for the cheque presentation.

Thank you so much!

Throughout December we ran another online advent calendar of offers, raffles, lucky dips and ‘blind’ auctions – many to raise vital funds for our 2024 charity, Actors’ Benevolent Fund. We’re still finalising the figures, but it looks like you’ve already exceeded last year’s charity fundraising total – well into four figures! We’ll publish the final figure in FAB Express 106 in the spring.

Thanks so much to our generous donors and everyone who bought raffle tickets, charity items or bid in the auctions!

We’ll start mailing the various prizes and auction lots next week.

Remember that we still have a range of items available in return for a donation to our charity. As a reminder, here’s a reminder of what was in our Advent Calendar:

24th – Charity Add-on International Concerto soundtrack

23rd – Charity Auction – Duchess of Royston figurine (highest bidder Robert Hill)

22nd – Charity Raffle – Space Precinct shirts (won by Stephen CarsonLarry Peterson and Christian Tarpey)

21st – Charity Auction – Fanderson 82 convention brochure (highest bidder Keith Campbell)

20th – Charity Add-on – Great Themes From Thunderbirds mini album

19th – Charity Raffle – Robert Harrop Zero X (won by Robert Hill)

18th – Charity Auction – Takara Tomy Pod Builder (highest bidder Ian Haworth)

17th – Free Lucky Dip – Thunderbirds movie book (won by Jentsje Veenstra)

16th – Charity Auction – Four Feather Falls soundtrack (highest bidder Alex Bulgo)

15th – Free Lucky Dip – Robert Harrop Sidewinder (won by Martin Ashworth

14th – Charity Raffle – Thunderbirds Are Go notebook (won by Stephen Bushell)

13th – Charity Auction – Bond & Beyond brochure (highest bidder Keith Campbell)

12th – Charity Item – Supercar and Fireball XL5 soundtrack (still available)

11th – Free Lucky Dip – Thunderbirds DVDs (won by Christopher Coombs)

10th – Charity Auction – Robert Harrop UFO (highest bidder Robert Hill)

9th – Charity Add-on – Sleeping Astronauts soundtrack sampler

8th – Charity Auction – Thunderbirds movies soundtrack (highest bidder Keith Jones)

7th – Free Lucky Dip – 100 Thunderbirds postcards (won by Patricia Caminada)

6th – Charity Item – Space City window sticker (still available)

5th – Charity Auctions – five Space Precinct uniform shirts (highest bidders Stephen Bushell, David Sisson and Christian Tarpey)

4th – Charity Add-on – Journey To The Moon mini album

3rd – Charity Raffle – Thunderbirds Monopoly (won by Stephen Bushell)

2nd – Charity Auction – Robert Harrop Parker (highest bidder Robert Hill)

1st – Charity Raffle – Scalextric FAB 1 (won by LM Jones)

An heroic deed indeed!

Over the last 12 months Fanderson members have helped to raise £750 for Hearing Dogs For Deaf People, from activities including 2022 advent calendar, Easter Egg Hunt and special items available for a donation to the charity.

Fire control expert Jason Smith, just back from his latest assignment, graciously accepted a cheque from Fanderson on behalf of the charity before he was called away to an incident at an oil rig in the Middle East. Before leaving he thanked the club and its members and wished everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Sarah Squirrell, of Hearing Dogs, said:

“Thanks to everyone at Fanderson for the kind gift of £750.

Your special gift will help train life-changing hearing dogs and allow us to provide long-term support for our hearing dog partnerships.

At Hearing Dogs, the training and support we provide does not end when the dog is placed with their partner. We provide ongoing help and further training to deal with life changes whether they are planned or unexpected.

Starting university is a huge change for anyone but as a deaf student with a hearing dog, there were some extra things Ana had to think about, including some additional training for her hearing dog, Valley. Together with a Hearing Dogs trainer, Valley was gradually introduced to lecture theatres and labs and learnt how to settle under Ana’s chair during lectures. Ana has now been invited to train with the England Deaf Women’s football team and, as for Valley, she is loving all the extra attention from Ana’s teammates!

Once again, we would like to thank you very much for your support.”

Fanderson has a great reputation for supporting worthwhile causes, and over the club’s 42 years members have raised in excess of £50,000 for the likes of Alzheimers Society, Baby Lifeline, Children In Need, Diabetes UK, The Film And TV Charity, Macmillan Cancer Support, Orchid, Silverline, Terrence Higgins Trust, Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Appeal and many more. To the left of Jason in the photo is our statue of SHADO, from our funding of a guide dog for the blind in 1996.

Our 2023/4 fundraising is in aid of Actors’ Benevolent Fund. Remember that the 2023 Advent Calendar is still running with most offers valid until 31st December.

Special thanks to Lynn Simpson and Stephen Brown for the cheque presentation.

[AUS] Up to 50% off in ViaVision’s Big UK TV Sale!

Australian cult and classic film and television label ViaVision has a Big UK TV Sale now on, where you could save up to 50%!

Of particular interest to Fanderson members will be The Protectors in Classic ITV Bundle 2, Stingray, Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons and Space:1999 in Sci-Fi DVD Bundle. With over 50 titles included, there’s sure to be something for everyone, but hurry as the sales ends on 24th August!

 

RIP Dr Gerry Anderson (1967-2023)

Fanderson is saddened to report the death of Dr Gerry Anderson, Gerry and Sylvia’s son.

Dr Gerry Anderson was the only son of Sylvia and Gerry, the legendary husband and wife team of Thunderbirds fame. He was born in Windsor on 31st July 1967 and his parents issued an invitation to the celebration of his birth in the image of a clapper board saying “Proudly presenting Gerry Anderson Jnr” bearing his weight and time of birth.

Gerry had been suffering from an incurable brain tumour for a number of years, but prior to that was a renowned anaesthetist, who was headhunted from the UK to New Zealand. He was then offered a prestigious medical consultancy in Tasmania, where he decided to live with his wife and three children.

Gerry had taken a different route to his parents and sister Dee Anderson, who were all in the creative arts, as he had always wanted to enter the medical profession. Dee remembers him asking her for a blood pressure monitor as a Christmas present when only 8 and diagnosing medical conditions from an early age.

Gerry had many experiences in his medical career before becoming an anaesthetist. One of his favourite memories was when he was a ‘flying doctor’ travelling all over the world to treat the sick and dying. He also set up a medical centre in the middle of a remote area of the Amazon forest where he treated a primitive tribe, alongside two other doctors who were travelling with him. He was always trying to utilise his medical skills to improve people’s lives.

In later years, Gerry was an exceptional anaesthetist, who had a gentle confidence which was reflected in his work. Many of his patients kept in touch with him years after their treatment, saying he had made a huge impact on them and their hospital experience.

Although Dee was several years older than Gerry she shared extraordinary experiences with him when they would spend their holidays on film sets at Pinewood Studios, watching their parents programmes being made like Space:1999 and UFO, and mingled with stars from stage and screen like Cliff Richard, Joan Collins, Shirley Bassey and Des O’Connor, who visited their home in Gerrards Cross or at their villa in Portugal.

Gerry was married with three teenage children, Kelsey, Eamear and Max, who gathered around his bedside with his wife Andrea in the last few days of his life.

Dr Gerry Anderson was just 55 years old when he passed away on Wednesday 26th April 2023, and although he did not pursue the stage or screen, was really a true star who made a difference as he touched so many people’s lives.

The following photos are © Sylvia Anderson estate

Personalised Moonbase Alpha helmets!

Hot on the heels of their replica Moonbase Alpha helmet collection, specialist collectible manufacturer Sixteen 12 is making it possible to own your personalised helmet!

The helmets will be complete with display stand and Space:1999 metallic base logo, and have a recommended retail price of £299.99 + shipping.

Sixteen 12 need a minimum order of 100 units to make the project viable. If you’re interested (under no obligation) simply e-mail your name, and the name you would like on your helmet to steve@sixteen12.com by 7th April.

FAB Express 103 in the post!

Our spring mailing went in the post to all Fanderson members today.

FAB Express 103 should soon start landing in current members’ homes, and will be included in the welcome package for new members along with FAB Annual 2023.

Click here for an extended review of Presented In Supercolorisation.

We’re planning for FAB Express 104 to follow in the summer. That mailing will also include details of how to renew your membership in time to be included in the winter mailing and get FAB Annual 2024!

Keep your eye out for the postie!