Save big on soundtracks this spring

Get a great deal on some of our exclusive members-only soundtracks!

To celebrate the arrival of spring, we’ve got some great offers on our soundtracks – just for Fanderson members:

  • Put either Supercar or Fireball XL5 in your basket and you’ll get the other title free, plus a free Fireball XL5 sticker
  • Put Stingray 3CD boxset in your basket and you’ll get it a special price (UK £36.50 £27.35, E £40 £30, RW £43 £32.25), plus a free WASP sticker
  • Buy Joe 90 4CD boxset in your basket and you’ll get it a special price (UK £30 £22.50, E £33.50 £25, RW £36.50 £27.35), plus a free WIN sticker

You don’t need to do anything special to get these offers (other than add anything else you want, checkout and pay!). The special prices are already in the Shop and we’ll put any free items in your package when we mail it to you.

These offers are until FAB Express 110 is published this summer, or whilst stocks last (whichever is sooner).

Spring has sprung… here comes FAB Express 109!

Spring has sprung, and with it comes our spring mailing of FAB Express issue 109 – in the post today!

As well as all the Anderson news and your views, FAB Express 109 takes a FlashBack to Space:1999 Mission Of The Darians and a very special day at Pinewood Studios. The magazine’s been sent to all current club members, and new members will also get it in their welcome package along with issue 108 and FAB Annual 2025.

Whilst we’re at it, don’t forget that we’re running monthly offers on various issues of the old club magazine – FAB. Packed full of articles (much like those in FAB Annual nowadays), you can get a whopping 50% off by buying five or more issues in each offer. Click here for this month’s offer.

Fancy a new adventure?

Tired of watching the same episodes over and over? Fancy a new adventure? Our growing fan fiction page now features ten works by amateur authors, keen to expand the screen adventures!

All stories have been formatted to A5 page size PDF, making them ideal to read on a tablet (even on a phone!), or can be printed at home. Ranging in length from just seven to a mammoth 364 pages, and covering a range of series, you’re bound to find something to whet your appetite.

If you have a piece of fan fiction that’s based on Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s productions, which you’d like to share with other fans, send it to us (in Word or other text format) at fanderson.org.uk@outlook.com.

New Captain Scarlet 20th anniversary exclusive lucky dip

New Captain Scarlet is 20 today!

Gerry Anderson’s final production premiered on ITV 20 years ago today, and we’re giving you the chance to celebrate with a very rare piece of series’ ephemera.

Gerry was extremely proud of New Captain Scarlet but was disappointed that the £22m series, which employed (at that time) cutting edge motion capture computer generated imagery (CGI), didn’t get the high-profile launch it deserved. ITV chose to split the episode Instrument Of Destruction part one in two and screen it as part of the live children’s Saturday morning entertainment show Ministry Of Mayhem. Gradually, the series went on to get better timeslots, and through repeat screenings and DVD releases has gained a more appreciative, mature audience over the intervening 20 years. Although the CGI now looks quite dated, fans now consider the stories to be superior in many cases to the 1968 original.

To celebrate New Captain Scarlet‘s anniversary we’ve got 20 genuine NCS business cards to give away (gifted to the club by Gerry when production ended and he shut the office at Pinewood Studios). Just buy something from our Shop today* and add this item, and you’ll be entered into the lucky dip.

*Lucky Dip closes at midnight (GMT) on 12th February 2025. Purchase required in order to cover postage of the business card. Spend does not include Fanderson memberships or Silva Screen products.

Virtual AGM – 1st March 2025

Fanderson’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held online at 12:00 (midday, Greenwich Mean Time) on Saturday 1st March 2025.

The AGM is a chance for the committee to report on the club’s status, share results of the recent membership survey and respond to members’ questions, thoughts and suggestions.

All current Fanderson members are eligible to attend, and can register to do so by completing this short form. Incomplete or incorrectly completed forms will be ignored. Registration closes at midnight on Sunday 23rd February.

We will send registered members a link to join the meeting shortly before the meeting itself.

Get ready Canada – your FAB Annuals will soon be on their way!

We’re getting FAB Annual 2025 ready to mail to club members in Canada

Fanderson members in Canada will be aware that we chose not to mail their FAB Annuals in December along with everyone else, due to the effects of the postal strike there. Although the strike was resolved a while ago, we were advised to wait until the huge backlog of post had been cleared and services were back to normal. Canada Post suggested that we should steer clear of January, so we’ll start mailing again to Canada in the next few days, and catch up with FAB Annuals to those who are owed them as part of their club membership.

Have your say in the 2025 membership survey

Tell us what you think about your club!

As we welcome in 2025 we’d like to hear what you think about your club. Our 2021 membership survey really helped shape the membership package that we have today. Your merchandise suggestions and ideas help us understand what we already do that you like, and what you would like us to produce. Your feedback also helps us know what events you’d like in the future, website features you’d like to see etc. Your responses also help us understand how best to run the club. With inflation affecting us all, your input helps us understand how the cost of living might impact you and the club, and how you think we might meet the challenges ahead of us.

So, please take a few minutes to participate in our membership survey, which is open to all current members of Fanderson until the end of January.

It’s also time for you to elect your chairman for the next five years, although no club members were nominated by the Christmas Eve deadline. Nick Williams (the incumbent) is standing again, and it’s important that we understand whether you support him or not.

Nick says “I was surprised last summer to discover that I am the club’s longest serving chairman. Having contributed to Fanderson’s success for 35 years, I’m standing once again to be your club chairman.

When I became Secretary in 1990, I immediately set about ways to make database maintenance and preparing for mailings easier. I also worked closely with the then chairman to bring a more formal, productive structure to committee meetings and records of those meetings. I was asked to take on the additional responsibility of Treasury in 1994, when the club’s finances were in a perilous state. I had a plan to turn the situation around and by 1995 all debts had been paid and we were consistently back in the black. I introduced the card payment facility, and brought in elementary management information to help the committee make informed decisions.

When I became Chairman in 2007, membership numbers were in serious decline. Members told us that sporadic magazine mailings and website updates were giving the impression that the club was closing. The plan was to get the magazine back on a regular schedule and have a website that would be an immediate port of call for anyone who wanted information, news, to buy merchandise or to contact the club. By giving a new, inclusive, direction for FAB we had more members contributing to our club magazine. Membership numbers (and, crucially, membership renewals) immediately stabilised and then started to increase again. 

I don’t have an encyclopaedic recall of every Anderson fact and figure, but I don’t think that’s the role of a Chairman. I have guided and supported your committee, the club and its members well for 17 years. I’ve had to make some tough decisions but, where possible, aim to include members’ comments and ideas in a creative solution that will work. That’s why the results of the last survey were so important in re-shaping the membership package in the face of rapidly increasing costs. I’ve never underestimated or taken for granted the responsibility that this position demands. I’ve never been afraid to stand up and do the right thing for the club and its members – even on occasion that it’s made me unpopular with a minority. That said, I believe I’ve been a positive ambassador for the club, maintaining great relationships with existing partners and building relationships with new ones.

Fanderson has been one of the very best fan clubs for the last 44 years. I intend that we keep everything that’s made it great, though I’ve always got my eye on the future and what’s coming around the corner. I’m incredibly proud of all we’ve achieved in my time, and relish the opportunity to continue. I hope you’ll show your support by voting for me.”

What happened On This Day?

Check out our new feature to see what happened On This Day in Anderson history!

We’ve just launched a new website feature which will tell you all kinds of things, Anderson-related, that happened on this day in history. Births, deaths, marriages, premiere broadcasts, regional broadcasts, guest appearances on other series and films and much more are available – day by day.

This feature will always be a work on progress, so if you’ve got information to share with us and add to coming pages, please drop us a line at fanderson.org.uk@outlook.com now!

Click on the link underneath the blue carousel on the homepage to see today’s page.

 

FAB Annual 2025 on its way in time for Christmas, for most club members

Finally! We can confirm that FAB Annual 2025 has been mailed to Fanderson members today!

Hopefully, this will give enough time for the majority of members to find their annual under the tree this Christmas – certainly those in the UK should and maybe those in parts of Europe too. Unfortunately, due to ongoing industrial action in Canada we’ve been advised not to mail to members there, but we’ll keep your FAB Annuals safe and post them as soon as the action is over and the backlog of mail has cleared.

Together with FAB Express 108, mailed recently, our winter mailing is complete and we can get on with welcoming all the new club members who have been waiting patiently for their membership packages!

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.