fbpx
Culture

Sylvia Anderson (1927-2016): a remembrance by: GF Willmetts.

With the death of Sylvia Anderson, we have yet another piece of our childhoods, at least for those of us of a particular age, gone. Gerry Anderson might have come up with the idea for their many series but it was Sylvia Anderson who created and gave the characters their hearts and dimensionality, not to mention contributing her voice to all the significant puppet series of the Century 21 line-up.

Sylvia Anderson (1927-2016): a remembrance by: GF Willmetts.
Sylvia Anderson (1927-2016): a remembrance by: GF Willmetts.

The most significant of these which she will always be remembered for will be Lady Penelope Crichton-Ward in ‘Thunderbirds’, for whom those who have followed in the part will always be compared to. This belies the fact that she also contributed to the style and fashions and whatever was needed for fleshing out the characters. Certainly, this touch was really applied to ‘UFO’. It was also telling when the Andersons divorced that there wasn’t something quite right with the shows after that and how much she truly contributed.

In many respects, at least in the fan culture, there was far too much attention given to Gerry and, while in his club briefly to get some Mike Noble posters, where I read his comment from other readers asking how an interview with his ex-wife which he fervently opposed, fuelled by their break-up and their son not wanting to see him. These days, the right to reply might have been more useful and I think their club would have been better off being a fan of the shows than one individual but there you go.

Knowing something of the real background, I always had a soft spot for Sylvia who went on to be become an executive for American children’s programmes in UK for the next couple decades and probably shaped what your sprogs saw on ITV during the 70s-90s.

The fact that she was asked to do a voice-over as Lady Sylvia Crichton-Ward for an episode of the new CGI ‘Thunderbirds Are Go!’ series is a testimony for her continued appeal today.

Childhood might seem a long way away but some memories will always be there.

Get the Rolls Royce, Parker. We’re going for a little drive.’

GF Willmetts

16 March 2016

UncleGeoff

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.