Features

Do you remember? UFO

Although set in the near future, Gerry Anderson’s fondly-remembered TV series was very much a product of its time. By Simon Evans

Although had made his name with a string of successful puppet-based shows, including Fireball XL5, Stingray and the iconic Thunderbirds, Gerry Anderson had always wanted to work with real actors, emulating the Hollywood directors he had admired ever since he was a boy.

In 1968, with the appetite for his children’s shows seemingly waning, Anderson had a chance to realise his dream, producing and writing, with then-wife Sylvia, the science-fiction film Doppelganger, later known as Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. It was a flop but, undeterred, Anderson attempted a bizarre mixture of marionettes and live action with his TV series The Secret Service, starring gobbledygook king Stanley Unwin as a secret agent vicar, a cross between Father Brown and James Bond.

Not surprisingly it was an even bigger flop, but TV mogul Lew Grade, who had backed many of the earlier Anderson shows, came to his rescue and, liking Gerry’s idea of a series based around UFOs, gave the go-ahead for a full series, this time mixing real actors with the machines that had made Thunderbirds and its ilk such merchandising successes.

Although the move to live action, aimed at a slightly older audience than the puppet shows, was a departure for Anderson, UFO also marked a return to the ideas behind Captain Scarlet, Thunderbirds and Stingray, that of a benevolent organisation, blessed with the latest high-tech gadgets and machines, tasked with either protecting against an external, alien, threat or rescuing people in situations of extreme peril.

In the case of UFOit was SHADO, led by Col Ed Straker, a highly-secretive organisation that used a movie studio as cover for its operations. SHADO’s mission was to track, intercept, and hopefully destroy, alien UFOs from a dying planet that were attacking earth with the intention of harvesting human organs. Straker was played by Ed Bishop, a British based American actor who was already familiar to Gerry Anderson fans, having voiced Captain Blue for Captain Scarlet, and starred in the Doppelganger.

As with earlier Anderson shows, UFO took place in the future, although unlike Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, which were set in the 2060s, the dateline was 1980, just ten years ahead of when it was made. As it turned out the real world of 1980 would not be that different to 1970, but at the time the show was made it still seemed a long way in the future.

Remember this was a period of our history when time seemed to be accelerating, with social and cultural changes happening so fast it was often difficult to keep up.

Britain in 1960 seemed a world away from the fashions and social mores of the early Seventies so it was reasonable to assume the early Eighties would be equally far removed from 1970.

That is perhaps why Sylvia Anderson’s fashion designs for the show seem so bizarre in retrospect. The women all appear to wear purple wigs while many of the men (and some women) parade in what appear to be string vests; not a good look. The sets and vehicles, however, could not be faulted, setting the kind of standards for science-fiction television normally only seen in big-budget movies. Apart from the highly-detailed models viewers had come to expect from previous Gerry Anderson productions, there were also some full-scale models, too, left over from the filming of Doppelganger.

The futuristic cars driven by Straker and his team were essentially just Ford Zodiacs with new body shells. They were very difficult to drive and could only be used on private roads as they were not licensed for public highways.

The models and effects were left in the hands of Derek Meddings, one of the most important and influential of Gerry Anderson’s team. Meddings had worked for Anderson since the late Fifties, from the early children’s shows Torchy, Four Feather Falls and Supercar up to the more recent Joe 90 and Secret Service. UFO would, however, mark the end of his collaboration with Anderson; Meddings would go on to work on many of the Seventies James Bond films as well as the early Superman movies and Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman.

Another returning stalwart was composer Barry Gray, who had been responsible for the music for every Anderson series since the 1956 Adventures of Twizzle. His music for the classic Anderson shows was as vital to their success as the plots, design and futuristic craft, and Gray’s theme music for UFO was equally as dramatic. He also displayed another side to his talents with the eerie electronic sounds that closed each episode, music that would not have been out of place on a Tangerine Dream LP.

Although the setting for UFO was the near future, the idea of a world under siege would have been all too familiar to a Britain for whom the Second World War and the Blitz were only just fading into memory. And, with a budget of £100,000 per episode, expensive for the time, it was those adults born during or just after the war that the show would have to win over if it was to satisfy the advertisers and network bosses.

To that end the series tackled more adult themes than would have been possible with the earlier child-orientated Anderson shows, including blackmail, adultery, sexism and racism.

One criticism often leveled at Gerry Anderson’s live action productions was that the actors were like bland, lifeless puppets and, in the case of UFO and its successor, Space 1999, all too easily overshadowed by the technology that surrounded them. It has some force; perhaps Anderson had become so used to dealing with marionettes that didn’t answer back that he would sometimes fall into the trap of treating his real-life actors and actresses the same way.

Whatever the cause, UFO lost its way towards the end of the show’s run. The American end of the production company, ITC, had got cold feet over the soap opera feel of certain episodes and demanded that there be more action and less talk. They did not seem to realise it was this human element that made the show so interesting in the first place. Also less than helpful was that filming for the final nine episodes of the series had to move from MGM-British Studios in Borehamwood, which had closed down at the end of 1969. Space only became available at Pinewood Studios in June 1970, which meant a 17-month gap between the two blocs of shows – and there is a quite discernible shift in both style and personnel.

George Sewell, who had played Straker’s rough diamond lieutenant, Alec Freeman, and Gabrielle Drake, who had been lumbered with one of those purple wigs as the SHADO Moonbase commander, did not return as they had found other work, in the TV series Special Branch. Drake, the sister of folk legend Nick Drake, would later find fame as part of the cast of The Brothers.

Despite ITC’s cold feet, ratings for the show had been good, especially in America, prompting the company to commission a second series, this time set mainly on the Moon.

Anderson set to work only for the production company to cancel the show after ratings dipped for later episodes.

Not wanting to see his efforts go to waste Anderson pitched a new show, Space 1999, which had the bizarre premise of the Moon being blown out of Earth’s orbit, taking the survivors of a research base with it. Space 1999would run for two seasons and prove to be one of Gerry Anderson’s most popular latter-day shows, but also his last hurrah.

There was no place for his technicolour creations in the bleak, monochrome world of the late Seventies – but his time would come again.

The digitally remastered UFO Complete Series box set is available through ITV Studios Entertainment.

Other stories in Features

Heroes in the Mountains
1974, the strangest of years
Motorbike at the National Motor Museum
June's book reviews
Royal robes
Peter Sellers’ Aston under the hammer
National Bingo Day 27th June 2023
Hen Harriers
Air up
Simon Evans reviews the latest CDs
April’s Top DVDs selected by Simon Evans
Here we go, here we go…for the Coronation
Otter
Easter on a budget
‘The Slug’ will race again after 100 years
Bath night for dogs
Classic Motoring Memories
Tios Drinks
Shake up your makeup
New Year, New You
From Italy with love
Mail-order meat comes of age
Christmas recipes
Christmas Crafts Part 2
Back to your roots
In your garden in Winter
Christmas Crafts
Christmas Gift Ideas
Vegan Skincare
Recipes for hope
Beauty Feature - Embrace the grey
Calling all coffee fans!
World Oceans Day 8th June
Beauty Feature - Feet First
Craft Corner - A great Easter basket
Battle of Britain
Claire Foy "I didn't get life until I was 32"
Alexander Armstong: "My family is my priority"
Cosyfeet Community Award 2019
How to Maintain Your Independence in the Kitchen
Ruth Wilson "Audience's don't know who I really am"
1969: The Year The Dream Died
Want to live the (Feel)Good Life? Move to Watford
Pressures of the sandwich generation
Steve Coogan"The most radical thing I can do is talk about love"
Oldie of the Year 2019
Rabble: The Movement keeping you fit and making you money!
Suzi Quatro: "I've always been a rocker at heart"
Giving up plastic
Women in WW1
Bognor and other Regises
John Lennon & Yoko Ono: 'Imagine'
Bill roache "It's a real privilege to make people happy"
Nana Mouskouri "Music brings me peace, love and hope"
How to Earn Money by Working from Home
How to get the best night's sleep, every night
Ringo Starr "I'm learning to handle life"
Headphones with a built in hearing test
Petula Clark: "I make the most of every moment"
London's other underground
Blue Peter: Here's one they made earlier
Gary Oldman: "Acting is an antidote to self hatred"
Emilia Fox: "I've learnt to find my own voice"
Love Your Gut Week Recipes
Puffin photos help to tackle decline of the 'clowns of the sea'
Craig Revel Horwood: "I don't care what people say about me"
Do you remember? Apple Records
What a Carry On!
Worried about being worried?
"I feel like the unluckiest person in the world."
Death of a Princess
Queen Elizabeth: Happy and Glorious
The Beatles: It was 50 years ago...
Hank Marvin: “Meeting Cliff changed my life”
Nicole Kidman "Children are the joy of my life"
The world of Parry Ray
Monty Python: Something completely different
Staffordshire Day
I always think I'm going to get found out
All shook up...The day that Elvis died
Twiggy: "I thought the world had gone mad"
Peter Capaldi: "I like characters who are strange"
Make eating breakfast a resolution which sticks, with milk&more
"Turning 60 can't be that bad!"Jennifer Saunders
The Enduring Power of the Unknown Soldier
Bradley Walsh "Variety is great for the soul"
Thank you, Brewood
"You never know what's round the corner"
1966 and All That
Remembering the Heroic Olympians
Martina Navratilova: "I Always Question Authority"
Guide for choosing clothes for older relatives
Getting older and disabled drivers behind the wheel
Men in Sheds
Scared to Shop!
Over 40s Named Most Successful Online Daters
Stay at home mum and author re-ignite's her career
Dating in later Life
Great garden getaways
Toton Engineman Review
The Making of Les Mis
“I’m a restless person by nature”
"We’re such country bumpkins”
Still time for tearooms
Hallowed hall of fame