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Why Lady P's over the moon
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Evening Echo, Saturday 29 March, 1975. The Echo is a regional newspaper based in Basildon, Essex. Space: 1999 had just finished filming (on 28th February) and was still in post-production. This was published the day of the series wrap party, when Sylvia and Gerry would argue and separate.
James Power talks to Sylvia Anderson about Space 1999
Sylvia Anderson bears an uncanny resemblance to Lady Penelope, the puppet lady in the pink car she once helped to create.
She is small, shapely, her face is carefully chiselled and her hair is immaculate.
But there are no strings attached to Sylvia Anderson.
Because the doll-like Sylvia is possibly one of the most powerful women in the British TV business. Certainly one of the richest.
Together with her husband Gerry, she has created a succession of super- spectacular puppetoramas which have kept children telly bound for years.
Now, she has turned her back on the little people in favour of the real thing. And so confident was she that her new idea, Space 1999, was a goodie, that Sir Lew Grade sank two million of ATV's hard-earned pounds into its production.
"It's marvellous to know that in such hard times there are still people about who are prepared to take a big gamble like this," she beams.
"In fact we owe a lot to Sir Lew. He really put us on the map when nobody else saw the potential for our puppet adventures."
That was a long while ago now. Sylvia was a London School of Economics graduate who got a job in a film studio script department and Gerry was a film editor. They met, married, and set up on their own to produce modest doll shows like Four Feather Falls.
That led ATV into the investment stakes and then came Thunderbirds and all those other fast-moving magnetic puppet sagas.
"We tried real-life things as well, says Sylvia. "We made a space film with Ian Hendry, called Doppleganger, and we made UFO for TV. But somehow, neither of them registered over here. UFO is still something of a cult in America though. Made us lots of nice money."
Space 1999 was a direct continuation of the UFO theme. Instead of a bunch of Earth-bound heroes, the Andersons have set up a Moon colony at the turn of the century.
Something goes bang in an atomic rubbish dump and the colony's bit of the Moon is blasted into outer space, never to return.
"The people on the base know they'll never get home again so they apply themselves to finding another planet that can support them. That's what the series will be about.
"Of course we hope it's going to be full of action and all very exciting, but there are all sorts of moral aspects to it as well, all sorts of real human dilemmas which you never saw in Star Trek!"
Setting up Space 1999, to be seen here and in 100 other countries in September, took on the proportions of a NASA rocket launch, say the Andersons.
"We used two big sound stages at Pinewood and two more at Bray studios," says Sylvia. "It took 18 months to make the 24 episodes and we kept 100 technicians employed, which is more than most feature film companies can manage to do these days. This is the biggest and most expensive TV series anybody has ever undertaken in Britain."
The temptation to pinch models from the puppet shows must have been great, but the Andersons avoided it.
"We had all new models made- sometimes we had to do three or four different-sized versions of the same. spaceship and we built the Moon at Pinewood.
"We based our spacesuits on the NASA designs and we used their ideas on the spacecraft as well.
"As near as we could manage it, we set the stories in the sort of environment we could all well be living in by 1999.
"We've got good stars in Martin Landau, Barbara Bain and Barry Morse, and there are enough guest stars popping in and out to form our own galaxy!
"I said Sir Lew gambled on us, but really I don't think he did. I am convinced Space 1999 is going to take off. If you see what I mean."
Caption: Leading the action in the Moon colony in Space 1999 are Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, pictured right. And left, a scene from the series
Space: 1999 copyright ITV Studios Global Entertainment