Thunderbird 6 (1968) on Netflix
G19681h 29mAdventureAnimationFamilySci-Fi
Brains proposes an airship, and its maiden round-the-world voyage carries Alan Tracy, Tin-Tin Kyrano, Lady Penelope and Parker. Skyship One is hijacked with the four aboard.
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Trailer
Plot summary
Brains is given a free hand by the New World Aircraft Corporation to design a revolutionary aircraft, and what he puts forward is an airship. Skyship One is built to fly itself on an anti-gravity field. Its first trip is a circuit of the world, with stops set by computer, and International Rescue sends Alan Tracy, Tin-Tin Kyrano, Lady Penelope and Parker as its guests. Alan and Tin-Tin cross to England in his rebuilt Tiger Moth. Jeff Tracy, meanwhile, keeps Brains on Tracy Island to work on a sixth Thunderbird, and without a specification every concept he offers is refused. The Hood wants International Rescue's technology, and his agents are already on board.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Thunderbird 6 (1968)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Joan Hughes was charged with seven counts of dangerous flying and production manager Norman Foster with three of aiding and abetting. They were acquitted at Aylesbury Crown Court, and the Daily Express reported the verdict under the headline 'Under The Bridge Goes Lady Penelope'.
- At Wycombe Air Park the effects team painted the summer-browned grass green; later a local farmer's prize ram died and was found to have green paint inside it, so the production apologized and compensated the farmer, and production manager Norman Foster gave the farmer's wife a bunch of flowers.
- For a Swiss Alps sequence in which FAB 1, Penelope's Rolls-Royce, skates across ice, the effects crew built a 40 ft wide set, the largest used on the film, and filled it with salt to simulate snow.
- The heat of the studio lights set the floor of the Bottle Room set alight during filming, and the crew had to rebuild it from scratch.
- The script was first intended as a 'Russo-American space project', but their associate Desmond Saunders suggested basing it on the destruction of the R101 airship, so Gerry Anderson read up on the R101, the R100 and the Graf Zeppelin.
- For the aerial shots of Alan and Tin-Tin's flight to England, director David Lane wanted the plane to seem to 'dance' in mid-air, so during the location shoot he had the 19th-century song 'The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze' played over loudspeakers to inspire the stunt pilot.
- The DH82A Tiger Moth that appears in the film (registration G-ANFM) was built in 1940, served in the RAF, went on to appear in other films including Agatha (1978), and after a 1992 crash was repaired and joined the Diamond Nine aerobatics squadron at White Waltham Airfield.
