As a child in the 1960s, was there a phrase likely to get you more excited?
Thunderbirds is undoubtedly more famous now, but Stingray had the ability to grab you by the throat and drag you along with it for the predicted thirty minutes. It was full to the brim with action and I suspect any child (of whatever age) would still enjoy it. I was born the year before it appeared on television, so it’s unlikely I saw it on its first run. But it does feel as if it’s been a part of my life forever, so who knows?
Thirty minutes for an action show seems quite short now (especially as it was more like twenty-five when you took into account the commercial breaks), but it was fairly standard in those days, and it did mean the writing needed to be tight.
Gerry Anderson’s use of models offered great opportunities for action. I’m specifying models over puppets, because it was the former that made everything possible. Puppets appeared to be the focus of his productions, but without the models they wouldn’t work.
For the uninitiated, Stingray was a submarine but, unlike any other submarines shown at the time (or now), this was a flashy-looking piece of kit with a distinctive design and an exciting turn of speed when needed. Obviously, it was the focus of the show and the model (more likely, models) of it were in constant use. But so were other models: other submarines and boats, aircraft, road vehicles and even the buildings. This, of course, was largely the work of Derek Meddings, who stayed with Anderson for Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90, but also went on to Bond, as well as Christopher Reeve’s Superman movies and Tim Burton’s Batman.
The characters, of course, were puppets, but in the title sequence we are treated to the caption, ‘Starring Troy Tempest’, as if 
the hero is a real person – unless, he was voiced by someone who really was called Troy Tempest. In the ’60s, that would’ve been the most unlikely name you could think of. With kids’ names these days, I’m not so sure.
Anyway, we have Troy as the captain, aided by ‘Phones’ – I’m not sure if we ever found out his proper name – as his sidekick, who work for the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP). 
Considering pretty much every character has a name related to the sea (Commander Shore, his daughter Atlanta, Lieutenant Fisher and, of course, Marina), it seems odd they picked an acronym more relevant to flight – but who am I to judge?
When I first saw Stingray, I was too young to have seen a Bond movie, but when I watched a later run, it still took me a while to realise Atlanta was voiced by Miss Moneypenny herself, Lois Maxwell. Marina, of course, didn’t have a voice – which only added to the mystery around her.
Like most of the Gerry Anderson puppet shows, the key characters were voiced by American or Canadian actors, almost certainly to give the programmes added appeal to the lucrative US market. As a child, it helped build up this picture in my mind of America being where all the excitement happened. Yes, there were programmes like The Saint, but most UK-based TV series seemed relatively pedestrian compared to what the Americans were doing. If I’d realised this was a British series from the outset – and that you can make more exciting things happen with models than you can with real cars, boats and planes – I might have had a different perspective.
Although Stingray’s crew had a variety of conflicts to deal with, more often than not, Tempest and Phones found themselves up 
against the Aquaphibians, an underwater race with a vendetta against WASP and Stingray. From memory, I think only two of the Aquaphibians could actually speak. The rest of them just made a kind of watery gargling noise when they communicated.
The series was repeated some time in the early 1980s. I didn’t have a TV at the time, but one of my colleagues mentioned it and he started recording them on video tape (remember that amazing new development?). When he had enough recorded, a few of us went round to his house to watch them back-to-back. A group of twenty-something blokes watching a kids’ TV show with puppets and models and improbably named characters. We were in our element. And I dare say that if I watched an episode right now, I’d love it just as much.
What more is there to say?
Oh, yes…
Stand by for action!
Not only do I remember Stingray, but I can also recall watching Fireball XL5, not that I remember anything about it. Stingray was a lot of fun for a child. Phones was my favourite character. Looking at that opening sequence made me wonder why no one could climb into these craft themselves. It was the same in Thunderbirds. They had to be lowered or lifted by complex machinery.
I saw Fireball XL5 as well, April, and I do remember a few bits, but not much. The lead character was Steve Zodiac (why wouldn’t he be?), and the spaceship (the eponymous Fireball XL5) was launched from some kind of track that ended with a ramp. That aside, I pretty much draw a blank, though I seem to think I did enjoy it.
And I think you know why they couldn’t just climb into their craft…
At least it gave Nick Parkes something to draw on when Wallace and Gromit left the house.
There’s definitely some Gerry Anderson inspiration in W&G, isn’t there?
He’s 60, so he grew up with all of them.
Ok so I’m old enough to remember the precursor Fireball XL5… I’ll need to check the internet to see if I’ve got that right. happy days Graeme, yes they’d no doubt be great to revisit. Like my mum’s traffic light biscuits, another staple of the 1960s…
I don’t know. I write about Stingray, and all anyone wants to talk about is Fireball XL5! Which I do remember, though I definitely caught that on a re-run.
I know bloody followers cant trust them
https://youtu.be/6ifS2nP53Zs
Thanks for sharing that – for all those readers out there who are wondering what we’ve segued on to! And that does clarify what I said to April about the take-off.
I loved Stingray! And now I’ve got the ‘Aqua Marina’ tune stuck in my head… 🙂
I was tempted to include that as a video clip, but I thought I’d avoid it for that very reason, Ruth.
Hope all is well with you. Will we see you at the Bash this year?
Life seems to be all up in the air at the moment, so I seem incapable of making any longterm decisions at all! I’ll probably end up buying a last minute ticket if I find I can go … 🙂
Regardless of whether you make it to the Bash or not, I hope life settles down for you soon, Ruth.
Thanks Graeme 🙂
I remember the title of the show, but don’t ever remember watching it. I was more a ‘Thunderbirds’ type of guy. I do, however, remember the Stingray iced-lollipop you could buy. It was very much like a lollipop called ‘Zoom.’ And wasn’t the motto for Thunderbirds ‘Anything can happen in the next five-minutes’? I’m guessing that as Stingray came first, it was copied and slightly altered?
Being more of a fan of ice creams than lollipops, that one clearly passed me by, though I do recall one called Zoom. Don’t recall the “anything can happen in the next five minutes”, but that sounds like as good an excuse as any to watch some old Thunderbirds episodes (I will be writing about that soon as well).
I was around for the first run and that of XL5… but Stingray was the one that did it for me. It really caught the imagination and drew you right in. Even though we knew they were puppets, the characters were ‘alive’ in a way that a lot of modern actors aren’t…
I remember too that my mother bought me an EP called ‘Marina Speaks’ that explained why she didn’t, rather than couldn’t.
That does say a lot about modern actors then…
I read recently that the puppet for Troy Tempest was modelled on James Garner. Not sure he was the most versatile of actors, but he was usually good in whatever I saw him in.
Good to see Fireball XL5 is starting to take over on this post. I hadn’t even planned to write about that show. Still, thanks to Geoff’s link, I am now ready to sing the theme song…
I too had an EP, but it covered themes from several Gerry Anderson series. Sadly, it wasn’t my mum who bought it, but me – when I was in my early 20s!
I wish I still had that EP today …
I think I still have mine, Sue. All I’m missing is a record player!
I miss those too…
Come to think of it, Graeme, ‘anything can happen in the next five-minutes’ were some lyrics that featured in a song that had the ‘Thunderbirds’ theme. I’ve been trying to think what the song was called, but had no luck finding it. Then again, there were five thunderbirds, so perhaps it did feature in the show. With all these ‘fives’ this could be an excellent theme for this year’s Bloggers Bash Blog Post competition.
It always comes back to the Bash, doesn’t it, Hugh?