Gerry Anderson is one of Britain's best loved TV producers, having brought us everything from Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, to UFO and Space 1999. To coincide with the first releases of his classic camp 70s scifi series UFO on DVD, Gerry kindly took time out from his current project to talk with us about this and his other TV work.
DVD Reviewer: Was UFO your first idea for a live action series?
Gerry Anderson: Yes, as you probably know I made a lot of puppet shows, and then television invented the repeat and we got into the position where all of our shows were being repeated all over the world and we were drowning in our own product. Lou Grade was the man who financed all of our shows and I went to see him - and he said that the time had come to start making live action series - UFO was the first one.
DVD Reviewer: Where did the idea for UFO come from?
Gerry Anderson: By the time I had started UFO, I was already well into sci-fi and I was pigeonholed as a sci-fi maker. Around that time, there were a lot of UFO sightings and a great deal of interest about them. Secondly, Christian Barnard had just performed the first heart-transplant in the world, which combined to make the format for UFO, making it highly topical. As you know, making a television show takes quite a long time, and the day that it went on air and the American military announced that they had investigated UFOs and come to the conclusion that they didn't exist, which wasn't a particularly good start for the series!
DVD Reviewer: Were you ever tempted to move away from sci-fi when you moved away from puppets?
Gerry Anderson: Yes, and I still am. I'm not anxious to move away from sci-fi, but if I go to a financier, or a broadcaster, or a distributor, and start to talk about any idea that is not sci-fi, I see their eyes glazing over and they're not listening. When I switch back to sci-fi, they're interested again - it's the old business of being typecast.
DVD Reviewer: The cars are pretty funky, where they custom built for the series? And have you any idea where they are now?
Gerry Anderson: They were custom built and the bodies were made from beaten aluminium - they were quite dangerous to drive! The gull-wing doors didn't operate - what would happen is that when Strakers car stopped, the camera would zoom in past the door, and the prop-man would then run in and raise it before the shot returned to Straker getting out of the car. They were originally built for a feature film that I did called Doppleganger, but ended up being used in UFO. After that, all I can tell you is that at one time the DJ Dave Lee Travis had one of them, but he has since sold it, and I don't even know whether they exist any more.
DVD Reviewer: Why does everyone drive on the right side of the road when it is set in England?
Gerry Anderson: I have to say, I am surprised at that question as I wasn't aware of that, and if that was the case, it was for the American market. The Americans used to make fun of us for driving on the left and Sweden in fact switched over to driving on the right during the time that we made the show.
DVD Reviewer: UFO never made it to a second season, why?
Gerry Anderson: The show went into America on syndication, and ran all over the country. In New York and Los Angeles, the main markets, it ran for 17 weeks in the lead at number 1 which was quite an achievement. The American office were delighted and a second season was planned, and we started to prepare for production, designing sets and writing scripts etc. We then received a message from the office saying that the ratings for week 18 had dropped and they were panicking - and they then cancelled the second series. We went to see them - and we ended taking the existing material and coming up with a new show - Space 1999.
DVD Reviewer: Space 1999 is a lot darker and far more serious both in production design and presentation, was this to make it more distinct from UFO? Or was this because there were things you didn't like in UFO that you wanted to do differently?
Gerry Anderson: No, very few things in my life have been arranged by me. For example, when I made UFO, I made one show which I was very proud of - it was about people in key positions and how they run their personal and professional life in parallel - this particular episode featured Straker's little boy dying. I was criticised in America for this - they said this was a sci-fi show and this sort of story wasn't appropriate. When it came to Space 1999, the Americans didn't want any shows to take place on Earth and my word wasn't good enough, so I phoned them the next day and said that we would blow the moon out of orbit, and they said "great!"
DVD Reviewer: There were various items of merchandise sold related to the series, did you have any control over that?
Gerry Anderson: At the time of making UFO, my company, which was owned by Lou Grade, was called Century 21, and we owned the production company, merchandising company and toy company. Because we owned the merchandising company, we did have control over the product although I didn't personally vet everything.
DVD Reviewer: Where was UFO made?
Gerry Anderson: We started in MGM's studios in Elstree, which was a lovely modern studio - beautifully laid out and we went there because we considered it to be the best studio at the time. About half-way through, MGM decided that they were going to close the studio down, so we had to move to Pinewood, which as you can imagine, half-way through production, was not easy. After a number weeks shooting at Pinewood, we had a scene which was shot in a cowboy setting. A Carry On film was being made at Pinewood at the time and they had built a western village at the lot, so we wrote a scene to use the village.
Ed Bishop and Mike Billington were both crouching with their guns, and on-cue, Mike had to leap up and run forward firing, but as he leapt up, he put his foot on Ed's ankle and broke it! We had to stop shooting again and had a massive insurance claim - and had to wait for Ed's ankle to heal before we could continue shooting! We had a few problems!
DVD Reviewer: Do any of the sets and original special effects models still exist for UFO and your other series?
Gerry Anderson: We had our own specialised studio in Slough - it was like a wonderland for kids. In common with all other studios, at the end of production, a lot of space was taken up with sets and props etc. I used to send a notice around at the end of production saying that the next weekend, everything was going to be burnt, and if you wanted anything, please take it before Friday night! There are some original props around, I don't have them though.
DVD Reviewer: Are Dick Spanner and Terrahawks ever going to come out on DVD?
Gerry Anderson: I'm the guy who makes these series, but I don't decide what happens to them. My guess is that in time they will come out, due to the positive reaction we get when speaking to people about them, but it's not my decision.
DVD Reviewer: Shane Rimmer appeared in quite a few of your various series, was he a friend or just a good reliable American actor?
Gerry Anderson: There is a difference between a friend and people who work on a production who have done their job well. I believe that if you have five friends you are very lucky. I wouldn't necessarily classify people that I worked with as friends, but they are people that I liked - television production is a very tough game, and you need people who aren't going to muck you around, do their job and are good actors - and he came into that category - I used him when I could, and would do so again.
DVD Reviewer: What do you think that your series have that has made them so popular years after they were originally screened?
Gerry Anderson: I'll just get out my crystal ball…it's a difficult question to answer. The best I can do is that many many years ago, I was the sound editor on a film called They Who Dare, starring Dirk Bogarde. The film was directed by Lewis Milestone , who is well known in cinema history, because he directed the first All Quiet on the Western Front. We were working late one night, and I said to him that I was putting an explosion off-screen - I could put it before the troops react, or afterwards - it gave two meanings to the sequence.
He said that I was thinking of the audience - and never do that because if you try to second guess the audience it will be a failure. What you should do is imagine that you are making the pictures for yourself, and do what you want to do - if you're lucky enough to be in tune with what the audience wants, you'll be famous, otherwise you'll be a failure. I've just done what I want to do.
DVD Reviewer: What do you think of DVD as a medium and are you surprised at how quickly it has become successful?
Gerry Anderson: All through my career, I've been determined to be on the cutting edge of technology and I'm well into CGI for example. As far as DVD is concerned - I've already told you that I started life working in the cutting room. A feature film would comprise maybe 17 heavy cans of film, which needed a trolley to move about. Now a small disc contains the same film. The quality is absolutely brilliant, and the people releasing DVDs are aware of this - they are aware that the DVD will show up any faults, and is also capable of reproducing good results brilliantly.
In the case of UFO, the colour negatives were in transferred onto computer - they were faded due to hundreds of prints having made from them and they were covered in scratches etc. Every frame has had the scratches, tears and stretches removed, and after that was done, the film went through the very latest colour graders, to bring it back to its original vibrancy. The sound has had its own treatment as well. What fascinates me, is that when the show was first broadcast, it went on air from 35mm with absolutely perfect prints, and now when you view the DVD through modern televisions, it looks better than it did originally! I'm a great fan!
DVD Reviewer: Obviously a lot of effort has been put into the DVD releases of your other series (Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray, Space 1999) - how much value do you place on supplementary materials?
Gerry Anderson: I'd love to make additional material the way I would like to make it, but it would be too expensive. The extras attract people by showing unseen footage, or giving behind-the-scenes information in the way of commentaries. Hopefully more money will be put into this in the future so that it can be developed.
DVD Reviewer: Have you enjoyed the opportunity to revisit your material to do commentaries etc?
Gerry Anderson: I never watched my own shows, I never do, in fact if I walk into a room and one is running, I either switch off or walk out again - the reason is that I've only got to watch for a couple of minutes before I start cringing and wishing I could do certain things again! I really suffer watching them! I of course watched the first episode of UFO to do the commentary for it, and although the pace is a lot slower than today's shows, it still has a lot going for it.
DVD Reviewer: Do you have a favourite DVD yourself?
Gerry Anderson: Not really, I am an absolute layman when it comes to judging films, and I stay away from sci-fi. I tend to watch films for no other reason other than for my wife and I to enjoy. The only criteria is that it must be well performed and well shot.
DVD Reviewer: The last big series you did was Space Precinct, anything else in the pipeline?
Gerry Anderson: Yes, I'm slightly gagged on this one. Everything I've done throughout my film career is crazy and here we go again. We've created two new television series, both of which are being made by two separate major companies in Japan. We're sitting here in Pinewood with a broadband connection - we write the stories, supervise the production and check the material when it comes in and say yes or no. We also fly out to Japan every couple of months - this has come about because my films have always been big in Japan and we were approached to do this.
I love this country and living here and am very proud of being British, but when it comes to raising money for films, we lag behind. It's ok if you belong to a television company or the BBC, then you get funding, but I am truly independent, which means the last thing I am is independent if you know what I mean. What I would really like to do, and I've been negotiating with Carlton for some time, is to remake Captain Scarlet in CGI…we've already done the test animations…
UFO: Volumes 1 and 2, along with a collector's box set containing the first four volumes are available to buy now, courtesy of Carlton Video, at all good DVD retailers.
