The Secret Service

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Television series
Original title The Secret Service
Country of production United Kingdom
original language English
year 1968
Production
company		 AP Films
length 25 minutes
Episodes 13 in 1 season ( list )
genre Science fiction ,
children's and youth series
Theme music Unknown
idea Gerry Anderson ,
Sylvia Anderson
production Gerry Anderson , Reg Hill
music Barry Gray
camera Unknown
cut Unknown
First broadcast September 1969 on Associated Television

The Secret Service ( English : The secret service or intelligence ) is a British agent - and adventure television series with science fiction -elements of Gerry Anderson that aired 1969th It was Anderson's last series in the Supermarionation format; the characters were developed by his wife Sylvia . The protagonists of the series are Father Stanley Unwin and his gardener Matthew, who can be reduced in size using the so-called minimizer so that he can be smuggled into target objects as a secret agent. The series aired on Associated Television (ATV) from September to November 1969 .

Actors and roles

  • Stanley Unwin (also voice of the puppet character): Father Stanley Unwin, pastor and secret agent
  • Gary Files (voice): Matthew Harding, Unwin's gardener and secret agent for "The Bishop"
  • Sylvia Anderson (voice): Mrs. Appleby, Unwin's housekeeper
  • Jeremy Wilkin (voice): "The Bishop," code name of a senior intelligence officer in Whitehall
  • Keith Alexander (voice): Secret Agent Blake

action

Father Unwin works in a small rural church in England . The caring Mrs. Appleby takes care of the household, the garden is tended by Matthew, who is also a good handyman. Unwin's car is a yellow Ford Model T built in 1917 with the name "Gabriel", named after the Archangel Gabriel .

Unwin's quiet country life changes when he inherits the minimizer from a deceased parishioner; a reduction device with which both objects and living beings can be reduced in size and transformed back again. According to the wishes of the deceased, this device should be used for the benefit of mankind . Unwin decides to make the device and himself available to British intelligence . The secret service accepts Unwin's offer and now uses him in complicated cases in which national security, e.g. B. is threatened by espionage or sabotage , a. Unwin's superior in the secret service is "The Bishop" ("British Intelligence Service Headquarters Operation Priest"), a senior secret service official who can contact him with the help of sophisticated communications technology.

As a rule, Unwin's gardener Matthew is downsized to accompany the priest in a specially prepared suitcase from which Matthew z. B. can operate in buildings or plants. In addition to the problems that arise anyway, Unwin and Matthew are always busy hiding their secret service activities from worried Mrs. Appleby.

Production notes

The Secret Service was Gerry Anderson's most unusual television series. Originally it was supposed to be produced without puppets, which could not be realized for logistical reasons. The well-known television comedian Stanley Unwin therefore appeared both as an actor and as a puppet character. The shooting took place in the autumn of 1968. The assembly of the real film recordings with Unwin and the puppet recordings was extremely complicated for technical reasons, which also applied to the recordings with the remote-controlled miniature model of the Ford T.

The series was inspired by Lew Grade rejected during try out the first episode in December 1968 as he believes the idiosyncratic humor and gibberish (gobbledegook) would be rejected Unwin from the US audience. Anderson was able to turn off the planned first season, but then produced his first real film series with UFO . Anderson's colleague Desmond Saunders also had concerns from the outset about the mix of real and puppet recordings and Unwin's nonsense language. As a result of the discontinuation of the Supermarionation format, Anderson's doll studio closed on January 24, 1969. The series itself was no longer shown on television after 1974.

Trivia

In episode 7, Recall to Service , an extremely important security conference of senior NATO officers takes place in which the Bundeswehr does not optically take part.

Episode list

  1. A Case For The Bishop
  2. A Question Of Miracles
  3. The Feathered Spies
  4. To Catch A Spy
  5. Last Train To Bufflers Halt
  6. Errand Of Mercy
  7. The Deadly Whisper
  8. Hole In One
  9. Recall To Service
  10. The Cure
  11. School for Spies
  12. May-day, May-day!
  13. More Haste Less Speed

Lore

  • A digitally revised DVD edition was released in 2005.

literature

  • Simon Archer / Marcus Hearn: What made Thunderbirds Go! The authorized biography of Gerry Anderson , London (BBC Worldwide Limited) 2002. ISBN 0-563-53481-8
  • Adam Pirani: The Complete Gerry Anderson Episode Guide , London (Titan Books Ltd) 1989, pp. 51-60. ISBN 1-85286-216-5
  • Stephen La Rivière: Filmed in super marination. A History of the Future . Foreword at David Elliott, Neshannok, PA (Hermes Press) 2009. ISBN 1-932563-23-7
  • Simon Archer: FAB Facts. Behind the Scenes of TV's Famous Adventures in the 21st Century , London (HarperCollinsPublishers) 1993. ISBN 0-00-638247-9

Web links