• Thunderbirds are Go
• The Uninvited
• Brink of Disaster
• Sun Probe
• Atlantic Inferno

• Thunderbirds
• Calling Thunderbirds
• Ring of Fire
• Operation Asteroids
• Lost World
• Lady Penelope: A Gallery of Thieves
• Lady Penelope: Cool for Danger
• Lady Penelope: The Albanian Affair
• Countdown to Action!
• Action Alert!
• Deadly Danger!

• Thunderbirds Bumper Storybook

Easily the most popular of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's puppet shows, Thunderbirds first appeared on UK television screens in 1965.

As with all of their previous Supermarionation series, Thunderbirds is set in a high-tech future, but one where any major, life-threatening disaster will require a prompt response from the newly formed International Rescue.

Operating from an unnamed island somewhere in the Pacific, the Tracy brothers, under the control of their father Jeff Tracy — an astronaut turned businessman — are able to travel to any place in the world in a matter of hours using their highly advanced craft and equipment which have been designed by their bespectacled, technical genius Brains.

Thunderbird 1, a super-fast rocket, is piloted by Scott Tracy, the eldest of the Tracy brothers. This craft is effectively used for command and control at the scene of any incident.

Thunderbird 2, piloted by Virgil Tracy, is a green, lumbering transport craft, capable of carrying all the necessary equipment needed for each mission in its detachable equipment pods.

Thunderbird 3 is piloted by Alan — the youngest of the five brothers — and is a sleek, red rocket capable of carrying International Rescue to the orbiting Thunderbird 5 and also to assist in any space-based rescues.

Thunderbird 4 is operated by Gordon Tracy. This yellow submarine is usually carried to the scene of any incidents by Thunderbird 2.

Last, but definitely not least, is Thunderbird 5, the orbiting space station capable of picking up emergency calls from all over the world. Crewed alternately by John and Gordon, this is one of the most essential parts of the whole operation.

As well as the situations which could only be salvaged by the superhuman efforts of International Rescue, the series also featured a large number of saboteurs and criminals, many of whom immediately found themselves being pursued by Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward — International Rescue's British agent. Driven around by her chauffeur, Parker, in the bright pink Fab 1 (a 21^st century Rolls Royce with machine guns behind the radiator grill), she soon became one of the stars of the show — so much so that spin-off books and comics soon appeared on the shelves alongside those for Thunderbirds.

A second season and two rather unsuccessful movies soon followed, and although Thunderbirds was incredibly successful during the 1960s, it was only with the passing of several decades that it became apparent just how timeless the series was. A re-run of the series on BBC2 in the early 1990s saw a massive surge in interest, with Blue Peter being swamped with request for plans to make a model of Tracy Island and toy shops finding their shelves stripped bare as each shipment of Thunderbirds toys arrived and promptly sold out.

As with so many classic series, there has been endless speculation about revivals and films, and it therefore came as a surprise to many when it was announced that a live action film was to go into production. Directed by Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation), the movie finally hit the big screen in July 2004.

Unsurprisngly, the whole series has been released on DVD a number of times, as well as all three of the movies.