![]() In fact, if they ever made a live action version of Space Patrol, Ant and Dec would be ideal casting for Husky and Slim. I’ll bet he smokes a pipe in his more relaxed moments.Īccompanying Captain Dart on most of his missions are Slim, a svelt Venusian and a Martian called Husky who, with his high fore-head and spiky hair, is a dead ringer for Ant McPartlin. In charge of Galasphere 347 is Captain Larry Dart who, with his neatly-trimmed beard is not so much the square-jawed Steve Zodiac hero as the kind of bloke you might find hanging round a folk club listening to The Spinners. But Space Patrol has a more nostalgic air, looking back to the likes of Forbidden Planet (1956), with its fantastical technology that bore little or no resemblance to actual scientific advances.Īt the turn of the 22nd century, the peoples of Venus, Earth and Mars have joined forces to form the United Galactic Organisation (sounds more like a transport company than a government, but never mind) who patrol the space-ways with Galaspheres, strange spinning-top shaped spacecraft with way-out main control rooms and Forbidden Planet-style cryogenic units for those long, boring journeys. Science fiction was beginning to look forward to the techno-logical reality of space exploration and its effect on human beings. Russia’s Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth in 1961, followed by the American John Glenn in 1962. The 1960s was the beginning of the space age. On the other hand, the technology of Space Patrol is all whirling concentric circles and artistically-shaped doors. It’s all gears and levers that you might actually see on an aircraft of the time. It’s a kind of lazy press shorthand that you always get when two shows are seen to be similar – such as The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits – but if you actually bother to do some research, you’ll find that they’re actually quite different.īecause of Gerry Anderson’s love of aviation, Fireball XL5 (and almost all of Gerry’s subsequent shows) is inspired by actual jet-age technology. Now, it’s inevitable that Space Patrol will be compared to Fireball XL5 they’re both space adventure shows launched within a year of each other. Provis and Leigh realised that to stay in the game they would have to ditch the tweeness and come bang up to date. Gerry Anderson was having great success since leaving AP Films, initially with Four Feather Falls but latterly with the more technology-based shows like Supercar and Fireball XL5. As with Twizzle, only the first episode of Sara and Hoppity exists – a mercy for us all!īy 1963 the TV climate had changed, there was no longer an appetite for the Toytown antics of Twizzle, Torchy and Hoppity. ![]() They went on to make 52 episodes of Sara and Hoppity, the last part of what I’m going to call Roberta Leigh’s ‘Lost Toys Trilogy’. Leigh and Provis made a second series of 26 episodes of Torchy before eventually agreeing that the series had run its course. Of course I find it twee, because 40+ women in the 21st century were not its intended viewership.Īnyway, so after 26 successful episodes of Torchy the Battery Boy, Roberta Leigh was keen to embark on a second series, but Gerry Anderson had had enough and dissolved his AP Films partnership with Arthur Provis to go off and make puppet western Four Feather Falls. Roberta Leigh was an author of pre-school children’s fiction and it’s pretty clear that her early work is courting an Enid Blyton Little Noddy audience. I think I called her Roberta Twee – hilarious joke there that’s why I get paid top dollar on this magazine.* I think it’s forgivable though, because I’m sure any of you who’ve had the misfortune of seeing any of Twizzle or Torchy will agree that they are both dreadfully twee. ![]() Those of you who read my Anderson piece may recall that I was rather scathing about Ms Leigh’s work on the early AP films productions The Adventures of Twizzle and Torchy the Battery Boy. I shouldn’t complain, I suppose it keeps me off the streets. At first it was Star Fleet in issue 4 and now Space Patrol, Roberta Leigh’s peculiar rival to Gerry Anderson’s Fireball XL5. You know how the late, great Gerry Anderson – who had nothing to do with this series, let’s make that much clear up front – used to moan about being stuck working with puppets? Well, I know the feeling now! Since I wrote ‘Stand By For Action’, an exploration of the great man’s work in Strange Skins #2, I seem to have been stuck as the go-to girl for all things puppety. ![]() ‘Moth’ Harris looks at the weird and wonderful world of Space Patrol. From the pages of the Strange Skins Digital fanzine #5, our raving reporter Mrs C. ![]()
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