ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON on the voices behind the puppets.

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on March 16th 2025.

This week we welcome back our old friend ANDREW-MARK THOMPSON who’s making a much-postponed return to VISION ON SOUND.

ANDY is the one of our regular contributors to the show who I feel is our expert on all things to do with the GERRY ANDERSON productions of which he is an enormous fan, so, when DAVID GRAHAM, the much loved actor responsible for giving us the voices of PARKER and BRAINS in THUNDERBIRDS - as well as a whole host of other brilliant performances - died in September last year at the grand old age of ninety-nine, we had planned to get together and record a show in his honour, but various gremlins got into the works, so it never happened.

Instead we attempted to regroup in January and broaden our scope into a discussion about the many actors who performed in series such as FOUR FEATHER FALLS, FIREBALL XL5, THUNDERBIRDS, CAPTAIN SCARLET and, most particularly STINGRAY, so that’s what we attempted to do during the next hour, as we discuss, amongst others, the work of names such as RAY BARRETT, SHANE RIMMER, LOIS MAXWELL, and, of course the wonderful DAVID GRAHAM. You may not have known some of their faces, but their voices shaped a generation.

Now, obviously, those gremlins really don’t appreciate a tryer, and, despite our persistence, there were still some sound issues during this recording, for which I can only apologise, and which all seems somewhat ironic, given that we were simply trying to talk about voice performers, and the great joy they brought to people over the years.

Anyway, because we had such an enjoyable hour, I’ve done my best to salvage what I could, and I hope that you’ll find this fun conversation worth sticking with despite any of the slight sound issues that there may still be.

PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.