

Thunderbirds fans have been given their first glimpse of how Lady Penelope, Parker and Brains will appear in ITV’s rebooted version of the classic children’s TV show.

All three have been given a makeover for the modern age; Brains has swapped his bow tie for an open necked shirt and funky jacket, while out goes Parker’s chauffeur uniform in favour of a roll neck jumper and swept back hair with echoes of George Clooney.

Lady Penelope, who will be voiced by former Bond girl Rosamund Pike, also gets a dramatic new look, dramatically younger than the original version, a crime-fighting Taylor Swift.

Thunderbirds Are Go: Lady Penelope and Parker. Photograph: ITV

One episode of Thunderbirds are Go is written by David Baddiel and will feature Sylvia Anderson, who voiced Lady Penelope in the original series, voicing an entirely new character.

Brains will be voiced by Fonejacker star Kayvan Novak, while Parker will be played by David Graham, who voiced him in the original series.

The episode will be called “Designated Driver” and Anderson will voice the character of Lady Penelope’s Great Aunt Sylvia.

Nick Wilson, former Channel 5 director of children’s programmes and now a producer and script editor, said the new-look Lady Penelope might “ruffle a few feathers”.

“There is an increasing tendency today to make girl characters more tomboyish, to put them in dungarees,” he said. “Broadcasters don’t want them to be butch but they don’t want them to be too girly. They want stronger role models for girls.

“But Lady Penelope is a pretty strong role model so you can’t just go on looks, it’s what underneath that counts. Let’s see how she turns out three or four episodes in. We have only seen a glimpse.”

Wilson said older viewers might find themselves harking back to the original but the show had to appeal to a new generation.

“With your nostalgic hat on you think, oh what a shame, but as a cold-hearted broadcaster that is a good thing,” he said. “You are talking to an audience that watches Ben 10 and Spongebob Squarepants. That is the competition.”

Thunderbirds will return in the spring half a century after it first appeared on ITV in 1965 featuring Gerry Anderson’s “supermarionation” puppet techniques.

Anderson, whose other TV shows included Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and Space 1999, died in 2012, aged 83.

Thunderbirds Are Go: the restyled Brains. Photograph: ITV

Lady Penelope, driven around by Parker in a pink Rolls-Royce, number plate FAB1, is one of the most recognisable characters in children’s TV history.

Pike is best known for her role as a double agent opposite Pierce Brosnan in James Bond film Die Another Die and has also appeared in Made in Dagenham and Bad Education.

The new series is a co-production between ITV Studios and New Zealand-based Pukeko Pictures in association with the Weta Workshop, whose credits include The Lord of the Rings and Avatar. It will feature a mixture of CGI animation and live-action miniature sets.

Thunderbirds was turned into a live-action film in 2004, but the Hollywood production was poorly received by fans and critics. Gerry Anderson described it as “the biggest load of crap I have ever seen in my life”.



Anderson and ITV collaborated on a new CGI version of another of his 1960s supermarionation puppet shows, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, broadcast in 2005.