Thunderbirds Are Go!
Tracy Island, Lady Penelope, F.A.B., The Hood – yes, 1960s cult favourite Thunderbirds is blasting back in a big-screen romp fit for the 21st century, with no strings attached.
At the start of the film, we see Lady Penelope collecting the youngest Tracy brother Alan from boarding school in the car, on account of the fact the rest of the Tracy family is out saving the world. Parker is in his habitual driving seat. Lady Penelope wears baby-pink Chanel and vertiginous Jimmy Choo heels. They fly home. ‘There’s a wonderful line where I say to Alan, “Please don’t talk about what I do. I’m an undercover agent and I’m trying to be discreet.” then we walk out and there is this huge pink car,’ laughs Myles. Every pair of shoes Lady P wore, whether Vivienne Westwood, Gina, Jimmy Choo or Kurt Geiger, we preposterously high. ‘I’m wearing a pair in a fight scene,’ says Myles, ‘but I have two stunt doubles. Whenever I’m looking particularly cool, it isn’t me. They do the back flips, but I do manage some of the less challenging moves myself.’
Parker and Lady Penelope make a superb double act. Parker’s dry wit and deference remain. But there are some new twists. ‘The 1960s Parker was a cockney who put aitches in the wrong places in an attempt to be posh’ says Cook. ‘I decided we could catch the same sense of aspiration by giving Parker clever words to use instead. So he has lines such as, “There is no sign of the Thunderbirds, m’lady, and the media is awash with speculation vis-a-vis their whereabouts.”