While I have been traveling, the news broke that Sylvia Anderson had died. Always glossed over in her partnership with husband Gerry, Sylvia was a key part of the team that made all of those great puppet shows. She also outlived Gerry and had a lengthy career as a TV executive after Supermarionation became a thing of the past.
Sylvia was responsible for all of the key female characters in the puppet series. That included Lady Penelope, Venus from Fireball XL5, the Angels from Captain Scarlet, and my personal favorite, Atlanta Shore from Stingray. Atlanta was a redhead, she had a responsible job in the World Aquanaut Security Patrol, she was also a pretty good pianist, and her name reflected that of one of my heroines from Greek mythology. The fact that Troy Tempest appeared to prefer to blonde fish girl merely served to confirm my suspicion that boys were pretty daft.
Thanks, Sylvia, you made girls part of the Supermarionation world. That was an amazing thing for kids like me.
I have always thought of them as “Gerry and Sylvia Anderson” nice to know she had her own career after. They produced some unique work esp. UFO and Space 1999.
The two were always one to me. I loved the input she had on the shows. UFO is a favorite – she thought in the future, women would wear wigs as part of their uniforms, the way you’d wear a hat!