Century 21 Films

31/08/2025

In the process of scanning a new batch of films we have found ANOTHER early edit of a Supermarionation episode with scenes deleted from the final transmitted version. This is the fifth alternative edit episode we have found, and the third to include scenes never released before. More details soon.

23/08/2025

We are continuing to receive collections for our Rescuing the Past project to discover, recover and preserve production materials from the Supermarionation shows and Gerry & Sylvia’s other productions. This includes a forthcoming significant collection which we hope to announce soon. However, we need your help. Since last year when we recovered missing Thunderbirds scenes from a garden shed, we have been inundated with items. While photographs and documents are easy enough to duplicate, films require more care — and are much more expensive to inspect, scan, and archive. We are currently trying to raise an additional £5000 to aid with recent and forthcoming costs on top of the generous sums you’ve helped with already. If you would like to donate, please visit our GoFundMe page in the link in the comments.

Items recovered, and existing items copied for long term safety include:

— Thunderbirds: Pit of Peril (alternative edit and unseen scenes)
— Supercar: Jungle Hazard (unseen scene and alternative soundtrack)
— Thunderbirds: Terror in New York City (Long missing Barry Gray music master, including unheard music)
— Thunderbirds Are Go: 1960s promotional film
— Thunderbirds: Trapped in the Sky (original edit shown to Lew Grade in 1964 with alternative shots)
— Over 100 missing sound effects on 15 tapes recorded for the Supermarionation shows.
— Crossroads to Crime (missing used music takes)
— Space 1999: The Taybor (missing on set dialogue recording.
— UFO (Original trailers)
— Barry Gray music (improved sources from tapes made at his studio)
— Torchy the Battery Boy (Roberta Leigh’s personal print of the first episode)
— Four Feather Falls (Missing dialogue tracks for How it Began and Kidnapped including deleted scenes and actors’ chat)
— Space 1999 (Original negative elements for special effects)
— UFO (French title elements)
— Thunderbirds (master soundtrack elements)
— Photographs (assorted unseen and rare behind the scenes and publicity shots)
— Thunderbirds (special effects trims — including shots from lost from original half hour episodes)
— Four Feather Falls (original master elements for Ride ‘em Cowboy)
— The Secret Service (special effects outtake)
— Thunderbirds (special effects outtakes reel)
— Four Feather Falls (The Toughest Guy in the West dialogue track)
— Space: 1999 (missing Rules of Luton on-set audio)
— Thunderbirds Are Go Cutting Copy (preservation scan of private collector’s film, including shots deleted from the final film)
— Four Feather Falls (original master elements for Gunfight on Main Street)
— Four Feather Falls (Trouble at Yellow Gulch dialogue track)
— Supercar (long lost tape of Sylvia Anderson’s first ever dialogue recording session with Gerry Anderson directing)
— Four Feather Falls (Horse Thieves original dialogue track recording)
— Thunderbirds (Desperate Intruder — lost alternative soundtrack edit)
— Thunderbirds (25 studio production prints, including the very first prints made for several episodes, including the approval print for Atlantic Inferno)
— Space 1999 (On-set recording from Brian the Brain)
— Cast and crew interviews done over the last 20 years for Network Distributing: we have saved the rushes and acquired the rights giving the chance for the AP Films crew to tell their stories directly forever.

… and there’s more to come! Link to fundraiser in comments:

21/08/2025

It’s a year since we collected the films in the garden shed — and the finds are still incoming!

05/08/2025

Ten years ago we embarked on ressurecting Thunderbirds for three new outings.

02/08/2025

30/07/2025

Inside Neptune House at BBC (formerly ATV) Elstree. The ghosts of UFO, Holby City, The Plane Makers, The Muppets, Grange Hill, Top of the Pops, The Power Game and much, much more.

29/07/2025

Today we were at Harlington Straker — helping document the studio before it’s gone forever.

27/07/2025

Now on the Century 21 Films YouTube channel.

24/07/2025

Thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered already. We’ve not reached the minimum order yet, but we’re getting there. Having saved the Network interview archive from oblivion, we’re hoping to get as much of it out as possible via print, DVD and YouTube. If this volume does well we hope to follow-up with non-Anderson volumes too (ITC etc).

18/07/2025

NEW RELEASE PRE-ORDER

To the tune of many a familiar theme, and as the audience relaxes after another successfully concluded adventure, the names of the men and women who made it all possible play out. Producers, directors, actors, puppeteers, model makers – a vast team assembled on a grimy trading estate in Slough built the future worlds of tomorrow.

In FUTURE MEMORIES, we hear from those who made it all happen thanks to interviews conducted for numerous documentary and publishing projects – including FILMED IN SUPERMARIONATION. Previously edited down to suit various productions, they are published here in full for the first time.

From Thunderbirds to UFO, Fireball XL5 to Stingray, this volume recounts the highs and lows of those seminal film series told through the individual behind the scenes craftsmen who brought it all to life.

This item is scheduled for release on September 30th, but will only go ahead if we sell enough pre-orders within one month. All the assets have been pre-prepared, and manufacture will commence as soon as we’ve hit the minimum number of sales. Link in replies: