In August 1962, Television's Today Kenneth Ullyett returned to Ipswich Road to describe APF's progress, "Hardened by spacemen Colonel Gleen and Yuri Gagarin, TV-conditioned to outer space by Telestar, you are now ready for the TV sequel to Supercar. It is Fireball XL5, Britain's first truly adult exploration into sci-fi in a dramatic TV series". The series was well publicised in TV times during the weeks of broadcasts of Fireball XL5. The original ATV transmissions of the series tended to start between 4-5 PM. Over the next decade, Fireball XL5 was regularly aired over the different ITV stations. Some stations held the series over until 1963. The series would run one episode a week on a run of episodes. Some stations ran episodes four or five total repeat runs, meaning that the opportunity to watch the same episode again was rare, even for an Anderson series, as was the chance to see the same episode again. In many cases of television back in the 1960s, if you missed it - you missed it. Catch up television or forms of home media entertainment was non-existant back in the 1960s. Nevertheless, as already stated, the series was shared across well by the ITV stations.
The series continued to be aired well into the early 1970s by the majority of ITV regions, at which point ITV was transmitting in colour, even if only a small handful of the British population owned a colour television set. By 1972 and 1973, the series started to disappear from the ITV regions and was occasionally used as filler for the runs of two or three episodes on Granada TV as late as August 1974. After that, Fireball XL5 was not seen again until the mid 1980s...
LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS;
(in French) : Fusée XL5(in Spanish) : El Capitán Marte y el XL5. In the version shown in Latin American countries, Colonel Zodiac is called Capitán Marte ("Captain Mars") (in Greek) : Πύρινη Σφαίρα (Pyrine Sphaera = Ball of Fire)(in Japanese) : 宇宙船XL-5 (Uchuusen XL-5 = Spaceship XL-5)
SPACE PEN;
Written by Dennis Spooner
Directed by John Kelly
Original UK Airdate: 30th December 1962 (ATV London, Westward and Channel)
Additional Voice Cast:
Carmachi David Graham Al John Bluthal General Shan Paul Maxwell
The S.S. Thor is shot down by XL5 and completely destroyed here, so this episode comes after Convict In Space, in which the Thor also appears. Another favourite episode of mine with high stakes, the scene where Steve and his friends are trapped with water flooding into the room is a brilliant moment and one that sticks in my mind well ever since I first watched that episode. I also particularly enjoy the humour of this episode, which Dennis Spooner was highly renowned for in his scripts.
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Fireball XL5: The Vault
Non-FictionFireball XL5 was the second of legendary Gerry Anderson's to go out under the iconic banner "Filmed In SUPERMARIONATION". Set between the years 2062 and 2063, the series told the heroic adventures of Colonel Steve Zodiac and the crew of Fireball XL5...
