Production on the 7th SUPERMAIONATION series finally commenced on Tuesday 20th August 1968. With much filming location requiring, the process was taking a different approach to previous Anderson shows. The location shooting would be filmed first followed by the Century 21 studios filming the puppet shots later. Gerry Anderson explains how he came up with the idea, "I came up with the idea of getting Stanley Unwin to do all the walking shots, and driving shots in his that he had. If, for example, you had a sequence where Stanley Unwin would arrive at a building in his Model T, he would drive it down the street, up to the kerb, turn the engine off, get out, walk down the path, and as he opened the door, you'd cut to the reverse angle and that would be the puppet of Stanley Unwin".
In fact, when Stanley Unwin was driving home one session in costume, he was held up as he was stuck behind a caravan that had stalled. The location team would go to near places from the Slough studio - directed by Ken Turner, managed by Gren Nott, the camera operated by Noel Rowlands and the lighting camera was supplied by Ted Wooldridge. Turner describes, "What became apparent quite soon into the production of the series is that we had to totally rethink the order in which we filmed material. On Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 all the puppet stuff was done first and if any live-action inserts or exteriors were needed, they would be shot later to fit with what had been done on the puppet stages. With The Secret Service, that was the wrong way to do it - somebody had to shoot the location stuff first and then hand it over to the director so that he could fit his puppet stuff to match. It seemed a bit back to front to us at first, but with that program, it was what worked out the best. You had to think about the script and where you would be cutting to a puppet shot or to a close up to shooting down a country lane. It was a very complicated little program because all the elements involved the puppets, the live-action and of course the model stuff that Derek's boys would be doing".
David Lane also has memories of filming on the series, "An absolute nightmare. You can imagine the problems. You're shrinking [the Matthew Harding puppet] to puppet size on a puppet set and then you're having to build it in live-action size for the puppet because he's supposed to be a small man in a full-sized environment. And then you're using the 'shrunken' puppet in a full set". The episodes would be filmed in pairs at the same time, in order to save time - which took about two weeks.
For example, the Century 21 studios had to build two models of Gabriel, one for the puppet stages and visual effects - and the other for location filming (when shrunk down in size like More Haste, Less Speed). Derek Meddings and his team built the models, which was then manufactured by Wag Evans with a remote-control mechanism. One a particular, he described, "I remember standing out of shot and having to 'drive' (Gabriel) down the road while it was out of view. Often I didn't know where it was, or where and when it had stopped. A location unit member would be on hand to stop the car with a large cushion if it went out of control". Derek Meddings was less involved in the production of the series as he was still busy on Doppleganger (1969). Production supervisor was maintained by Desmond Saunders and the other members of the Century 21 team maintaining their usual posts and duties.
Filming locations included the Hughenden church in Buckinghamshire, Burnham Beeches in South Buckinghamshire, the BISHOP HQ was based at the Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall and Centre Point. By the time of filming for the series, the area included the thirty-three-storey Brutalist office block which was completely empty. Built by property designer Harry Hyams, he insisted it be let by a single tenant. Hyams was wealthy enough to wait for an extended period until one turned up. Production would continue for the next several months, production was well underway for the new series when it became clear that tensions had risen with the Andersons who were busy at Pinewood Studios for Doppleganger. This would only increase further in the future when disaster struck for Century 21.
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The Secret Service: The Vault
Non-FictionThe Secret Service was a 1960s British children's TV series created by Gerry Anderson and the team of Century 21 studios in Slough, from the makers of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Space: 1999. This was the final of his television series to feat...
