It is 1969. The year of the moon landing, Nixon became President, Star Trek was beaming down to BBC 1, popular musicians like Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, David Bowie. The first transplant of the human eye in France, the first Concorde test flight in France. UFOs becoming a reality? Anderson already exploring the concept of UFOs in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons episode Attack On Cloudbase. As the Andersons moved into science-fiction, it seemed ideal to put a spin on some old ideas - particularly on Captain Scarlet. Sure, UFO was criticised for being a live-action remake of Captain Scarlet, the only similarity really between both series is a secret organisation defending the Earth from extraterrestrials with similar cast members. With UFOs being a widely discussed topic of 1969, even today, it seemed this was the new concept for a new live-action series from the team of Century 21. Also basing the concept was the idea of aliens harvesting human organs came from the work of Christiaan Barnard and his pioneering transplant operations. Budgeted at £100,000 per episode, and a total budget of £2.5 million, it was vital that the episode reached an older audience, meaning that it would likely have covered adult issues, most notably seen in the episodes A Question Of Priorities and Confetti Check A-Ok.
On 24th August edition of the Sunday Telegraph, Sylvia Anderson tried to distance herself from the puppets ("We mustn't talk about puppets, no puppets"). By 1969, it was clear to the Century 21 staff that Anderson's marriage was in trouble. As David Lane remembers, "They kept it hidden for a while, but it was very obvious when we were making UFO. Everybody who knew them intimately was aware of it. When Gerry and Sylvia's marriage was coming to blows it was a very upsetting time for me. It wasn't that I was worried about my job, as in those days the world was your oyster. It was more that I didn't want them to split up because they'd been such a good team". Things at this stage were starting to see the decline of Century 21 Publishing, with sales of the company's comics beginning to decline. "I fell out with Louis Benjamin, who came in as the business manager", remembers Alan Fennell, "By that time Gerry had gone to Borehamwood to make UFO. He was still a director of the company, and still very closely associated with what I was doing, but sort of removed from day-to-day discussions. I just phoned him up and said "I can't stand this anymore, I'm going to resign". He told me what I had to do and then said "Monday morning, I'll see you in Borehamwood". At which point, I became a contract writer on UFO".
Keith Shackleton was also becoming uncomfortable at Century 21, feeling the success of Thunderbirds had to lead to the increased scrutiny of Century 21 by some ATV executives who wanted involvement, "The honeymoon with ATV was marvellous, but the marriage was a disaster. The ATV board were not as straightforward with each other as they might have been, so they thought everyone else was of the same ilk. When ATV started interfering we began to lose momentum. In 1970 I told Jack Gill that I'd lost all faith in what we were doing and that I was leaving. I metaphorically tore my contract up, and I think that suited his game".
However, pre-production was soon to begin on Century 21's first live-action series with production commencing on Monday 28th April 1969...
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UFO: The Vault
Non-FictionGerry Anderson's UFO was the first big budget British live-action television series of a secret government organisation named SHADO (Supreme Headqauters Alien Defence Organisation) combat a dying alien race who have come to Earth in order to survive...
