The final 9 episodes of UFO, I've said it and I'll say it again, are just some of the best era of TV ever made. Production ended on Friday 11th September 1970 with completion of The Long Sleep. UFO was not seen in America until 1972, by which time lots of the UFO production crew were busy on The Protectors. The sets and props had been struck and reused in a vast variety of films such as Diamonds Are Forever and Carry On Loving and a vast array of shows such as The Goodies, The New Avengers, Blake's 7, Doomwatch, Timeslip, The Tomorrow People, The Muppet Show, Space: 1999 (such as the episode Dragon's Domain, the sets being used for the Ultra Probe) and Doctor Who. The props featured in serials such as The Green Death, The Time Warrior, Invasion Of The Dinosaurs, The Monster Of Peladon, The Ark In Space, Genesis Of The Daleks, The Invisible Enemy, The Stones Of Blood, Destiny Of The Daleks, and even as late as Revelation Of The Daleks in 1985!
Following the completion of UFO, Lew Grade handed Gerry Anderson a brief to his next series, which read, "There is a small group of private investigators who are able to work more efficiently since they are working outside the constraints of the law". Hence, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson with Reg Hill formed a new company, Group Three. However, for The Protectors, this meant that Century 21 studios would be closing down, as Lew Grade could not afford to keep an entire filmmaking operation running for several years which may have been several years before another project commences production (which was actually the case). The Stirling Road premises in Slough was then sold off with the models and sets were deemed worthless and destroyed (bar those that some of the crew members could save). Some of these had still been around since the production of Stingray in 1963. Century 21 studios based and Gerry Anderson science-fiction had now come to end, for now.
"We lost our team", says Sylvia, "We lost our family if you like. When we went into live-action we became little fish in a big pool". Stirling Road was closed in 1971. "I was the man that turned off the lights", says studio manager Ken Holt in sadness, "We'd already put what was left of the puppets and models into a skip. I locked the door and threw away the key".
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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...
