The Space Patrol Expose

Another archive item.

I’ve still in shock following my discovery that the British TV series “Space Patrol” was not a Gerry Anderson production. The TV puppet series of the 1960's that kept me riveted to the little black and white valve driven box we called a TV back then was actually created by Roberta Leigh and Arthur Provis.

So all those times in the pub when I dropped in the “additional” forgotten Gerry Anderson series (besides Four Feather Falls and Torchy the Battery Boy) to demonstrate my vast memory on Puppet shows by the master, I was wrong. Well, Almost.

Roberta Leigh and Arthur Provis were actually former colleagues of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson (famous for their Fireball XL5, Stingray and Thunderbirds Supermarionation shows), so technically, as usual, I was right. Roberta was also involved in the Adventures of Twizzle about a lonely, pathetic little imp that befriended and collected unwanted toys......sounds a bit too much like me!!

The only other human I’ve met who knows anything about Husky, Gabbler, Slim and Larry Dart and their adventures aboard Galasphere 347 in Space Patrol, is Matt Hilliard, the chap who was partially responsible for my emigration to Canada. He probably still believes that it was a Gerry Anderson show, smiling into his beer as he recalls the robots and the sliding doors..

I’ll have to tell him one day, it’ll break his heart……..