Advertiser played a part in hit TV series Thunderbirds

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Half a century of children’s television history started with the Maidenhead Advertiser, a new book has claimed.

Filmed in Supermarionation says an advert for a typist printed in the newspaper on August 17, 1956, was the catalyst that brought together one of the world’s most famous TV couples.

Sylvia Thamm applied and landed the job with film company Pentagon Films. It was there that she met editor and director Gerry Anderson.

The couple married and went on to launch their own production company Anderson Provis Films - creating a stable of classic shows including Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and Stingray.

They were business partners with cinematographer Arthur Provis and the film company was based at Islet Park House in Maidenhead before moving to studios in Ipswich Road and then Stirling Road, Slough.

Sylvia, who was from Bourne End, also became the voice of Lady Penelope in Thunderbirds.

The book gives an in-depth detail of the history of ‘Supermarionation’ in Maidenhead and Slough and how the company shaped the future of children’s television.

Author Stephen La Rivière, 25, believes children’s television would be completely different if Sylvia had never met Gerry through an advert in the Advertiser.

The Slough-based writer said: “The whole point of the book was to be told as an unbiased history of the programmes that inspired people like Peter Jackson, George Lucas and Nick Park who made Wallace and Gromit.”

Signed copies of Filmed in Supermarionation are available to buy on www.filmedinsupermarionation.co.uk  The book is available in Waterstones for £30.