Nevertheless, despite the decline in quality, it was decided to make a big screen movie. Thus “Thunderbirds Are Go” from 1965.

The plot is simple: the Zero-X craft is off to Mars, but crashes. International Rescue gets involved. Lady Penelope wastes a lot of time, and the Zero-X comes back.

So much of it does not make sense, but we’ll not go into all that here. It would take too long.

There’s a strong voice cast, with extras, such as Bob Monkhouse, added in for variety.

The film was a failure, and watching it it’s not hard to see why. There needs to be more action and less drinking in clubs and dream sequences.

Despite the failure of “Thunderbirds Are Go” it was decided to create another feature film, “Thunderbird 6”.

Jeff Tracy decides he wants another International Rescue vehicle. Not rescue equipment but a completely new Thunderbird 6. He doesn’t know what he wants, or why he wants it, but pesters Brains to make one, rejecting every prototype immediately. Poor Brains.

“Thunderbird 6” (1968) was again very heavily about Lady Penelope. She and Tin-Tin go on a voyage around the world where they encounter some baddies. The other members of International Rescue barely appear and there are no big rescues.

And boy is it boring.

So much of it does not make sense, but we’ll not go into all that here. It would take far too long.

But at least it’s not as bad as the 2004 version directed by Jonathan Frakes, despite Sophia Myles. Almost nothing is.

Or the recent cgi series on tv.