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Professor Norman Wedgwood oversees an experimental rocket group on remote Buchan Island in Scotland. His children, Geoff, Valerie and Jimmy visit to watch the latest rocket launch, along with journalist Conway Henderson. When the pilot takes ill, Jimmy finds himself taking his place on a mission to the Moon along with his pet hamster, Hamlet.
Four Feather Falls was the third puppet TV show produced by Gerry Anderson for Granada Television. It was based on an idea by Barry Gray, who also wrote the show's music. The series was the first to use an early version of Anderson's Supermarionation puppetry. Thirty-nine 13-minute episodes were produced, broadcast by Granada from February until November 1960. The setting is the late 19th-century fictional Kansas town of Four Feather Falls, where the hero of the series, Tex Tucker, is sheriff. The four feathers of the title refers to four magical feathers given to Tex by the Indian chief Kalamakooya as a reward for saving his grandson: two allowed Tex's guns to swivel and fire without being touched whenever he was in danger, and two conferred the power of speech on Tex's horse and dog. Tex's speaking voice was provided by Nicholas Parsons, and his singing voice by Michael Holliday. The series has never been repeated on British television, but it was released on DVD in 2005.
Torchy the Battery Boy was the second television series produced by AP Films and Gerry Anderson, running from 1960 to 1961. It was another collaboration with author Roberta Leigh and was directed by Anderson, with music scored by Barry Gray, art direction from Reg Hill and special effects by Derek Meddings. The second series of 26 episodes was produced by Associated British-Pathé without the involvement of Anderson and AP Films. Both series have been released on DVD. The series followed adventures of the eponymous boy doll with a battery inside him and a lamp in his head, and his master Mr Bumbledrop, voiced by Kenneth Connor, who also voiced a number of other characters.
Professor Norman Wedgwood and his team are planning another rocket mission to the Moon. Once again, Geoff, Valerie and Jimmy are on hand to witness the launch of a new rocket MR1, along with journalist friend Conway Henderson. However, when the automatic supply ship MR2 fails to launch Henderson and the children make a desperate rescue attempt with Jimmy's pet Hamlet.
Anthony Newley stars as an actor who walks off the set of a banal sit-com and into a fantasy world of his own imagination in this surreal odyssey through one man's personal alternative reality.
A secondary mission in a new rocket, MR4, to the Moon takes off from Buchan Island. This time Henderson takes the lead role as pilot accompanied by Professor Wedgwood's oldest son Geoff as radio operator, Professor Mary Meadows, Henderson's niece Margret along with Hamlet. However one of the crew turns out to be science writer named Harcourt Brown who has plans to divert the ship to Mars determined there is life on the planet. Brown succeeds in getting MR4 to Mars, but with the length of the journey, the crew decide that the only way to get home is to find water on Mars.