Fireball XL5: The Vault

26 - Derek Meddings/The Granatoid Tanks

Derek Meddings, the genius behind the visual effects of many of Anderson's classic ITC shows. A pioneering filmmaking way beyond his time. I cannot begin to describe the incredible influence he had on visual effects filmmaking in a few solid lines. Born 15th January 1931, Derek was born into a film industry family. His father and step father were technicians at Denham studios (being master carpenter and head electrician). His mother was secretary to Alexandra Korda, a famous film producer and studio boss. Derek followed his father's footsteps and was desperate to get into the film business, but went to art school and then trained in a traditional academic education. He was then hired to provide lettering for the titles of films at Denham, such as changing language writings on films. At the same studio, he became a scenic painter where he painted backdrops for scenes shot at Denham. It was at Denham where he met Canadian Les Bowie, who was not only a scenic artist, but also a brilliant matte painter, who revolutionised techniques for the production of matte artwork. The two got on well, and Meddings was offered to be the head of the Matte Department of Anglo Scottish Films - a company who made adverts for TV and cinemas that Bowie had his own production unit within. There, he got into special effects for model work and floor effects. The company provided work for the Hammer horror films. 

When AP Films began pre-production on The Adventures Of Twizzle, Bowie was the obvious person to produce the series, but was unable to accept. Meddings was recommended for the job himself. Derek's commitments became greater when Bowie left Anglo Scottish to work on Disney's Swiss Family Robinson in 1960. Derek too over Bowie's old unit, and was keen to work for the AP Films team. He fitted his shooting schedule around his availability. After finishing a day's work at Anglo Scottish, he travelled to AP Films at Islet Park in Maidenhead, then Ipswich Road, Slough and stayed until the early morning, including weekends. Derek joined the AP Films team full time at the end of the production on Four Feather Fallls. He was invited to join sooner full time, but only agreed to be paid the amount he was being paid at Anglo Scottish. With Supercar, which required a much wider range of effects than previous puppet series, Meddings was needed full time. He also recruited Brian Johnson, also from Anglo Scottish, to work as his assistant for the next AP Films series. By the time of Fireball XL5, Meddings was a vital member to the AP Films/Century 21 team. His duties expanded from designing model effects to helping Reg Hill design vehicles. It would be from Fireball XL5 where he would begin to design even more complex special effects for a series than ever before, and pave the way for his later groundbreaking successes and for the AP Films/Century 21 team.

As the studios expanded and visuals became more complex, Hill took on more production responsibilities. Bob Bell took over more responsibility for the puppet stages, and Derek for the model design. For the chaotic production Thunderbirds endured, Derek asked Mike Trim to help design vehicles as the company was making several productions simultaneously. Derek had 3 effects stages and a staff of 50 to look after. After Thunderbirds, Derek would remain focused on the effects produced for the feature films Thunderbird 6 (1968) and Doppelganger (1969), and less so on Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, and The Secret Service. Although, he did still design a variety of crafts and vehicles on the TV series, most notably the SPV, Angel Interceptors, Cloudbase, and Jet Air Car. After Century 21 closed at the end of UFO's production, Meddings provided effects for ZPG and Fear Is The Key (both 1972). On the latter film, he worked with production designer Syd Cain, who was impressed with his work during his career and asked if he would work on the next film Cain signed up for - James Bond's Live And Let Die (1973). For The Spy Who Love Me (1977), Meddings took the model effects of Bond movies to a whole new level with the submarine-swallowing oil tanker SS Liparus. The Liparus was 63 feet long and shot in the real ocean as opposed to a studio water tank, during a 4 month shoot in the Bahamas.

For Moonraker (1979), further groundbreaking space effects were provided for admirably by Derek's genius. By using the technique of masking out different areas of the negative print and exposing the required section, then winding the film back in the camera and working on the action in the next section (a trick used in the Anderson productions). One shot was repeated over 100 times! For his work in Superman (1978), he had to create a devastating earthquake and the destruction of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. He and the rest of the effects team, including Les Bowie, won a Special Achievement Academy Award. Sadly, Bowie died during the production of the film. In the late 1980s, Meddings set up an independent effects company, which he's originally planned in the wake of Century 21's closure. The Magic Camera Company was hired by Tim Burton to provide the visual effects for the 1989 Batman film. Meddings was convinced that the former animator and lifelong VFX enthusiast Burton approached him for Batman because he had been a childhood fan of Thunderbirds.

Derek continued on working on major movies throughout the 1990s, but illness slowed him down during this decade. He did perform work on Goldeneye (1995) before he sadly passed away when the film was in post production as a result of a heart attack. Meddings' passing brought to an end an incredible journey in filmmaking industry, which brought brand new levels of sophistication and realism into film production.

THE GRANATOID TANKS;

Written by Alan Fennell

Directed by Alan Pattillo

Original UK Airdate: 21st April 1963 (ATV London and Ulster)

Additional Voice Cast:

Ma Doughty Sylvia Anderson Baker David Graham Simpson John Bluthal Granatoid 1 Gerry Anderson

The Granatoid robots were reused puppets from the Supercar episode The Lost City. We see the robots to be more sophisticated in this story, in an episode I fondly remember about the series. Anderson once again voices the Granatoids in this story as he did for Robert. The reuse of music for the tankers from XL5 to H20 is more than suitable in this episode, combined with other new excellent scores for the series by Barry Gray. An episode that specifically allows Gray to use music to shine in his talent once again. The resolution is also a clever way to end the episode through more intelligent writing. The episode was set on (or near) Venus' birthday, 10th February. Being born in 2035, it will mean, assuming this is still 2063, she will be 28.