MY NIGHT IN WITH LADY PENELOPE

March 2012

As a good uncle should I have been attending to the musical education of my niece (almost 5) and nephew (almost 3). Inevitably, given my own almost 40 year obsession with the Beatles, this has focused largely on the usual beginners’ favourites: Yellow Submarine, All Together Now, Rocky Raccoon etc.

This coincides with my sister’s determination that they should also be introduced to classic 60s and 70s children’s television. So they are already big fans of ‘Bagpuss’, ‘Stingray’ and ‘The Banana Splits’. Sadly ‘Hector’s House’ has been adjudged “really boring” and the DVD has been dispatched to the charity shop.

The big smash hit however has been ‘Thunderbirds’. I’m here to tell you it has everything for the modern audience ... rockets and cars for the younger boys, Lady Penelope’s fabulous pink outfits and the Alan / TinTin love interest for the older girls, while Parker’s popularity transcends age and gender. Even better, the stories are interesting enough for the adults and bear repeated viewing. Highly recommended. Lady Penelope and the boys frequently having a gasper on the go with a martini in the other hand, is an hilarious reminder of the conventions of the time - like a mini-’Mad Men’ filmed in Supermarionation.

The three of us were watching ‘Operation Crash-Dive’ at the weekend, in which a plane has to be retrieved from the seabed after sinister saboteurs have done their worst. (I won’t spoil the ending). Suddenly, out of nowhere my niece asked a question that I could not answer; a question that had never occurred to me; and one which frankly made a mockery of my claim to be a reasonably knowledgeable fan of the Fab Four. “Uncle Steven”, she said, “is Thunderbird 4 the same yellow submarine that the Beatles live in?”

I had never heard such a thing suggested before, but I said I would find out ...

And so I ask you ... was it?

Well ... Thunderbird 4 first appeared quite some way into the first series in an episode originally aired in the UK on 30th December 1965. That first series ended on 30th March 1966.

Ian McDonald in 'Revolution In The Head' has Paul writing the song in bed one night in early May 1966, with the recording beginning later that month.

So, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, and on behalf of my niece, I should like to formally put forward the theory that ‘Yellow Submarine’ was inspired by Paul having watched Thunderbirds - I’ll explain to her in a decade or so what he might have been smoking at the time.

Until someone can convince me otherwise I shall also be adding this to my list of 'interesting Beatles facts'. Perhaps you might do the same, and we can prompt some proper scholarly investigation. 

Mr Lewishon, are you reading this?