Following 'Joe 90' ( 1968 ), Gerry and Sylvia Anderson decided not to stray too far from the world of international espionage for their next 'Supermarionation' show. 'The Secret Service' was built round a real-life person - actor/comedian Stanley Unwin, the inventor of 'Unwinese', a gobbledygook language.Father Stanley Unwin ( as he was billed in the credits ) was an eccentric priest who lived in a beautiful English country cottage, had a home help called 'Mrs.Appleby' ( voiced by Sylvia ) and a work-shy gardener named Matthew Harding. Whenever a major crisis occurred ( such as top secret documents being stolen or whatever ), B.I.S.H.O.P. ( British Intelligence Secret Headquarters Operation Priest ) contacted the Father through a radio in his hearing aid. A gadget - known as a Minimizer - concealed in his Bible would shrink Matthew to the size of a doll, and Unwin could then carry him round in a specially-adapted briefcase. In the opening episode, Unwin mentioned that the Minimizer was bequeathed to him by one of his parishioner's, the late Professor Humbolt.For thirteen weeks, this unlikely pair of secret agents thwarted villains and routed saboteurs. Father Unwin would often fall back on Unwinese to get him out of scrapes by confusing the enemy.Another interesting feature was the amount of live action footage employed. The real Unwin would drive along a road, stop outside a house, get out, walk to the front door and knock. But when it was opened, the puppet Unwin was suddenly in place. You could not see the join, as Eric Morecambe used to say.With its choral Barry Gray theme tune, 'Service' was a charming series, not too far removed from 'The Avengers' with its idyllic English country setting and bizarre plots ( as a matter of fact, an early 'Avengers' episode was called 'The Little Wonders' and featured enemy agents masquerading as priests ). But Lew Grade - head of I.T.C. - felt the show would not appeal to the American public, and had it cancelled. It was true that the potential for merchandising was severely limited - kids were hardly likely to nag their parents at Christmas for a Dinky toy of 'Gabriel', Father Unwin's Model T Ford. Many I.T.V. regions opted not to screen it. Even when B.B.C.-2 were raiding the Anderson back catalogue for their 6 P.M. Friday slot in the early '90's, they inexplicably passed up a golden opportunity to introduce 'Service' to a new audience.I myself first heard of it through the early '70's children's comic 'Countdown' which ran a strip detailing the story of how Father Unwin acquired the Minimizer. Twenty years later, all thirteen episodes came out on video, and Network have since brought it out on D.V.D.It was the last of the Andersons' famed 'Supermarionation' shows. From here on, it was live action only, commencing with the superb 'U.F.O.'.Timeus to endey this reviewbold. Goodly-byecus!

It seems to me that some of us have forgotten that Gerry Anderson's productions were originally aimed at *children*. A generation of confirmed adolescents have laid claim to 'Thunderbirds', 'Captain Scarlet', etc., with their SF elements and spectacular model work. When Mr Anderson decided on a change of pace with a whimsical espionage story people were baffled: "A Gerry Anderson show - starring a Model T Ford? What's that about?" Well, don't forget the 60's was also the era of 'The Avengers', when England's green and pleasant land was full of power-mad eccentrics. It seems to me that Anderson combined elements of 'The Avengers' (off-the-wall spy stories in an apparently innocent setting) with the Father Brown character of GK Chesterton (unobtrusive village priest as super-sleuth). Father Unwin lives in an England of parish churches, tea on the vicarage lawn, and tree-lined country lanes free of traffic. He thinks getting 42 m.p.h. out of his Model T is cutting a dash. If anything I would like to know more about how he came to be involved in B.I.S.H.O.P.The result was not (and is not) to everyone's taste, but it should not be dismissed just because it's different. The stories are not repetitive, although they do repeat the same elements. 'Thunderbirds' is repetitive: a huge disaster requires the fantastic equipment of International Rescue to save the day. Only the circumstances change: skyscraper, monorail, airliner. We saw the launch sequence of Thunderbirds 1 & 2 in every episode.And in my opinion Stanley Unwin was a genius whose wordplay lay as much in the subtle association of ideas (a typewriter becomes a 'tripewriter', a trombone is a 'slideyhuff') as the simple scrambling of the words themselves. Read Unwin's 'House and Garbidge' or 'The Miscillian Manuscript' then John Lennon's books 'In his own write' and 'A Spaniard in the works' to see how influential he was (even those titles are 'Unwinesque'). He could also be extremely quick-witted and funny without resorting to 'Unwinese'. When, as 'Professor Unwin', he was asked about the castrati (male singers who were castrated to preserve their boyish voices) his reply was simple: "I'm not cut out for that sort of thing." Deep joy!

After Thunderbirds and that mysteron series, I looked forward to this Anderson offering. Tried to like it, but it was too slow and the concept of a priest working for the British Secret service (British Intelligence Secret Headquarters Operation Priest or BISHOP) didn't really take off. I guess if I wanna watch a show with marionettes as the cast, I need more toy rockets and explosions.