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Thunderbirds Episode 21 Tele-Snaps

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70 Tele-snaps for Episode 21 of Thunderbirds, "The Duchess Assignment".

-SYNOPSIS-

"In a French casino, Lady Penelope spots a friend, the Duchess of Royston, playing roulette at another table. The Duchess tells her that she has lost everything except her precious Braquasso painting 'Portrait of a Gazelle'. Two crooks, Chandler and Brophy, overhear their conversation. Lady Penelope realizes that the table is fixed and causes a scene, but the crooked casino owner escapes with the Duchess's money.

Back in England, Lady Penelope visits Royston Manor and learns that Deborah, the Duchess, has been forced to put her home up for sale. Jeff Tracy is visiting England for the London Air Display, so Lady Penelope takes him to an art gallery to view the Duchess's painting. Jeff has an idea and visits Wilbur Dandridge III, head of Gazelle Automations Inc., at his incredible automated office in New York. Dandridge is crazy about gazelles and falls in love with the Braquasso picture. Deborah refuses to sell, but she agrees to a rental arrangement, insisting that she ferries the painting to New York herself.

Before leaving for America on the Fireflash, the Duchess receives a St Christopher brooch from Lady Penelope. This is a sophisticated homing device which enables Lady Penelope and Parker to track the Duchess when she is kidnapped by Chandler and Brophy. The Duchess is tied up in the basement of an old house, and the crooks engineer a gas leak as they make off with the painting. Deborah's attempts to free herself cause the gas to explode and the house begins to crumble around her, but Thunderbirds 1 and 2 are soon at the scene.

Chandler visits Dandridge with the painting, claiming to represent the Duchess and demanding the rental money, but Dandridge smells a rat and alerts the police. He pulls a gun on Chandler, but it goes off during a struggle and the painting is ruined. Meanwhile, Scott has traced the Duchess to the basement of the derelict house and uses the Domo, a restraining vehicle with three powerful suction pads, to hold up an outside wall while Virgil tunnels into the basement in the Mole. Virgil rescues the Duchess just in time, as the remaining outside wall gives way and the basement ceiling caves in.

Visiting the Duchess in hospital, Dandridge reveals the fate of the Braquasso, but the Duchess is unconcerned for that painting was a copy. The real painting was rolled up inside her umbrella the whole time. A magazine wants to buy the Duchess's life story, and as soon as she is back on her feet, she is back in the casino."

-NOTES-

This episode was hilarious. The Duchess of Royston is one of the funniest characters I've ever seen, not just because of her stereotypical 'rich woman' design, but also because she is voiced by Ray Barrett, an Australian actor who is known on the show for playing John Tracy and The Hood! His vocal antics as the character, according to fellow voice actor Matt Zimmerman, made the recording sessions so funny that the episode was almost unrecordable.

A common error in many of Gerry Anderson's books about the cast of each episode occurs here. According to most books, the casting indicates that villain Brophy is voiced by Ray Barrett, but this is not true. The real voice actor for the character is John Tate, an uncredited Australian actor who has numerous backing roles in Thunderbirds episodes.

In fact, Tate's vocal appearances on the show are so uncommon and often appear sporadically, I have personally created the "JOHN TATE DRINKING GAME", where the players have to take a drink each time his very distinct and recognizable voice turns up.
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Comments4
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TheCommenter2's avatar
Quite a quirky episode. The Duchess is a unique and funny character, superbly voiced by Ray Barrett, doing an impersonation of Edith Evans, who the character was based on. Wonderful writing from Martin Crump (is he still around?) although I prefer his other script Operation Crash-Dive (which I find better than Trapped in the Sky). His two episodes have a lot in common (comedy, espionage, the Fireflash, TB5 keeping track of something - Fireflash and Duchess...).

Are you sure about John Tate voicing Brophy? I've compared it to other characters he voiced and there's is a slight similarity. It could be possible given the production order. Other voices he did:

Sun Probe: Solarnaut Camp (reused in Security Hazard)
Danger at Ocean Deep: Captain, Ocean Pioneer II / Stevens / Commander, Ocean Pioneer I / Scottish onlooker
Attack of the Alligators!: Blackmer
The Cham-Cham: Maxie / Schieler / Foreign Colonel
Atlantic Inferno: Frank Hooper / Sir Harry
Path of Destruction: McCall / Security Guard (the latter initially credited to RB)

I've also seen sources saying he did voices in The Mighty Atom but I don't know which. Any ideas? Any others? Why was JT never credited for his work?