For me, as a child of the '70s in the UK, Playschool, The Herbs, Magpie, Camberwick Green, Hector's House and The Clangers were my required viewing. Then one day I was at my granddad's, and Thunderbirds came on. I knew they were marionettes, I had Pelham puppets myself. But I couldn't see any strings. Not only that, they somehow had real hands!

In the 1990s BBC2 kindly, amid much anticipation and fanfare, began repeating the entire run of episodes - both series - and the films Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6. The country reacted as one to this amazing televison show. Everyone loved it. Everyone went crazy for the Tracy Island model. You couldn't get your hands on one for love nor money. Babies started being named Virgil. Thunderbirds had effortlessly recaptured the imagination of an entire nation.

And rightly so. Never was any television show so deserving of another chance to thrill and entertain. People loved it then, they love it now, and they will always, always love it.

Thunderbirds are most definitely GO!