On 13 July 2024 a full orchestra played my father’s theme tunes to a packed Symphony Hall in Birmingham, and I sat in the audience and did not entirely know what to do with my face.
Stand by for Action! 2: Tunes of Danger was the second of these concerts, with the Hackenbacker Orchestra playing Barry Gray’s scores and Jon Culshaw hosting. It came out afterwards on CD, DVD and Blu-ray.
Barry Gray’s music is the part people carry around with them. Ask somebody about Thunderbirds and sooner or later they will hum at you. Hearing it played properly, at volume, by people taking it entirely seriously, does something to a room that television cannot do.
Producing live is a different discipline to producing for screen, and I had underestimated it. There is no second take and there is no post. You get one go, in front of two thousand people, and either the orchestra and the picture and the lighting all arrive together or they do not.
They did. Mostly!
