Silva Screen Records release Ben Foster and Nick Foster's score for the 2015 TV reboot of Thunderbirds. Fifty years after its television debut, ITV brings back the cult programme using a combination of CGI animation and live-action model sets. Despite its new high-tech look, the production retained strong characters and great adventure stories, all the qualities that made the original series a worldwide success...

For those of us of a certain age, one of the most impressive aspects of Gerry Anderson's '60s Thunderbirds TV series was its incredible score, by Barry Gray. In face, Ben Foster and Nick Foster pay a loving homage to Gray's work with the track 'Fireflash Landing', which recaptures Gray's original sound.

For the rest of the score, the composers appear to have been mainly inspired by the work that John Barry accomplished for the James Bond movies of the '80s. Barry fans won't be able to listen to tracks like 'Ned Tedford at the Helm' and 'Meanwhile on Tracy Island' without a smile spreading across their face.

In fact, the music of James Bond, be it Barry or David Arnold, seems to filter through this collection. This is probably not a huge surprise, as both call for bold action adventure themes.

The album contains 57 tracks (1 hr, 17 min, 34 sec), with the music running in episode order. Notable tracks include 'Lady Penelope' (which has a '60s feel); 'No Contact With Earth' and 'EOS Finds a Friend' (both of which reminded me of Trevor Jones's theme for The Dark Crystal); and 'Whirlpool' (which bought to mind Arnold's work on Independence Day; and 'Ned Tedford at the Helm' which is as close to John Barry's work on Out of Africa as you can get.

In fact, the only thing I didn't like was the new Thunderbirds theme, which is a watered down and very poor copy of the original TV theme. It seems a bit odd that the producers decided to go to the trouble of obtaining the rights to the original and then mess around with it. It would have made so much more sense to have either used the original faithfully or have written a brand new theme.

Those that enjoy powerful and beautiful scores will love this intricate soundtrack.

10

Darren Rea