‘VAULT OF DEATH’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Here we have another ‘Thunderbirds’ episode from the pen of Dennis Spooner. This is a really good episode featuring Lady Penelope and Parker. It clearly has doses of comedic proportions throughout.
The episode begins on a murky night where a police officer on duty outside the Bank of England gets knocked out by Parker once Lady Penelope distracts him. They try to get inside the Bank of England.
There are certain shots in ‘Thunderbirds’ episodes where human hands are clearly evident as opposed to puppet hands. The same is for people walking as we see a human walking instead of a puppet.
I don’t mind this so much. But it’s clear that it’s a human eye when Lady Penelope is looking through the keyhole of the Bank of England. I wonder if that’s Sylvia Anderson looking through the keyhole. 🙂
Lady Penelope and Parker get inside the bank after using plastic explosives to blow up the front door. The pair comes to the bank vault where Parker cracks the safe in about two and a half hours. 🙂
Once the vault is open, it turns out this was a demonstration for the employees of the bank who come out of hiding and that the robbery was staged by Lord Silton, who is the president of the bank.
This was to prove to the bank’s board of governors that a modern, more secure strong-room is required. Lady Penelope and Parker have been helping Lord Silton out to argue his case to the board.
The following day, a new vault to house England’s monies, deeds and documents has been installed at the bank. Crikey, I would have thought a new bank vault would have been installed in a few weeks.
It’s also ironic that in the ‘Thunderbirds’ version of 2065, bank vaults are still utilised to store money, deeds and documents. This episode was made before our grand age of 21st century technology! 😀
Lord Silton (voiced by Peter Dyneley) is there at the bank with his aide Lovegrove (voiced by Ray Barrett). Silton keeps the electronic key to seal the bank vault of London and it must not leave his side.
When Silton seals the vault for about two years (Goodness, they must open the vault sometime in that duration), both he and Lovegrove are unaware that one of their workers, Lambert, is still inside.
Lambert (voiced by David Graham) is a worker engrossed in his work at the bank. He’s unaware that he’s been locked inside the high-security vault in the Bank of London where the air is being pumped out. 😐
Once Lovegrove realises that Lambert is still inside the vault and he struggles to contact Lord Silton about bringing over the electronic key, he calls for outside help. International Rescue are called in! 🙂
Scott in Thunderbird 1 arrives on the scene as well as Virgil and Alan in Thunderbird 2. After failing to break down the vault door and unable to use the Mole, Virgil and Alan use the tube train tunnels. 😀
It’s ironic that the underground/tube tube tunnels in London are considered to be outdated and derelict by this time in the ‘Thunderbirds’ series. People are still using them in the 2020s however. 😀
Meanwhile, Parker seems to be hiding something from Lady Penelope in connection to this crisis at the Bank of England. This is evident when Parker is delaying her and Lord Silton’s journey to London.
When Lady Penelope demands that Parker tell her what all of this is about, he reveals that his colleague Light-Fingered Fred (who’s recently escaped from prison) might be involved in this crisis. 😐
Light-Fingered Fred (voiced by David Graham) intends to rob the Bank of England. Parker is reluctant to foil his friend’s ‘life ambition’. Thus, Lady Penelope decides to drive in Parker’s place to London. 🙂
It’s amusing to see that Lady Penelope turns out to be a bad driver. Parker and Lord Silton are terrified when Lady Penelope drives FAB1 fast, narrowing missing a tree, but causing a car to crash. 🙂
Incidentally, it was interesting to see another member of Lady Penelope’s staff at the Creighton-Ward Mansion, the cook Lil (voiced by Sylvia Anderson), appear in the episode as well as Parker here.
Both Light-Fingered Fred and Lil like to have cigarettes in their mouths. Lambert gets saved by Virgil and Alan whilst Parker manages to get the vault open in two minutes using Lady Penelope’s hairpin.
‘Vault of Death’ rating – 8/10
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