The Cham-Cham
Encyclopedia
"The Cham-Cham" is the 25th episode of the 1960s Supermarionation
television series Thunderbirds
. One of the final instalments of Series One, it first aired in the United Kingdom on ATV Midlands on 24 March 1966. Alan Pattillo both scripted and directed the episode, which starts with the latest in a number of United States Air Force
(USAF) planes being shot down during the radio broadcast of a hit pop song. International Rescue suspects sabotage, and Lady Penelope, Tin-Tin
and Parker
are dispatched undercover to investigate the band's latest tour venue — a deluxe hotel in the Swiss Alps
.
Filmed at the end of 1965, production on "The Cham-Cham" inspired innovation in the use of puppet characters, the Penelope character being required to perform a dance at the climax of the episode in spite of the difficulties inherent in inducing motion from the Thunderbirds marionette
s. It also marks the first occasion in the Anderson
Supermarionation series that skiing is depicted. Scripted to present themes of espionage and showbusiness, the making of "The Cham-Cham" entailed the collaboration of singer Ken Barrie
, who penned lines to the featured song, "Dangerous Game".
Co-creator Sylvia Anderson
has praised "The Cham-Cham" for its "charm" and the imagination behind the depiction of the Paradise Peaks resort, although she argues that the plot is "far-fetched", while Supermarionation expert Stephen La Rivière values the episode for its technical accomplishments in addition to its scripting. Historian Nicholas J. Cull
has examined the undertones of certain characterisations in relation to the real-life Cold War
. "The Cham-Cham" received an audio adaptation in the 1960s.
(USAF) Base. On Tracy Island
, Alan
points out that each attack has coincided with a live performance of "Dangerous Game" from the hit group Cass Carnaby Five, broadcast on Radio Maxwell. Brains
and Alan set to work on a recording of the latest transmission to determine whether the tune contains a hidden code intended to disrupt the RTL2 flights.
Meanwhile, Jeff
assigns Tin-Tin
and Lady Penelope — the latter posing as a singer, "Wanda Lamour" — to an undercover mission to Paradise Peaks, a luxurious Swiss Alps
hotel that is currently playing host to Cass Carnaby and his band. Parker
secures a job at the bar. Carnaby's manager is the suspicious Mr Olsen, who often makes late changes to the arrangement of "Dangerous Game" before the band performs live on-air. Penelope and Tin-Tin ski to Olsen's residence and film him operating a computer that is decoding musical notation into a message revealing the time of the next RTL2 flight.
Realising that he has had uninvited guests, Olsen contacts his associate — Banino, a waiter — with orders to dispose of the International Rescue agents. Parker overhears the telephone conversation and thwarts Banino's attempt to assassinate Penelope and Tin-Tin using a sniper rifle
, rolling down the mountainside with his opponent until Banino is knocked unconscious. On Tracy Island, Brains identifies the computer in the film as a "Cham-Cham". Jeff contacts the authorities
in Washington, D.C.
to report International Rescue's findings, but the Matthews Field Commander refuses to cancel the next missile shipment.
That night, the Cass Carnaby Five start to perform Olsen's latest arrangement of "Dangerous Game" that will doom the upcoming RTL2 flight. At the last moment, Penelope, under the guise of Wanda Lamour, steps out onto the stage to sing a lyrical rendition of Brains' composition. Accepting the false coordinates encoded in the Radio Maxwell transmission, the hostile airbase that launched the earlier attacks misdirects its own fighters, who soon find themselves in the vicinity of Matthews Field. Landing at the scene in Thunderbird 1, Scott
alerts the Commander and interceptors are launched to shoot down the enemy.
Knowing that Olsen will be out for revenge, Jeff dispatches Virgil
and Alan to the Alps in Thunderbird 2 to recall Tin-Tin, Penelope and Parker. The International Rescue agents escape in the Paradise Peaks cable car
, only to be left speeding down the mountainside out of control after Olsen cuts through the lines at the terminus. With Thunderbird 2' s electromagnetic
grabs unable to gain purchase on the car, Parker climbs onto the roof to snare the cables with the end of Penelope's umbrella and attach them himself. When the force of Virgil and Alan's retro-rockets
throws the butler into the air, he uses the umbrella to parachute back down. All are treated to a private piano recital of "Dangerous Game" from Cass before leaving Paradise Peaks.
, writer and director Alan Pattillo scripted "The Cham-Cham" to emulate classic Hollywood musicals with its showbusiness plot and its exotic setting of the Paradise Peaks resort. As an in-joke, Pattillo named Penelope's alias, Wanda Lamour, after one of the Thunderbirds puppeteers, Wanda Brown. Filming ran from November to December 1965. Since it had been difficult to obtain persuasive walks from the puppets for previous episodes, at the time of production it had been decided that such motions would be implied, rather than seen, through a "bobbing motion" resulting from a puppeteer moving a puppet's legs out of shot. The sequence in which Lady Penelope
sings Brains
' modified version of "Dangerous Game" required the character to waltz
the length of the Paradise Peaks ballroom set, necessitating that Brown move the legs just out of the frame while puppeteer Christine Glanville
orchestrated upper body movements from the overhead gantry.
Co-creator Gerry Anderson
recalls that skiing sequences had not been attempted in previous Supermarionation
productions, but believes that the characters of Penelope and Tin-Tin are seen to ski in a realistic manner on their journey to Olsen's lodge. Anderson himself conceived the "ski thrusters" that the agents use to assist their uphill return to Paradise Peaks. Praising the visuals of "The Cham-Cham", he summarises that the episode "gave our art and design departments
a chance to show what they could really do, and they didn't let us down." In a parallel to the episode filmed immediately before, "Attack of the Alligators!
", the technical complexity of "The Cham-Cham" meant that production finished almost one week behind schedule and exceeded its budget. To compensate for the lost shooting time and production costs, the writers re-scripted the Series One finale as "Security Hazard", a clip show
that makes extensive use of flashback
footage to reduce the financial burden of new scenes.
Although singer Ken Barrie
recorded lines to "Dangerous Game", the production team ultimately replaced his sung rendition with an instrumental tune for all occasions in "The Cham-Cham" when the Cass Carnaby Five are performing. Reviewing the CD release of the original Thunderbirds soundtrack, Morag Reavley of the BBC Online site describes the Penelope character's performance of "Dangerous Game" as "slinky, sexy and slightly off-key, like a hung-over Zsa Zsa Gabor
". Co-creator and voice actress Sylvia Anderson
based her singing voice on that of the German actress and singer Marlene Dietrich
. An incidental music
track from the Supercar
episode "Amazonian Adventure", titled "Happy Flying", accompanies the shots of Penelope and Tin-Tin skiing to Olsen's lodge.
considers "The Cham-Cham" among the best episodes of Thunderbirds and a rival to "Attack of the Alligators!
", writing on her website, "Even though the plot is far-fetched, it has charm and because of the lovely Swiss mountain setting, has credibility." Stephen La Rivière, author of Filmed in Supermarionation: A History of the Future, praises the technical feats of this episode, citing the dancing and skiing sequences as "[flying] in the face of what puppets can and can't do." He sums up the episode as "a glorious example of Thunderbirds at its best, combining all the elements that made the show so popular: the characters, the adventure, the rescues and, of course, the humour." Historian Nicholas J. Cull
interprets "The Cham-Cham" as a product of its Cold War
context, noting the "Central
/Eastern Europe
an accents" of the hostile airbase personnel.
The episode achieved ratings of 2.82 million viewers for its 1992 repeat broadcast on BBC2.
in character as Parker
, is featured on the 1960s Century 21 mini-LP
, Lady Penelope.
Supermarionation
Supermarionation is a puppetry technique devised in the 1960s by British production company AP Films. It was used extensively in the company's numerous Gerry and Sylvia Anderson-produced action-adventure series, the most famous of which was Thunderbirds...
television series Thunderbirds
Thunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
. One of the final instalments of Series One, it first aired in the United Kingdom on ATV Midlands on 24 March 1966. Alan Pattillo both scripted and directed the episode, which starts with the latest in a number of United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
(USAF) planes being shot down during the radio broadcast of a hit pop song. International Rescue suspects sabotage, and Lady Penelope, Tin-Tin
Tin-Tin Kyrano
Tin-Tin Kyrano is a character in the mid-1960s British television show Thunderbirds. In the original TV series and its original movie adaptations, Tin-Tin, like the other characters, is portrayed using a marionette, and Christine Finn provided her voice....
and Parker
Aloysius "Nosey" Parker
Aloysius "Nosey" Parker is a fictional character in the television series Thunderbirds, the feature films Thunderbirds Are GO and Thunderbird 6 and the 2004 live action film Thunderbirds....
are dispatched undercover to investigate the band's latest tour venue — a deluxe hotel in the Swiss Alps
Swiss Alps
The Swiss Alps are the portion of the Alps mountain range that lies within Switzerland. Because of their central position within the entire Alpine range, they are also known as the Central Alps....
.
Filmed at the end of 1965, production on "The Cham-Cham" inspired innovation in the use of puppet characters, the Penelope character being required to perform a dance at the climax of the episode in spite of the difficulties inherent in inducing motion from the Thunderbirds marionette
Marionette
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...
s. It also marks the first occasion in the Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
Supermarionation series that skiing is depicted. Scripted to present themes of espionage and showbusiness, the making of "The Cham-Cham" entailed the collaboration of singer Ken Barrie
Ken Barrie
Ken Barrie is a British musician and actor best known for narrating the BBC television programme Postman Pat. He also did the voice of Postman Pat, Ted Glen, Granny Drydan, Peter Fogg, Major Forbes, George Lancaster, Geoff Pringle, Alf Thompson, Reverend Timms, Arthur Selby and Sam Waldron.Barrie...
, who penned lines to the featured song, "Dangerous Game".
Co-creator Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson , born 25 March 1937, is a British voice artist and film producer, most notable for collaborations with Gerry Anderson, to whom she was married from 1962 to 1975....
has praised "The Cham-Cham" for its "charm" and the imagination behind the depiction of the Paradise Peaks resort, although she argues that the plot is "far-fetched", while Supermarionation expert Stephen La Rivière values the episode for its technical accomplishments in addition to its scripting. Historian Nicholas J. Cull
Nicholas J. Cull
Professor Nicholas J. Cull is a historian and the director of the Master's in Public Diplomacy program at the University of Southern California.-Biography:...
has examined the undertones of certain characterisations in relation to the real-life Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. "The Cham-Cham" received an audio adaptation in the 1960s.
Plot
Three RTL2 cargo aircraft on missile shipment runs have each been shot down by unidentified fighter aircraft after take-off from Matthews Field United States Air ForceUnited States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
(USAF) Base. On Tracy Island
Tracy Island
Tracy Island is the home of the Tracy family in the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson 1960s television series Thunderbirds. Located in the South Pacific Ocean, the island's true function as the secret base of the International Rescue organisation is heavily camouflaged.Thunderbird 1 launches from a hangar...
, Alan
Alan Tracy
Alan Tracy is a fictional character from Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation television show Thunderbirds and the subsequent films Thunderbirds Are GO and Thunderbird 6. The character also appeared in the 2004 live action movie Thunderbirds....
points out that each attack has coincided with a live performance of "Dangerous Game" from the hit group Cass Carnaby Five, broadcast on Radio Maxwell. Brains
Brains (Thunderbirds)
Brains is a fictional character in the 1960s British Supermarionation television series Thunderbirds, its sequel films Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6 , and the 2004 live-action remake film Thunderbirds. Brains was born 14 November 2040 and was orphaned when a hurricane struck his family's...
and Alan set to work on a recording of the latest transmission to determine whether the tune contains a hidden code intended to disrupt the RTL2 flights.
Meanwhile, Jeff
Jeff Tracy
Jeff Tracy is a fictional character from Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's Supermarionation television show Thunderbirds and the subsequent films Thunderbirds Are GO and Thunderbird 6. The voice for the character in these shows was supplied by Peter Dyneley. The character also appeared in the live...
assigns Tin-Tin
Tin-Tin Kyrano
Tin-Tin Kyrano is a character in the mid-1960s British television show Thunderbirds. In the original TV series and its original movie adaptations, Tin-Tin, like the other characters, is portrayed using a marionette, and Christine Finn provided her voice....
and Lady Penelope — the latter posing as a singer, "Wanda Lamour" — to an undercover mission to Paradise Peaks, a luxurious Swiss Alps
Swiss Alps
The Swiss Alps are the portion of the Alps mountain range that lies within Switzerland. Because of their central position within the entire Alpine range, they are also known as the Central Alps....
hotel that is currently playing host to Cass Carnaby and his band. Parker
Aloysius "Nosey" Parker
Aloysius "Nosey" Parker is a fictional character in the television series Thunderbirds, the feature films Thunderbirds Are GO and Thunderbird 6 and the 2004 live action film Thunderbirds....
secures a job at the bar. Carnaby's manager is the suspicious Mr Olsen, who often makes late changes to the arrangement of "Dangerous Game" before the band performs live on-air. Penelope and Tin-Tin ski to Olsen's residence and film him operating a computer that is decoding musical notation into a message revealing the time of the next RTL2 flight.
Realising that he has had uninvited guests, Olsen contacts his associate — Banino, a waiter — with orders to dispose of the International Rescue agents. Parker overhears the telephone conversation and thwarts Banino's attempt to assassinate Penelope and Tin-Tin using a sniper rifle
Sniper rifle
In military and law enforcement terminology, a sniper rifle is a precision-rifle used to ensure more accurate placement of bullets at longer ranges than other small arms. A typical sniper rifle is built for optimal levels of accuracy, fitted with a telescopic sight and chambered for a military...
, rolling down the mountainside with his opponent until Banino is knocked unconscious. On Tracy Island, Brains identifies the computer in the film as a "Cham-Cham". Jeff contacts the authorities
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to report International Rescue's findings, but the Matthews Field Commander refuses to cancel the next missile shipment.
That night, the Cass Carnaby Five start to perform Olsen's latest arrangement of "Dangerous Game" that will doom the upcoming RTL2 flight. At the last moment, Penelope, under the guise of Wanda Lamour, steps out onto the stage to sing a lyrical rendition of Brains' composition. Accepting the false coordinates encoded in the Radio Maxwell transmission, the hostile airbase that launched the earlier attacks misdirects its own fighters, who soon find themselves in the vicinity of Matthews Field. Landing at the scene in Thunderbird 1, Scott
Scott Tracy
Scott Tracy is a fictional character from Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation television show Thunderbirds and the subsequent films Thunderbirds Are GO and Thunderbird 6. The character also appeared in the live action movie Thunderbirds....
alerts the Commander and interceptors are launched to shoot down the enemy.
Knowing that Olsen will be out for revenge, Jeff dispatches Virgil
Virgil Tracy
Virgil Tracy is a fictional character from Gerry Anderson's Supermarionation television show Thunderbirds and the subsequent films Thunderbirds Are GO and Thunderbird 6. The character also appeared in the live action movie Thunderbirds....
and Alan to the Alps in Thunderbird 2 to recall Tin-Tin, Penelope and Parker. The International Rescue agents escape in the Paradise Peaks cable car
Cable car
A cable car is any of a variety of transportation systems relying on cables to pull vehicles along or lower them at a steady rate, or a vehicle on these systems.-Aerial lift:Aerial lifts where the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable:...
, only to be left speeding down the mountainside out of control after Olsen cuts through the lines at the terminus. With Thunderbird 2
Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature. The other three are the strong interaction, the weak interaction and gravitation...
grabs unable to gain purchase on the car, Parker climbs onto the roof to snare the cables with the end of Penelope's umbrella and attach them himself. When the force of Virgil and Alan's retro-rockets
Retrorocket
A retrorocket is a rocket engine providing thrust opposing the motion of a spacecraft, thereby causing it to decelerate.-History:...
throws the butler into the air, he uses the umbrella to parachute back down. All are treated to a private piano recital of "Dangerous Game" from Cass before leaving Paradise Peaks.
Production
The penultimate episode to be filmed for Series One of ThunderbirdsThunderbirds (TV series)
Thunderbirds is a British mid-1960s science fiction television show devised by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and made by AP Films using a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"...
, writer and director Alan Pattillo scripted "The Cham-Cham" to emulate classic Hollywood musicals with its showbusiness plot and its exotic setting of the Paradise Peaks resort. As an in-joke, Pattillo named Penelope's alias, Wanda Lamour, after one of the Thunderbirds puppeteers, Wanda Brown. Filming ran from November to December 1965. Since it had been difficult to obtain persuasive walks from the puppets for previous episodes, at the time of production it had been decided that such motions would be implied, rather than seen, through a "bobbing motion" resulting from a puppeteer moving a puppet's legs out of shot. The sequence in which Lady Penelope
Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward
Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward is the London Agent for the secret organisation International Rescue in the hit television series Thunderbirds...
sings Brains
Brains (Thunderbirds)
Brains is a fictional character in the 1960s British Supermarionation television series Thunderbirds, its sequel films Thunderbirds Are Go and Thunderbird 6 , and the 2004 live-action remake film Thunderbirds. Brains was born 14 November 2040 and was orphaned when a hurricane struck his family's...
' modified version of "Dangerous Game" required the character to waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
the length of the Paradise Peaks ballroom set, necessitating that Brown move the legs just out of the frame while puppeteer Christine Glanville
Christine Glanville
Christine Glanville was a British professional puppeteer and spent most of her working life on television programs produced by Gerry Anderson....
orchestrated upper body movements from the overhead gantry.
Co-creator Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson
Gerry Anderson MBE is a British publisher, producer, director and writer, famous for his futuristic television programmes, particularly those involving specially modified marionettes, a process called "Supermarionation"....
recalls that skiing sequences had not been attempted in previous Supermarionation
Supermarionation
Supermarionation is a puppetry technique devised in the 1960s by British production company AP Films. It was used extensively in the company's numerous Gerry and Sylvia Anderson-produced action-adventure series, the most famous of which was Thunderbirds...
productions, but believes that the characters of Penelope and Tin-Tin are seen to ski in a realistic manner on their journey to Olsen's lodge. Anderson himself conceived the "ski thrusters" that the agents use to assist their uphill return to Paradise Peaks. Praising the visuals of "The Cham-Cham", he summarises that the episode "gave our art and design departments
Art department
Art department in movie terms means the section of a production's crew concerned with visual artistry. Working under the supervision of the production designer and/or art director, the art department is responsible for arranging the overall look of the film as desired by the film director...
a chance to show what they could really do, and they didn't let us down." In a parallel to the episode filmed immediately before, "Attack of the Alligators!
Attack of the Alligators!
"Attack of the Alligators!" is the 23rd episode of the British Supermarionation television series Thunderbirds. One of the last episodes of the first season, it was first broadcast on ATV Midlands on 10 March 1966, was written by Alan Pattillo and directed by David Lane. In this episode, alligators...
", the technical complexity of "The Cham-Cham" meant that production finished almost one week behind schedule and exceeded its budget. To compensate for the lost shooting time and production costs, the writers re-scripted the Series One finale as "Security Hazard", a clip show
Clip show
A clip show is an episode of a television series that consists primarily of excerpts from previous episodes. Most clip shows feature the format of a frame story in which cast members recall past events from past installments of the show, depicted with a clip of the event presented as a flashback. ...
that makes extensive use of flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
footage to reduce the financial burden of new scenes.
Although singer Ken Barrie
Ken Barrie
Ken Barrie is a British musician and actor best known for narrating the BBC television programme Postman Pat. He also did the voice of Postman Pat, Ted Glen, Granny Drydan, Peter Fogg, Major Forbes, George Lancaster, Geoff Pringle, Alf Thompson, Reverend Timms, Arthur Selby and Sam Waldron.Barrie...
recorded lines to "Dangerous Game", the production team ultimately replaced his sung rendition with an instrumental tune for all occasions in "The Cham-Cham" when the Cass Carnaby Five are performing. Reviewing the CD release of the original Thunderbirds soundtrack, Morag Reavley of the BBC Online site describes the Penelope character's performance of "Dangerous Game" as "slinky, sexy and slightly off-key, like a hung-over Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Zsa Zsa Gabor is a Hungarian-born American stage, film and television actress.She acted on stage in Vienna, Austria, in 1932, and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. She emigrated to the United States in 1941 and became a sought-after actress with "European flair and style", with a personality that...
". Co-creator and voice actress Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson , born 25 March 1937, is a British voice artist and film producer, most notable for collaborations with Gerry Anderson, to whom she was married from 1962 to 1975....
based her singing voice on that of the German actress and singer Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
. An incidental music
Incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
track from the Supercar
Supercar (TV series)
Supercar was a children's TV show produced by Gerry Anderson and Arthur Provis's AP Films for ATV and ITC Entertainment. 39 episodes were produced between 1961 and 1962, and it was Anderson's first half-hour series. In the UK it was seen on ITV and in the US in syndication...
episode "Amazonian Adventure", titled "Happy Flying", accompanies the shots of Penelope and Tin-Tin skiing to Olsen's lodge.
Reception
Sylvia AndersonSylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson , born 25 March 1937, is a British voice artist and film producer, most notable for collaborations with Gerry Anderson, to whom she was married from 1962 to 1975....
considers "The Cham-Cham" among the best episodes of Thunderbirds and a rival to "Attack of the Alligators!
Attack of the Alligators!
"Attack of the Alligators!" is the 23rd episode of the British Supermarionation television series Thunderbirds. One of the last episodes of the first season, it was first broadcast on ATV Midlands on 10 March 1966, was written by Alan Pattillo and directed by David Lane. In this episode, alligators...
", writing on her website, "Even though the plot is far-fetched, it has charm and because of the lovely Swiss mountain setting, has credibility." Stephen La Rivière, author of Filmed in Supermarionation: A History of the Future, praises the technical feats of this episode, citing the dancing and skiing sequences as "[flying] in the face of what puppets can and can't do." He sums up the episode as "a glorious example of Thunderbirds at its best, combining all the elements that made the show so popular: the characters, the adventure, the rescues and, of course, the humour." Historian Nicholas J. Cull
Nicholas J. Cull
Professor Nicholas J. Cull is a historian and the director of the Master's in Public Diplomacy program at the University of Southern California.-Biography:...
interprets "The Cham-Cham" as a product of its Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
context, noting the "Central
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
/Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an accents" of the hostile airbase personnel.
The episode achieved ratings of 2.82 million viewers for its 1992 repeat broadcast on BBC2.
Adaptation
An audio adaptation of "The Cham-Cham", narrated by actor David GrahamDavid Graham (actor)
David Graham is a British character actor and voice artist. Born in London, after a period in the R.A.F as a Radar Mechanic he trained as an actor in New York but has worked mainly on British television series....
in character as Parker
Aloysius "Nosey" Parker
Aloysius "Nosey" Parker is a fictional character in the television series Thunderbirds, the feature films Thunderbirds Are GO and Thunderbird 6 and the 2004 live action film Thunderbirds....
, is featured on the 1960s Century 21 mini-LP
Mini-LP
A Mini-LP or Mini-album is a short album, usually retailing at a lower price than an album that would be considered "full-length".-History:...
, Lady Penelope.