A SWINDON-BASED bullying helpline is helping the daughter of Thunderbirds’ co-creator Sylvia Anderson get the credit she says her mother deserves.

The National Bullying Helpline’s founder Christine Pratt got in touch with Dee Anderson, whose mum Sylvia and stepdad Gerry created the iconic British series following the adventurous puppets of International Rescue and their incredible fleet on Tracey Island.

Sylvia created and voiced Lady Penelope and played a big part in launching the show in the 1950s but died in poverty after she was excluded from millions in rights and royalties after her divorce from Gerry.

Dee is now bringing a sex discrimination case worth more than £3 million against ITV on her mother’s behalf to right this alleged wrong and ensure she receives credit for her work on the show.

She claims Sylvia was deliberately left out of any deals when Gerry sold the rights to the show to ATV (now ITV) and did not receive credit on any other Thunderbirds-related material which followed.

Christine called it “one of the most shocking sex discrimination and gaslighting cases of our times”.

She added: “It’s an awful case of sexism, inequality and abuse of power. She was publicly undermined by TV execs, the media and the system in general. This story needs to be told.

“The bullying helpline’s ambassador Debbie Arnold introduced Dee to me because she was concerned that her mother had been treated unfairly.

“I helped facilitate her case and put her in touch with my contacts. We’ve got quite a strong case and have evidence of an ITV contract with Sylvia’s name crossed out, literally erasing her and her legacy.

“Everybody knows Thunderbirds, so many people grew up watching it, but they don’t know the extraordinary sex discrimination and gaslighting that went on to airbrush the co-creator out of history.

“It is truly shocking to think that Sylvia, probably one of our true great icons, struggled financially in her later life. We wholeheartedly support the actions of Dee Anderson.

"Even today, ITV acknowledge Gerry Anderson but give little or no recognition to Sylvia.”
Despite the show’s massive global popularity, Gerry sold the series’ rights to what is now ITV for just £110,000 even though other interested buyers had offered much more.

He later sold the rest of the couple’s production firm AP Films to ITC and ATV for just under £15,000 in 1975 after the couple divorced.

Gerry lived out the rest of his life comfortably until he died in 2012 while Sylvia re-mortgaged her house because of money troubles and died in 2016.

Dee is hoping to recover money which ITV made out of the Thunderbirds branding and possibly future royalties too.

She told Mail Online: "My mother was a pioneer of women in television, she was one of the first and yet, they’re not valuing that. The whole deal was set up for Gerry, who was part of an old boys’ network.

"My mother was totally creative so she didn’t really have a business head and wasn’t included in any of the conversations, but she could have been.

“I believe this sort of behaviour was rife in the industry back then and I hope this will encourage other women who worked on the creative side to come out and make a stand against being mistreated.”

MP Lisa Cameron will raise Dee’s complaint against ITV in Parliament in a bid to encourage the TV company to look into the morality of the deals.

An ITV spokesman said: “ITV has been engaged in a prolonged dialogue with Dee Anderson and her legal advisors over the course of the last three years or so.

“At all times we have sought to understand the basis for Dee’s concerns and provided responses to her and her legal advisors, and we remain open to continuing this dialogue.”

Gaslighting is a term used to refer to a type of emotional abuse where the abuser repeatedly insists that a false narrative is true, which makes their victim question their judgment and doubt themselves until they become disorientated and distressed and wonder if they are losing their sanity.