David Graham Ready For Thunderbirds Are GO To Re-launch

You may not recognize his face, but you most certainly recognize the voice of David Graham. Graham has had an incredibly diverse and accomplished career, and one that includes beloved franchises like Thunderbirds and Doctor Who.

ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Graham about returning to the character of Parker in Thunderbirds Are GO season 2 — which will hit Amazon later this year. The original Thunderbirds aired in 1960 and has managed to stay relevant all these years due to its family friendly nature and the state of the art visual effects, for its time.

Graham said that the Paker role was so easy to pickup dispite the passing of time.

“I created the character over 50 years ago in the original screen copy series and it became very iconic,” he said. “It was based on a character in a restaurant and pub bar near the studio outside London and once in a while you hit on a certain character, and it seems to resonate with the entertainment public in a way that it hasn’t done before.”

The gentleman in the pub was a surprise inspiration for Graham, but one that he certainly could not forget.

“It’s a true story. He was a waiter — who in his former existence — worked in the royal household. That’s what I’m told, and then when he retired he became this waiter in this bar/restaurant,” he said. “Of course, I dressed up his accent. I made it more eccentric, and it took on a life of its own with all the dropped h’s and rather strange pronunciations. He became the kind of comic character, especially in his relationship with Lady Penelope.”

Graham recalls when the studio approached him about the project and is incredibly enthusiastic about a whole new generation of people getting a chance to see it.

“I think the higher-ups, the creative people at ITV, thought it would be a good idea to bring back the series which has been so loved and iconic”, he said. “I remember two executives coming to visit me in Hampstead — which is a big part in North London — to have a chat with me. I think they were also checking me out to see if I was still in one piece.

“I was one of the first people they approached, and of course I was absolutely delighted to come on board. I’m talking about two or three years ago now.”

“Obviously it’s been wonderfully successful, and it’s got a whole new generation of children and viewers interested with all the advanced techniques and the CGI. The characters can move much more freely. You never saw one of the original puppies walking, because they were on screens. You saw them set off and arrive, so there’s much more freedom in the new series. Of course, although the original series was brilliantly advanced in terms of special effects, after 50 years with new techniques coming to the fore. Of course, the music which was a great part of the original series and the beginning of the series is always the same. Tracy Island with his five, four, three, two, one, and the music is based on the original music. It’s been two guys have almost rewritten and rephrased a lot of the music with a new orchestra.”

Along with the new soundtrack and CGI visuals, Graham has also enjoyed working with his new cast members. Aside from the new faces though, the process hasn’t changed that much since the original series.

“Well it’s been lovely. As you know, Lady Penelope is now played by Rosamund Pike who has a distinguished career in film. She was in Gone Girl, and she’s just made film in New Mexico which hasn’t come out yet,” he said. “There’s another called United Kingdom which is being released later this month. She’s a joy to work with. There’s no starry nonsense with her. She’s just a good professional and very warm-hearted lady.

“There’s a guy called Michael Brody Thompson. He’s been in the States doing films. He’s quite well known. He’s a young hit. He’s only in his early 20s, and he’s doing a lot of film work. Several of the artists, the young boys, quite a few of them are American. There’s one particular guy who’s just brilliant on accents and can switch from … a bit like me. The cast is very nice. The whole production team there’s a relaxed atmosphere in the studio. We go into the studio, and as we did originally 50 years ago and read the script as a play. They join the voices into the puppets later on.”

When asked why Thunderbirds has managed to outlive other shows of its ilk, Graham said the formula is simple.

“There were certain shows that the elements laid them out. The chemistry seems to fuse into something special, and it had a lovely basic plot,” Graham said. “You had the five sons and all the extraordinary aircraft and the Tracy Island. They carried out these wonderful rescues in space and in the earth and anywhere. The plots were kind of basic in that at the end of the day they always get the baddies and juxtaposed with all these adventure was the grounded relationship of Lady Penelope and Parker. He had a rather checkered past and is now a reformed character, and so he’d had suspense and he’s had humor. Most importantly of all, I think, it had no gratuitous violence. There’s so much violence on our screens. There was always people ending up with black eyes, but it was not a violent series. It had lovely action sequences and strong plots. That’s the best way I can sum it up.”

That appeal to all ages and audienes is part of what makes the show so endearing.

“Right at the beginning, young kids watched it with their parents”, Graham said. “Then when the children grew up with the love of the show, they passed on that love of the show to the next generation, and now I’m really thrilled that it’s taken off in the United States. It’s become very, very popular, and it’s very gratifying. It’s why I’m talking to you now at my slightly advanced age. Fortunately my voice and my energy levels haven’t changed much over the years. I mean I’ve led a fairly healthy lifestyle, and I never smoked. My voice has been, remained kind of constant.”

As for season 2 of Thunderbirds Are GO, Graham was asked if there is any dissension or inner turmoil within the group.

“It’s kind of difficult for me to say. I don’t think there’s any dissension among the brothers. There’s probably a competitiveness, and Parker quite apart from being the team he also provides light relief. I’ve always loved doing comedy. I used to do a lot of comedy radio shows for the BBC. I’m talking about many years ago. We performed in front of an audience. I think the basic plots are very varied. We recorded recently a story about Grand Prix where the Rolls Royce gets involved in some shenanigans with some people trying illegally to get ahead of others. Some of the stories are very topical.”

Graham has delivered a great deal to genre fans outside of just parker. He was the originator of one of Doctor Who’s most iconic nemesis the Daleks, and if you’ve ever heard them yell “EXTERMINATE”, you’ve heard Graham’s handywork.

“I’m going back a hell of a long way before you were born probably in the late 50s when Doctor. Who was first. I had a friend, no longer alive, called Peter Hawkins who was a brilliant voice artist. He did lots of children’s voices, and somehow they asked us to get together and come up with these rather sinister staccato insidious rather frightening voices” Graham said. “We used to go down to a studio in West London, BBC Studio, and we developed this rather stylized delivery. They had a special piece of equipment called a voice synthesizer, and they fed it through that. That’s how the voices were born, and they became iconic. I also acted envisioned in two series, and there was quite a famous one called City of Death with Tom Baker, an actor called Tom Baker who was one of the later Dr. Who’s. I played a Russian professor called Karinsky. I liked acting envision as well, although my career now is mainly on the voice front.”

Graham has added even more characters to his portfolio in two more recent series, those being Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom and the incredibly popular Peppa Pig.

“It is amazing the popularity of Peppa Pig. I knew the parents of Mark Baker who with Neville Astley wrote and inspired the series. I knew him as a little boy, and now they are very rich indeed. The series has been sold all over the world, and children just adore it. When I speak to children in this country or parents who’ve got young children they hear I’m Grandpa Pig their eyes light up.”

Graham plays the wise old elf on Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom, and hopes to return to the series at some point.

“I often hope that they’ll commission another series, because it’s very appealing to the young people. I often get hits on my website saying, when are they bringing back Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom. They’re in the middle of making another 52 Peppa Pigs, so they’ve got their work cut out. If they decide to do it, I’ll come running.”

Graham isn’t slowing down anytime soon, and regarding his expansive career, he’s just grateful to have been in the right place at the right time.

“I’m grateful. I’m very grateful when I look back on my life and career in a very competitive profession. I’ve also been fortunate. An actor has to be in the right place at the right time. It’s no good just being talented if you don’t meet the people who can provide you with work. You need a bit of luck to be in the right place a the right time. It’s your job to capitalize on the luck with what you have to offer as an actor.”

Thunderbirds Are GO season 2 is on Amazon Video now.