Theme Time: Barry Gray - Space 1999, RIP Martin Landau

Sad to hear that the great Martin Landau has died at the age of 89.

In tribute to the Hollywood veteran, here's Barry Gray's bombastic theme for Gerry Anderson's Space: 1999

Starring alongside his then wife Barbara Bain, Space: 1999 ran for two seasons from 1975 to 1977 and as John Koenig remains, certainly on this side of the pond, as one of Landau's most enduring starring roles. Only that of Rollin Hand in TV's Mission Impossible could match it. Landau was, along with Steve McQueen, the only applicants out of 500 to enter the acclaimed Actors Studio in 1955 where he was tutored by Lee Strasburg and Elia Kazan to name but a few and would go on to become an executive director with the Studio. His films include Hitchcock's North by Northwest, Cleopatra, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Nevada Smith alongside Actors Studio contemporary McQueen, Empire State, Francis Ford Coppola's Tucker: The Man and His Dream, for which he earned an Oscar nomination, Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanours, which earned him a second nomination, and Tim Burton's Ed Wood which finally bagged him the Oscar. 

RIP

Theme Time : Barry Gray, Don Spencer - Fireball XL5

Fireball XL5 was a science fiction themed children's television show following the missions of the titular spaceship, commanded by Colonel Steve Zodiac of the World Space Patrol. 

Produced from 1962 to 1963 by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, the show used their Supermarionation - a form of puppetry that they first introduced in Four Feather Falls and Supercar - and ran for 39 half hour episodes in black and white. Anderson thought that Castrol XL, a brand of motor oil, had an interesting sound which led to the series title.

Set between the years 2062 and 2063, the series featured the exploits of Fireball XL5's crew, including Steve Zodiac, Doctor Venus, Professor Matthew Matic, co-pilot Robert the Robot and Zoony, as they patrolled Sector 25 of charted interstellar space. Anderson was inspired by an old USSR design for the spaceship itself and the closing theme of the series, written by Barry Gray and sung by Don Spencer became a hit in the UK - be warned, its incredibly catchy!

The song was also included in the Ray Burdis and Dominic Anciano, comedy thriller from 2000, Love Honour and Obey when Sean Pertwee and Trevor H Laird's South London gangsters perform it on karaoke, clearly having a whale of a time!