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Lady Penelope

Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward is a fictional character introduced in the British 1960s Supermarionation television series Thunderbirds, which was produced by AP Films for ITC Entertainment. The character also appears in the film sequels Thunderbirds Are Go (1966) and Thunderbird 6 (1968), the 2004 live-action film Thunderbirds and the CGI remake TV series Thunderbirds Are Go. In the world of Thunderbirds, Penelope is employed by the secret organisation International Rescue as its London field agent.

The puppet character of the TV series and first two films was voiced by Sylvia Anderson. In the live-action film, she was portrayed by Sophia Myles, while in the remake series she is voiced by Rosamund Pike.

The original puppet character was devised with transatlantic viewers in mind. In a 2014 interview, Thunderbirds co-creator Sylvia Anderson explained: "I said to myself, 'What do the Americans think of us Brits? They think we're either Cockneys or posh ladies in stately homes. OK, that's what we'll give them.' So you've got Parker, the Cockney chauffeur, and Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, who lives this glamorous life in her big house."

One of my favourite books was The Scarlet Pimpernel. I was fascinated by the idea that you could be one person by day and someone completely different at night. So I thought about the lady of the manor with her lovely car, doing all her good works. And then I thought there would be someone she would give a second chance to in life; a lovable rogue who could be the driver of her pink Rolls‑Royce. That's how Penelope and Parker evolved.

Anderson said that she made Penelope a secret agent as she "loved the idea of an adventurous secret life." She compared Penelope favourably to the women characters of AP Films' earlier puppet series, which in her words "were just there to look good", adding that when the company moved on to Thunderbirds "the role of women was changing, and I knew Lady Penelope had to be up there with the boys." In her autobiography, she said that she wrote the character to convey "not only the daring and panache of a secret agent, but also the poise of a cool and beautiful aristocrat".

Penelope would ultimately be modelled on and voiced by Anderson. The original template for the character was a model in Vogue magazine. However, after a number of test sculptures were rejected, designer Mary Turner instead chose to base the look on Anderson herself (a decision of which Anderson was not immediately apprised). Interviewed by the Daily Mirror in 1968, Turner commented: "We wanted a glamorous blonde and [Anderson] was the obvious choice."

The character's attire was inspired by contemporary Carnaby Street and Parisian fashions, with Vogue and Harper's magazines used as points of reference. Silks, leathers and furs were supplied by London department stores such as Liberty and Dickins & Jones.

According to Anderson, the writers on the series initially had trouble devising substantial plots for the character, prompting her to encourage them to write Penelope into more episodes.

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