AFTER A 45 year absence, the Thunderbirds are set to go again with a new British TV series.

Thunderbirds creator, the 81-year-old Gerry Anderson told Radio 5 Live yesterday that he is to make a new series of the beloved puppet heroes.

I don’t want to sound conceited, but because I’m going to make it…[but] I’m confident that it will be a smash hit!

Led by millionaire ex-astronaut Jeff Tracy, his sons Scott, Virgil, Gordon, Alan and John, and the object of many a preschool crush, international socialite Lady Penelope, the swashbuckling heroes engaged in daredevil missions – but survived only 32 episodes, before being permanently retired in 1966.

But despite a poorly-received attempt to revive them, in the form of a live action movie which was made in 2004, and subsequently flopped at the box office, the bushy-eyebrowed, blue-suited puppets are to take to the skies again.

But in case you can’t wait that long, here’s a little appetiser: