5, 4, 3, 2, 1... Thunderbirds are go all over again

The Thunderbirds are go! Again. And with strings attached – or not, as the case may be.

After an absence from British television screens of 45 years, the show could rocket back into living rooms after its creator said a deal had been done for a reboot of the 1960s classic.

Gerry Anderson told Radio 5 Live's Drive programme the show will be "modernised", and will contain "all the mod cons" to employ "today's technology", no doubt a blow to fans of the original series' brand of lo-fi puppeteering.

"It will certainly be modernised," Anderson said. "It will be a brand new show, keeping all the main characters, all the machines and all the locations. It will have all the elements that made Thunderbirds popular in the first place but will be made with today's technology and today's thinking and today's pace."

Anderson hopes the new series will be a departure from a 2004 Hollywood treatment starring Bill Paxton, which he described as "the biggest load of crap I have ever seen in my life".

ITV Studios, which owns the rights to the series, refused to confirm a new series was planned.