Grandma Tracy

Grandma Tracy is a fictional character in the television series Thunderbirds. She was voiced by Christine Finn.^[1]

Little is known about Grandma Tracy's past, and her real name is never mentioned on screen with all the characters, even sometimes her son Jeff calling her "Grandma". As a young girl, her grandmother took her round London and she travelled on the London Underground, a fact that would prove useful later for International Rescue ("Vault Of Death"). She was married to a Kansas wheat farmer but became widowed some time before International Rescue begun and helped Jeff bring up his five sons after the untimely death of his wife. During International Rescue's early days she lived alone, near San Miguel, Colorado,^[2] however she began to miss feeling useful so decided to move to Tracy Island.

Shortly after winning the Parola Sands Race, her Grandson Alan Tracy picks her up so she can move to Tracy Island. Unfortunately, a racing competitor of Alan's takes revenge and Grandma finds herself having to sit still on a bridge spanning the San Miguel River with Alan due to a bomb that has been placed under the bridge to exact revenge. If either of them moved, the bomb would detonate. She and Alan are rescued by her grandsons, allowing Grandma to see first hand the work that her family did, and she moved into the Tracy home ("Move And You're Dead").

As the family matriarch, Grandma keeps her family together, offering wisdom and advice for her family and the others in the household such as Tin-Tin. It is Grandma who is instrumental in keeping Alan and Tin-Tin together when one of Tin-Tin's old flames pays a visit ("End Of The Road"). Together with Kyrano and sometimes Tin-Tin, Grandma takes care of the domestic chores in the Tracy house, though she can sometimes be confused by all the technological gadgetry, getting tracking bugs mixed into her apple pie at one point ("Day Of Disaster"), though she is able to work a nuclear oven ("Give Or Take A Million").

Although not an active part of International Rescue, Grandma still plays a role when need be. She has been known to help her grandsons put together what equipment they need ("Sun Probe") and it is her who comes up with a solution for a rescue mission in the Bank of England when everyone else is stuck ("Vault Of Death"). She also attends filming of the Ned Cook Show episode in which he thanks International Rescue for saving him ("Terror In New York City"). Throughout her years, Grandma has never visited a stately home but hopes to do so, especially after meeting Lady Penelope ("The Mighty Atom").

Grandma's chronology is somewhat confusing in the series, in that she does not move to Tracy Island until "Move And You're Dead" (production episode #9), despite being mentioned in "Sun probe" (production episode #4) and featuring in production episodes #5,#6,#7 and #8. In original broadcast order, Grandma appears in even more episodes before the story of "Move And You're Dead" is aired.^[3] Whilst Grandma was intended to debut in "Move And You're Dead" and had not been filmed in any of the original footage for the preceding eight episodes, the continuity error occurred when the early episodes had to be extended from their original 25 minute form and new material filmed to pad the episodes out includes Grandma.

Grandma featured briefly in the film, Thunderbird 6, but has no dialogue. She does not appear in the 2004 live action film at all, instead being replaced by a new character called Onaha, who was Kyrano's wife and Tin-Tin's mother. Grandma returned in the 2015 remake Thunderbirds Are Go, portrayed by Sandra Dickinson; in the new show, she was one of only three people to know of the Hood (the others being Jeff and Kayo).

Appearances

• "The Uninvited"
• "The Mighty Atom"
• "Vault Of Death"
• "Operation Crash-Dive"
• "Move And You're Dead"
• "Terror In New York City"
• "End Of The Road"
• "Day Of Disaster"
• "Desperate Intruder"
• "The Man From MI5"
• "Cry Wolf"
• "The Duchess Assignment"
• "Attack Of The Alligators"
• "The Cham Cham"
• "Lord Parker's 'Oliday"
• "Ricochet"
• "Give Or Take A Million"
• Thunderbird 6

References

External links

• www.fab1.co.nz - Thunderbirds Characters