Dick Spanner, P.I.

I have not laughed this hard since I first saw Mr. Gumby in Monty Python's Flying Circus. I did not know that Gerry Anderson had ever worked in stop motion animation. Dick Spanner's design seems to have been the inspiration for the first television series of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy's Marvin the Paranoid Android. Visually there are so many quiet jokes going on at once that it is easy to miss them. The opening office scene was so arresting it did not occur to me that the film noir effect of bad guy slant was in fact the office building actually swaying from side to side while the 'camera' was simply remaining vertical. It puts a whole new light on the original Batman series of the 1960s. If you can find Dick Spanner, PI, just buy it. Get it, download it, however it's available. This is worth your time, regardless of whether you are a Gerry Anderson Supermarionation fan.