Barry Davies
Barry Davies, born and bred in the Welsh valleys, first got interested in puppets when he watched some of the Watch with Mother television programmes aired by the BBC in the late 1950s/early 60s. As he was growing up, he came upon other programmes such as Supercar and Four Feather Falls. One of his other favourites was Torchy the Battery Boy, which usually aired on a Saturday around teatime. Barry recalls that he had to miss a lot of episodes of Torchy as his father would turn over the television for the football results.
As a youngster, he was inspired by Harry Corbett when he watched episodes of Sooty and Sweep and really enjoyed the antics they would get up to.
Barry was quite puzzled with one particular episode when Sooty was taking a bath. There were lots of soap suds all over Sooty, but it puzzled Barry as to how the little bear puppet could be sitting in a bath of soapy water!
His imagination was very strong, even at that young age.
Barry was born in Maerdy in the Rhondda Valley. After leaving school and attending a college, he ended up working in an electronics factory for all of his working life. It may be an electronics factory today, but it was actually just Barry and the owner there when he started. He frequently visits his old place of work which is still quite close to where he lives today.
When Barry got married, he would often browse the newspapers after his father had finished with them. One day he spotted an advert for a convention in Leeds, which was to feature the works of Gerry Anderson. At this convention he met Christine Glanville who was working for Phillip Ray in Preston. She was engaged in working on some Captain Scarlet heads, and Barry was asked if he could make some bodies to go with them. He jumped at the chance and was given two heads to keep as a reward for his work.
Christine Glanville and Gerry Anderson were making an advertisement for Swinton Insurance, when Christine asked Barry if he could make a body for the Lady Penelope character.
Then later, at an exhibition in Wolverhampton, Gerry Anderson asked Barry to make a whole range of puppets for a display.
Barry has worked with Richard Gregory on three Captain Scarlet DVDs and also helped to make three episodes of Thunderbirds with Stephen La Riviere. These DVDs have even been dubbed for sale in Japan.
Today, in his leisure time, Barry has been working on some of the old display heads from Wolverhampton. He hopes to make the bodies to go with the heads, so that he can display them at one of the Fanderson conventions he regularly attends.
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