- "They say that if you go down well at Paradise Peaks, you'll go down well anywhere"
— Aloysius Parker
"The Cham-Cham" is the twenty-fifth episode of Thunderbirds season 1, first broadcast on 24th March 1966.
Plot[]
Brains determines that someone's using a Cham-Cham (a Cham-Cham?) to electronically edit the melody of a popular band's hit song, and then use it to send details of strikes against military aircraft, every time the song - Dangerous Game - is broadcast live. To find and stop that "someone," Jeff Tracy sends Lady Penelope to a grand hotel up in the Swiss Alps...where she and Tin-Tin go undercover to observe the band, The Cass Carnaby Five, in performance...
Storyline[]
- Main article: The Cham-Cham/Storyline
Transcript[]
- Main article: The Cham-Cham/Transcript
Cast[]
Regular Characters[]
.png "Jeff (Cham-Cham).png (141 KB)")
.png "Scott (Cham-Cham).png (126 KB)")
.png "Lady Penelope (Paradise peeks).png (118 KB)")
.png "Virgil (Cham-Cham).png (134 KB)")
.png "Alan (Cham-Cham).png (142 KB)")
.png "Brains (Cham-Cham).png (141 KB)")
.png "Parker (Pardise Peeks).png (136 KB)")
(David Graham)
.png "Tin-Tin (Cham-Cham).png (146 KB)")
.png "John (Cham-Cham).png (139 KB)")
.png "Grandma (Cham-Cham).png (152 KB)")
(Christine Finn)
Guest Characters[]
(Ray Barrett)
(David Graham)
(Matt Zimmerman)
(Ray Barrett)
(John Tate)
.png "Hitchins(1).png (147 KB)")
(David Graham)
(David Graham)
(Matt Zimmerman)
(John Tate)
(Matt Zimmerman)
(Ray Barrett)
(Christine Finn)
Cameo Roles[]
.png "Gordon (Cham-Cham).png (129 KB)")
Crowd Scenes[]
International Rescue Equipment Used[]
Ladybird Jet
Non-International Rescue Equipment Used[]
Locations[]
Trivia[]
- The RTL-2 Transport Aircraft in this episode would later be slightly remodelled and repainted for use in the Andersons' next series, Captain Scarlet & The Mysterons.
- Recycled music from Supercar and Stingray was heard in this episode.
- Last episode directed by Alan Pattillo,
Goofs[]
- The no-smoking sign inside the cable car misspells the German "Nicht rauchen" as "Nicht raucher".
- When the three Unidentified Fighter Jets take off, two of them are connected by a stick, in order to ease the task of the puppeteers. Although the stick itself is hidden from view, the shadow it casts on the runway is clearly visible.
- Having flown all the way to Matthews Field Air Base, Scott askes for permission to land by radio, then talks to the control tower by Megaphone.
- Shortly after the cables for the cable car have been cut, it can be seen speeding down its route with visible masts holding the cables up' but when Thunderbird 2 is lowering the cables to Parker (standing on the cable cars roof while in motion), no masts holding the cables up are seen. Also - when Parker is attaching the cables, the masts would've prevented such a rescue in this fashion.
- In the establishing shot of the Poseidon Missiles, the edge of the set is visible in the top-right corner.
Alternate Version[]
Thunderbirds (FOX Kids Series)[]
For a contemporary (or at least in the 1990's) audience, Thunderbirds underwent a repackage, redub, and rebroadcast as part of FOX Kids' Saturday morning line-up. Due to a severe decline in ratings, though, only half of the episodes made it to broadcast before the series was pulled by the network. As a result, the modified version of The Cham-Cham never aired - and remains, to this day, among a handful of missing Thunderbirds episodes.
Foreign Titles[]
- French: Message en musique
- German: Der Chamcham-Trick
- Spanish: La máquina musical
- Italian: Missione in montagna
- Dutch: Cham-cham (TV 1967); Gevaarlijk vermaak in Paradise Peaks (TV 1992); De Cham-Cham (VHS, DVD)
- Portuguese: O Cham Cham
- Japanese: 魅惑のメロディー