Ned Tedford

Ned Tedford is a character who appeared in the Thunderbirds Are Go! episodes Slingshot, Under Pressure, Undercover, Up from the Depths Part 2 and Growing Pains. He is an engineer and worker who owns a pot plant companion named Gladys.

Personality[]

Ned is a hardworking man with good engineering skills, who has a cheerful and talkative side, but nobody to share it with on his jobs other than his pet plant Gladys. He cares about Gladys like a person, and insists International Rescue save her along with himself.

Ned turns paranoid at the first sign of trouble, and his worry made him rude and doubtful to Alan, whom he nicknamed "Rocket Boy", and Kayo. He is also surprised at how young some of International Rescue's members are as seen when he first meets Alan, Kayo and Gordon.

Ned is also a bit clumsy as seen in Undercover when he blows Parker and Lady Penelope's cover by accidentally placing a tea saucer onto a big green button.

Appearances[]

Ned was first seen in Slingshot where he was Asteroid mining. A solar flare caused electromagnetic interference and his work platform to nearly crash into the sun, but when Thunderbird 3 arrived on the asteroid, he was saved from such doom by Alan's idea to use the mine's explosives to steer off course. Ned and Gladys were sent back to Earth in Thunderbird 3 with Alan and Kayo.

Ned and Gladys returned in Under Pressure, where their Undersea Transporter malfunctioned and almost dropped toxic waste into the sea. Ned nearly drowned when his cockpit window started cracking, but he and his precious geranium were quickly saved by Thunderbird 4 and winched up by Thunderbird 2.

Ned gets a new job within the GDF in Undercover and manages to mess up the entire operation by pressing the button that sent out a signal to the waiting GDF units to raid the warehouse. The Colonel decides that she has a much more 'suitable' job for Ned, somewhere far out of the way of being able to cause any trouble.

In Up from the Depths Part 2 Ned and Gladys have been put in charge of keeping an eye in a vault of Iridium which gets hi-jacked by the Mechanic. Ned doesn't realize the vault has been stolen until Scott arrives to rescue him, despite the sudden lack of gravity.

Ned appears for the final time in season 3 in the episode Growing Pains. Ned has been transferred to the GDF's seed vault, in the Arctic. Havoc arrives at the vault to steal the growth serum used by Orchard Industries. When Havoc arrives incidents cause the growth serum to spill on Gladys. Gladys grows to a massive size and helps IR rescue Ned, who is tied up on the ceiling.