"Place: Deep space, zillions of light years distant.
    Time: Yesterday afternoon..."
 

    The Metaliens (metal aliens) are a quirky alloy race ruled by Kublai Chrome who
    is hell bent on conquering the universe. To this end, he has acquired the Kleptonite
    Ball, a weapon that is the key to Universal Conquest and it's being towed home to
    their asteroid home on Metalia by Commander Stainless Steel and his hapless
    crew on the not-so good ship "Compromise". Alas they soon find themselves
    cascading through a black hole into the boondocks of the universe where they
    collide with an Appollo space capsule. Worse, it causes them to lose the
    Kleptonite Ball. It's now spinning away towards a primitive Don'tmatter planet
    called Earth.

    Thus the stage is set for this quirky comedic mix of sci-fi puppetry and live-action,
    as the Metaliens pursue their Ball to this strange new planet. It masquerades as
    a Christmas tree decoration, a bathroom ornament and a fortuneteller's ball, and
    chaos ensues as the Metaliens' retrieval robot Klepto pops up in the everyday
    lives of the human inhabitants, who are blissfully unaware of the fantastic
    galactic situation that's unfolding...

      

    If you're looking at those alien characters and thinking of mashed potatoes, you'd
    wouldn't be far from the source material for this film. You see, the show was
    originally conceived by cartoonist Gray Jolliffe ("Wicked Willie", "Chloe") who
    was working at advertising agency BMP at the time. He and John Webster
    had helped to put together that memorable ad campaign starring the Smash
    Martians; manic metal alien puppets who revelled in the joys of instant fluffy
    potatoes from a packet. The campaign was a big hit, here in the UK, and the
    characters had quickly etched themselves upon the public conscience, so
    John suggested they might develop a television series featuring similar
    otherworld creations. The project found a home with Verity Lambert at
    Euston Films, where it grew from a half-hour proposal into an hour-long
    format, and a pilot episode was put into production. But alas, even though
    several more scripts were written, there was no subsequent series
    commission, which means this one standalone tale is all we have.

    In an interview at this Euston Films blog, Gray Jolliffe talks about the show's
    development and some disappointment with the end-product. He also reveals
    how those future scripts were going to take us to other planets, with
    different alien villains appearing alongside Kublai Chrome and his cohorts.
    "Stainless Steel and the Star Spies" isn't world-beating witty, certainly, but
    there are some wry chuckles to be had amidst the absurdity, and the puppets
    have their own shiny, knockabout appeal. There's a "Pigs in Space" vibe here,
    and "Red Dwarf", which the film predates by seven years.

    Oh, and Trivia Hounds will note a rather unfortunate omission on the series
    credits; none of the puppeteers are identified!

      
 

   The crew of the Compromise

   Commander Stainless Steel
   Lieutenant Utensil
   Gadget
   Cansy
   Professor Gizmo
   Klepto (his grandchild)
   Dr Friction (Kublai Chrome's son)


   On Metalia

   Kublai Chrome (Kleptonite Tyrant-in-Chief)
   Robotham (his temporary butler)

 

    broadcast info

    "Stainless Steel and the Star Spies" premiered on ITV, on January 1st 1981
    at 4.45pm, where it accrued 7.9m viewers....

 

    Stainless Steel on DVD


     Stainless Steel and the Star Spies
               Region 2 / Network DVD / June 2010

 

     a Euston Films presentation

 

      On the web


      Gray Jolliffe
      Mr Jolliffe's jolly web site...

 
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