Captain Scarlet's continues to battle the Mysterons

The "indestructible" Captain Scarlet is returning for a 26-part series, complete with the Cloud Nine headquarters and the Mysteron baddies.

During the 1960s Anderson became synonymous with puppet series , including Thunderbirds, Stingray and Captain Scarlet.

It is now possible to recreate them exactly as they were in the original series but they will now behave just like human beings Gerry Anderson

But he said working with marionettes was a trying task because of the difficulty in making them look real.

"It was difficult to make them look convincingly at each other when they turned," he told Radio 4's Today programme on Thursday.

'Human beings'

"The puppets could not walk, their hands were sculpted and they could not move their fingers so they could not pick anything up.

"And I think things were so difficult that when we hung them up at night I felt like saying 'serves you right, you stay there now in the dark'."

But Anderson is excited to be working with the latest CGI technology at the Pinewood Studios to create the series, which should be finished in 2005.

"It is now possible to recreate them exactly as they were in the original series but they will now behave just like human beings," he said.

"They will have expressions, the mouths operate in the same way as we speak, they will be able to run, hop, skip and jump - you know the whole thing will come to life."

A wire or two

And Anderson vows he could never be persuaded to work with marionettes again.

But not everyone is happy to see the end of puppet superheroes, including Martin Gainsford of the Fanderson Official Gerry Anderson Appreciation Society.

"There's something about the small animated characters, they jerk a bit and occasionally you see a wire or two, but you don't mind," he told the Today programme.

"It's like having an absolutely perfect baby, you don't mind that a kid is a little bit chubby or has got a bit of a squint, they have got a bit of character to them.

"There is something there that gives you something to connect with and it makes you think how much spirit and soul can someone tapping away on a computer keyboard put into a CGI character."