10 Times Thunderbirds Was Way Too Dark For Kids TV

10. Buried Alive And Tortured

With his stammer and jittery hand movements, Brains is one of the most well loved Thunderbirds characters. This boffin created the Thunderbird craft and if it wasn’t for him, the Tracy brothers would be gadgetless and pretty useless.

In the episode 'Desperate Intruder', everyone’s favourite one-man NASA and his assistant Tin-Tin head off on a treasure hunt in the Anara Desert. Little do they know they’ve been followed by the nefarious Hood, who quite fancies the treasure himself.

He leaves Brains buried up to his neck in sand, even refusing him water at one point. As plots go this would be fairly sinister for most television shows but the fact that the viewer is able to watch as Brains becomes more and more dehydrated to the point where his lips are chapped, his eyes are sunken and he's on the brink of death is cruel to the point where you question the writer's sanity.