In a weird way, I feel as if I grew up with Thunderbirds, even though the original TV show was made more than a decade before I was born.

Thanks to repeats (and a famously in-demand Tracy Island toy in 1992) those string puppets were familiar faces when I was young. Even if my era was much more about Terrahawks…

Anyway, the Thunderbirds were go again in 2015 with a brand new TV show – Thunderbirds Are Go – screened on ITV here in the UK and on other channels elsewhere in the world. There were no strings attached this time, but the characters’ charm remained.

Now ITV Studios has launched an official app: Thunderbirds Are Go – Adventures, working with developer Beyond the Story. It’s a collection of “read and play” stories following the episodes of the new show’s first series.

“There are loads of missions for you to play through, each focusing on an episode of the Thunderbirds Are Go TV show,” explains its App Store listing.

“You can take part in International Rescue missions, unlock new entries in Brains’ Technical Database, and even jump into the cockpit of Thunderbird 2 and take off -­ F.A.B.”

The app is faithful to the show that spawned it, with a good mix of reading and interactivity. Whether your kids have watched every episode or haven’t yet encountered it on TV, there’s plenty of fun to be had. And it’s good that reading is part of the package, rather than just watching or playing games.

Thunderbirds Are Go – Adventures is a free download for iPhone and iPad with one episode included, and uses in-app purchases to buy the other ones. They cost £0.79 each, although you can pay £3.99 for a “series pass” to get the lot. That’s very good value, given how many episodes are in this initial batch.