Upcoming Spy DVDs: Virgin of the Secret Service (1968)

I'm thrilled to report that Network will release one of the most elusive ITC spy series of the Sixties on R2 DVD on April 1, 2013: Virgin of the Secret Service! Ever since I first read about this one in The Rogers and Gillis Guide to ITC, I've been dying to see this series, and always hoped that Network would unearth it. I'd begun to despair since the company didn't really release any spy rarities in the past year, but now it's on the schedule and I'm very happy! From what I can gather (largely thanks to Rogers and Gillis), Virgin of the Secret Service is a tongue-in-cheek spy adventure series very much a product of its late 1960s era even if it's set in Edwardian times. It follows the exploits of Captain Robert Virgin (Clinton Greyn) and his progressively emancipated partner Mrs. Virginia Cortez (Veronica Strong) as they traipse across the entire British Empire (in the days when the sun never set upon it) and beyond,  from India to Africa to Russia to Arabia to South America to Texas and back, spying for England and thwarting the dastardly plans of enemy agents Karl Von Brauner and Klaus Striebeck. Guest stars included the likes of Desmond Llewellyn and Roger Delgado. It sounds very much like an Edwardian Avengers, a British Wild Wild West, an Adam Adamant who never got frozen, or even a proto-Jack of All Trades, and if it lives up to any of that, I'll be very happy indeed. I'm already happy that at least I'll at last have the opportunity to see! The 4-disc, Region 2 PAL DVD set will contain all 13 episodes of this rare TBC series and retail for £28.00. I was under the impression that it was a color series, but Network's listing says black and white. That may be an error, or it may mean that only black and white recordings exist, as was the case (for the most part) with Spyder's Web. Or it may be that it was actually filmed in black and white after all. In any case, I'm still eager to see it. It can already be pre-ordered from Amazon.co.uk, and will also be available directly from Network come April.