Big Finish to Produce New Steed and Mrs. Peel Audio Dramas; Classic Sixties Avengers Comics to be Reprinted

For the past two years, UK company Big Finish has been producing top-notch, full cast audio dramas (what we might have once called radio shows) recreating the lost episodes from the almost entirely missing first season of The Avengers. These episodes predate any of gentleman secret agent John Steed's more famous female partners like Cathy Gale or Emma Peel, and find him teamed with a male amateur instead—Dr. David Keel. On TV Dr. Keel was played by Ian Hendry, and Steed was of course played by the incredible Patrick Macnee. In the Big Finish audio dramas, Anthony Howell (Foyle's War) and Julian Wadham (Double Identity) step into those respective roles and do so as perfectly as any fan could hope for. Steed in particular is at once instantly recognizable as Macnee's Steed, and yet at the same time very much Wadham's. It's a brilliant interpretation.

Last month the company (who made their name producing quality Doctor Who audio adventures) announced the next phase of their Avengers license. Alongside the continuing Lost Episodes line of recreated first season episodes, they will introduce Steed's most famous partner, Mrs. Emma Peel (originated on the series by the frankly inimitable Diana Rigg). Wadham will continue to play Steed, and the company are currently searching for an actress to play Emma. Presumably it has not escaped their attention that the perfect choice would be Dame Diana's daughter, Rachel Sterling (The Game)! She actually sounds quite a lot like her mother while being a supremely talented actress in her own right, who would no doubt bring the same blend of new and old to the role that Wadham does with Steed. I suppose it's possible that Ms. Sterling might not wish to step into her mother's most famous role, but she's shown no qualms in the past about aligning her career with Rigg's. She played Rigg's role from the film in a stage version of Theater of Blood, and appeared alongside her mother in familial roles on a recent episode of Doctor Who. Yes, Rachel Sterling would be the perfect choice to revive Emma Peel in new audio dramas! I hope it happens.

But what are these dramas based on, if all the Emma Peel era episodes thankfully survive? In an interesting choice, Big Finish will adapt them from the Avengers comics that ran in the UK children's magazine Diana (not named after Rigg) from 1966-67. That's... an interesting choice. The Diana comics are highly sought after and well worth reading, but that's for their gorgeous artwork (by Emilio Frejo), not for their stories. The storylines tended to be rather sophomoric, relying on the cliches of kiddie comics of the era rather than the sophisticated wit of the TV series. (One adventure saw Steed and Emma protecting England from a new wave of Viking invasions, a theme that seemed to weigh heavily on the minds of British children in the Sixties. That plot was, if you can believe it, used twice in Avengers comics, and also in comics based on other popular spy shows of the decade!) Since the artwork can obviously not be translated into an audio drama, the story is the aspect that will carry over. Luckily, each of the eight Diana storylines ran for only six pages, spread out over the course of three issues. So Big Finish's writers will have plenty of room for embellishment and improvement in the course of adapting them into hour-long audio dramas! The advantage the comics had over the TV show was that they weren't restricted by budget, and so we saw things like ski chases and helicopter crashes that simply wouldn't have worked on the series. The best place to learn more about these comics, including complete synopses of each one, is on the wonderful website The Avengers Illustrated. You can even read my reviews (as a contributor, before I had my own spy blog) on the first two Diana stories there! (My review of Story 1, and Story 2. And for fun, but with no bearing on this news story, you can also read my reviews of some New Avengers comics here.) You can also see examples of Frejo's beautiful artwork.

Which brings me to the other exciting aspect of this venture. In addition to putting out audio dramas based on the comics, Big Finish will also publish a graphic novel collecting all of those rare and sought after Diana comics for the first time ever! This is huge news in its own right. None of the Sixties Avengers comics have ever been reprinted before. (Though Boom! Studios have done a great job of collecting the 90s Steed and Mrs. Peel comics by Grant Morrison along with several volumes of their own current take on the characters.) It will be great to have all that beautiful Frejo Avengers artwork bound together in a single bookshelf volume! (I wonder if it would be possible for Big Finish to secure the rights to the terrific black and white comic strip "The Growing Up of Emma Peel," which ran in the comics anthology June and followed the adventures of 14-year-old Emma Knight long before she ever married pilot Peter Peel or met the mysterious John Steed? It would make a fantastic bonus feature in such a collection!)

Now for the bad news: all of this is a long way off. A whole year away in fact. According to Big Finish's website, the eight episodes of The Avengers - Steed and Mrs Peel: The Comic Strip Adaptations will be released over two box sets in April and November of 2016, and the graphic novel will also be out that November. All of them can currently be pre-ordered in various configurations, as either digital downloads or lavish CD box sets. There are also cost-saving deals on various bundles. (And you always save money by pre-ordering with Big Finish.) In the meantime, though, be sure to pick up the continuing releases of The Avengers; The Lost Episodes! Volume 4 is due this July.

As previously reported, Big Finish also have new audio dramas based on The Prisoner in the pipeline. I hope they continue to add other classic British spy and adventure series from the Sixties to their roster! It would be great to hear new adventures of Jason King or Man in a Suitcase... though what I'd like most of all would be to hear audio adaptations of the lost episodes of Adam Adamant Lives! and Callan.

A big thanks to Phil for the tip on this exciting news!

The Avengers Return to Comics With New Boom! Series

Boom! Studios may have wrapped up their ongoing Steed and Mrs. Peel comic, based on the greatest spy series ever The Avengers, but that doesn't mean they're done with the classic characters! They've just solicited a new six-issue Avengers miniseries, Steed and Mrs. Peel: We're Needed, written by Ian Edginton and drawn by Marco Cosentino. I'm very excited to hear this, because Edginton is one of my favorite comics writers. He's shown that he can be very faithful to source material in his four excellent Sherlock Holmes adaptations (and one equally excellent John Carter one) with I.N.J. Culbard. (I'm sure Cosentino will be great, but I can't help wishing Culbard were illustrating this one too.) Let's hope he brings that same fidelity to The Avengers. It sounds like he will from this interview on Bleeding Cool, in which he says that he grew up with The Avengers and also name-checks his favorite ITC shows. According to the plot description in Boom!'s solicitation, it sounds like Edginton's Steed and Mrs. Peel will also reference one of those ITC series pretty directly: "When an old associate of John Steed is killed, a grand conspiracy is suspected. This will take Steed and Peel to a strange village, where one of the spies finds themself a prisoner." The Avengers originally sent up The Prisoner and his Village in the classic Tara King episode "Wish You Were Here," but I look forward to reading Edginton's take. Steed and Mrs. Peel: We're Needed #1 is solicited in the current (May) Previews for a July release, so place a pre-order now at your local comic book shop.

I've been a fan of all of Boom!'s Steed and Mrs. Peel comics so far (as well as their reprint of the 90s Grant Morrison miniseries, "The Golden Game"), so if you're a fan of the show and you've missed any, check out the collected editions. (Obviously the name "The Avengers" couldn't be used for comics since Stan Lee blatantly stole it for that other comic back in the Sixties!)

Order Steed and Mrs. Peel: The Golden Game here.
Order Steed and Mrs. Peel Volume 1 here.
Order Steed and Mrs. Peel Volume 2 here.
Order Steed and Mrs. Peel Volume 3 here.

Read my review of Steed and Mrs. Peel #0 here.
Read my interview with Steed and Mrs. Peel writer Caleb Monroe here.

The Avengers Return to DVD in America!

Here's the news American spy fans have been longing to hear for years! After way too long out of print (and commanding super-steep prices in the second-hand market), the greatest spy show ever, The Avengers, is returning to DVD in Region 1. Well, some of it anyway. On October 8, A&E will reissue their Complete Emma Peel Megaset. While the 16 discs themselves appear to be identical to the previous incarnation of this set, the packaging is substantially slimmer (a major plus on any shelf buckling under the weight of too many spy shows) and the retail price substantially more affordable. According to TV Shows On DVD, the new release containing all 51 Avengers episodes featuring Diana Rigg will cost just $49.98. (The out of print edition currently goes for as much as ten times that price!) So that's the good news, and it's very good news indeed. Now for the inevitable gripes.

I had hoped that when The Avengers was eventually re-released Stateside, American fans might be treated to the same stellar remastered picture and fantastic extras that graced Optimum's Region 2 UK releases (though ideally without all the glitches that plagued those sets). While this set does indeed co-opt Optimum's attractive cover scheme (albeit slightly altered), it doesn't appear to port over the wonderful bonus features. Since the article makes no mention of bonus content at all, I suppose it's possible that I could be wrong (and in this case I'd be delighted to be proven so!), but basic math indicates otherwise. The two Optimum Emma Peel sets added up to a total of 14 discs (and didn't include Rigg's swan song, "The Forget Me Knot," which appeared on the R2 Tara King set), and this A&E set promises 16 discs, the same as were in the previous R1 Emma Peel Megaset. So I'd say it's likely that this is simply a repackaging of that collection. Still, it's excellent news that any seasons of The Avengers will be back in print in the USA! Hopefully this release will sell well and pave the way for a Complete Cathy Gale Megaset (incorporating what survives of the earlier material as well) and a Complete Tara King Collection and eventually a Complete New Avengers Megaset... and maybe even some Blu-rays down the road. (A&E reissued the same DVD set of The Prisoner in new packaging when they put out the feature-laden Blu-rays of that show, but in that case Network had already paved the high-def path in Britain.) Fingers crossed, anyway!

Upcoming Spy DVDs: The Hardy Boys: Season 3... With Patrick Macnee

Avengers fans, take note! Six years after the first two seasons of The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries came out from Universal, TV Shows On DVD reports that Shout! Factory is releasing the third Hardy Boys season, sans Nancy this time, on DVD in February. Why is this of particular interest to spy fans? Well, the show does sometimes deal in espionage, and in this season the Hardy men have graduated college and are official government agents themselves and help a Soviet defector wishing to relocate to Hawaii in one two-parter... but that's not why I'm mentioning it. Not specifically, anyway. No, I'm mentioning it because Patrick Macnee turns up as a guest star in the episode "Assault on the Tower" playing a debonair, bowler hat-wearing British agent identified only as S. This was just a year after The New Avengers went off the air, so fans of John Steed will probably want to add the DVD to their library. (Well, completists, anyway, like myself.) The 3-disc set hits shelves on February 12, 2013, and retails for $24.97, though it can already be pre-ordered from Amazon for significantly less.

Comic Book Review: Steed and Mrs. Peel #0

Like a lot of spy fans, I’ve been waiting a loooong time for this. For the first time since 1998, we’ve got a new, officially authorized Avengers story! Not those title-stealing pretenders who did some work for S.H.I.E.L.D. this past summer; the real Avengers—the TV Avengers. That’s right, John Steed and Emma Peel. My favorite TV spies ever. But just because we’ve got a new Avengers story on our hands, in convenient comic book form, doesn’t guarantee it will be any good, of course. Not by a long shot. (See: 1998.) So it was with trembling hands that I opened this Boom! comic by Mark Waid and Steve Bryant. Would the creators do justice to the wonderful, inimitable characters immortalized by Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg? I’m elated to report that the answer is an unequivocal yes!

Steed and Mrs. Peel #0 is good. It’s very good, in fact. It’s better than the 90s comic of the same name written by Grant Morrison (recently reprinted by Boom!)—and that was a lot of fun itself. But Mark Waid gets the tone of the show and the specific crackle of the best Brian Clemens or Philip Levene banter between Steed and Emma. The cadence of the dialogue feels right in a way that few tie-in writers have ever really nailed before.

As far as I’m concerned, the banter is the number one thing to get right in telling a good Avengers tale, but the story matters, too, of course. This special zero issue is a self-contained one, and Waid manages to cram a proper Avengers episode (or mini-episode, at least) into these 22 pages. “The Dead Future” is a direct sequel to the famous (or infamous) TV episode “A Touch of Brimstone” (though, while it rewards a familiarity with the episode, none is required). The Hellfire Club is back in action, but has changed its focus from the past to the future—or at least a 1960s vision of what the future might look like. In the teaser that strikes the correct balance of stylish spy and impossible sci-fi, a doomed agent is aged beyond his years and “woken up” in the far-flung year 2000. Through trickery, a window displays flying cars and a Metropolis-like cityscape. The club members use this scenario to pick the agent’s mind and then eliminate him. It’s a premise right out of Sixties television, reminiscent to some extent not only of the Avengers episode “Escape in Time” (one of my favorites), but also numerous Mission: Impossible set-ups.

From the teaser, following the pattern of the color Emma Peel episodes, we cut to a brief “Mrs. Peel, we’re needed” sequence, and it was here that I knew I was completely on board with this take. The gimmick by which Steed contacts Emma (which I won’t divulge) is not one the show ever used—but very easily could have been. In a comic, though, this particular gag functions on a meta level that wouldn’t have come across on TV. (And it also manages to sneak in a subtle reference to “The Winged Avenger.”) From there, Steed leads Mrs. Peel to the site of an aged corpse in the clothes of one of their agents—and it’s not the first time they’ve seen this scenario.

The story that follows feels not only like a loving tribute to the TV episodes, but also to the Avengers TVcomics of the time. At one point, Steed battles a bearded “Father Time” wielding a scythe, which is exactly the sort of imagery that popped up in those two-tone comic strips in the Avengers annuals! But the writing here, as I already mentioned, is infinitely superior to most of those stories. 

The artwork is fantastic on a level of channeling Sixties pop art pop culture (in its best moments recalling the work of Mike Allred), but less successful in depicting the series’ stars. I’m guessing that Boom! were unable to clear likeness rights for the actors, because these Avengers look very little like Diana Rigg and (especially) Patrick Macnee. That’s a shame, because a sequence in which Steed is “aged” into his 80s would have been a great opportunity to depict Macnee as he looks today! (One panel comes close.) It also seems unfair that Marvel was able to get away with using Peter Wyngarde’s likeness in their X-Men comics that "borrowed" TheAvengers’ Hellfire Club (as a character named “Jason Wyngarde,” no less), but here in an official Avengers tie-in, a brief flashback of has “Brimstone” character, Cartney, bears little resemblance. Cartney is also at the center of my only real nerdy nitpick about this book, too, and that’s that no character played by Peter Wyngarde would ever “favor rather a D-class fragrance,” as described here! But Mark Waid was prepared for my gripe, and has Emma quickly explain, “Oh, no pinchpenny he. But, it must be stressed, the honourable John Cleverly Cartney did incline sharply toward the vulgar…” And perhaps that can be said of Wyngarde. Okay, Waid, you’re off the hook on that one.

I enjoyed the Hellfire out of Steed and Mrs. Peel #0 (sorry; I couldn't resist!), and heartily recommend it to all Avengers fans. It quenches a thirst long overdue of satisfying like a good champagne. (Another minor nitpick would be that there wasn’t quite enough of that signature beverage consumed in this issue, but again my churlish gripery was quickly abated… this time by the fact that bubbly appears to be Emma’s concession of choice in a movie theater! Nice touch.) I hope it sells well and spawns a long series that lives up to the high benchmark set here.

Follow the link here to read my reviews of some past Avengers comics.

NOTE: If the variant covers depicted here seem odd to Avengers fans, they won't to comic book fans. They're homages to classic X-Men covers from the era when that comic was homaging The Avengers, thus completing the circle of homage.

The Real Avengers Return in All-New Comics!

Those other Avengers (and they're good ones, too... just not the real ones!) might be getting all the media attention right now, but Boom! Studios is taking advantage of that attention to reintroduce comics readers to the original Avengers, John Steed and Emma Peel, heroes of the fantastic, classic Sixties spy series during its most popular incarnation. When Boom! began reprinting Grant Morrison's Steed and Mrs. Peel comic from the early 90s, I hoped aloud that those reprints might lead into a series of new Avengers comic books. (Well, not New Avengers comics... not yet, anyway; for now all I'm hoping for is new comics about the old Avengers! Then maybe Purdy and Gambit down the road.) Well, it looks like that's happening! And with some major talent on board. Boom! released this teaser image this morning, and a product listing at Midtown Comics (via Bleeding Cool) fills in the details.

As in the 90s, the title is again Steed and Mrs. Peel so as to avoid confusion with Marvel's product. (Even though the TV Avengers came first.) That information alone tells us something: Steed's partner will apparently be Emma Peel rather than Cathy Gale, Tara King, Venus Smith or someone else. (Of course it doesn't rule out the possibility of other partners appearing as well, as they did in the Morrison run.) And (here's the big news!) the listing confirms that this Steed and Mrs. Peel is an ongoing series, not just a mini! As the teaser graphic reveals, the writer is comics superstar Mark Waid, who previously gave Steed and Emma a one-panel guest appearance in his Kingdom Come epic for DC. (Or perhaps artist Alex Ross was responsible for that unauthorized cameo.) The Avengers TV show inspired more than one title in the Marvel universe. As I've blogged about before, the X-Men's nemesis the Hellfire Club and its White Queen, Emma Frost (as well as founder Jason Wyngarde) all come from a particularly memorable Avengers episode called "The Queen of Sin." (See visual comparisons here.) Teased in the graphic and confirmed in the listing, the original version of the Hellfire Club will feature prominently in Waid's first issue, a #0 special. It's unclear from the copy if this is a direct adaptation of the TV episode or a sequel, but I would bet the latter. What the copy does make clear is that the new series takes place "in the continuity of the original TV series," so presumably that means a Sixties setting. Steve Bryant (Athena Voltaire) will handle art chorse, while Joseph Michael Linser provides a variant cover. Additionally, Boom! will collect the 90s Grant Morrison series in a trade paperback this December.

Wow! An ongoing Avengers comic! I can't wait. What a great day today is for spy fans.

Follow this link to read my opinions of some previous Avengers comics.

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Avengers Bonus Disc!

Upcoming Spy DVDs: Avengers Bonus Disc!

When Optimum's The Complete Avengers: 50th Anniversary Edition Region 2 DVD collection came out in the UK last May, I lamented buying the company's individual series releases, because only the 39-disc complete set included an exclusive extra disc of bonus features. And among those features were my own personal Holy Grails of Avengers fandom, the weird 8mm short films Diana Rigg made following her color season, The Golden Schlussel and The Mini-Killers. For some reason (well, supposedly because she was paid as much as she eaned for all of On Her Majesty's Secret Service!), she agreed to star as a very Emma Peel-like character in what amounted to expensive German and Spanish-made fan films. (A friend alerted me that another such project, Das Diadem, was included as an Easter Egg with the Series 5 DVDs, though–frustratingly–I have yet to discover it.) Now, happily, it's been reported on The Avengers International Fan Forum that the bonus disc will be made available on its own next month! So fans who bought the individual seasons (myself included) won't miss out after all. (A&E did something similar years ago when they included an extra bonus disc in their Region 1 Complete Emma Peel Megaset.) Retail is £11.99, which seems a tad steep for a disc of ultimately rather skimpy bonus material (compared to that which is already available on the season sets, anyway)... but who am I kidding? I'd probably shell out as much for a bootleg of the Diana Rigg shorts on Ebay anyway! I'm just so glad they're making this disc available on its own that I won't complain at all. The Avengers: Special Features Disc, a Region 2 PAL release, is available to pre-order at Amazon.co.uk. Here's the whole list of the features found on the disc, which span all six seasons of the seminal spy series (including, happily, two more of those cool episode reconstructions of lost first season episodes!):

• The Golden Schlussel Rare short film starring Diana Rigg
• The Mini-Killers – 4 Part mini-series starring Diana Rigg
• Director Laurence Bourne interview
• "Wish You Were Here" – Top Ten Avengers locations featurette
• "Death At Bargain Prices" – Alternate end tag
• Episode reconstruction – "Hot Snow"
• Episode reconstruction – "Toy Trap"
• Newly discovered Series 5 archival trailer
• German cinema trailer

Upcoming Spy-Related DVDs: Patrick Macnee in Love Story: Volume One

This post isn't about the sweet love story that is older than the sea that Shirley Bassey sings about.  Not that Love Story.  Love Story was also the name of a TBC anthology series that aired in the UK from 1963 to 1974 and starred, in any given episode (er, "play"), the illustrious likes of Patrick Macnee, Gerald Harper (Adam Adamant Lives!) and Alexis Kanner (The Prisoner). Writers included The Avengers' Brian Clemens, as well as, oddly, Roman Polanski, and Peter Collinson (The Italian Job) was among the directors.  And in October, Network will release Love Story: Volume One on DVD in Britain.  The Region 2 PAL 2-disc set will include a selection of eight episodes from between '63 and '73, and will retail for £19.99, though it can currently be pre-ordered on Amazon.co.uk for just £14.99.  According to the IMDb, Macnee appeared in three episodes between 1963 and '64, though I don't believe any of them were written by Clemens.  There's no word yet on which ones will be included in this set, but (as the cover indicates) it definitely contains at least one featuring our man Steed!

I'm duty-bound to report on (and inevitably acquire and watch!) any DVD with Patrick Macnee, but this will not be the best non-Avengers Macnee vehicle available from Network.  That honor belongs to the extremely entertaining Mister Jerico, my review of which can be found here.

Repost: Mister Jerico Review

Continuing this week's blogiversary celebration, here's another repost. Reader and frequent commentor CK Dexter Haven once commented that this was his favorite of my reviews (and reading his own excellent Persuaders! blog, one can see why!), and I have to agree. It's one of my favorites as well, and another obscure title worth showcasing. Here's the first part of the review, and a link to the rest at the bottom:

DVD Review: Mister Jerico (1969) Starring Patrick Macnee

Last year, Network put out a DVD of Mister Jerico, a long-lost ITC TV movie starring Patrick Macnee made immediately after the conclusion of The Avengers, with much of the same crew behind the camera. I would have thought this release would have been greeted by Avengers fans with unrestrained jubilation, but it didn’t really make much of a splash, even in the fan community. Maybe that’s because nobody knew about it. If you are an Avengers fan–and especially if you’re a Patrick Macnee fan–Mister Jerico is well worth watching. It’s even worth picking up a $30 all-region DVD player at Best Buy for, as its unlikely to be released anytime soon on Region 1 DVD. I’ve been intrigued by this elusive title ever since seeing a single still from it in Macnee’s book The Avengers and Me, and I’m very glad to finally be able to have seen it!

Macnee stars as Dudley Jerico (presumably the writers felt that "Jerico" was too unbelievably cool a last name, so their hero should be saddled with a first name mundane enough to tether him securely to earth), a con man with an incongruous reputation for scruples. We meet Mr. Jerico (yes, that's how it's spelled) mid-con, as he relieves a wealthy American tourist of $10,000. Just as Jerico and his partner make their getaway from the man’s yacht by speedboat, their ruse is detected and the yacht’s crew give pursuit in their own launch, guns blazing. Jerico gives them the slip, Macnee peels off his unflattering fake mustache, and an impossibly awesome theme song kicks in sung by Lulu, with music by George Martin and lyrics by Don Black. According to Lulu’s website, this amazing track from a trio of Bond musicians has never before been issued in its entirety prior to this DVD release, which allows the whole thing to play out at the end of the movie rather than cutting it off when the credits end. I can’t believe it’s never made it onto some sort of Lulu compilation! (If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know, as I’d love to have it on my iPod.)

Macnee relishes his victory as Lulu croons, "A little bit won’t satis-fy him/that’s why he takes from everyone/as they pass by him! Yes, they’re pleased that they know... Mister Jerico!" and the boat skirts a beautiful Mediterranean coastline. What’s not to like? Well... Confession time: I’ve omitted one little detail. There’s Marty Allen.

With that revelation, I’ve probably lost any spy fan who’s ever battled their way through The Last of the Secret Agents or any of Allen’s other vehicles with his comedy partner Steve Rossi. In fact, it was in part Allen’s dependably irritating presence here that kept me from watching Mister Jerico for so long, even after I had the DVD. Fortunately, his part turns out to be relatively small, and though I did cringe the first several times he attempted to generate laughs by creepily ogling various beautiful women, even Marty Allen managed to grow on me by the film’s conclusion. Perhaps that’s because I was so swept up in the general charm of the whole affair, but I'll give him enough credit for it that I might give Last of the Secret Agents another shot...

The movie begins in earnest when Macnee and Allen put down their stakes in Malta (the real Malta, mind you, not an Elstree backlot!) and catch the attention of Victor Rosso, a shady millionaire with a reputation for his lack of scruples, played by the always top-notch Herbert Lom, and his secretary, Susan (an impressive Connie Stevens, sporting a blond Jean Seberg haircut). Rosso invites Jerico to his mansion for reasons that are never adequately explained, but that don’t really need to be in this kind of glossy con man caper. Neither man trusts the other, but both are ever so cordial. (We’d expect nothing less from John Steed, would we?) Rosso seems to expect Jerico to attempt to con him, and Jerico, in turn, seems to see it as his obligation. So begins a thoroughly enjoyable, gentlemanly game of one-upmanship involving a priceless diamond, its long lost twin, and more than one paste copy thereof. Complicating matters (and forcing Macnee to steal the same gem again and again) is the presence of a third party, the beautiful and mysterious con woman known only as Georgina.

Macnee charms Lom, romances both Georgina and Susan, cracks safes, dangles from hotel balconies, and models a wide array of the most hideous outfits from fashion’s darkest decade, the Seventies. Actually, this was 1969, but apparently ITC was already fashion-forward, eschewing the waning decade’s mod esprit and Carnaby flair for actual flares and velour T-shirts. Yes, Macnee’s casual attire actually includes a golden velour T, worn with shockingly orange trousers. I’m not convinced that anyone outside of an ITC program ever actually wore orange trousers, even in the Seventies, but ITC was big on them. Mister Jerico previews all the hideously camp stylings we’d see in their next generation of programming, from The Persuaders to Jason King to The Adventurer (in declining order of sartorial taste). Macnee wears one particularly perplexing purple-print silk shirt that proves remarkably versatile. It can be worn alone for a pajama-like casual look (good for sneaking about and blending into well-stocked women’s wardrobes) or dressed up with a sash, pendant and a wide-collared jacket that appears to be made out of hemp. I wish that I could provide you with evidence of all these fashion crimes, but for some reason the DVD won’t play on my computer, thus preventing screencaps. C’est la vie.

As should be evident, the appalling outfits actually added immensely to my overall enjoyment of Mister Jerico, as they do with those other, later shows. Macnee proves that his undeniable charisma was not due to Steed’s generally tasteful wardrobe, because he still manages to ooze charm even in these outfits. Furthermore, the beauty of the scenery, the women and the cars more than makes up for all the aggressive orange and purple in the costumes....

Read the entire review here.

New Spy DVDs Out This Week

The biggest spy release this week comes from across the pond–and concerns my favorite of all spy shows.  Optimum's latest digitally remastered (and they mean that legitimately, not just in a low-budget, "hey, it's on DVD, isn't it?" kind of way) special edition Avengers set, The Avengers: The Complete Series Five, hits UK shelves as a 7-disc PAL Region 2 DVD set.  Don't be deceived by the cheap-looking cover art. These releases are amazing! Not only the remastering (which is top-notch; see some screen comparisons at The Avengers Declassified), but also the plethora of amazing special features.  This set comprises the color Diana Rigg season, which is probably the best gateway era for new fans.  Overall I'd say the earlier black and white Riggs are my very favorite period, but the psychedelic late-Sixties colors really make Series 5 pop.

Among the many, many extras included here are multiple audio commentaries, episode introductions, cut scenes, archival television presentations, and more. Brian Clemens contributes a commentary track for "Murdersville," as does scriptwriter Richard Harris on "The Winged Avenger." Diana Rigg sadly doesn't do a commentary, but her stunt double, Cyd Child, does, on "Return of The Cybernauts." And possibly best of all, we get a commentary from scene-stealing guest star Peter Wyngarde on his greatest, most scenery-chewsing Avengers role in the classic episode, "Epic," one of my personal favorites! But that's not all... Clemens provides filmed episode introductions to "The Bird Who Knew Too Much," "The Living Dead," "Epic," "The Correct Way To Kill," "The Superlative Seven," (love those two!), "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Station," "The Joker" (oh, another favorite!) and "Murdersville." There's also a German TV interview with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, ATV newsreel footage of Rigg receiving a TV Award, "film trims" (short cut bits) from "The Fear Merchants," "Escape in Time," "From Venus With Love" and "The See-Through Man," a "They're Back!" archive trailer, original Sixties German titles, "Granada Plus Points" for each episode (previously released as "Follow the Hat" on the old UK Contender DVDs), stills galleries, copious PDF material (scripts, TV Times, etc.), an insert reprint of the original Series 5 promotional brochure, more painstaking "episode reconstructions" for lost Series 1 episodes ("One For The Mortuary," "Death on The Slipway," "Tunnel of Fear" and "Dragonsfield") and the 1993 documentary presented by Patrick Macnee, "The Avengers – A Retrospective." Whew!  The Avengers: The Complete Series 5 retails for £59.99 but is available from Amazon.co.uk for £42.99 right now.

Stateside, Music Box Films (who have released the two excellent recent OSS 117 films on DVD) bring us the Swedish thriller The Girl Who Played With Fire, second in the film series based on Stieg Larsson's "Milennium Trilogy" of novels, on both DVD and Blu-ray. The first movie, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (like the book it was based on), was a dark mystery thriller involving an unsolved decades-old disappearance and a serial killer. The second one follows the same main characters, investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist, who will appear in the next Mission: Impossible movie) and Lisbeth Salander (the excellent Noomi Rapace) as they're plunged–unexpectedly–into a Ludlum-esque conspiracy thriller involving the Swedish Intelligence Service and a Cold War-era Soviet defector.  I haven't seen this film yet, but like most of the world, I loved the book, so I'm looking forward to it.  The movies are of course being remade in English with Daniel Craig playing Blomkvist.  The third novel is a full-on spy thriller, so its American film will probably mark Craig's first foray into the genre outside of the 007 series since becoming the most famous spy of all.  I have no doubt that Craig will be great and look forward to David Fincher's take on the first book, but see these Swedish films first. 

Finally, VCI Entertainment brings us an obscure early Cold War thriller, Four in a Jeep.  This is another one I haven't seen, but it sounds pretty cool.  Set in post-war Vienna, when the city was occupied by the Americans, the British, the French and the Russians, Four in a Jeep follows a police patrol comprised of one sergeant from each nationality as they undertake a mission to capture a prisoner recently escaped from a Soviet POW camp.  Cold War tensions quickly heat up as the policemen disagree about how to handle the situation.  Ralf Meeker stars.

Latest Avengers Special Features Announced

The Avengers Declassified has revealed the special features on the latest volume of remastered Avengers Special Edition DVDs in the UK from Optimum Entertainment, and once again it's a mouthwatering assembly of goodies. Besides a beautiful remastered picture looking better than ever (if previous installments are anything to go by), The Avengers: The Complete Series 5, a 7-disc set comprising the color Emma Peel episodes, will include multiple audio commentaries, episode introductions, cut scenes, archival television presentations and more.  Brian Clemens contributes a commentary track for "Murdersville," as does scriptwriter Richard Harris on "The Winged Avenger." Diana Rigg sadly doesn't do a commentary, but her stunt double, Cyd Child, does, on "Return of The Cybernauts." And possibly best of all, we get a commentary from scene-stealing guest star Peter Wyngarde on his greatest, most scenery-chewsing Avengers role in the classic episode, "Epic," one of my personal favorites! But that's not all... 

Clemens provides filmed episode introductions to "The Bird Who Knew Too Much," "The Living Dead," "Epic," "The Correct Way To Kill," "The Superlative Seven," (love those two!), "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Station," "The Joker" (oh, another favorite!) and "Murdersville." There's also a German TV interview with Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, ATV newsreel footage of Rigg receiving a TV Award, "film trims" (short cut bits) from "The Fear Merchants," "Escape in Time," "From Venus With Love" and "The See-Through Man," a "They're Back!" archive trailer, original Sixties German titles, "Granada Plus Points" for each episode (previously released as "Follow the Hat" on the old UK Contender DVDs), stills galleries, copious PDF material (scripts, TV Times, etc.), an insert reprint of the original Series 5 promotional brochure, more painstaking "episode reconstructions" for lost Series 1 episodes ("One For The Mortuary," "Death on The Slipway," "Tunnel of Fear" and "Dragonsfield") and the 1993 documentary presented by Patrick Macnee, "The Avengers – A Retrospective." Whew! Just typing all those episode titles gets me really excited to watch them again.  The Avengers is my very favorite spy show (and Rigg's tenure my favorite era on it), and it's been a long while since I've watched it.  I've been vacationing, exploring all the other British adventure shows of the era, for pretty much the duration of this blog, and I look forward to returning to my spy fan roots, so to speak, just as it's always refreshing to go back to Bond after long stints of Eurospy watching. I just wish these sets weren't so expensive to import.  Hopefully some enterprising American company will pick up the rights abandoned by A&E, port the features from Optimum and re-release the show Stateside on DVD and Blu-ray. 

The Avengers: The Complete Series 5, a PAL Region 2 DVD set, comes out September 27.  SRP is £59.99, but it's currently available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk for £42.99.

Rare Early Diana Rigg Performance Included On New UK Special Edition Avengers DVDs

The Avengers Declassified has all the details on extras on the newest set of remastered Special Edition Avengers DVDs due out in the UK from Optimum.  These sets are absolutely mouthwatering.  I really hope that some US company picks up the rights, and puts out these Optimum versions on Blu-ray here.  Anyway, the crown jewel among many fantastic-sounding extras on The Avengers DVD Set 3 (Season 4, the first Diana Rigg season) is an early Rigg performance on Armchair Theatre–supposedly the role that got her the Avengers gig.  Now that we've finally got her episode of The Sentimental Agent on Network's release of that series, the inclusion of "The Hothouse" from Armchair Theatre makes this a banner year for Rigg fans!  All we need now is the ITV Play of the Week "Women Beware Women" for a complete picture of Dame Diana's early, pre-Avengers television career!  However, that's only one of many, many special features (over six hours' worth!) on this set, including multiple audio commentaries (contributors include Brian Clemens and Roger Marshall), an interview with the original Mrs. Peel, Elizabeth Shepherd, alternate tag scenes, alternate credits sequences, various test footage, promotional pieces, trailers, newsreel footage, script PDFs and more of the Series 1 episode reconstructions that have been sprinkled throughout Optimum's output, giving fans an idea of what we're missing in the infamous wiped episodes.  That's just an overview, though!  For the full details, hit The Avengers Declassified.  The site also has some amazing screen captures clearly comparing these new Optimum digital restorations with the murkier transfers on the old DVDs.  You'll find the difference plainly visible!  The 8-disc PAL Region 2 set containing all the black and white Emma Peel episodes comes out on July 5 in England.  It retails for £59.99, but can currently be pre-ordered on Amazon.co.uk for £42.99.

Upcoming Spy Books: The Avengers: A Celebration

The Avengers Declassified reports that Titan Books will release a 160-page hardcover book this fall to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the greatest of all spy shows: The Avengers: A Celebration - 50 Years of TV's Most Stylish Show by Marcus Hearn. According to Titan's product description, "Hearn has been granted unparalleled access to the show’s production archives and has collected together a fabulous array of material to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Avengers. Lavishly illustrated, with many unpublished stills, behind-the-scenes photos, and snaps from the ABC & LWT private archive, this is a spectacular portrait of the world's best-loved cult action-adventure series, and its classic sequel, The New Avengers."  I'm not quite sure The New Avengers is deserving of the epithet "classic," but other than that, this sounds great!  Hearn is a good author who knows his subjects, and anyone familiar with previous Titan hardcovers like The Hammer Story, Hammer Glamour (both written or co-written by Hearn) or Starring Sherlock Holmes knows what to expect from this book.  All of these large-format hardcovers are glossy and, indeed, lavishly illustrated.  They're usually a bit on the style over substance side, but as the subtitle says, The Avengers was a stylish show, so that's kind of appropriate!  Plus, we haven't really had an Avengers book of that sort, and I have no doubt that Hearn will unearth all sorts of great pictures, as he did for Hammer Glamour. I'm looking forward to this, for sure!

Upcoming Spy DVDs: The Avengers: The Complete First Season

Yes, you read that right: the complete first season.  But I'll get to that in a moment.  Many U.S. spy fans have probably noticed by now that all of the A&E Avengers sets have now gone out of print.  (And are, in come cases, quite pricey on the second-hand market.)  That's because A&E has lost the license to the series.  We've been patiently waiting for someone else to pick it up and hopefully port over all of the amazing special features that Optimum Entertainment has been creating for their recent UK re-releases (including copious commentaries, interviews and assorted other goodies), and now such a contender has emerged: Shout! Factory, who put out high quality releases of many cult TV shows and have stepped in to pick up licences on more than one occasion when one of the big studios gives up after a season or two.  And unlike A&E, who started with the color Emma Peel seasons, the plan is for Shout! Factory to begin at the beginning, with the very first season, in which Patrick Macnee's secret agent John Steed was paired not with a leather-clad lady, but with male police doctor David Keel (Ian Hendry).  I think two and a half of these gritty, black-and-white, shot-on-video episodes have previously surfaced on DVD, but the rest were all believed lost forever thanks to that atrocious British television practice known as "wiping," in which classic television shows were taped over with no thought whatsoever given to posterity. (It was viewed as a disposable medium.)  Anyway, it seems that Shout! Factory have located the entire run of Season 1 episodes in an unlikely place: America.  And strangely in the vaults of a company called ITC. 

I'm not talking about the British TV production company ITC, though, who produced such classic spy adventure series in the Sixties as Danger Man, The Saint and The Prisoner.  (Although there is a surprising connection, as I'll get to in a moment.)  That ITC was a rival of ABC (Associated British Corporation), the UK production company behind The Avengers.  The ITC in question was an American company, the Independent Television Company.  This ITC was the result of a merger between TPA (Television Programs of America), the US company responsible for the spy series Special Agent 7 along with several co-productions with the British ITC (confused yet?) in the late Fifties, including The New Adventures of Charlie Chan and the Peter Graves Western Fury (which is being released on DVD this month by Network in the UK, as previously reported) and oilman-turned-TV producer Jack Wrather (Lassie).  Even though it's long been believed that ABC didn't attempt to crack the American market with The Avengers until the filmed Emma Peel seasons (the second of which was shot in color specifically for this market), this turns out not to be the case.  Wrather made a deal as early as 1961 to import the series in its very first season; the plan was to syndicate it the way Wrather had done so successfully in the past.  (Clearly, he was a man of good taste!)  Unfortunately, shortly after making that deal, he sold his entire stake in the American ITC to... you guessed it... the unrelated British ITC!  At that point, ITC honcho Lew Grade made an uncharacteristic decision putting personal grudges ahead of sound business practices, and put the kibosh on the American Avengers distribution deal because of a rivalry he had at the time with ABC exec Howard Thomas.  And so The Avengers would never reach American shores until half a decade later, with the color Emma Peel episodes.  Fortunately for us, what did reach American shores were videotapes of the entire season, which remained in Wrather's Texas headquarters and stayed in his family after that.  Shout! Factory tracked them down entirely serendipitously while preparing to begin their Avengers releases with Season 2, and altered their plans accordingly.  It is expected that Optimum will follow suit in the UK.  For the complete story, including information on special features, be sure to head on over to TV Shows On DVD.  It all sounds great, doesn't it?  If only it were true.  Sadly, this was all written on April 1, and it is not true.  Well, it's true that A&E's license has expired, but the rest is all wishful thinking.  Still, it would be nice if Shout! Factory took over the license, wouldn't it?  And it would be really nice if somehow the first season of The Avengers and all that other great British television that got wiped were discovered somewhere...

Avengers-Inspired Fashion: Catsuits On The Catwalks Of Paris

Fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier has been watching a lot of Avengers lately, it seems.  His new collection for French fashion house Hermès is entirely inspired by the cult Sixties spy series.  According to The New York Times, Laurie Johnson's Avengers theme music accompanied his runway show as fifty-four looks inspired by John Steed's (Patrick Macnee) trademark umbrella and bowler and Emma Peel's (Diana Rigg) catsuits and mod gear strutted down the catwalk.  This certainly isn't the first time The Avengers has inspired fashion; the iconic series and its stars spawned their own apparel lines in their day, and have continued to influence designers every since.  A flurry of new looks inspired by the show's wardrobe accompanied the ill-fated 1998 film version of The Avengers as well.  Gaultier's unique twist on the concept is in combining Steed and Mrs. Peel's signature outfits. Besides the traditional "Emmapeeler" leather catsuit that led off the show (molded onto a model looking more like Uma Thurman than Rigg), other female models sported Steed-like suits–many in leather.  All were accompanied by bowlers.  Other leatherware owed more to Honor Blackman's Cathy Gale wardrobe, and even some of Emma's more mod looks have been leatherized.  It just goes to prove that The Avengers never goes out of style!  Vogue adds that the show tipped its bowler to another spy as well; after "The Avengers Theme" wrapped up, the music segued into "The James Bond Theme" and then Duran Duran's "A View To A Kill." The Times has a (mixed) review of the collection here, and you can see the whole thing for yourself in a slideshow at New York Magazine. or watch an edited video on YouTube or below:

Spy Stars Do Horror

Hot on the heels of Code Red's release of Avengers and New Avengers star Patrick Macnee's 80s horror movie Sweet Sixteen comes another one of Macnee's forays into the macabre, Dead of Night. In this 1977 TV movie follow-up to Trilogy of Terror, Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis directs three eerie yarns adapted by Richard Matheson. The middle one, "There's No Such Thing As A Vampire," stars Macnee in a Victorian tale of household vampirism. DVD Sleuth has all the details on the upcoming Dark Sky release, due out on January. Another Seventies TV spy, Ian Ogilvy (the second TV Saint), also made plenty of top-notch horror movies, and the same site reports that one of those, Michael Reeves' The She-Beast (also starring the great Barbara Steele), will come to DVD early next year, also from Dark Sky.

Random Intelligence Dispatches For September 22, 2008

New Saint DVD Release

Our man down under, David Foster (of Permission To Kill) wrote in about another cool new DVD so far exclusive to Australia. The Saint - A Fan's Guide appears to be an unauthorized companion to the TV series. According to the copy on EzyDVD, "The DVD shows how the series began as a straightforward mystery series, but over the years adopted more secret agent and fantasy-style plots... The film focuses on [Roger] Moore's portrayal of [Simon] Templar as it was considered a training ground for his later work as James Bond." It's hard to tell much from the information given, but I'm certainly curious about this one. I wonder who they interview? I wonder if it treads the same ground as Network's documentaries available on the UK Saint sets, or entirely new territory?

Limited Edition Ian Fleming Golf Balls

Chris Wright of FelixLeiter.com sent in a heads-up about a cool Ian Fleming Centenary collectible that I hadn't previously heard of: limited edition Penfold Hearts golf balls, like those used by James Bond in Goldfinger. Penfold Hearts balls (not to be confused with Penfold the hamster)haven't been produced for decades, and this special release is limited to just 500 dozen sets, so golfing Bond fans would be wise to pick them up while they can! Each set comes with a card of authenticity and a commemorative slipcase. Order directly from Penfold for £50. No word on whether Slazenger will produce a villain's edition...

80s Patrick Macnee Movie Coming To DVD

Patrick Macnee hasn't made a whole lot of movies, but with The Avengers in all its incarnations well behind him, the Eighties were definitely his most prolific decade for films. Although spy fans will be most familiar with his turn as the doomed Godfrey Tibbett in A View To A Kill, the majority of that output was horror movies like Waxwork and, most famously, The Howling. While those two are on DVD (MGM's Howling DVD contains some hilarious Macnee outtakes), most of his Eighties film work remains fairly hard to see. Now, DVD Drive-In reports that one of Macnee's best regarded films, Sweet Sixteen (1983), will get a DVD release next month. Macnee plays the father of a promiscuous teenage girl, all of whose male conquests suddenly turn up dead immediately after sleeping with her. Is she to blame? The Code Red director's cut DVD comes out October 14 with ample special features.

DVD Review: Mister Jerico (1969) Starring Patrick Macnee

DVD Review: Mister Jerico (1969) Starring Patrick Macnee

Last year, Network put out a DVD of Mister Jerico, a long-lost ITC TV movie starring Patrick Macnee made immediately after the conclusion of The Avengers, with much of the same crew behind the camera. I would have thought this release would have been greeted by Avengers fans with unrestrained jubilation, but it didn’t really make much of a splash, even in the fan community. Maybe that’s because nobody knew about it. If you are an Avengers fan–and especially if you’re a Patrick Macnee fan–Mister Jerico is well worth watching. It’s even worth picking up a $30 all-region DVD player at Best Buy for, as its unlikely to be released anytime soon on Region 1 DVD. I’ve been intrigued by this elusive title ever since seeing a single still from it in Macnee’s book The Avengers and Me, and I’m very glad to finally be able to have seen it!

Macnee stars as Dudley Jerico (presumably the writers felt that "Jerico" was too unbelievably cool a last name, so their hero should be saddled with a first name mundane enough to tether him securely to earth), a con man with an incongruous reputation for scruples. We meet Mr. Jerico (yes, that's how it's spelled) mid-con, as he relieves a wealthy American tourist of $10,000. Just as Jerico and his partner make their getaway from the man’s yacht by speedboat, their ruse is detected and the yacht’s crew give pursuit in their own launch, guns blazing. Jerico gives them the slip, Macnee peels off his unflattering fake mustache, and an impossibly awesome theme song kicks in sung by Lulu, with music by George Martin and lyrics by Don Black. According to Lulu’s website, this amazing track from a trio of Bond musicians has never before been issued in its entirety prior to this DVD release, which allows the whole thing to play out at the end of the movie rather than cutting it off when the credits end. I can’t believe it’s never made it onto some sort of Lulu compilation! (If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know, as I’d love to have it on my iPod.)

Macnee relishes his victory as Lulu croons, "A little bit won’t satis-fy him/that’s why he takes from everyone/as they pass by him! Yes, they’re pleased that they know... Mister Jerico!" and the boat skirts a beautiful Mediterranean coastline. What’s not to like? Well... Confession time: I’ve omitted one little detail. There’s Marty Allen.

With that revelation, I’ve probably lost any spy fan who’s ever battled their way through The Last of the Secret Agents or any of Allen’s other vehicles with his comedy partner Steve Rossi. In fact, it was in part Allen’s dependably irritating presence here that kept me from watching Mister Jerico for so long, even after I had the DVD. Fortunately, his part turns out to be relatively small, and though I did cringe the first several times he attempted to generate laughs by creepily ogling various beautiful women, even Marty Allen managed to grow on me by the film’s conclusion. Perhaps that’s because I was so swept up in the general charm of the whole affair, but I'll give him enough credit for it that I might give Last of the Secret Agents another shot...

The movie begins in earnest when Macnee and Allen put down their stakes in Malta (the real Malta, mind you, not an Elstree backlot!) and catch the attention of Victor Rosso, a shady millionaire with a reputation for his lack of scruples, played by the always top-notch Herbert Lom, and his secretary, Susan (an impressive Connie Stevens, sporting a blond Jean Seberg haircut). Rosso invites Jerico to his mansion for reasons that are never adequately explained, but that don’t really need to be in this kind of glossy con man caper. Neither man trusts the other, but both are ever so cordial. (We’d expect nothing less from John Steed, would we?) Rosso seems to expect Jerico to attempt to con him, and Jerico, in turn, seems to see it as his obligation. So begins a thoroughly enjoyable, gentlemanly game of one-upmanship involving a priceless diamond, its long lost twin, and more than one paste copy thereof. Complicating matters (and forcing Macnee to steal the same gem again and again) is the presence of a third party, the beautiful and mysterious con woman known only as Georgina.

Macnee charms Lom, romances both Georgina and Susan, cracks safes, dangles from hotel balconies, and models a wide array of the most hideous outfits from fashion’s darkest decade, the Seventies. Actually, this was 1969, but apparently ITC was already fashion-forward, eschewing the waning decade’s mod esprit and Carnaby flair for actual flares and velour T-shirts. Yes, Macnee’s casual attire actually includes a golden velour T, worn with shockingly orange trousers. I’m not convinced that anyone outside of an ITC program ever actually wore orange trousers, even in the Seventies, but ITC was big on them. Mister Jerico previews all the hideously camp stylings we’d see in their next generation of programming, from The Persuaders to Jason King to The Adventurer (in declining order of sartorial taste). Macnee wears one particularly perplexing purple-print silk shirt that proves remarkably versatile. It can be worn alone for a pajama-like casual look (good for sneaking about and blending into well-stocked women’s wardrobes) or dressed up with a sash, pendant and a wide-collared jacket that appears to be made out of hemp. I wish that I could provide you with evidence of all these fashion crimes, but for some reason the DVD won’t play on my computer, thus preventing screencaps. C’est la vie.

As should be evident, the appalling outfits actually added immensely to my overall enjoyment of Mister Jerico, as they do with those other, later shows. Macnee proves that his undeniable charisma was not due to Steed’s generally tasteful wardrobe, because he still manages to ooze charm even in these outfits. Furthermore, the beauty of the scenery, the women and the cars more than makes up for all the aggressive orange and purple in the costumes. I’m a sucker for a good heist or con man movie, especially if it has a Mediterranean setting, and Mister Jerico fits into that frothy genre well. It should definitely appeal as much to fans of To Catch a Thief or Dirty Rotten Scoundrels as to fans of ITC adventure shows or of The Avengers. Its tone is very much in keeping with the final color seasons of The Avengers, as well it should given its pedigree. Mister Jerico was written by Philip Levene, directed by Sidney Hayers and produced by Julian Wintle, with typically fantastic music by Avengers composer Laurie Johnson and art direction by the ever-reliable Harry Pottle.

Mister Jerico would have made a good series, so it’s a pity it wasn’t picked up. Perhaps that’s because it would have been difficult to make a con man a hero. Even though we’re told he has scruples, they’re not very much in evidence. True, Rosso is supposedly a bad guy, but it is his money Jerico’s after! As for the mark at the beginning, I think it was just his American-ness (evidently synonymous in Europe with obnoxiousness) that made him an acceptable target!

I’m only assuming that it was intended as a pilot, as it certainly feels that way. Macnee makes no mention of that, however, in his book, The Avengers and Me (recently reissued by Titan as The Avengers: The Inside Story) in which he just refers to it as a TV movie. (He does, however, reveal that he was cast only when preferred star Robert Wagner proved unavailable, and that his casting didn’t impress co-producer Michael Eisner, who told him, "You’re too fat. You’re too old. I don’t like you in the part but, God, as you’re in it we’d better go ahead!") Likewise, I can find no mention of it in Robert Sellers’ history of ITC, Cult TV.

Whatever its origins, though, I’m very grateful to Network DVD for making this obscure film available. They even provide some wonderful extras from the vaults: two Macnee chat show appearances, and one with Herbert Lom. These appearances have nothing to do with Mister Jerico, but they are nonetheless interesting viewing for fans of the actors. The later Macnee one was done to promote the ‘97 movie version of The Avengers, which he speaks very highly of, something I’m sure he regrets today!

UPDATE: For American Macnee fans without all-region DVD players, you can now stream Mister Jerico on Amazon!