Cult TV Blog

I honestly can only assume that I have missed this series because I didn't think I would like it. I have certainly seen the boxed set around, but because I somehow hadn't heard of it as a vintage TV series, I suppose I assumed it was a modern series and hence overlooked it. So let me be honest and admit that I am writing about this show with a HUGE bias. In fact I'm not so much biased as prejudiced. In its favour, that is, for the simple reason that it is not only set in my home city of Birmingham, but it is also filmed in the Birmingham of the 1970s and is wonderfully atmospheric of a certain time in the life of the Second City. To be frank, I think it quite likely that this series won't have done the city's reputation any favours, simply because it portrays it as as gang- and violence-ridden cesspit. It certainly wasn't that in the 1970s, and certainly isn't now, despite having a ridiculously high crime rate. Yes, if you look up Birmingham and gangs ...

This is of course one of the Avengers stories published as cartoons in Diana magazine in the 1960s and dramatised in recent times by Big Finish. I have written about at least one of them here before and commented on how hugely impressed I was. I remain hugely impressed: in fact these adventures give me hope that what I choose to call the 'authentic' Avengers formula can still be recreated. In fact this is an exciting time across the board for Avengers fans, what with a recently-discovered series 1 episode being released next month, and I have even heard a rumour that Big Finish are going to dramatise the novelisation Too Many Targets, which features all the Avengers girls at once and which I like enormously. You will note that I say the 'authentic' Avengers formula. You will also note that I set myself up as the arbiter of what is authentic and what is not. A lot of the Avengers fan fiction littering the internet is - in my humble opinion - marred by the fantasy th...

I am writing this post in reaction to somebody else who blogs prolifically about TV series of the era I write about here. It may seem like I'm being difficult but I'm not going to say who she is. My own opinion is that if I'm not going to put my opinion as a comment on her blog, I'm not really disputing with her but only publishing my own views, even if it does seem curmudgeonly not to say who I'm talking about. She has, anyway, commented at length that she will block those whose views she disagrees with, and I'm speaking as someone who left a fairly mild comment (not about gender) some time ago on her blog and received a withering put-down in reply. This is someone who is apparently an academic and I wonder how her students perceive her, despite her once commenting on her tumblr that she's sorry if anyone is offended by her response to their comments, and to let her know. Hmmmm. I suppose therefore I am debating the position because I have found the pers...

The tag I have put on this post may seem to be a mistake, but if you thought that this was another of my occasional posts about films which are obviously not TV shows but which I think will be of interest to my audience, you would be mistaken. In fact I have been meaning to write about this film here for ages, because one character is credited with being an (or possibly the) inspiration for the John Steed character in The Avengers, so this show is, as it were, one of the things which come under my heading of What Came Before the Avengers. Perhaps I should say that in the US it was released as Clouds Over Europe. A mere two and a half minutes in we get to see the Major Hammond character for the first time - and frankly, it's Steed. The hat isn't right, but the suit, umbrella and silly ass presence are all Steed there in person. And Major Hammond not only looks like Steed, he acts like Steed. It would be such a Steed thing after getting knocked out on a job and arrested by ...

My last post about Doctor Who was perhaps an indication of how I have been thinking about Atlantis and other mythologies as treated in the cult TV world. Of course Doctor Who has been able to make remarkably free with any mythology of earth or created for another planet, but here w have a show also drawing on the mythology of Atlantis, just about the supposed last man from Atlantis. In fact Atlantis as far as I can see doesn't really occur in it at all, except as a pretext for a man being remarkably aquatically able. I had somehow managed to get to this great age without actually seeing an episode of The Man From Atlantis, a lack which has been remedied by the purchase of a boxed set from amazon.de. The title translates as Der Mann aus dem Meer in German, btw, and if you have region 2 equipment and are in Europe, the German edition is much the cheapest way to buy this series. The boxed set - with alternative language tracks in German and English - comes in at under £17 when paid...

I actually wasn't going to post about this Doctor Who adventure at all. I got out the Myths and Legends box set because I had only watched one out of the three adventures and felt like some Who. It's a funny thing about this set - it reminds me of how Dr Who started off life as an improving educational show in the more worthy BBC mould than the more entertaining ITV mould of much of the TV I write about here. All three of the adventures in the bexed set draw on ancient mythologies - The Horns of Nimon draws on the mythology of Theseus and the Minotaur, Underworld references Jason and the Golden Fleece, and Time Monster is all about Atlantis. I knew that there was a great fad for all things Atlantean around this time, but didn't know until I looked it up for the purposes of this post how ancient the myth of Atlantis is. It is found in Plato's works Timaeus and Critias, where it is the antithesis of Athens, Platos' perfect state, and ultimately sinks into the sea ...

Do I even need to say I'm frantically excited? All my doom-laden prophecies that it would never happen paid off last year when the universe contradicted my predictions and another series 1 episode of The Avengers was discovered. I'm very gratified that it's Tunnel of Fear,which I have always thought looked interesting. I'm even more gratified that it's available for pre-order on Amazon UK and simply cannot wait to watch it! Also in Avengersy news, Steed's Jaguar from the New Avengers is undergoing restoration and you can read about it  here.