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Showing posts from August, 2018

Virgin of the Secret Service: First Impressions

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Source:  here After hesitating for a number of years, a hesitation which was caused by definitely mixed reviews on the internet, I have finally taken the plunge and bought the box set of this series on spec , having never seen a single episode of it. Not a favourite of the cult TV world, is I suppose the verdict on the internet. This verdict seems to be based on the idea for this show cannot decide what it really wants to be. It is either an actual spy series set in the Edwardian era, or it is a light piece of fluffy parody, off the sort which the 1960s did so well. The show has been compared to Adam Adamant, just with the proviso that in this there is the hero has never gone to sleep. It has also been described as an Edwardian Avengers, surely a huge compliment if it can be said to be true. I have been trying to get out of the habit of making general posts about a new series, and instead concentrating on posts about single episodes, but I am watching this series for the first ti

Another Avengers Being Released - Too Many Targets

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Whenever I think the Avengers well has run dry another story comes out. My only sorrow is that this is another'non-canonical' one, but am still delighted that Big Finish have made an audio adventure of the novel called Too Many Targets. Two agents are dead, and their murderers sound worryingly familiar. A killer gorilla is on the loose, a deadly disease is ravaging a distant country and an eminent doctor has been kidnapped. It's all pretty much business as usual. But when John Steed is called in by his old boss and given an appalling task to complete, at the same time as Tara is given one that's even worse, it becomes clear that the myriad threads of a terrifying scheme are drawing together. The fate of the world hangs in the balance. Steed won't be able to handle this case alone. The Avengers are needed. All of them.  Source, where you can buy the adventure. It is based on a 1990s novel (which you can buy here ), which I have read and remember liking

The Avengers: November Five (?the Fifth)

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My last couple of posts featuring Avengers episodes with Mrs Gale well I'm the blogosphere so here's another one. I realised that I have rather avoided writing about this episodes, and there are two reasons. The first is that the title is all wrong. What is clearly written November Five, but we don't say that, we say November the 5th, which is of course a monumental day in British history and particularly in the history of Parliament. Remember remember the 5th of November, Gunpowder fire and plot. I don't know whether this date would be pronounced November 5 in American English, but I don't think this season was exported to the States, so even if it was that wouldn't be a reason for the transatlantic usage. The other reason I have rather avoided it has been amplified by my reading round the episodes on the internet before starting to write. It is that I personally find politics intensely dreary. I'm not the worst off as far as that goes with this epi

The Avengers: Man With Two Shadows

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I can no longer put off writing about this episode, because a recent post in which I commented on Mrs gales underwear was very popular indeed, and I can only say that I must have managed to miss the shot seen in which Mrs Gale is in her underwear in this episode! This will however be an equal opportunities underwear episode. Actually in all seriousness in wanting to write about this episode but have been putting it off because I didn't want to sound uncritical, so I've had a good heart think and will post what I suppose is the obvious criticism of this episode. You see the trouble is that I actually think it is superb! Regular readers will know that I am not usually slow to criticise these shows, but this Avengers episodes somehow manages to be visually superb, genuinely mystifying, have great actors, and only suffer from the slight shortcoming that the plot is about as implausible as you could wish to get! Come to think of it perhaps that isn't really a short coming i