Cult TV Blog

Adam Adamant is one of my dream series, largely because so much of it was wiped - I particularly would like to see the missing episode where a whole train vanishes, but I doubt that this quintessentially English series was exported, so would be unlikely to turn up in Nigeria, or wherever. My few posts about the show here are among the most popular, which I suspect reflects a lack of coverage on the internet. For that reason alone I have been interested to read Grant's recent posts about this series (including  this episode ). The post highlights that another possible reason for the series's lack of popularity is the silly price the box set is currently going for, and unfortunately the Dutch-released set I bought much more cheaply also seems to have vanished from the market. I largely agree with what he says about the annoyance of the repeated dream sequence of Adamant being conked on the head, but I disagree with seemingly everyone - Adamant himself describes it as cacophonous...

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 firs...

We told you to take the tract. It can be a lonely business, this blogging lark. Fortunately the aficionados of the more recherché television programmes, seek each other out in the darker corners of the blogosphere and compare notes. Let's face it, when people at work talk about what TV they've watched last night, nobody's going to want to hear about, say, Gurney Slade, are they? One of the gentle readers who is kind enough to reference this blog on his own is Mitchell Hadley, who recently again has  referred  to me. I do hope he doesn't stop blogging, he has good stuff to say, and my only sorrow is that I don't know many of the programmes he talks about. Anyway, he was talking about a  post  on the Classic Film and TV café blog about Adam Adamant Lives, which made me realise it has been a little while since I have watched through the series and made me dust off the discs. I find to my horror that my  first post  on Adam Adamant, in which I witter on ab...

You will notice that this is not a post about The Corridor People. Having seen all four episodes several times now, it is very apparent to me that I'm going to have to reflect on them at length before presuming to post on them here. I'm also going to have to do some background reading : I want to re-read some Joe Orton to see whether the dialogue really is Ortonesque. This may be complicated by the fact that the majority of the stock of the brand spanking new Library of Birmingham remains inaccessible ('Shambles!', thundered the Birmingham Post the other week). Suffice to say I am not ready for a detailed post on each episode yet. Meanwhile I haven't watched Adam Adamant for a while, so I'm going to cast a baleful eye over this episode. I like the story a lot, but it could be so much better. On the plus side it is perhaps the most Avengers-esque episode, with a plot very similar to The Undertakers. In fact Brian Clemens reworked this episode as Bizarre, the...

I have an agenda for wanting to write about this episode of Adam Adamant Lives - I always seem to lose the plotline halfway through, so want to force myself to watch it more attentively & see what I think. My loss of the thread *may* be because of a plot fault - it doesn't score very highly on imdb. It is certainly, on the surface, a different kettle of fish from most Adam Adamants, taking place in a completely female reserve, which gives Adamant a fit, but would provide a role for Miss Jones in which she is more necessary than usual, instead of just interfering. It is also frankly chilling: the invitation to your own death can only be described as horrifying. Similarly sending a member of the League round to the house with condolences even before Adamant knows about the death yet is a good touch. Of course in the circumstances Adamant really should have grabbed & questioned the bringer of sympathy, but then I am not a gentleman like him, & his priorities are obvio...

'The BBC's answer to The Avengers,' that's the received wisdom on Adam Adamant Lives!, to the extent that even the BBC themselves say so: 'Adam Adamant Lives! tells the story of an Edwardian adventurer who wakes up in the swinging Sixties, having been frozen in a block of ice by his nemesis, "The Face". The show is about how the dashing adventurer (Gerald Harper) thwarts evil, overcomes temptation, and buys a Mini. 'It's very much "What Doctor Who did next", as the timelord's creator Sydney Newman and his first producer Verity Lambert joined forces again to come up with a BBC version of The Avengers. Adam is a Reithian version of Steed - all the suits and gentility, but with all rakishness removed. Adam is a very proper hero, who belongs to all the right clubs, and even has a butler. 'The clash between Adam's terribly strict morals and the permissive society of the Sixties was the main source of humour in the se...