40 replies to this topic

[Achtung74]

I just recently came across a site that details a number of Avengers/Saint-like shows that ITV produced in the 60s and 70s. Titles include: The Baron, The Adventurer, The Champions, and Man in A Suitcase (among others). I am currently making my through the Emma Peel box set and might pick up The Saint or Danger Man after that. However, these lesser known titles have piqued my interest. Does anyone have any opinions on any of these?

[Brian Flagg]

For wonderful insight into almost every ITC "programme", check out the recently published CULT TV: THE GOLDEN AGE OF ITC, by Robert Sellers:

http://www.theunmutu...ewsstoryitc.htm

I'll chime in later with my two cents about the ones I've seen..

Edited by Brian Flagg, 04 October 2007 - 08:30 PM.

[Achtung74]

Looks interesting... thanks for the tip.

[Brian Flagg]

I (among many others, I'm sure) strongly suggest you dig straight into THE SAINT. I rank THE PERSUADERS! as my favorite show of all time. I love the campy, witty banter, the "Mod" incidental music by Ken Thorne, not to mention the haunting John Barry main theme. Great French Riviera locations, as well as Great Britain, which looks awfully cold in those episodes! Plus, the "awful" fashions and hairstyles. You'll see many Bond faces in both shows, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Laurence Naismith, et al. All of these ITC shows have a familiar, familial aspect about them, owing to the fact that these actors rotated throughouyt these programs and all knew each other fairly well. Great stuff, and a world unto itself, in a strange, comforting way.

[Single-O-Seven]

I have the complete box-sets of Danger Man and The Prisoner. Both are fantastic shows, and if you want a god spy series you definitely cannot do without Danger Man. Patrick McGoohan starred in both, and were it not for his strong morals he may have made a decent Bond.

[scaramunga]

I also recommend The Persuaders! great show!

I also watched the Peel box set and then started in on The New Avengers series. I liked it quite a bit, even though a lot of Avengers fans are down on the series.

The Tara King years on The Avengers are great too. Same with the Cathy Gale ones.

The Saint is also really great too! I recommend those too!

I've tried a few Return of The Saint episodes, but I have a hard time getting into those for some reason.

[TheSaint]

I've just begun watching The Baron on dvd. I first discovered the show, on a Spanish language channel in NYC, around the time I discovered The Saint. I've caught a few episodes, in English, on video since. The literary version of The Baron is more of a Saint rip-off than the tv version.

Another book that covers this territory is James Chapman's Saints and Avengers.

[mccartney007]

I've been watching THE SAINT obsessively for the past few weeks. I prefer the black and white episodes as they seem more tightly paced, but I'm also a sucker for black and white anyway so that may be clouding my judgment somewhat too. Also, I love Roger Moore.


I haven't seen much of THE BARON, THE CHAMPIONS and the like. I'd be interested in what other forum members who watch these shows think of them.

[Pete]

I don't know if this has been posted before (sorry if it has), but if you go to www.itv.com and choose clasic itv, you can see the first series of The Saint online. I found that if you click on detach player it's good quality in Windws media player. A great first episode for Bond fans as it has a non gold Shirley Eaton.

Edited by Pete, 27 November 2007 - 08:52 AM.

[TheSaint]

I'm halfway throught The Baron. Very enjoyable. They re-use some of the music from the b/w Saint series.

[Achtung74]

Ahhhh man. I was fired up to see The Saint, but the ITV site is only free for those in the UK. I am currently wading through my Avengers and Danger Man box sets. Danger Man is a current favorite... the stories feel very much like early Bond movies/Fleming stories to me.

The Saint, where did you come upon episodes of The Baron?

[Blofeld's Cat]

I'm currently working my way through The Champions DVD box set with my 6yo son. He's loving it and for me it's bringing back a lot of fond and nostalgic memories. Great show.

The last disc has a few "special features" including a fairly recent reunion between the three main characters. Stuart Damon (Craig Sterling) really has blown out over the years, and Richard Gaunt has hardly changed much except for the main of snow white hair, but Alexandra Bastedo has truly aged very well. Meow!

[Roebuck]

I'm currently working my way through The Champions DVD box set with my 6yo son. He's loving it and for me it's bringing back a lot of fond and nostalgic memories. Great show.

Guillermo del Toro is supposed to interested in doing a movie version of The Champions. Lord knows if he'll ever get round to it, but I'd love to see what he'd do with the concept.

[Blofeld's Cat]

I'm currently working my way through The Champions DVD box set with my 6yo son. He's loving it and for me it's bringing back a lot of fond and nostalgic memories. Great show.

Guillermo del Toro is supposed to interested in doing a movie version of The Champions. Lord knows if he'll ever get round to it, but I'd love to see what he'd do with the concept.

Yes, I've heard about this. I kind of hope that doesn't happen as it could just end up as a sort of Fantastic 3 type of flick.

[TheSaint]

The Saint, where did you come upon episodes of The Baron?

I got the Network DVD release. Luckily I have a region free dvd player as the series is not available in the states.

[Turn]

I've never seen The Champions or The Baron. That's the beauty of DVD, being able to watch anything practically anytime.

I'm rather burned out on The Avengers for the time being.

[Bondian]

I'm waiting for 'Department S', 'Jason King' and 'Strange Report' to come out on DVD.

[TheSaint]

I'm waiting for 'Department S', 'Jason King' and 'Strange Report' to come out on DVD.

All 3 are available in the UK, Bondian. Having trouble finding them?

I just finished watching a 2-part Baron episode that has to do with rocket toppling. Man, they loved toppling rockets in the '60s.

[Bondian]

I'm waiting for 'Department S', 'Jason King' and 'Strange Report' to come out on DVD.

All 3 are available in the UK, Bondian. Having trouble finding them?

I just finished watching a 2-part Baron episode that has to do with rocket toppling. Man, they loved toppling rockets in the '60s.

WOW. Thanks very much for letting me know, my friend. Haven't done a search for a while, and now all three are available.

I'll add 'The Baron' on my list as well.

Thanks again.

[jaguar007]

Cool The Baron. I have only seen 1 episode several years ago (very much a Saint like tv show). I will have to try to track those down. Unfortunately my region free DVD player has a few bugs, I keep it just for The Return of The Saint box set I have.

[Bondian]

Cool The Baron. I have only seen 1 episode several years ago (very much a Saint like tv show). I will have to try to track those down. Unfortunately my region free DVD player has a few bugs, I keep it just for The Return of The Saint box set I have.

'The Return of The Saint'. That's just been added to my list.

[jaguar007]

Does anyone have a link? I could not find it on ITV.com.

[TheSaint]

Does anyone have a link? I could not find it on ITV.com.

A link to what?

[Brisco]

The Sellers book is great, but for an intro to these ITC shows I really recommend the book that first guided me through them, and ultimately led me to tracking down ALL of them: Saints and Avengers by James Chapman (who also wrote License To Thrill about Bond). It's more qualitative than Sellers' book, which is a great behind-the-scenes history of the various series. The two books serve different functions and complement each other nicely, but Chapman's makes it easier for a new viewer to decide which shows sound most to his or her taste. He performs academic/cultural analyses of each show, but in a very readable and informative manner.

Personally, I like The Persuaders the best of all ITC shows. After that, you can't really go wrong with The Saint or Secret Agent (Danger Man). If you like The Avengers, then Department S is a great one to go with next. And if you like THAT, follow it up with The Champions. If you prefer The Saint, you might be more at home with The Baron (which honestly I find a little boring and unoriginal, but still enjoy it), and if you prefer Danger Man, you might want to check out Man In A Suitcase.

Saints and Avengers helps you create your own chain of events from show to show, and man is the discovery fun!

Brisco

[Daddy Bond]

My three favorite ITC shows are The Saint, Secret Agent/Danger Man and The Persuaders (in that order). All are fantastic. However, I must admit, I am probably one of the few people who haven't been able to get into the Avengers. I have seen perhaps 5 episdodes from various eras, but have not been able to REALLY enjoy one yet. Perhaps I've just randomly picked poor episodes unintentionally.

Anyone else not a big Avengers fan? Or perhaps you have some episodes you recommend that I see?

[TheSaint]

Not a big fan of The Avengers, either. I don't dislike it, just never really got into it. Once less dvd set for me to acquire. Plus, the fact that there are so many lost episodes from the first few seasons would bug me.

[Turn]

My Avengers enthusiasm has cooled quite a bit in recent years. It's still one of my favorites, but I'm not chomping at the bit to watch it again for a while and haven't got it on DVD.

Daddy Bond, you can't go wrong with most of the Emma Peel episodes, especially those from the color season. Most of the black and whites are excellent as well. She's a timeless character. Many shows have tried to duplicate the success of the Peel-Steed partnership and the atmosphere of those two seasons, but have never come close.

The Tara King color episodes are very hit and miss, with some good ones and some real dogs. After watching the Emma episodes, she's a real let down.

As for the black and white episodes with Honor Blackman, I taped them all from the A&E Network when they first premiered, but just couldn't get into them and rarely ever watched them. The New Avengers is also closer to an American cop show of the time.

[TheSaint]

I recently finished The Baron set and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you love The Saint, you'll like this show. It's Saint-lite. Unfortunately, unless you have a region free player, it's not available in the US. The Aussie Umbrella release of it will play on a Mac dvd player so, that might be a workaround.

[chrisno1]

Im not big on ITC spy shows, its a little before my time, but The Baron was repeated on Sunday mornings when i was in my early teens (about 1980-83) and I definately watched some episodes when I wasnt playing football or doing homework. I remember thinking that it was similar to The Saint.
Jason King was hilarious when I watched some old vidoes. My Dad used to have a 'tache like that and Mum loved it, but I got him to shave it off eventually. He frightened the life out of me as a kid.
I dont rate the Persuaders much coz it was clearly a money making exercise and Tony and Rog were having a blast but doing precious little else.
A show I havnt manage to catch is The Protectors, with Robert Vaughn, which was one of Gerry Andersons first live action series. The show only ran for two seasons and the episodes were 30mins (like DangerMan) but my Dad has quite fond memories of this coz he remembers some beautiful French actress in it or something. I learnt recently that the theme tune "Drive Safely" was sung by Tony Christie.
Can anyone fill in any blanks here ?

[TheSaint]

Once I'm solvent I definitely plan on picking up The Protectors. Never saw an episode but I do like Robert Vaughn so am willing to take a chance. The actress Chrisno1's father was fond of was Nyree Dawn Porter.