The Encyclopedia Of TV Spies: 1951 - 2008
Wesley Britton/BearManor
Media (Book Review)
Rating: B
Having
survived the end of The Cold War, espionage stories are as popular as ever,
even if they are not as smart or as well developed. Feature films have been more successful than
TV series since the genre rose again, but there are still key TV series that
influenced the genre all the way to books and films, yet they do not get as
much credit as they deserve. Wesley
Britton has written on the subject before and his latest offering is The Encyclopedia Of TV Spies: 1951 – 2008,
a very well-researched, valuable volume and collection of these shows mostly;
U.S. and U.K. productions.
It does
not allow you to look up various characters, but does list all the TV shows and
mini-series in the time period noted.
Britton’s love of such shows is evident in the detail and enthusiasm
throughout this 520-page book, which includes the following shows, most of
which are required viewing for anyone serious on the subject:
The Avengers
Adam Adamant Lives!
The Adventurer
Alias
Amos Burke: Secret Agent
Assignment: Vienna
The Baron
The Bionic Woman
The Bourne Identity mini-series (1988)
Burn Notice
Callan
The Champions
Chuck
Cliffhangers
Coronet Blue
Corridor People
Cover Up
Danger Man/Secret Agent
Department S/Jason King
Doomwatch
The Equalizer
Five Fingers
Get Smart!
Ghost Squad
The Girl From U.N.C.L.E.
Honey West
I Spy
It Takes A Thief
James Bond, Jr.
La Femme Nikita
A Man Called Sloane
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Man In A Suitcase
Matt Helm
Mission: Impossible
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
The New Avengers
OSS
The Persuaders!
The Piglet Files
The Prisoner
The Protectors
Quiller
Reilly – Ace Of Spies
The Saint/Return Of The Saint
The Sandbaggers
Scarecrow Of Romney Marsh
The Six Million Dollar Man
Smiley’s People
Spooks (aka MI:5/2002)
Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy
24
Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea
The Wild Wild West
Wonder Woman
The X-Files
Zorro
There are
many more as well, including some animated series (especially Secret Squirrel), some children’s shows
(The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show
qualifies as both and belongs in this book), documentary series and odd choices
(A-Team, Hogan’s Heroes, Knight Rider,
MacGyver) are also included to be
completist about it, as well as some valuable appendix sections. One covers the various novelizations and
tie-in books that sometimes did adapt episodes and sometimes offered new
stories not seen on TV. When the show
adapted a book, there would be special tie-in copies of those produced in more
cases than you’d think, unless you are a fan or collector.
The
second is a section on the various music score releases of music, including
re-recordings and original tracks on vinyl and CD. Some shows just have too many releases (like The Avengers) to list, but it is the
most comprehensive list you are likely to find.
There is material here you will not find readily on the Internet and
that includes two separate additional lists.
One is an actual Bibliography, but a section between the end of the book
and appendix sections are notes on key shows.
That is some serious research (as the Index shows) and as a lifetime fan
of this material, I was very impressed.
There were shows here even I did not know about.
However,
I have a few minor complains. There are
a few key name (both actor and character) misspellings and though he was
thorough on the shows that had been issued on DVD, he only notes whether the
show has arrived in Region 1/U.S. or Region 2/U.K. form when there are also
editions of note coming from other regions.
This includes Region 4 DVDs from Australia from Umbrella
Entertainment. We have covered most of
the series above (sometimes more than once) in their DVD versions and will cover
all future releases, which you can look up by title. You can go to this link for Umbrella DVDs to
see which we have covered from them:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/new/viewer.cgi?search=umbrella
However,
those are minimal issues versus how good this book really is. It is a great read and very much recommended!
- Nicholas Sheffo
