Adam Adamant Lives! - The
Complete Collection (1966 – 1967/Region 4 PAL Import/Madman
DVD Set)
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B Episodes: B
PLEASE NOTE: This DVD set can only be operated
on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Four/4 PAL
format software and can be ordered from our friends at Madman Entertainment at
the website address provided at the end of the review.
When
Sidney Newman ran Associated British Corporation, a very successful TV network
in the early 1960s, he was one of the driving forces (as producer and sometimes
writer) behind what became one of the most successful series in TV history: The Avengers. As the show took off, he eventually moved to
run the BBC and left that hit in the hands of creative people like Brian
Clemens. However, he was determined to
have a hit like it and found a show he believed could capitalize on its
success. The result was Adam Adamant Lives!
Running
for two seasons, the show would prove to be one of the few imitators of the
classic Patrick Macnee hit to accomplish some degree of influence and along
with Department S (reviewed
elsewhere on this site) managed to at least pick up where The Avengers left off
in some way. While Department S was able to do a fine job of Tara King/Linda
Thorson-era stories, Adam Adamant Lives!
worked on picking up in its own way where the Honor Blackman/Cathy Gale shows
left off in its look (black and white live/videotape) and the immediate
interaction and camerawork that marked the show before Blackman moved on to Goldfinger and the series went to all
film with Diana Rigg.
Gerald Harper (later of
Hadleigh, reviewed elsewhere on this
site) plays the title character, a 19th Century Victorian gentleman
(good with a sword and his fists) who finds himself frozen in a hypersleep
until he is thawed out alive in the middle of 1960s England. This bit was duplicated by the Austin Powers
franchise as its back story and if the name sounds familiar, the look and
energy of the show inspired the New Wave/Punk band Adam & The Ants, whose
lead singer later became simply Adam Ant.
You can even see similarities between some of his Music Videos and this
show.
Now awake, he solves
mysteries and more battling wild schemes and more in what turned out to be a
healthy tow season run. For a few
decades, the show was considered lost in the BBC vaults and only a few shows
made it to consumer videotape, but further digging turned up 17 of the original
29 hour-long shows. That includes most
of the Second Season episodes. Among
those directing episodes was a young Ridley Scott. Thanks to the BBC’s problems with archiving,
only one of the three shows he directed survived.
Other known talents to
work on the show behind the camera include Brian Clemens (of The Avengers), Robert Banks Stewart
(also of The Avengers, plus Callan, Jason King and The
Protectors), Ian Stuart Black (also
of The Avengers, plus Danger Man, Doctor Who and Star Maidens),
Tony Williamson (also of The Avengers, plus Department S,
Jason King, The Persuaders! & Return
Of The Saint) ands was co-created by Donald Cotton (Doctor Who) and Writer Richard Harris (also of The
Avengers, writing some of their most distinct shows). That leaves no doubt as to the depth of
talent here, proving that The Avengers
could never produce enough episodes to show off all that great creativity.
We have decided to list
all the episodes, including the ones that are missing for good according to BBC
records. Those not on this set will be
marked with a # after their titles:
1) A Vintage Tour
For Scoundrels
2) Death Has A
Thousand Faces
3) More Deadly Than
A Sword
4) The Sweet Smell
Of Disaster
5) Allah Is Not
Always With You
6) The Terribly
Happy Embalmers
7) To Set A Deadly
Fashion
8) The Last
Sacrifice
9) Sing A Song Of
Murder
10) The Doomsday Plan
11) Death By Appointment
12) Beauty Is An Ugly Word
13) The League Of Uncharitable Ladies
14) Ticket To Terror #
15) The Village
Of Evil
16) D For Destruction
17) A Slight Case Of Reincarnation #
18) Black Echo
19) Conspiracy Of Death #
20) The Bastardi Affair #
21) The Survivors #
22) Face In The Mirror #
23) Another Little Drink #
24) Death Begins At 70 #
25) Tunnel Of Death #
26) The Deadly Bullet #
27) The Resurrectionists #
28) We Wish You Were Here #
29) A Sinister Sort Of Service
Williamson wrote episodes 1, 2, 5, 7, 11, 16 and 29. Clemens wrote episode 6. Stewart wrote
episode 4. Black wrote episodes 20 and
23. Co-creator Harris wrote episodes 8
and 10. Scott directed episodes 13, 24
and 27. Other names behind the show
might not have had as much outside success, but have great work histories that
show they fit right into this underrated show, including some who worked on
early episodes of… you can guess at this
point.
The show can be politically incorrect in parts, but that
is part of its appeal and the kind that is often honesty over PC garbage. Peter Ducrow (A For Andromeda) was the occurrent arch villain The Face, while
Harper was joined by Juliet Harmer (The
Avengers, Department S, Jason King) as Georgiana Jones, his
female counterpart with chemistry that recalls the Steed/Gale relationship and
Jack May (also of A For Andromeda, Doctor Who, The Main Chance, Trog)
is William E. Simms, completing the trio on the show battling the latest
madmen. He is never a third wheel and
his presence makes total sense, something that would not always be the case
with trios in these series.
Michael Robbins, Margaret Nolan, Adrienne Corri, Charles
“Bud” Tingwell, Jeremy Young, Peter Vaughn, Christine Finn, Patricia Haines,
Annette Andre, Michael Barrington, Gerald Sim, Ian Cuthbertson, Patrick
Troughton, John Frawley, Peter Madden, Patrick Kavanagh, Gladys Cooper, Judy
Parfitt, Kate O’Mara, Bryan Mosley, Edward Evans, Basil Dignam, Roy Evans,
Anthony Dawes, Peter Bowles, Nigel Stock, Hilda Barry, Skip Martin, David
Garth, Michael Gwynn, T.P. McKenna, Terry Richards and Alf Joint are among
those who make up the great guest casts.
Some of them are also stuntmen.
I waited a long time to catch up with this show and now
that I am seeing it for the first time, I am very pleased and glad enough fans
pulled for the BBC to find all the shows they could. Madman has issued the 5-DVD set in a terrific
single case with a paperboard slipcase any serious fan of such great TV should
strongly consider getting this set.
The 1.33 X 1 black and white, full frame image varies
throughout, but was shot on monochrome early PAL videotape with some black and
white 35mm filming. As some of these
episodes barely survived, the sources they show up here in can vary
throughout. Sometimes the video only
remains transferred to 16mm film, which can degrade the detail as the film
shows up the limits of PAL video definition.
However, these transfers look better than I expected overall and may
surprise you too. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono can also vary,
but is pretty good for its age. The
vocal theme song wants to be James Bond, but incidental music by Hal Shaper and
David Lee (sung by Kathy Kirby, who originally cut the Cher
hit The Way Of Love) is more dated
than any instrumental or incidental music here.
Extras are extensive
and include DVD-ROM accessible PDF documents including 12 teleplays, TV Comics
and an Annual for the show. An excellent
64-page booklet inside the case (meant to be read after going through all five
DVDs of the show) has an episode guide and details on the show’s history. Regular extras in the DVDs include Outtakes, a
13-minutes-long Photo Gallery, audio Commentary Tracks for the first and last
episodes, Missing Sounds audio
extracts from the missing Season Two episode A Slight Case Of Reincarnation,
Adam Adamant’s Wheels (a vintage
7-minutes-long piece on his Mini Copper) and This Man Is The One, a brand new behind the scenes 52-minutes-long
featurette on the history of and making of the show.
As noted
above, you can order this PAL DVD import set exclusively from Madman at:
https://www.madman.com.au/actions/channel.do?method=view
-
Nicholas Sheffo
