h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Spy-Fi and Telefantasy - The British Adventure Series of the 1960s and 70s - A87835378
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

I studied an OU course about this genre a few years back. If you are interested in it, but would prefer not to enrol with the OU (if they are still offering it) then I recommend a fascinating book called 'Saints And Avengers' by James Chapman. Curiously he doesn't seem to comment on the adventure series' influence on Doctor Who or how Supermarionation fits into the genre too.

He also doesn't mention the American equivalents that much, which I think seems a little blinkered. American television was a key component in the series success – the goal was to get a lucrative television contract after all, and Lew Grade kept an eye on his US Competitors. For example, 'The Man From UNCLE' was heavily influenced by the genre, but also inspired 'Adam Adamant Lives!' and led to the creation of 'The Protectors'. If you leave out UNCLE, you're missing a key part of the story.

<BB<

This is good, BB. It's a topic I don't know a lot about. I watched The Avengers but very few of the others. As a result, I notice that you quite often talk about things before explaining what they are. It will take a bit of work to track down every example but ones that struck me were Steed and Adam Adamant. The first time you mention them, you should say which series they are from and you should give Steed his full name.

Another problem is long convoluted sentences that try to pack in too many facts, often only loosely related.

I'll try and give this a more detailed read-through when I'm at my computer.

I'm unclear reading this whether you consider James Bond to be a separate category from the Spy-Fi Telefantasy or part of it. Bond seems different to me, given the strong role of women in the Telefantasy you're describing compared with the portrayal of women as sex toys in James Bond.

When I'm back home I'll be able to do a read-through and rephrase bits.

My personal view is that the James Bond films were highly influential on the series - because the films were highly popular, American television channels wanted to buy the nearest equivalents - but as a film series they are separate. Many series wouldn't have been made without Bond, but of course recurring female characters in television roles were often given more to do than someone in a single film. Many television roles are still stereotyped, but not in the same 'sex toys' way.

<BB<

Two more things I've noticed:

1. Joe Grant should be Jo Grant.

2. You use the word "adopt" every time you talk about Doctor Who using the particular format. It should only be "adopt" the first time - after that, they're no longer adopting it, they're just using it.

Easily fixed.

<BB<

I love this and read it avidly right through to the end.

My twopence worth are:
* Movies like the Ipcress File staring Michael Caine probably need to be mentioned in the same space as the Bond ones.
* Bulldog Drummond is one of the most influential sources on the genre - does it need a footnote to say that "Sapper, an ex-WWI officer wrote four thrillers in the 1920's about Hugh "Bulldog" a rich, stupid and lazy toff by day, and a rich, clever, righter if wrongs by night. etc"
* Peter Gunn (1958) is an American show that fits into the same genre. Few shows in history ever matched its music, but the content is quite similar to the British shows here.

Good points - I've added footnotes about Harry Palmer and Sapper, but haven't added anything about Peter Gunn. I'm not sure if it is possible to bring in Peter Gunn without mentioning America's film noir and PI background etc, which has numerous similarities and differences to the overlapping spy background in Britain and the article is long enough as it is.

But Henry Mancini is possibly the greatest film composer of all time, certainly the one with the most awards. I'll be spending the rest of the day with his themes in my head now...

<BB<

You may be right about Peter Gunn. However it does show that the American market was already producing the genre.

It also, I think, contextualises the music that John Barry wrote for Bond, Ipcress File, The Persuaders (and a few others). John Bankworth wrote for the Avengers - he was another British jazz great. Obviously neither are as good as Mancini (but who could be) but the soundscapes of these shows were part of their appeal.

My general knowledge about 1960 spy thriller television composers runs out at about this point.

Are we all done here?

GB

This is interesting - I have watched The Saint, but not much of the other series.

However, that means that I am a bit confused about your list of Themes - is there a theme for each TV show you're considering? Can you distil the list more to give only the key themes, or maybe combine the themes more? It looks a bit funny to say that the hero is either Edwardian or highly fashionable, alone or in a group. I like the Clothes section later on.

Please change "wheelchair bound" to "was in a wheelchair" or something more neutral.

"Part of Cathy Gale's appeal came from the fact that her lines in her earliest scripts were intended to be read by a man"

Can you explain this a bit more? Am I right in guessing her appeal is as a strong woman, so she benefitted from the traditional manly strength of the man's script...

I like the list at the end. Would date order be helpful, rather than alphabetical order by title? I don't know...

Just learned that Brian Clemens died over the weekend.

He was the scrip editor for The Avengers, and also wrote other series including Adam Adamant Lives, The Baron, The Persuaders! and The Protectors.

<BB<

I've added a bit more to Cathy Gale section and hopefully removed inadvertent .

I would happily consider changing the list to be in date order if people felt that would be more useful - what do other people think?

The trouble with the 'Themes' section is that with so many different television series to consider, although most of the series fall into these categories and you can definitely see a stylistic family tree, there are different branches that the different series take.

So 'The Saint', 'Jason King', 'Paul Temple' etc and early 'The Avengers' fall into the individual crime fighter mould.

Yet 'The New Avengers' 'Adam Adamant Lives!' 'Department S' 'The Champions' and 'The Protectors' fall into the 2 men and one woman category.

Steed, Adam Adamant, the Doctor etc all have clearly Edwardian tastes, Paul Temple and Jason King's fashion tastes are rather more, dated.

<BB<

Thanks <BB<

I had another look at the list of themes now I understand the programmes better, and I think it might just need a little bit of reordering, as you do have some "either or"s in there so that's fine - I would move the bullets 5 and 6 down two and move the last two bullets to the position after the privileged background, but put the clothes ones together in the list

The extra line about Cathy Gale is excellent

Glad you liked it - and the themes section has been re-ordered and tweaked as requested.

<BB<

Very nice and thorough, this.

As someone who grew up with the genre, I can remember our parents clamping down and refusing to let us watch 'The Man from UNCLE' anymore. I think the B&D got a little too overt for their idea of what 14-year-olds should be watching...

But we adored 'Get Smart', corny as it was. The lines from that spoof became popular catchphrases, and we STILL want a 'Cone of Silence'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1eUIK9CihA

If only they used their corny catchphrases for niceness...

They had a similar idea to the cone of silence in an episode of 'The Avengers' ('What The Butler Saw', 1966), in which top secret defence meetings were held in a giant zipped-up bag.

Early 'Man From Uncle' was better than it became as far as I remember, but it's been a long time since they showed it on television and other than a boxset of some of the double-episodes combined into films, it's unavailable on DVD - hopefully that will change when the remake is released. (Don't ask me about the remake adaptations of 'The Saint' or 'The Avengers', although 'Get Smart' wasn't as bad as I was dreading.)

<BB<

I read this again, and noticed "Indeed, the popularity of British television, film and especially music in America in the mid-1960s led to the creation of label 'the British invasion'." - this doesn't quite read right - what label?

You define ITC at the bottom of the Entry, but it would be better to define it at the first mention please.

Do you say that Diana Rigg played Emma Peel?