One of Britain’s best Tv writers/producers in the 60’s and 70’s responsible for some of the most popular series on TV back then.

 

As the person who created the format and wrote, designed, and supervised the day to day production of one of the most popular television series of all time, The Avengers, Brian Clemens holds a unique place in television history. One of the best cult programs of the 60’s was The Avengers, which went through a variety of permutations and cast members before settling into its international success in the mid 1960s, starring Patrick MacNee as John Steed and Diana Rigg as Emma Peel.

 

Clemens drifted into work for the British television production company ITV, and was given merely the title The Avengers by Sydney Newman, head of ITV, and told to devise a series. This he did, brilliantly. In addition to his work in the creation, story-boarding and everyday writing of The Avengers (it was Clemens who designed the famous checkerboard opening for the series, and created many of the more bizarre sets and situations for the long-running hit program by storyboarding many of his scripts for the top-flight directors who worked on the show).

 

Brian Clemens also created the highly successful British teleseries The Professionals, The New Avengers, Bugs (a British hi-tech sci/fi espionage thriller which is just entering a new season on British television, with all new episodes).

 

Clemens has also written episodes for such series as The Champions, The Baron, Danger Man (starring Patrick McGoohan), Adam Adamant Lives, Randall and Hopkirk, Ivanhoe, Man in a Suitcase, H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man and Mark Saber, as well as writing the screenplays and/or stories for the feature films Operation Murder (1957), Station Six Sahara (1963, starring Carroll Baker), And Soon The Darkness (1970), See No Evil (1971, with Mia Farrow), Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1972), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974, a Ray Harryhausen special effects spectacular), Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974, which Clemens also directed for Britain's fabled production company Hammer Films), The Watcher in the Woods (1980, a Disney film starring Bette Davis in one of her last roles of substance), Highlander II: The Quickening (1991, with Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert), and several episodes of the American television series Perry Mason (three TV movies in 1991-1992), The Father Dowling Mysteries, Remington Steele, and winning a British Academy Award (a BAFTA) for the creation and production of his British comedy series My Wife Next Door.

A brief summary of the TV programs he has been associated with.

 

Adam Adamant Lives

 

Very 1960's tales of a Victorian Adventurer frozen in 1902 and thawed out in the swinging sixties to combat crime.

Adam Adamant was a popular hero of the Victorian age, lured into a trap by his arch rival the Evil Face he is entombed in a block of ice. Over time Adam's legend grows until in 1966 he is discovered and thawed out, finding his new world highly strange he is helped by the young and very trendy Georgina Jones and an ageing valet called Simms.

Adam soon got back into his adventuring ways, all the time adjusting to his new world of bright lights, loud music, dolly birds, The Beatles and The Stones. Season two brought back The Face for Adam to once more do battle with.

The show was made in black and white by the BBC and very few episodes still exist, the show is often cited as a BBC attempt to create an Avengers type show. Adam's style of dress however would be a definite influence on the Jon Pertwee era of Doctor Who.

 

The Baron

 

Stories of an antique dealer who is really an undercover agent.

 

The Avengers

 

John Steed works for British Intelligence and always has a female partner. The problems he finds are always a bit odd, just on the edge of science fiction (Cyborg killers, a city built under a disused coal mine, a gang put together for adrenalin junkies, and a killer who uses a concentrated cold virus to kill his victims by having them sneeze to death). Steed is always the ultimate in culture and grace as he saves the world each week.

 

The Champions

 

Craig Stirling, Sharron Macready and Richard Barrett were agents for Nemesis, an international intelligence organization based in Geneva. Their first mission as a team was to investigate some potentially lethal experiments in Communist China, but when they were escaping, their plane was damaged. They crashed into a remote part of the Himalayas where they were rescued by members an unknown civilization. They came away from the encounter with superhuman powers--telepathy, superior strength, memory, etc.--and returned to the outside world as "Champions of law, order and justice", to quote the series' opening.

 

The Persuaders

 

English Lord Brett Sinclair and American Danny Wilde are both wealthy playboys, they are teamed together by Judge Fullton to investigate crimes which the police can't solve. These two men are complete opposites, but become great friends through their adventures and constantly risk their own lives for one another.

 

The Protectors

 

The Protectors were Harry Rule, the Contessa di Contini and Paul Buchet, three freelance troubleshooters who ran an international crime fighting agency. Based in London, Harry was the leader of the group. The Contessa lived in Italy and, when she wasn't working with Harry, ran her own detective agency that specialized in exposing art frauds and recovering stolen art. Paul Buchet worked out of Paris, and was the group's researcher and gadget specialist. Their adventures ranged from simple kidnapping to convoluted cases of international intrigue. Since the episodes were only half-an-hour long, the show's forte was face-paste but straightforward action.

 

Thriller

 

A TV series which ran from 1973 to 1976. The episodes were always very entertaining with plenty of good mystery and suspense and led up to an exciting climax.

 

The New Avengers

 

John Steed and his new accomplices Purdey and Gambit find themselves facing new and deadly dangers in the bizarre world of espionage. Mixing fantasy with a darker edge, the trio face mutated giant rats, flocks of killer birds and fanatical mysterious monks. Later episodes find Steed's loyalty under question and an increasing number of assignments overseas.

 

The Professionals

 

This series chronicled the lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie was a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, came to CI5 from the regular police force, and was more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship was often contentious, but they were the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.

 

 

All in all he has been involved in lots of very popular TV programs over 2 decades, not so successful in his choice of movies however.

 

i like 'adam adamant lives' and 'the persuaders' .. i have the persuaders theme on vynyl! john barry... (the flip is 'the girl with the sun in her hair' used for a 'sunsilk' advert).

 

didnt watch 'the avengers' didnt like 'the proffessionals'.

here you go

 

 

:)

the girl with the sun in her hair

 

didnt watch 'the avengers' didnt like 'the proffessionals'.

 

I'm shocked..... The Avengers & the Professionals were brilliant IMHO. :o

 

Which reminds me to post.....

 

Patrick Macnee & Honor Blackman - Kinky Boots (1964)

 

:lol:

 

 

I'm shocked..... The Avengers & the Professionals were brilliant IMHO. :o

 

Which reminds me to post.....

 

Patrick Macnee & Honor Blackman - Kinky Boots (1964)

 

:lol:

 

the avengers wasnt on in my house, we watched what my dad said we could.... i never liked 'the professionals' , thought it was c**p....ott acting, violence, incredible storylines ... still regard it as c**p... now morse is something else! its hard to believe that its the same actor!

It is hard to believe because John Thaw was in The Sweeney!

It is hard to believe because John Thaw was in The Sweeney!

 

i know! :lol:

 

after i posted that i realised my error but as my fiance had come home i had better things to contend with ;)

 

still im not keen on the professionals, i thought the programme lacked realism, it was..erm.. unprofessional...lol

I did like The Professionals but I think I was 10 or 11 when I watched it so the lack of realism didn't bother me much. I just wanted to see cars screeching round corners and lots of punch ups which is what I got.