Man from Atlantis (1977) was the first of four successful TV-movies, to be followed by an unsuccessful series. It's a reasonably interesting story about a water-breathing man from Atlantis in the modern world. Features a fine mad scientist.

Here's my review.


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The Interrogators, a great 1969 Tara King episode of The Avengers, written by Richard Harris and Brian Clemens. Christopher Lee guest stars. Starts with a British agent being interrogated by the bad guys, then the twists begin.

Here's my review.


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Lost in Space by Dave van Arnam and Ron Archer is as its name suggests a TV tie-in novel inspired by the classic TV series. It's not a bad sci-fi novel but it really doesn't have the feel of the TV series.

Here's my review.


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At the time Brian Clemens' tough gritty violent British TV spy series The Professionals attracted a lot of attention and some outrage. The 1979 3rd season is pretty strong with just one dud episode. Stylish and action-packed.

Here's my review.


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Dead Duck is an original novel published in 1966 and based on the television series The Avengers.

It was credited to Patrick Macnee but seems to have been written by Peter Leslie (who wrote some very decent TV tie-in novels).

It’s an engagingly offbeat story with a fine crazy finale. It captures the feel of the series reasonably well. Fans of the ( Read more... )

Beasts is a 6-part 1976 British horror anthology TV series created and written by Nigel Kneale. It mixes horror with sci-fi in a wildly unconventional way and you're never sure if anything genuinely non-natural has occurred. A strange offbeat unsettling but fascinating series.

Here's my review.


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Four early (1962-63) Cathy Gale episodes of The Avengers, featuring what I think of as the second version of Steed. Interesting to see the Steed-Mars Gale relationship at this early stage.

I particularly like Warlock - voodoo and black magic and sexiness!

Here's my review.


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Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (1984), the anthology TV series that was Hammer's last gasp. It's much better than its reputation suggests. In fact it's excellent.

An extremely varied mix of supernatural horror, thriller, spookiness and weirdness.

The German DVD set includes all thirteen episodes in English.

Here's my review.

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Rod Serling's The Sixteen-Millimetre Shrine, one of my favourite episodes of The Twilight Zone. It went to air in 1959. A faded movie star (played superbly by Ida Lupino) lives in the past, the past when she was a star.

A wonderful bitter-sweet story. With a terrific twist ending which was copied by a certain well-known film director some years ( Read more... )

Decoy, which went to air in 1957, was not just the first TV series to focus on a female cop, it is in my opinion still the most interesting such series. It’s very character-driven and it’s a surprising realistic look at the work of female police officers ( Read more... )