Subversive Champagne re-examines the 1960s cult television series, The Avengers, through a close analysis of 25 filmed episodes. The book examines how The Avengers - during the classic Emma Peel era (1964-1967) - was continually shifting the boundaries of audience expectation, defying both genre classification and viewers' traditional desire for kitchen sink drama. Subversive Champagne centres on eighteen episodes from the monochrome Peel Season 4 - widely acknowledged as the artistic pinnacle of the series. It is in this era - caught between video-tape and colour film - that The Avengers was...

Following the success of Bright Horizons, Mrs. Peel, We're Needed (The Avengers on Film volume 2) explores the glorious Technicolor world of Emma Peel. (Please note that this second edition includes substantially re-edited and cut versions of four chapters which some readers felt uncomfortable with due to their embellishments and voyeurism.) The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between 'light entertainment' and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. The monochrome filmed...

The critically-acclaimed Avengers on Film series continues with Anticlockwise, the third volume in this five volume series. The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between 'light entertainment' and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. The arrival of Tara King and Mother saw The Avengers shaken and stirred, as writers and directors playfully engaged with a variety of film and television genres. Steed and Tara face increasingly odd adventures and dangers: killer clowns, a...

After the critical success of Bright Horizons and Mrs. Peel, We're Needed, The Avengers on Film book series is back with the third volume... The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between 'light entertainment' and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. The arrival of Tara King and Mother saw The Avengers shaken and stirred, as writers and directors playfully engaged with a variety of film and television genres. Steed and Tara face increasingly odd adventures and dangers:...

Subversive Champagne re-examines the 1960s cult television series, The Avengers, through a close analysis of 25 filmed episodes. The book examines how The Avengers - during the classic Emma Peel era (1964-1967) - was continually shifting the boundaries of audience expectation, defying both genre classification and viewers' traditional desire for kitchen sink drama. Subversive Champagne centres on eighteen episodes from the monochrome Peel Season 4 - widely acknowledged as the artistic pinnacle of the series. It is in this era - caught between video-tape and colour film - that The Avengers was...

It was a sunny Saturday lunchtime in June 1944. Most of the inhabitants of a sleepy village situated in the 'Free Zone' of war-ravaged France were sitting down to a leisurely meal. Without warning, an attachment of Das Reich soldiers (the elite force of the Nazi's Waffen-SS division) arrived. Hours later, 642 defenceless people had been massacred; their homes were smouldering ruins. From these embers emerged life-affirming stories of survival as individuals defied machine-guns, snipers, explosives and burning buildings to escape the clutches of the deadly Wolf's Hook (the Das Reich emblem)....

Drawing inspiration from the private detective and Western genres, as well as the cult 1960s series The Fugitive, Roger Marshall's mid-1980s drama Travelling Man was both critically acclaimed and commercially popular, drawing audiences of up to 13.2 million viewers. Ex-Drugs Squad detective and jailbird Alan Lomax is a fascinatingly flawed protagonist, but it is the setting of the canals and inland waterways of Britain which provide the unique charm of Travelling Man, offering the perfect backdrop for Lomax's nomadic quests. The canals also dictate the show's leisured pace. Avengers expert...

Political satire, comic strip action adventure, science fiction, space opera, Orwellian dystopia, costume drama, Western...Drawing on a range of genres, Terry Nation's Blake's 7 resists categorisation or labelling; a ground-breaking piece of television drama. Presenting itself as easy-viewing, early evening entertainment for a (largely) teenage audience - which, on one level, it was - it tackles state-surveillance, propaganda, corruption, genocide, revolution, and terrorism. Avengers expert Rodney Marshall turns his attention to Blake's 7, offering unauthorised, entertaining,...

The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between 'light entertainment' and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. The creation of The New Avengers, in 1976, saw John Steed re-emerge, alongside two younger co-leads: sophisticated action girl Purdey and Gambit, a 'hard man' with a soft centre. The cultural context had changed - including the technology, music, fashions, cars, fighting styles and television drama itself - but Avengerland was able to re-establish itself. Nazi...