Cult tv : the golden age of ITC (Robert Sellers)

[Tubbytoast]

Il me semble que quelqu'un en avait parlé sur ce forum

Si quelqu'un l'a lu, est-ce qu'un chapitre (voire quelques lignes) sont consacrées à "Cosmos 1999" ?

[Jérôme]

on en a parlé sur le thread de cosmos 1999

critique lue ici : http://www.the-mausoleum-club.org.uk/xm ... 420&page=5

Now to the book itself - it's A3 size so it's smaller than the Boxtree R & H, Saint and Danger Man books from the early 90's. The cover shows Patrick McGoohan in the shot from Checkmate that was on the initial draft, it's in colour and has the original background. The other pictures that were on the front on the original are now on the back and are all in colour.

If you're expecting episode guides and plot synposes then you're going to be disappointed. Likewise, if you're expecting a wealth of unpublished photos then this isn't the book for you. The plethora of recent DVD releases across the various regions means that most of the photos that are out there have been seen in one form or another. I'm not an expert on any of the series the book covers but there are only a couple of photos that I haven't seen before and they are probably familiar to fans of those particular series.

The book is split into 11 chapters and begins with a one page intro by Sir Roger Moore.

Chapter One (not The Company I keep!) pages 11-15 is entitled Glorious Lew and is a brief bio of the great man.

Chapter 2 Quivering Bows and Clunking Armour covers Robin Hood, Lancelot, Buccaneers, William Tell and The Invisible Man. Pages 17 - 40

Chapter 3 The Puritan and The Halo covers The Saint and Danger Man. Pages 41 - 76

Chapter 4 Puppet Master covers Supercar, XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90. Pages 77 - 114.

Chapter 5 Ghosts in the Machine covers MIAS and The Prisoner. Pages 115 - 140.

Chapter 6 Fairy Stories for Adults covers The Champions, Dept. S and Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) Pages 141 - 176.

Chapter 7 No Strings Attached UFO & Space : 1999. Pages 177 - 204.

Chapter 8 the aforementioned Kitsch Squad featuring Jason King, The Persuaders and The Protectors. Pages 205 - 232.

Chapter 9 The Ultimate Variety Show with Thriller, Zoo Gang, Muppet Show,Jesus of Nazareth, ROTS and Sapphire & Steel. Pages 233 - 268.

Chapter 10 And Not Forgetting featuring Sir Francis Drake, Gideon's Way, The Baron, Strange Report, The Adventurer and Hammer House of Horror. Pages 269 - 274.

Chapter 11 Mr Television - A Final Tribute. Pages 275 - 277.

Afterword by Gerry Anderson 1 page.

ITC TV-ography Pages 280 - 288 listing the regular cast, main guest stars, writers and directors plus the number of episodes.

I haven't had time to go into all the chapters in detail but as you can see they concentrate on arguably the most popular series with the others getting a few lines in chapter 10. MIAS gets a whole 12 pages (including pictures) which is very pleasing to me but if you're a big fan of Strange Report or The Adventurer then you'll be disappointed. This is where the author has had to make the book appealing to a wide cross section of the public, presumably on the maxim that you can't please all of the people all of the time. A whole chapter on these series, while interesting for us, wouldn't entice the casual fan and would push the page count, and therefore the price, to unacceptable levels to make it viable.

I have noticed a couple of minor errors; The Champions ran for 30 episodes and not 26 as stated in the narrative (although it is corrected in the ITC TV-ography In Burden of Proof, Henry Faversham is an aide to the President of a South American republic not an African one and The Persuaders! is missing the ! throughout but these are minor quibbles and won't keep me awake at night.

Where the book does score very highly is in the interview department. I found the quotes from Robert Tronson particularly interesting and, from the little I've read so far, have learnt quite a bit. Certainly there were bits of info about UFO and The Prisoner from other souces I was previously unaware of.

The list of interviewees is impressive to say the least and includes Gerry & Sylvia Anderson, Sir Roger Moore, Tony Curtis, Michael Billington, Ed Bishop, Ray Austin, Roy Ward Baker, George Baker, Alexandra Bastedo, Richard Bradford (hurrah!) Brain Clemens, Clive Donner, Shirley Eaton, Joel Fabiani, Cyril Frankel, William Gaunt, John Glen, Burt Kwouk, Sue Lloyd, Jane Merrow, Ian Ogilvy, Nicola Paget, Robert Vaughan, Barry Morse, Peter Graham Scott, Peter Wyngarde and Franco Zefirelli.

So, should you buy it? As I said above, if you're looking for exhaustive episode guides, plot details and exclusive photos then this isn't your book but it's more than worth the cover price for the information contained in the quotes from those interviewed. At just under 300 pages it was always going to be a compromise but personally I think Robert's pulled it off and done a fine job. And he's a nice bloke too. Buy it.