alexanderdavies-99382 "Adam Adamant Lives" was something quite different from the BBC in attempting to be a more original television series. I became susceptible to this from the moment I first heard of this series. It is about the coming together of two completely different worlds and cultures - the former being the very early 1900s and the latter being the swinging 1960s. I found the opening episode to be ideal in setting up the regular cast and Gerald Harper in particular. The opening scene where Adamant has a confrontation with his arch nemesis before being frozen alive is very exciting and imaginative. He displays much vulnerability in his adjusting to what was then modern day England and plays his role very well. I can't understand why some episodes were shot on film and others on videotape but it is of little consequence. As with most programmes of this era, a number of episodes of "Adam Adamant Lives" are still missing from the archives (thanks a f****** bunch BBC!). However, the ones that do exist present a pretty good idea at how this series works. I find most of the instalments to be thoroughly enjoyable and I like the way that Adam Adamant brings his own set of Edwardian values into the modern day. Typically, the budget was pretty modest but it's the writing and the acting that matter.

peter-faizey Adam Adamant Lives! is very much a product of it's time. Produced by Verity Lambert (fresh from Doctor Who) and created by 'The Avengers' creator Sydney Newman, the show was made on a shoestring budget by the BBC on a disorientating mixture of film and videotape. With one episode being produced every week the production is understandably often shaky and rushed, but nonetheless some excellent material was produced during its short run between 1966-1967. The show's central protagonist is the wonderful Adam Adamant, a hero from Victorian times, who during an encounter with his mortal enemy 'The Face' is cryogenic-ally frozen and remains hidden in this frozen state for 64 years, eventually being re-discovered again in 1966. The casting is excellent, Gerald Harper gives a wonderful performance as Adam Adamant, a hero from the Victorian era, unaccustomed and often outraged by the starkly different society he has been thrown into. Harper plays the character as a pure gentlemen, a charmer to the ladies despite his naivety of modern times, and they often serve as a enticement towards danger for Adamant in the series! Juliet Harmer makes an excellent sidekick in the form of Georgina Jones, a young woman who is the epitome of 1960's Swinging Britain and the wonderful Jack May as the Butler Simms who always can be relied upon to add a touch of humour to the programme. The show is quite rightly a cult, it's premise is nothing less than inspired and certainly extremely memorable, earning the programme much following during its forty odd years existence. The opening episode 'A Vintage Year for Scoundrels' with a guest performance from the brilliant Freda Jackson is good fun and sets up the story nicely. Unfortunately the following episodes are generally quite poor, both 'More Deadly Than The Sword' and 'Allah Is Not Always With You' feature dreadful racial stereotypes which date the programme considerably. Thankfully the series improved as it went along with the excellent 'The Sweet Smell of Disaster' by Robert Banks Stewart, no doubt an influence for the classic Doctor Who story 'Terror of the Autons' and the Brian Clemens script 'The Terribly Happy Embalmers' which put the programme as close as it has ever been to 'The Avengers' territory, Clemens notably being a regular writer and later producer for 'The Avengers'. Many see Adam Adamant Lives! as a attempt to emulate the success of the aforementioned programme, and there are certainly many similarities. In terms of production values Adam Adamant Lives! could never really compete. As the programme stuck rigidly to the common practice of film and videotape production, 'The Avengers' had just premiered its fourth season with Diana Rigg's Emma Peel as the new sidekick and new glittering production values which included an extra week for production (every episode was recorded in two weeks) and with American backing behind them, 'The Avengers' team also had a lot more money behind them. Adam Adamant Lives! could never afford the slick style of 'The Avengers'. As a result of this the direction of the programme is quite often industry standard for the time, making it easily distinguishable from the polished direction of 'The Avengers' or any of the ITC action series it was competing against during its original run. However, there are some exceptions. The excellent Ridley Scott shows off some of his early talent in the only surviving episode he directed 'The League of Uncharitable Ladies' which comes complete with some slick location footage and freeze frames aplenty and the late Paul Ciappessoni also directed some memorable work, as did the excellent Moira Armstrong who helmed probably the finest existing episode 'Black Echo' an early episode from the second season with a guest appearance from legendary actress Gladys Cooper. The show ran for two seasons and 29 episodes before being cancelled in 1967 after it failed to continue with any considerable success. Verity Lambert would later consider the show as a bit of a failure and it's a shame that it was never given the chance to grow on audiences, and perhaps more importantly that it was never given a bigger budget. Certainly the 17 episodes that remain are a mixed bag of the brilliant, to the quirky to the downright awful. Other than the episodes already mentioned, essential viewing includes 'The Last Sacrifice', 'Sing a Song of Murder', 'The Village of Evil' and 'A Sinister Sort of Service'. It is a tragic shame like so many other series that 12 episodes of Adam Adamant Lives! are missing, only two episodes exist from the Second Season and seeing as they are two of the best it is a great disappointment that more does not exist. Despite its flaws Adam Adamant Lives! is a fascinating piece of 60's television, one which brilliance often lies in its fantastic premise and performances from the lead actors rather than its execution. Not a classic, but worth a watch. To use a frequently used cliché 'They don't make them like this anymore!'.

macaskillnc Having just turned off half way through the first episode, I'm afraid in my opinion Adam Adamant Lives was badly acted and had an appalling script. Adamant is meant to be an Edwardian gent, but has never come across underground trains, escalators, cars, electric lights or telephones. Of course this is a fantasy but I do expect a certain amount of internal consistency. Why not have Adamant as a Victorian detective (say having been frozen for 100 years instead of 60)? I don't feel I need to make allowances for the budget or the production values that British TV had at the time - it costs nothing to have a decent standard of script writing or acting.

FilmFlaneur I'm pleased to report that Adam Adamant remains largely as entertaining to its fans who remember it as when first viewed 40 years back. Adamant is the gracious man of action propelled through the marvels of suspended animation by a devious foe, Samurai Jack-like, to the future - an enigmatic event revisited in brief flash back by the programme most weeks. And best of all at the start of each episode, the larger than life mood is set splendidly by a memorable Goldfinger-like ballad, sung by a full throated Kathy Kirby.The first episode sets up the key situation, and all the others I have seen thereafter take place in the 60's, with the now 99 year-old, but still youthful, adventurer taking on a different bunch of foes each week - often at the unoffficial behest of the British Government, who value his peculiar, off beat talent for sniffing out dire deeds.Aiding Adamant in his efforts is a vaguely camp, risqué limerick loving, manservant Simms - permanently installed in his discreet flat hidden above a London car park - and Miss Jones (Juliet Harmer), a young, impulsive, typically swinging sixties bird, who inevitably gets into scrapes and precipitates the main crisis each week as she gets captured. Adamant himself is amusingly disdainful of modern mores and fashions - although he does allow himself the pleasure of driving a mini one notices. He also remains impeccably dressed in the style of a 1880's gentleman, complete with spats, waist coat and a sword stick (making up an odd if dashing, figure, never made an object of derision, even by his fiercest enemies).Those who enjoy the tongue in cheek qualities which hallmarked The Avengers will find some similarities here, not just in the dashing, Steed-like turn out of the central character (and indeed it shares at least one of that programme's writers, Brian Clemens, at times) although it has to be admitted the better known show deserves its superior reputation. The Adamant script formula is fairly rigid by comparison, with the same set ups each week - including the prompt and slightly ludicrous appearance of Miss Jones as employee in every establishment which finds itself under suspicion - and it lacks the implicit sexual magneticism, larger budget, and surreal sophistication of the other show. Despite the best charms of Miss Jones, Adamant is above real flirtation (although he is a ladies' man in his own, genteel way) an element of his character which somewhat weakens a potentially interesting relationship.More often than not Adam confronts each week a conspiracy of some sort against the general public or public finances, whether it originates from a bunch of crooked embalmers, religious fanatics, frock designers, casino operators, record companies and soap manufacturers - or even from those who, in one episode, plan to devastate Blackpool's golden mile, with exploding light bulbs no less.The best moments of the series are usually in the weird Adamant household, with some low level bitching usually going on between frosty, ever loyal manservant and Miss Jones. Some episodes rise to very entertaining heights, notably the one set within a fashion house this while, as Adamant kills the odd henchman with his sword stick or exposes the workings of an evil escort agency, one is reminded that not all viewers would have been youngsters. But over all, its very atmospheric fun, marvelously preserved, very much of its period if you care for the time capsule experience.The set includes a whimsical, but ultimately not very informative, commentary on one or two shows by the now elderly Adamant (Gerald Harper) and associates, as well as a documentary and stills from the missing episodes. No less a talent than Ridley Scott worked on one episode - very much a journeyman effort - of which not all exist. Those which do are largely from the first of two seasons. Fortunately each one stands alone, enjoyable in their own right.