Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

Fish and chips, Marks and Spencer, Lennon and McCartney. All legendary British double acts. And right up there with them are Steed and Mrs Peel, aka The Avengers. 

The Avengers – The Comic Strip Adaptations continue with a sixth box set of tales, featuring three full-cast audio dramas based on stories which were first published in TV Comic. 

Julian Wadham reprises the role as John Steed (which he first assumed in 2014 in audio adaptations of the Sixties TV Lost Stories) and Olivia Poulet returns to play Emma Peel with her customary élan.

The three exciting adventures are as follows:

Seven Deadly… Assassins by Roland Moore 

Based on a strip from a TV Comic annual, the original story featured a group of murderers whose mode of killing was based on the Seven Deadly Sins. Steed and Mrs Peel are on a cruise ship guarding a jewel, trapped with seven assassins who are after the gem… or are they?

Stand and Deliver by Sarah Grochala 

Steed and Mrs Peel face a group of Highwaymen, as well as encountering a variety of different forms of espionage on the way – and they have to be alert as there is a spy at work within the organisation.

You Won’t Believe Your Eyes by John Dorney 

In the English countryside, strange things are afoot, with sightings of dinosaurs, polar bears and lions. Steed and Mrs Peel go on the trail of a potential weapon… but will their eyes deceive them? 

Producer/director Samuel Clemens, the son of Brian Clemens, who co-produced The Avengers television series during the Diana Rigg and Linda Thorson years, said: “These stories are all adapted from TV Comic strips and are such enormous fun, really capturing the spirit of The Avengers. You can imagine them as televised episodes which would work tremendously well on screen.

“Some are more outlandish than others, but they all lend themselves wonderfully to the audio format.”

The Avengers – The Comic Strip Adaptations Volume 6: Steed & Mrs Peel is now available to pre-order as a collector’s edition box set on CD or digital download