Callan finally goes to university…

A couple of years back Big Finish continued the story of British agent David Callan, expanding on the short stories that James Mitchell wrote for the British Sunday Express newspaper. This second set has been produced during lockdown, although there really isn’t any indication that there’s anything different about them as a result. The plays follow the template of Big Finish’s Lost Episodes of The Avengers, using the broadcast structure, including short musical stings to represent the advert breaks that would have been present.

The episodes have once more been adapted by Mitchell’s son Peter, and they’re totally authentic both to the characters James Mitchell created and to the period – particularly Steve Foxon’s sound design, not just things like the pips to put your 2p in, but the general ambience. In this first, Hunter – played by Nicholas Briggs with suitable malevolent bonhomie, as this story requires – sends Callan to Oxford to keep an eye on a code breaker who’s been targeted by the East Germans. It’s the cue for a degree of fish out of water situations, but that side isn’t pushed too far – Callan’s cover is as an expert on the Peninsula Wars, and right from the very start, in the first play, A Magnum for Schneider, that was established as a core part of his character. The attitudes of the period are present and the references usually pretty subtle.

When I read the short stories a few years back, I could hear Edward Woodward and Russell Hunter saying the dialogue as Callan and his odiferous little friend, Lonely. Ben Miles and Frank Skinner step into the roles as if to the manner born (“Whose manor, Mr Callan?”) and achieve that balance between evoking the original performances and slavishly copying it.

Samuel Clemens’ direction matches the feel of the TV show: Callan was a lethal weapon, an assassin who asked the difficult questions and – as here – is just too intelligent to be a dumb instrument, putting pieces together that others would prefer he didn’t. The undercurrents of the relationship between Callan and those around him are brought out well.

Verdict: It’s way past time for the Section to get back to work – welcome back, Mr Callan. 8/10

Paul Simpson

Click here for our review of the first box set

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