avcsa0201_playtimeisover_1417Steed lends a brolly and Emma bears up…

Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky incorporate all the beats of the original Diana comic strip in their enjoyable tale for the Avengers, and – if you’ve ordered the reprint of the strips now available – you’ll feel as if the 1960s’ version was an abbreviated version for space! As with the first set of these adventures, whole plotlines and character arcs are spliced into the original, with a very Avengers-esque figure added to the mix, Andrew Wincott’s Tiny Tony. He very definitely feels as if he’s stepped straight from one of the colour Diana Rigg episodes and you can imagine someone like Cyril Luckham (the TV Billy Bunter who also appeared in Doctor Who’s The Celestial Toymaker) in the role then.

The writers have kept the melodrama of the comic strip, with Lizzie Roper’s Blackheart a commanding presence without going too far over the top, and Julian Wadham and Olivia Poulet play Steed and Peel exactly as they need to be – a sane presence in the middle of the madness going on around them.

Verdict: A cracking start to the box set. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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Steed and Mrs Peel Volume 2 is available now from Big Finish