Steed gets an earful; Emma sees the light…

To think, at one point it seemed as if Big Finish’s audio adventures of The Avengers were over – but thankfully Julian Wadham continues to don John Steed’s brolly and bowler, once again accompanied by Olivia Poulet as the delightful Mrs Emma Peel.

Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky’s enjoyably wacky script has its origins in a TV Comic strip from April 1966 but as always, turning those ten pages into a full length drama requires considerable finesse, and the pair have populated their story with the sort of eccentric English characters that were a staple of the TV series. The villains aren’t the standard villainous foreign agents – they’re a pair with an unusual bond, with Jessica Martin sounding like she’s having far too much fun as the senior of the pair.

Samuel Clemens – son of Avengers creator Brian Clemens – takes up the directing with this story, and brings a slightly different feel in terms of the tone: the scene where Emma is in the Smugglers Arm midway through is a case in point. She’s the normal person when seen against such a background, as opposed to the rather idiosyncratic character she would seem to be elsewhere. Equally, Steed is not fazed by anything – although he does appear to have a TARDIS-sized dinghy.

Verdict: A welcome return for the proper Avengers. 8/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order Steed and Mrs Peel Volume 4 from Big Finish