Steed loses his bowler and Bentley; Emma has a head for heights…

Dan Starkey must have had fun penning the script for this second story in the latest Avengers box set – particularly creating sequences where Steed is trying to find out answers from a group of clowns (cue fun with the sound effects), including someone called Silent Jim. (Think about it.) He had, as a very loose basis, the very first TV Comic strip to feature Steed and Mrs Peel – one that clearly had problems of its own, given that its characters’ names change periodically during the telling. Starkey take the core idea and overlays it with the ethos of The Avengers – acronymical organisation and all – sending our heroes once more into the world of the big top and accompanying fairground. (It’s not the first time the audio Steed has been caught up in such a world – one of the Lost Episodes took him there, but this is a completely different sort of adventure.)

It’s a suitably madcap tale with a tattooed lady with a lot of other extra talents, an immodest mastermind, and plenty of excitement, which Samuel Clemens directs with verve. Julian Wadham and Olivia Poulet are as suave as ever, with Stephen Wight an enjoyable bad guy and Starkey himself as one of the other villains. (He probably played Silent Jim as well, but nobody’s saying.)

Jamie Robertson’s score pays homage to Laurie Johnson during the fight sequences (the percussion highly reminiscent of the little pre-titles routine in the original TV shows), and Steve Foxon’s sound design once again deserving a “fight arranger” credit!

Verdict: Another madcap visit to the Avengers’ world. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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