Steed gets green fingers; Tara flies like a bird.

Dan Starkey pens the latest in these TV Comic adaptations, based on the strip that ran from November 1970 to January 1971. All of the outlandish ideas from that story are present and correct, but Starkey has reframed it to give more of a spy-fi edge, adding missing agents, and a motive for the actions, as well as giving Tara King considerably more to do than she otherwise would have.

It’s one of those that really pushes at the bounds of credibility, and strong performances by Tim Bentinck and Mina Anwar keep it just about grounded. TV Comic made The Avengers far more of an SF/fantasy series than it was on screen, and Samuel Clemens fights to keep the audio nearer to the TV version – but it’s hard when the centre of the story is something that makes everything (and I mean everything) in the garden grow to giant size. There’s an intriguing blend of very chocks-away RAF officers and others who are far more contemporary – and Corporal Bell moonlighting from UNIT!

Steve Foxon’s sound design is called on for even more outlandish things than usual, but it comes together well, and Julian Wadham and Emily Woodward keep Steed and Tara treating even the weirdest thing as simply part and parcel of their everyday lives as employees of the Ministry.

Verdict: Probably as far as the audio series should go towards taking The Avengers into this sort of territory, it’s an outlandish but enjoyable tale. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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