1966: A man dressed in Edwardian gear is hit by a taxi and rendered unconscious – but aspiring novelist Georgie Jones wonders, could he really be a hero from bygone days?

Adam Adamant Lives! isn’t necessarily the first series that you’d think would be ripe for the Big Finish treatment, but there’s obviously been a groundswell in favour of an audio version, and Guy Adams has taken the core concepts of the show and rebuilt it from the ground up.

The TV version was created by two people with fundamental links to Doctor Who – Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert – and was very much in the mould of The Avengers. It’s fair to say that it’s very much of its time in its depiction of female characters, and indeed the male ones too, and one of the great strengths of Adams’ new incarnation is that we feel that we know Georgie Jones well by the end of this first piece (which really isn’t something you can say of Juliet Harmer’s original).

Blake Ritson (who I’ve always thought has the perfect voice for a revival of Leslie Charteris’ The Saint on audio) makes the part of Adam very much his own – there’s something of original Adam Gerald Harper’s tone, but Guy Adams has added an extra conceit to the character, which gives Ritson a whole new dimension to play with. This first episode sees Adamant spend much of his time in a hospital bed until the needs of fair play and justice insist he rise to the occasion. But Adam isn’t on his own…

Millie Thomas gives an edge to Georgie that suggests she’s never going to be the demure damsel in distress that Adamant might subconsciously need at his side, and there’s a terrific turn from Issy van Randwyck as the villain of the piece – contrasting the fantasy elements of Adam with extremely down to Earth criminal activities, and ones that wouldn’t have worked had the series been updated to 2020. Benji Clifford’s sound design and music mesh with Nick Briggs’ direction to move us between these realities effectively – and there’s a terrific re-recording of the original theme tune to start things off. (The closing credits are done… unusually, shall we say.)

We’re never quite sure if we’re in Captain America or They Might Be Giants territory – i.e. was Adam frozen by his villainous enemy and somehow survived, or is he a modern man whose knock on the head has made him believe he’s Adam – and Adams neatly walks the tightrope between the two. It’s a different sort of opening episode than you might expect – but one that works well.

Verdict: An introduction with a difference – welcome back, Adam! 8/10

Paul Simpson

Watch for an interview with Guy Adams coming shortly to Sci-Fi Bulletin

Click here to order Adam Adamant Lives! volume 1 from Big Finish