Full Cast Audios of the Lost Avengers Episodes

[Timeless A-Peel]

Some Big Finish audio plays have been on the radio a while after their CD/download release - specifically BBC7 (now rebranded as BBC Radio 4 Extra), a digital channel so also available online in some parts of the world. It'd be great if The Avengers series 1 gets a broadcast! They have to make and release it first I guess...

Monat as Steed would be brilliant; but I'd accept any equal substitute

I was wondering if it would get an actual radio broadcast (I listen to 4 Extra on occasion)--that'd be brilliant! The Avengers on the radio again, 40 plus years later.

It'd be a wonderful piece of continuity if they put Donald Monat in, though I doubt they will. I look forward to seeing who they do cast. In a way, I'm actually more intrigued to see who they pick for Keel. We've recast Steed a few times, but other than Emma, no Avengers partner has been portrayed by another actor.

[Killerwhale]

Astonishing news!
Can't wait to hear these lost episodes. Been longing to experience them for decades. Given that they're unlikely to involve stars from the original, using these scripts will give the audios authenticity from the start.
Already greatly enjoying several audio series from Big Finish and know the team they've assembled should deliver something special. Here's hoping this is a great success and will lead to more.
Personally, I'd love to hear what can be recreated from the other lost 1961 episodes, not to mention new cases for Cathy Gale, Emma Peel et al.

In the meantime, I'd recommend The Strange Case of the Missing Episodes by Richard McGinlay, Alan Hayes and Alys Hayes!

[Frankymole]

Personally, I'd love to hear what can be recreated from the other lost 1961 episodes, not to mention new cases for Cathy Gale, Emma Peel et al.

If that's the case, then I hope they draw on Alan (and his colleagues') research that deduced so much of what constituted the episodes with no surviving scripts. With suitable credit/involvement/remuneration, of course!

[Frankymole]

I was wondering if it would get an actual radio broadcast (I listen to 4 Extra on occasion)--that'd be brilliant! The Avengers on the radio again, 40 plus years later.

It'd be a wonderful piece of continuity if they put Donald Monat in, though I doubt they will. I look forward to seeing who they do cast. In a way, I'm actually more intrigued to see who they pick for Keel. We've recast Steed a few times, but other than Emma, no Avengers partner has been portrayed by another actor.

I agree. Personally I'm very keen on the Freddie Jones recasting of Steed, that was great! They sort-of recast Keel with Martin Rollason as Dr Martin King performing some leftover Keel scripts, who was fantastic (thank you for letting me get in my obligatory Dr King shout out!), but yes, whoever follows in Ian Hendry's tracks has big shoes to fill. I hope they can resist the urge to make this feel like the Emma or Cathy years, and have its own identity with something like the grit and darkness of the 1961 episodes.

If they get Dankworth's jazzy incidental music or something that is a reasonable facsimile of it, it will help evoke the post-austerity noir era perfrectly. And with audio or not, we need some fights and action and jeopardy, involving knives and knuckledusters as in the existing episodes, whatever today's namby-pamby sensitivities demand!

[Timeless A-Peel]

I was wondering if it would get an actual radio broadcast (I listen to 4 Extra on occasion)--that'd be brilliant! The Avengers on the radio again, 40 plus years later.

It'd be a wonderful piece of continuity if they put Donald Monat in, though I doubt they will. I look forward to seeing who they do cast. In a way, I'm actually more intrigued to see who they pick for Keel. We've recast Steed a few times, but other than Emma, no Avengers partner has been portrayed by another actor.

I agree. Personally I'm very keen on the Freddie Jones recasting of Steed, that was great! They sort-of recast Keel with Martin Rollason as Dr Martin King performing some leftover Keel scripts, who was fantastic (thank you for letting me get in my obligatory Dr King shout out!), but yes, whoever follows in Ian Hendry's tracks has big shoes to fill. I hope they can resist the urge to make this feel like the Emma or Cathy years, and have its own identity with something like the grit and darkness of the 1961 episodes.

If they get Dankworth's jazzy incidental music or something that is a reasonable facsimile of it, it will help evoke the post-austerity noir era perfrectly. And with audio or not, we need some fights and action and jeopardy, involving knives and knuckledusters as in the existing episodes, whatever today's namby-pamby sensitivities demand!

Despite the fact that Dr. King owed his existence to some unmade Keel scripts, he feels like his own character to me, not a Keel clone, so I wouldn't count him as a recasting. I was actually thinking how brilliant it would be if they made some more Dr. King adventures, perhaps outlining just where Steed found him in the first place. I loved Dr. King, so more of him would be welcome. Someone get Jon Rollason on the phone!

I hope they keep the gritty atmosphere as well. I want them to feel as true to the era as possible, no matter how grim. And while we're at it, who are they going to cast as the original Avengers girl, Carol Wilson, wielder of a mean syringe?

There's lots of excitement about this on on Big Finish's Twitter feed, which is heartening!

https://twitter.com/bigfinish

[Frankymole]

I agree on King being his own man. Whatever the genesis, Macnee and Rollason worked out a wonderful relationship between the two characters on screen.

In fact, Steed (and Patrick) did such a good job at instant chemistry with all their new short-term partnerships, in the episodes where a regular was on vacation/holiday, right into the colour era. It's no wonder that the New Avengers clicked so quickly and so interestingly.

My personal favourite after King/Steed was Merlin/Steed. It would have been nice to have even more "side adventures" partnerships/new new Avengers than we got on screen ("Dead Man's Treasure Hunt" and "Killer" are good examples) - perhaps that might be possible if the new audios take off.

Thanks for the Twitter tip/feed link!

[Timeless A-Peel]

Patrick indeed did an admirable job of meshing with just about anyone they threw at him. I'd have loved to have seen more of Merlin as well, and with radio that could be quite possible. I know the Who serials have done several stories based around minor characters, or ones invented solely for radio. I don't see why they couldn't do the same with characters like Forbes or Merlin. They could even fill in the gap between the original series and TNA, show us what Steed was up to in the meantime. Heck, they could write a story featuring Tara passing the baton to Gambit. Anything's possible.

[cyberrich]

Looking forward to hearing these! I can't wait to see who is cast as Steed and Keel. If these audios had been made a few years ago, Pat Macnee himself could have reprised his role. Rich.

[Alan]

On the subject of Donald Monat, well of course that would be marvellous, but let's not forget Series 1 sees a young Steed at the start of his Avenging. Donald, while still doing voice work in LA, is in his early 80s now, and would most probably sound his age.

In terms of Big Finish drawing on my, Alys' and Richard's work, we are in contact with the people running the show at Big Finish, and are offering advice and help. To be honest though, from what they've told us, they really don't need it. They know what they are doing and I am confident that they will do a fine job with the adaptations and the casting. If we can help them on questions of some things being unclear in the scripts, all well and good, but trust me, they will do a fine job with or without our involvement.

In terms of where the audio releases might go after the Series 1 discs (assuming they are sufficiently successful), I would actually like the series to present another 'audio only' era, with Steed and a new partner, not seen in the TV series. I don't necessarily think that having a new Cathy, new Emma, new Tara, new Purdey and Gambit, is really the best way to go.

[Frankymole]

Is Steed at the start of his career, though? It might be for us (and Keel) the first time we've seen him, but he did missions behind enemy lines during the war and I expect his intelligence career carried on into civilian life in 1945...

Are the BF bods planning to do anything with the episodes where no scripts exist?

I suppose they could do a "new era" and new partner set in between Tara and TNA. Though people may wonder why that partner was snubbed in the Steed's Stud photographs seen in "House of Cards". Perhaps she was another Venus Smith