The Avengers International Fan Forum

Merry Christmas to everyone here, it has indeed been a great year for Avenging.

Rodders wrote:An excellent book, Michael. I constantly return to it. With the sole exception of the Colin Finbow error - I now have his original script and almost nothing was changed - I can't think of anything which I would question. Lots of illuminating facts.

Many thanks for the kind words and taking so much interest in this thread Rodney.

To quote Dave Rogers’ interview with Brian Clemens published in Stay Tuned: The Avengers volume 2 number 6, dated spring/summer 1994. “Colin Finbow didn’t write a word of A Surfeit of H2O.”

This is something that I exchanged emails about with Brian Clemens during the writing of Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots and he repeated the statement from above, as well as giving me additional information, which I incorporated into the book.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a screenplay for A Surfeit of H2O, only dialogue sheets, so I was unable to compare the shooting script to the actual episode. However, I have several of Clemens other shooting scripts and on the whole there are very few changes of dialogue and actions in them. Likewise Dead Man’s Treasure, which although credited to Michael Winder, is another screenplay that Brian tells me he heavily rewrote and once again the shooting script is extremely close to what appears on screen.

Although this is far from proof that the screenplay of A Surfeit of H20 was written by Clemens, other writer’s material can be edited quite severely, such as Philip Levere’s Never, Never Say Die, which has two major location sequences that do not appear in the episode. However, on this occasion I don’t think there was any editorial decision, but rather a decision made on timing as the episode would have overrun on timing had the two sequences been included.

What I’m trying to say is that from my experience Brian Clemens’ shooting scripts were filmed almost word for word.

However, there are always two sides to every story and I’ve never had any contact with Colin Finbow to gauge his version of events.

I have mentioned before that I rate A Surfeit of H2O as one of my favourate episodes. Further to which it contains a filming location (Eli's cottage) that has never been found, although Mariarcki who lives in the area tells me that it could have been demolished years ago.

Rodney, I take it that the screenplay you have for A Surfeit of H2O is a shooting script?

Unfortunately, if you ask Jaz, he'll tell you that Brian Clemens is very unreliable: over the years he has convinced himself and others that he invented the show and rewrote everybody else's scripts. The script I have for H20 is the first draft and there are no substantial changes between that and what you see on screen. Colin wrote a lovely, quirky script and it is a shame if people end up thinking that it was another Clemens one.

Anyway, Kinky Boots is a great addition to anyone's Avengers library so you should feel proud of you achievements. I have drawn on it many times for Anticlockwise.

I received the book for Christmas! I've read only a few pages, but I am so excited to read it!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Lando

I hope you have a pleasant and informative read and let me know your views when you've gone through the book.

In writing my chapters for our collective New Avengers book, I found myself constantly diving into this fabulous book. It really is a great addition to The Avengers library.

Rodney

Again many thanks for appreciating the book. I just tried to get everything (more of less) about The Avengers and The New Avengers in one book. Pagecount-wise its the largest book that Telos Publishing have ever done and they are extremely happy with volume of sales it has generated.

Have just ordered my copy of this!

Spaceship Dispatcher wrote:Have just ordered my copy of this!

Spaceship Dispatcher

Do let me know what you think.

My copy of this arrived on Friday, at the same time as Alan's two books; I have only had a brief look so far, but your guide gives an excellent first impression!