Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots: The Ultimate Avengers Book

[JohnSteedFr]

Do you have more info about the original material from 'Invasion of the Earthmen', if you checked the original script as well, by any chance?
So, from what I understood, there were more scenes inside the school about the training the teens are following, like that room where Steed would have flown like the astronaut in a spectacular way? Something to do with gravity. Fantastic!!!!

Did you like the script of 'GGBC' from what you remember? How awful the style was that made it 'unshowable'? There must have been some god awful scene. The ones I can think of are with Steed using a gun and swordstick to kill.

I'm currently reading the part after Linda got her real hair back. As I can see, a lot of material shot by John Hough in particular didn't make it to the final versions...Unused locations for example or that actor who got all his scenes deleted from 'You'll catch your death', or the unseen original intro to 'super secret cypher snatch'!

[MikeR]

Joris

Thanks again for giving great feedback on Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots.

I don’t have a script for Invasion of the Earthmen, only dialogue sheets, which duplicate all the dialogue from the shooting script with some directional instructions.

I have heard of a scene where Steed entered a room and was sent flying into the air by an anti-gravity device, but this was not in the shooting script, so logically it had to be in an earlier draft script, but as I could not verify its origin I did not include it.

To include the later Brian Clemens filmed scenes, which explain why Tara’s hair is blonde, I think that something must have been removed to allow space for the new material.

My instant reaction to reading the shooting script of The Great Great Britain Crime was that it was a very complicated plot and when portions were edited into Homicide and Old Lace, they used the easier to understand parts of the storyline.

There were bits and pieces that did not get included in episodes, sometimes for timing reasons. This was not something that happened exclusively with the Tara King episodes, as Diana Rigg and a guest star spent a full day at Tykes Water Lake filming scenes for The $50,000 Breakfast that do not appear in the episode.

Character actor Royston Tickner was called at 10.30 am to a soundstage at Elstree Studios to do some filming for You’ll Catch Your Death, but because filming was apparently running behind schedule, he was not actually used. Presumably his scenes were cut as being unnecessary to the storyline, although he will have been paid for his day at Elstree. This situation occurs on other episodes as you’ll find out when you get to the episode Thingamjig.

Unfortunately, I have no idea what the original teaser sequence for Super Secret Cypher Snatch was like. I have only seen paperwork saying that it did not work and that a new one would be written and filmed.

[darren]

My instant reaction to reading the shooting script of The Great Great Britain Crime was that it was a very complicated plot and when portions were edited into Homicide and Old Lace, they used the easier to understand parts of the storyline.

I'd love to read that script to see what Dicks and Hulke concocted between them.

There were bits and pieces that did not get included in episodes, sometimes for timing reasons.

Of course, the obvious one is Penelope Keith being edited out of Something Nasty in the Nursery - there's a horrible jump with Trevor Bannisters character suddenly comes in telling about something we haven't seen. And David Lodge's sword expert in Fog. Pity.

[JohnSteedFr]

New Avengers, here we come!

I concluded the last chapter from the first show. Again, I learnt new things, this time with one of my favorite episodes: Take Over (ie: the ambulance that comes to Steed's rescue and the character hearing the truth lying behind Grenville's stay at the Bassett's.

I guess my following question is a tad bit ridiculous but would they keep, at that time, the cut material, aiming to preserve it as 'records' etc?

[MikeR]

My instant reaction to reading the shooting script of The Great Great Britain Crime was that it was a very complicated plot and when portions were edited into Homicide and Old Lace, they used the easier to understand parts of the storyline.

I'd love to read that script to see what Dicks and Hulke concocted between them.

There were bits and pieces that did not get included in episodes, sometimes for timing reasons.

Of course, the obvious one is Penelope Keith being edited out of Something Nasty in the Nursery - there's a horrible jump with Trevor Bannisters character suddenly comes in telling about something we haven't seen. And David Lodge's sword expert in Fog. Pity.

Darren

As mentioned you can see the shooting script for The Great Great Britain Crime, all you need to do is arrange this by contacting the BFI, who will set a day and time for you to visit their reading room at the National Film Theatre in London. Because of copyright you will not be allowed to take photocopies of any part of it and anything that uses ink to write is not allowed inside the reading room.

Besides, Penelope Keith's non-appearance, Nicole Shelby is credited for Mission... Highly Improbable and she does not appear, plus Jack Woolgar was called, but not used in Thingumajig.

[MikeR]

New Avengers, here we come!

I concluded the last chapter from the first show. Again, I learnt new things, this time with one of my favorite episodes: Take Over (ie: the ambulance that comes to Steed's rescue and the character hearing the truth lying behind Grenville's stay at the Bassett's.

I guess my following question is a tad bit ridiculous but would they keep, at that time, the cut material, aiming to preserve it as 'records' etc?

Joris

Hopefully you'll find the section on The New Avengers as informative as the previous chapters.

Material edited from several early colour Rigg episodes including From Venus with Love was retained and included on the Optimum DVD release, so there is the chance that other pieces of footage edited from other episodes could still exist in Studio Canal's archive. As Jaz Wiseman did the extras for the DVD sets, I think that he would have more idea about that than anyone else.

[JohnSteedFr]

I think it's been done already (ie: complete research at the archives). Jaz himself if I remember told us there was no other unseen footage there.

Or maybe there is, but due to copyrights issues or costs, it cannot be released, yet...

[MikeR]

Joris

Material can always turn up from other sources such as the British Film Institute, or the National Media Museum, where after being missing for decades a copy of the promo film The Case of the Missing Corpse was located in a film can that was wrongly marked up.

[JohnSteedFr]

I'll start reading the part after the one talking about the 1998 movie. It's great to list all the deleted scenes that didn't make it--shame when I think of it, that last year's bluray didn't contain the director's cut.

Though Emily isn't a good episode, according to me, I agree with what the book said, it ended with humour, one last time. But I wish they had filmed some official ending for the NA period, with champagne naturally!

[MikeR]

Joris

I'm pleased that you are still enjoying Bowler Hats and Kinky Boots. Unfortunately, Jeremiah Chechik failed to stamp his authority on the movie and lacked confidence in editing the film together. There were as many as 9 different versions of each reel of the film. However, when Warner Brothers saw it they decided to audience test it in the States, not once, but twice. The negative results from these tests brought about more shooting and the addition of the mechanical insect sequence and then even more editing and cutting together.

I'm really indebted to Mick Audsley and Duncan Barber who worked on The Avengers film for assisting greatly with the research on the movie.