I see Rodney Marshall has written several books on The Avengers in the last few years, could somebody perhaps list them all for me ?
What are peoples opinions of these ?, are they a good read & worth getting ?.
Any opinions would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Rodney Marshall books.
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James C McFetridge
- Nutshell
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Hopefully this is a complete list (I bet I've missed one!):
Subversive Champagne
Subversive Champagne re-examines the 1960s cult television series, The Avengers, through a close analysis of 25 filmed episodes. The book examines how The Avengers - during the classic Emma Peel era (1964-1967) - was continually shifting the boundaries of audience expectation, defying both genre classification and viewers' traditional desire for kitchen sink drama. Subversive Champagne centres on eighteen episodes from the monochrome Peel Season 4 - widely acknowledged as the artistic pinnacle of the series. It is in this era - caught between video-tape and colour film - that The Avengers was undergoing arguably its most profound stylistic and thematic transitions, from mild eccentricity to something genuinely experimental. The author extends his journey into the exhilarating but 'uneven' colour Season 5, adding chapters on seven more episodes, thus allowing us to explore the entire Emma Peel era. Entertaining froth or groundbreaking art? Rediscover the most iconic show in television history.
Making It New?: A reappraisal of The New Avengers
The New Avengers is often forgotten or patronisingly treated by fans of the original 1960s cult television show, The Avengers. This short study of a selection of episodes from the two mini-seasons asks fans to think again. The New Avengers was both NEW and AVENGERS. It was part of a television institution but it was also capable of being dynamically fresh. Making It New? reassesses the wonderful world of Steed, Purdey and Gambit, from the fictitious island of St Dorca, via France to Canada where the show ended. Individual chapters on the following:The Eagle’s Nest The Last of the Cybernauts…? To Catch a Rat Cat Amongst the Pigeons Target! The Tale of the Big Why Sleeper Dirtier by the DozenHostage Dead Men Are Dangerous Angels of Death K is for Kill
Adventure & Comic Strip: Exploring Tara King's The Avengers
From the author of Subversive Champagne, this is an exploration of the Tara King era which brought The Avengers to a close. Explores all 33 episodes, offering a critical analysis of each. If you thought that the Tara King era was the tired endgame of a once glorious show it might be time to reassess it. This was a quite remarkable, surreal season in which the series experimented with film noir, hard-boiled fiction, Victoriana horror and much much more. There is a unique mix of adventure and cartoon strip as the most iconic of television shows came to an end with a bang, not a whimper.
The Hour That Never Was
Innovative television drama can rival any field of the arts in terms of material worthy of critical exploration. This series of books focuses on ‘outstanding’ examples of British television dramas, centring on a single episode in an attempt to explain what makes both the episode in particular, and the series in general, remarkable. The social context, script, characters sets/locations, music, and direction are all focal points. Classic British Television Drama (CBTD) opens with an exploration of The Avengers story The Hour That Never Was. It takes artistic risks while visually exploring the subject of ‘two against the underworld’.
Bright Horizons
The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between ‘light entertainment’ and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. At the crossroads between the Cathy Gale-era stricture of video tape and the glossy, surreal, comic-strip world of ‘glorious Technicolor’, the monochrome filmed Emma Peel season represents the artistic pinnacle of a show which was exported around the world and remains the only British television drama to be networked at ‘primetime’ in the USA. Bright Horizons draws on the knowledge of a broad range of experts and fans of The Avengers – including scriptwriter Roger Marshall – offering critical explorations of all twenty-six ‘mini-films’ which made up Season 4, the collective peak of an extraordinary television series. Now includes 50 page quotation glossary.
Mrs. Peel, We're Needed
The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between ‘light entertainment’ and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. The monochrome filmed Emma Peel season had established a cult following for a series which became an intrinsic part of the ‘Swinging Sixties’. Backed by US dollars, the show was now filmed ‘in color’ and Avengerland becomes stranger and more playful than ever: Steed is shrunk to the size of a desk pad, forced to evade a machine-gun-toting nanny; Emma Peel is tortured in a medieval ducking stool and turned into a living cybernaut. Mrs. Peel, We’re Needed draws on the knowledge of a broad range of experts and fans of The Avengers as it explores the wonderfully mad Technicolor world of Emma Peel. “The Avengers in pop culture is The Avengers with Diana Rigg and Patrick Macnee, in colour. It is this season that defines the show.” (Piers Johnson)
Anticlockwise
The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between ‘light entertainment’ and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. The arrival of Tara King and Mother saw The Avengers shaken and stirred, as writers and directors playfully engaged with a variety of film and television genres. Steed and Tara face increasingly odd adventures and dangers: killer clowns, a giant nose, love drugs, deadly board games, duplicate Steeds, Victorian fog, an underground ‘paradise’, and vengeful Home Counties cowboys. Anticlockwise draws on the knowledge of a broad range of experts and fans of The Avengers as it explores the surreal, unpredictable, psychedelic world of Tara King. “The Avengers challenged audiences to enjoy art beyond the ordinary.” (Matthew Lee) “The Avengers is a wonderful example of avoiding the tyranny of common sense.” (Robert Fuest)
Avengerland Regained
The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between ‘light entertainment’ and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. The creation of The New Avengers, in 1976, saw John Steed re-emerge, alongside two younger co-leads: sophisticated action girl Purdey and Gambit, a ‘hard man’ with a soft centre. The cultural context had changed – including the technology, music, fashions, cars, fighting styles and television drama itself – but Avengerland was able to re-establish itself. Nazi invaders, a third wave of cybernauts, Hitchcockian killer birds, a sleeping city, giant rat, a deadly health spa, a skyscraper with a destructive mind…The 1970s series is, paradoxically, both new yet also part of the rich, innovative Avengers history. Avengerland Regained draws on the knowledge of a broad range of experts and fans as it explores the final vintage of The Avengers.
Avengerland Revisited
Avengerland Revisited offers the definitive guide to this iconic series, with the filmed era of the show reviewed from every possible angle. It places the original series within its 1960s context and explores the ingredients which combine to make both The Avengers and The New Avengers unique: iconic characters; innovative script writers and direction; fashions; music; cars; sets and locations; the display of martial arts. Writers examine the structural elements of the show’s winning formula: the main titles; teasers; tags. Essays tackle key themes: the country house trap; graveyards; the art of murder; in addition to looking at why this quintessentially British show is such an international success. Avengers veterans Roger Marshall and Raymond Austin offer insiders’ views and Alan Hayes pays homage to the late, great Patrick Macnee. Avengerland Revisited is the definitive guide to this surreal never-never land.
Avengerland: A Critical Guide
At the vanguard of a 1960s cultural revolution, The Avengers was both critically acclaimed and commercially popular. As Britain’s imperial power crumbled away, the television series began to colonise the globe. Critic Rodney Marshall is the son of Avengers script writer Roger Marshall. He has written and/or edited nine books on the series. Avengerland: A Critical Guide brings the main chapters from these previous volumes under one cover. In addition to a number of general essays, the guide explores fifty of the filmed episodes in depth, analysing the show from monochrome film through ‘Glorious Technicolor’ to its reincarnation as The New Avengers. Avengerland is an indispensable guide for fans of this iconic show.
Subversive Champagne
Subversive Champagne re-examines the 1960s cult television series, The Avengers, through a close analysis of 25 filmed episodes. The book examines how The Avengers - during the classic Emma Peel era (1964-1967) - was continually shifting the boundaries of audience expectation, defying both genre classification and viewers' traditional desire for kitchen sink drama. Subversive Champagne centres on eighteen episodes from the monochrome Peel Season 4 - widely acknowledged as the artistic pinnacle of the series. It is in this era - caught between video-tape and colour film - that The Avengers was undergoing arguably its most profound stylistic and thematic transitions, from mild eccentricity to something genuinely experimental. The author extends his journey into the exhilarating but 'uneven' colour Season 5, adding chapters on seven more episodes, thus allowing us to explore the entire Emma Peel era. Entertaining froth or groundbreaking art? Rediscover the most iconic show in television history.
Making It New?: A reappraisal of The New Avengers
The New Avengers is often forgotten or patronisingly treated by fans of the original 1960s cult television show, The Avengers. This short study of a selection of episodes from the two mini-seasons asks fans to think again. The New Avengers was both NEW and AVENGERS. It was part of a television institution but it was also capable of being dynamically fresh. Making It New? reassesses the wonderful world of Steed, Purdey and Gambit, from the fictitious island of St Dorca, via France to Canada where the show ended. Individual chapters on the following:The Eagle’s Nest The Last of the Cybernauts…? To Catch a Rat Cat Amongst the Pigeons Target! The Tale of the Big Why Sleeper Dirtier by the DozenHostage Dead Men Are Dangerous Angels of Death K is for Kill
Adventure & Comic Strip: Exploring Tara King's The Avengers
From the author of Subversive Champagne, this is an exploration of the Tara King era which brought The Avengers to a close. Explores all 33 episodes, offering a critical analysis of each. If you thought that the Tara King era was the tired endgame of a once glorious show it might be time to reassess it. This was a quite remarkable, surreal season in which the series experimented with film noir, hard-boiled fiction, Victoriana horror and much much more. There is a unique mix of adventure and cartoon strip as the most iconic of television shows came to an end with a bang, not a whimper.
The Hour That Never Was
Innovative television drama can rival any field of the arts in terms of material worthy of critical exploration. This series of books focuses on ‘outstanding’ examples of British television dramas, centring on a single episode in an attempt to explain what makes both the episode in particular, and the series in general, remarkable. The social context, script, characters sets/locations, music, and direction are all focal points. Classic British Television Drama (CBTD) opens with an exploration of The Avengers story The Hour That Never Was. It takes artistic risks while visually exploring the subject of ‘two against the underworld’.
Bright Horizons
The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between ‘light entertainment’ and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. At the crossroads between the Cathy Gale-era stricture of video tape and the glossy, surreal, comic-strip world of ‘glorious Technicolor’, the monochrome filmed Emma Peel season represents the artistic pinnacle of a show which was exported around the world and remains the only British television drama to be networked at ‘primetime’ in the USA. Bright Horizons draws on the knowledge of a broad range of experts and fans of The Avengers – including scriptwriter Roger Marshall – offering critical explorations of all twenty-six ‘mini-films’ which made up Season 4, the collective peak of an extraordinary television series. Now includes 50 page quotation glossary.
Mrs. Peel, We're Needed
The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between ‘light entertainment’ and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. The monochrome filmed Emma Peel season had established a cult following for a series which became an intrinsic part of the ‘Swinging Sixties’. Backed by US dollars, the show was now filmed ‘in color’ and Avengerland becomes stranger and more playful than ever: Steed is shrunk to the size of a desk pad, forced to evade a machine-gun-toting nanny; Emma Peel is tortured in a medieval ducking stool and turned into a living cybernaut. Mrs. Peel, We’re Needed draws on the knowledge of a broad range of experts and fans of The Avengers as it explores the wonderfully mad Technicolor world of Emma Peel. “The Avengers in pop culture is The Avengers with Diana Rigg and Patrick Macnee, in colour. It is this season that defines the show.” (Piers Johnson)
Anticlockwise
The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between ‘light entertainment’ and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. The arrival of Tara King and Mother saw The Avengers shaken and stirred, as writers and directors playfully engaged with a variety of film and television genres. Steed and Tara face increasingly odd adventures and dangers: killer clowns, a giant nose, love drugs, deadly board games, duplicate Steeds, Victorian fog, an underground ‘paradise’, and vengeful Home Counties cowboys. Anticlockwise draws on the knowledge of a broad range of experts and fans of The Avengers as it explores the surreal, unpredictable, psychedelic world of Tara King. “The Avengers challenged audiences to enjoy art beyond the ordinary.” (Matthew Lee) “The Avengers is a wonderful example of avoiding the tyranny of common sense.” (Robert Fuest)
Avengerland Regained
The Avengers was a unique, genre-defying television series which blurred the traditional boundaries between ‘light entertainment’ and disturbing drama. It was a product of the constantly-evolving 1960s yet retains a timeless charm. The creation of The New Avengers, in 1976, saw John Steed re-emerge, alongside two younger co-leads: sophisticated action girl Purdey and Gambit, a ‘hard man’ with a soft centre. The cultural context had changed – including the technology, music, fashions, cars, fighting styles and television drama itself – but Avengerland was able to re-establish itself. Nazi invaders, a third wave of cybernauts, Hitchcockian killer birds, a sleeping city, giant rat, a deadly health spa, a skyscraper with a destructive mind…The 1970s series is, paradoxically, both new yet also part of the rich, innovative Avengers history. Avengerland Regained draws on the knowledge of a broad range of experts and fans as it explores the final vintage of The Avengers.
Avengerland Revisited
Avengerland Revisited offers the definitive guide to this iconic series, with the filmed era of the show reviewed from every possible angle. It places the original series within its 1960s context and explores the ingredients which combine to make both The Avengers and The New Avengers unique: iconic characters; innovative script writers and direction; fashions; music; cars; sets and locations; the display of martial arts. Writers examine the structural elements of the show’s winning formula: the main titles; teasers; tags. Essays tackle key themes: the country house trap; graveyards; the art of murder; in addition to looking at why this quintessentially British show is such an international success. Avengers veterans Roger Marshall and Raymond Austin offer insiders’ views and Alan Hayes pays homage to the late, great Patrick Macnee. Avengerland Revisited is the definitive guide to this surreal never-never land.
Avengerland: A Critical Guide
At the vanguard of a 1960s cultural revolution, The Avengers was both critically acclaimed and commercially popular. As Britain’s imperial power crumbled away, the television series began to colonise the globe. Critic Rodney Marshall is the son of Avengers script writer Roger Marshall. He has written and/or edited nine books on the series. Avengerland: A Critical Guide brings the main chapters from these previous volumes under one cover. In addition to a number of general essays, the guide explores fifty of the filmed episodes in depth, analysing the show from monochrome film through ‘Glorious Technicolor’ to its reincarnation as The New Avengers. Avengerland is an indispensable guide for fans of this iconic show.
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darren
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Bright Horizons (about season 4 episodes),
Mrs. Peel We're Needed (about season 5 episodes),
Anti-Clockwise (about season 6 episodes),
Avengerland Regained (about The New Avengers),
and Avengerland Revisited (general themed essays) were joint efforts with essay contributions from members of this forum (I'm thrilled to say I was one of them), edited by Rodney. But the other books are his alone.
Mrs. Peel We're Needed (about season 5 episodes),
Anti-Clockwise (about season 6 episodes),
Avengerland Regained (about The New Avengers),
and Avengerland Revisited (general themed essays) were joint efforts with essay contributions from members of this forum (I'm thrilled to say I was one of them), edited by Rodney. But the other books are his alone.