Full Cast Audios of the Lost Avengers Episodes

[Alan]

It's never going to feel right that there is so much of Series 1 missing and likely never to be found, but I have to be honest, these audio dramas make it a heck of a lot easier to accept.

Once you accept that those episodes are gone, it makes visiting them in other ways so much easier.

My only regret with these audios was that they weren't done twenty or thirty years ago, when Macnee and even Hendry might have been involved. That's not to say that I'm in any way disappointed with Wadham and Howell - I'm not - but that it would have been that bit more authentic.

But sometimes, dreams take too long to come true for them to be exactly as you wish.

[Frankymole]

I know what you mean, and it is certainly something that often works against actors taking on roles which are so very linked with one particular actor. There's actually more of a case for any number of people playing Holmes because there's the original novels and short stories and every actor comes along and finds their interpretation from it.

Steed, while he started out on the printed page (the scripts), the character is as much Macnee's as the writers' as the creation of John Steed was a collaborative process. This is why everyone who plays the role will inevitably be compared to Macnee, because there is a lot of Macnee in the role as written. This is not the case with Holmes/Brett or Bond/Connery.

However, Donald Monat and Julian Wadham have proved to me that it *is* entirely possible to create a new Steed, which doesn't imitate, but takes the germ of the performance, the metre of the delivery, and yet make it their own.

Ralph Fiennes, on the other hand...

Fiennes was badly miscast, and Uma Thurman even more so. The trouble with Hollywood is they won't look outside "names" and so-called stars who actually have very limited repertoires, instead of holding auditions that will actually look for someone with the maturity and easy charm (with an undercurrent of steel) required for Steed - someone with the swordblade within his whangee umbrella, if you will. Both Monat and Wadham have that in spades.

By thinking they were not taking risks, the movie's producers actually fell foul of the biggest risk of all. That a big-name actor wasn't right for the part.

[Timeless A-Peel]

Thanks, Timeless. It was certainly something I hoped to achieve when I started investigating Series 1, but I never imagined that it would involve me in reconstructing the episodes, publishing two books and being able to sit down and listen to audio dramatisations! Beyond my wildest dreams!

I think it was beyond pretty much everyone's wildest dreams, Alan! But we've been very lucky!

Recasting any of these characters was always going to be tricky, but both audio iterations of the show have done a wonderful job of finding people up to the challenge who also manage to put their own spin on the characters, a difficult feat indeed.

[Lhbizness]

I'll have to listen to the Monat episodes (those are the South African radio shows, right?) and see if he appeals to my view of Steed. I have to admit that Wadham simply does not - although, having listened a bit more, I'm beginning to like Howell a lot. Wadham sounds almost too posh to me - I'm not buying that he's capable of participating in an underground criminal organization, or that he can smile and cut a man's throat. Not that Macnee doesn't sound posh, but he always had that undercurrent of dissipation and controlled violence that Wadham simply doesn't possess, at least in his voice. Macnee was helped by his physicality. I rewatched The Frighteners after listening to the audios and was impressed by how incredibly dominating and frightening Macnee's Steed was. He's capable of posing both as a idiotic escort AND threatening to cut a man's throat with a razor, and be believable in both parts. I don't hear that steel underneath Wadham's voice. He's not the Scarlet Pimpernel - he's just Percy Blakeney. So I am very disappointed in him. Beyond the "Macnee or not Macnee" issue, I just don't find his version of Steed terribly appealing.

Fiennes was just poor casting really - he's a fine actor and has a lot of charm, but poor direction and an even worse script destroyed any chance of being able to interpret the character as anything more than caricature. These adaptations at least don't caricature the two leads, but I do think some depth has been lost that can never really be regained. It feels more like a reboot and less like the "real" Avengers.

[mousemeat]

I'll have to listen to the Monat episodes (those are the South African radio shows, right?) and see if he appeals to my view of Steed. I have to admit that Wadham simply does not - although, having listened a bit more, I'm beginning to like Howell a lot. Wadham sounds almost too posh to me - I'm not buying that he's capable of participating in an underground criminal organization, or that he can smile and cut a man's throat. Not that Macnee doesn't sound posh, but he always had that undercurrent of dissipation and controlled violence that Wadham simply doesn't possess, at least in his voice. Macnee was helped by his physicality. I rewatched The Frighteners after listening to the audios and was impressed by how incredibly dominating and frightening Macnee's Steed was. He's capable of posing both as a idiotic escort AND threatening to cut a man's throat with a razor, and be believable in both parts. I don't hear that steel underneath Wadham's voice. He's not the Scarlet Pimpernel - he's just Percy Blakeney. So I am very disappointed in him. Beyond the "Macnee or not Macnee" issue, I just don't find his version of Steed terribly appealing.

Fiennes was just poor casting really - he's a fine actor and has a lot of charm, but poor direction and an even worse script destroyed any chance of being able to interpret the character as anything more than caricature. These adaptations at least don't caricature the two leads, but I do think some depth has been lost that can never really be regained. It feels more like a reboot and less like the "real" Avengers.

great point about Fiennes...right on the mark...it was an terrible trainwreck for both Fiennes...and the film. crash and burn.

[paulpdjh]

In case anyone missed it, Volume 2 of the audiobook series was released earlier this week:

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/the-ave ... -2-now-out


Also Big Finish have announced the line up for volume 3, which is out in January:

The Springers
The Yellow Needle
Double Danger
Toy Trap

http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/the-ave ... p-revealed

[Lhbizness]

It'll be tough when they get around to Dragonsfield, which seems to have been such an - ahem - visual episode.

[Frankymole]

I'm sure they'll rise magnificently to the challenge. They managed it with such a visual show as Dr Who!

[Lhbizness]

Can't get shirtless Steed on the radio, no matter how good the production values.

Now, that would be interesting as well: take the scripts and make a TV show out of them. It would bring back the visual element. There are probably a lot of licensing or rights barriers to that, but still.

[Alan]

There are probably a lot of licensing or rights barriers to that, but still.

Lauren, you win the understatement of the week award.