ITC shows

Australian and New Zealand TV

Mini-review: Danger 5 (SBS1) 1×1

9 March 2012 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Danger 5

In Australia: Mondays, 9.30pm, SBS1. Available on the SBS web site (Australians only)

So imagine a world where the Second World War is happening in the 1960s, Hitler is still alive and five secret agents from around the world have ganged up to try to stop the Nazis.

What do you mean, “Why?” Because I tell you to, that’s why.

Actually, that’s a very good question that maybe we should ask the creators of Australian show Danger 5, who seem to have taken some peyote while watching Thunderbirds, The Prisoner, The Champions, Inglourious Basterds, the Godzilla movies and huge amounts of those bizarre 1960s eurospy movies that Tanner writes about. They’ve come up with a very precise pastiche/homage that tries to walk the line between affectionate and mental, except the peyote is so strong the line actually looks like a blancmange being ridden by Anne of Cleves.

So we have Hitler sending out zeppelins to steal the Eiffel Tower in scenes that remind you of Derek Meddings’ efforts on a bad day; someone with an eagle’s head dressed like Patrick MacGoohan in The Prisoner; deliberately bad dubbing; seductive, smoking, talking robot dogs; bad accents; Champions-like telepathy; exploitation cinema bondage scenes; and more – but for no apparent reason other than it looks cool and people who love the 60s will go “Oh yes, that’s from X”. There’s no plot coherence and no real jokes.

It looks fantastic. A lot of work has obviously gone into it. But it’ll leaving you wondering what the whole thing is supposed to accomplish and why you should be watching it. Even more than Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, in fact.

Here’s a trailer in case you missed it the first time I showed you and the Internet-only pilot episode so you can see for yourself.

Well this looks fun: Danger 5

11 November 2011 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Coming to YouTube on November 21st, it’s Danger 5. Looks a bit like a cross between The Champions, Thunderbirds, The Prisoner, the Godzilla movies and some really tatty 60s spy movies. I’m not entirely sure why they’ve all been crossed with one another, other than it appears to be made by Australians, who would be in the overlap of any Venn diagram of audiences of all those things.

It’s got a cool web site, too: “Devil-kittens of Hitler’s lust dungeon” indeed.

Classic TV

Old Gems: The Baron (1965-66)

1 September 2011 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

In the transfer between book and TV series, a lot can change. A case in point: the ITC adventure series, The Baron, a sort of prototype Lovejoy and the first ITC show filmed entirely in colour that featured people rather than puppets.

Based on John Creasey’s series of novels, The Baron starred American actor Steve Forrest as John Mannering, a former Texas ranch owner and antique dealer who takes on missions for ITC’s catch-all British spy service, Diplomatic Intelligence*, aided by his glamorous spy colleague Cordelia Winfield (Sue Lloyd) .

What’s interesting about this is that in the books

  1. Mannering is British
  2. He’s a former jewel thief
  3. He’s married
  4. He doesn’t own a cattle ranch
  5. He doesn’t work for British intelligence

Basically, ITC bought the name and made another version of The Saint but starring an American. Nevertheless, it was a fun little action show, with lots of fights, car chases and running round, even if the scripts themselves were largely unremarkable. The theme tune was great, plus anything with Sue Lloyd in it has to be good. And for ITC lovers, this was the very few show to feature the notorious "white jaguar driving off a cliff scene" that later appeared in virtually dozens of subsequent ITC shows.

Largely written by Terry "I created the Daleks" Nation and Dennis Spooner, another former Doctor Who script writer, the show was very much in hoc to American financing. As well as the US lead, the show was redubbed for the American market, with words like ‘petrol’ changed to ‘gas’. The original assistant planned for Mannering, David Marlowe (played by Paul Ferris), was replaced by Winfield at US instigation as well.

However, those who live for the American market, die by the American market because when ratings suffered, a second series for the show was out of the question, despite doing well in the UK. Happily, you can buy it on DVD still.

* At the time, SS/MI5 and SIS/MI6 didn’t officially exist