"Adam Adamant Lives" was something quite different from the BBC in attempting to be a more original television series. I became susceptible to this from the moment I first heard of this series. It is about the coming together of two completely different worlds and cultures - the former being the very early 1900s and the latter being the swinging 1960s. I found the opening episode to be ideal in setting up the regular cast and Gerald Harper in particular. The opening scene where Adamant has a confrontation with his arch nemesis before being frozen alive is very exciting and imaginative. He displays much vulnerability in his adjusting to what was then modern day England and plays his role very well. I can't understand why some episodes were shot on film and others on videotape but it is of little consequence. As with most programmes of this era, a number of episodes of "Adam Adamant Lives" are still missing from the archives (thanks a f****** bunch BBC!). However, the ones that do exist present a pretty good idea at how this series works. I find most of the instalments to be thoroughly enjoyable and I like the way that Adam Adamant brings his own set of Edwardian values into the modern day. Typically, the budget was pretty modest but it's the writing and the acting that matter.

Adam Adamant Lives! was created by Richard Harris and Donald Cotton. Dr Who producer Verity Lambert also produced this series.Edwardian adventurer Adam Adamant(Gerald Harper)is frozen in 1902 by his arch enemy. In 1960's London, he is found by workmen and revived.Aided by Georgina Jones (Juliet Harmer), Adam continues to fight criminals and tries to adjust to a much changed world. I love the scenes in the first episode where Adam ventures out into 1960's London, he is disorientated and overwhelmed, Harper and the camera and sound capture that so well.Harper is superb as Adamant, in this character and his performance you can find traces of John Steed and Simon Templar. He is so suave and classy, he can defend himself very well and you certainly don't want to get into a fight with him.I love the relationship between him and Georgina, scenes between them are my favourites in the series.I'm not really a fan of remakes, but I think a new series of this set today would work very well if done right.

I'm pleased to report that Adam Adamant remains largely as entertaining to its fans who remember it as when first viewed 40 years back. Adamant is the gracious man of action propelled through the marvels of suspended animation by a devious foe, Samurai Jack-like, to the future - an enigmatic event revisited in brief flash back by the programme most weeks. And best of all at the start of each episode, the larger than life mood is set splendidly by a memorable Goldfinger-like ballad, sung by a full throated Kathy Kirby.The first episode sets up the key situation, and all the others I have seen thereafter take place in the 60's, with the now 99 year-old, but still youthful, adventurer taking on a different bunch of foes each week - often at the unoffficial behest of the British Government, who value his peculiar, off beat talent for sniffing out dire deeds.Aiding Adamant in his efforts is a vaguely camp, risqué limerick loving, manservant Simms - permanently installed in his discreet flat hidden above a London car park - and Miss Jones (Juliet Harmer), a young, impulsive, typically swinging sixties bird, who inevitably gets into scrapes and precipitates the main crisis each week as she gets captured. Adamant himself is amusingly disdainful of modern mores and fashions - although he does allow himself the pleasure of driving a mini one notices. He also remains impeccably dressed in the style of a 1880's gentleman, complete with spats, waist coat and a sword stick (making up an odd if dashing, figure, never made an object of derision, even by his fiercest enemies).Those who enjoy the tongue in cheek qualities which hallmarked The Avengers will find some similarities here, not just in the dashing, Steed-like turn out of the central character (and indeed it shares at least one of that programme's writers, Brian Clemens, at times) although it has to be admitted the better known show deserves its superior reputation. The Adamant script formula is fairly rigid by comparison, with the same set ups each week - including the prompt and slightly ludicrous appearance of Miss Jones as employee in every establishment which finds itself under suspicion - and it lacks the implicit sexual magneticism, larger budget, and surreal sophistication of the other show. Despite the best charms of Miss Jones, Adamant is above real flirtation (although he is a ladies' man in his own, genteel way) an element of his character which somewhat weakens a potentially interesting relationship.More often than not Adam confronts each week a conspiracy of some sort against the general public or public finances, whether it originates from a bunch of crooked embalmers, religious fanatics, frock designers, casino operators, record companies and soap manufacturers - or even from those who, in one episode, plan to devastate Blackpool's golden mile, with exploding light bulbs no less.The best moments of the series are usually in the weird Adamant household, with some low level bitching usually going on between frosty, ever loyal manservant and Miss Jones. Some episodes rise to very entertaining heights, notably the one set within a fashion house this while, as Adamant kills the odd henchman with his sword stick or exposes the workings of an evil escort agency, one is reminded that not all viewers would have been youngsters. But over all, its very atmospheric fun, marvelously preserved, very much of its period if you care for the time capsule experience.The set includes a whimsical, but ultimately not very informative, commentary on one or two shows by the now elderly Adamant (Gerald Harper) and associates, as well as a documentary and stills from the missing episodes. No less a talent than Ridley Scott worked on one episode - very much a journeyman effort - of which not all exist. Those which do are largely from the first of two seasons. Fortunately each one stands alone, enjoyable in their own right.

I regret to say that I never saw 'Adam Adamant Lives!' at the time. My first encounter proper was in the early 1990's when the first two episodes came out on video. I was hooked! Sadly there were no further releases. I got in touch with someone who had copies of the surviving episodes ( many of appalling picture and sound quality ) and could see that here was another innovative and inventive series from the creative mind of Sydney Newman ( his others include 'The Avengers' and 'Dr.Who' ). Placed in suspended animation by his arch-enemy 'The Face', the dashing Edwardian hero Adam Adamant ( Gerald Harper ) was found and revived in 1966, where he, aided and abetted by his sidekicks - the wide-eyed Mod Georgina Jones and 'Jeeves'-like butler William Simms, battled evil in the modern world. In 'The Sweet Smell Of Disaster', for instance, Kinthley ( Charles Tingwell ) tries to get the country hooked on the scent of a new kind of soap powder. 'The Doomsday Plan' has Dr.Mort ( Peter Vaughan ) out to fake a nuclear attack on London. 'Sing A Song Of Murder' involves pop music turning teenagers into criminals. It was surprisingly violent at times; Adam never failed to run someone through with his sword if he thought they deserved it, and in one episode a man was impaled on a steering wheel.Verity Lambert produced, the scripts were by amongst others Brian Clemens and Tony Williamson. Ridley Scott directed several episodes. Being a video-taped B.B.C. production, it stood no chance of competing with the more expensive filmed shows made by I.T.C., but worked well on its own terms.Gerald Harper cut a dash as the caped Adamant, sword stick forever at the ready. There was humour in his attempts to adjust to the modern world. Kathy Kirby sang the Bond-like theme song, and Bernard Lodge's titles blended Victoriana and '60's chic. So popular was 'Adam' that he followed 'The Avengers' into the pages of 'T.V. Comic'! The first season outperformed 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' in the ratings in Britain. In the second year, Peter Ducrow was reintroduced as 'The Face'. Many episodes no longer exist, alas, but those that do are entertaining and amusing. B.B.C.-4 ran a documentary - 'The Cult Of Adam Adamant' - a while back, and the series has been issued on D.V.D.( To the unnamed author of the comment entitled 'First Episode', I see you have chosen to submit a hostile review when, by your own admission, you watched only half of the first episode. You do not seem to have grasped the fact that it was a fantasy adventure, and as such was not intended to be taken seriously. )