The Avengers International Fan Forum

Alan · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 2:06 pm Post subject:

Of course they are the same characters, but I suppose I have long accepted different interpretations - I heard my first Avengers radio episode over 20 years ago, for instance, and there was long the talk of an Avengers movie before one actually happened - and it was always pretty much accepted that new actors would play Steed and Mrs Peel.

It's not an issue for me, though I can see how it might be for other people.

I see them as the same characters, but I consider each version separate, so I've never expended too much energy in comparing one to the other. If I enjoy, I enjoy - and, for the most part, I do enjoy the Big Finish CDs. They don't hit every note perfectly - I think sometimes they create a cod-1960s, and occasionally performers bring their prejudices about the era to the table; i.e. playing it "posh" "because that's how people spoke back then", something which is disproved in the surviving materials. But generally, I think they do a good job, and - this may surprise you - it brings new people to the old series.
_________________
Alan
--
Hidden Tiger Books

Lhbizness · Guest

I'm still not sure that I've made it clear what I was trying to get at, but I'll avoid harping.

Thank you for giving your view. I hope these interpretations turn out to be decent. I have no idea if anyone has come to The Avengers via Big Finish - if they have, I think that's a good thing. I suppose I want more attention paid to the originals than Big Finish seems (to me) to give.

Lhbizness · Guest

Big Finish has posted the trailer for their Steed and Mrs. Peel series. Needless to say, I am unimpressed.

https://soundcloud.com/big-finish/the-avengers-steed-and-mrs-peel-the-comic-strip-adaptations-volume-1-trailer

Peter Motte · Little Wonder Joined: 31 Aug 2008 Posts: 159

Steed and Peel don't look like Steed and Peel.
Am I missing something?
_________________
Prrr......
-----------
Peter Motte, translator English/French to Dutch

Lhbizness · Guest

I'm falling back on my old position of "I don't know what this is, but it's not The Avengers."

mrs_emma_peel · Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2016 4:06 am Post subject:

I enjoyed the trailer - the production sounds very impressive - delighted they have got the rights to the original 1965 Laurie Johnson theme. Steed & Mrs Peel naturally sound different but I'm looking forward to this new, yet hopefully faithful to series 4 & 5, interpretation of Steed & Emma with the entertaining looking adapted story-lines Smile

For the future I would like to see the 1965 book Deadline - which I think is the best of all the Avengers novels - a fine serious thriller, by Patrick Macnee and Peter Leslie, adapted by Big Finish.
_________________
James/Mrs Emma Peel

Lhbizness · Guest

I find it embarrassing. Wadham sounds ancient, Poulet sounds like a child. But it's not The Avengers or anything close to them, so I guess I don't have to worry.

Spaceship Dispatcher · Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 3:49 am Post subject:

Wow! I just listened to the trailer for the new audio episodes with Steed and Emma Peel together. The style sounds like a lot of fun, and Olivia Poulet comes across as suitably aloof and fruity to recreate the moneyed and carefree adventuress of the swinging sixties! Looking forward to hearing these even more now...

Alan · Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 4:11 am Post subject:

The trailer works for me, too. Wadham, particularly. It's hard (and unfair) to judge Olivia Poulet based on just a trailer, so I'm not making my mind up on that facet of these new releases just yet.
_________________
Alan
--
Hidden Tiger Books

Lhbizness · Guest

To each their own. I'd rather watch the film than listen to this. Though I admit, I don't find Wadham a compelling actor in any form, and Poulet's interpretation (at least in this clip) is far from the mark of any recognizable Emma Peel. So, it's not really The Avengers. It's something else that I will hopefully be able to ignore. It's a shame, though.

Alan · Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 6:36 am Post subject:

As I say, it's difficult to judge that much from a hotch-potch of soundbites alone. For instance, I thought the Big Finish adaptation of The Prisoner was going to be godawful having heard the trailer, but when listening to the "problem soundbites" in context, they were fine, and the production exceptional.

However, I'd suggest that anyone who disliked the Series 1 adaptations is unlikely to fall in love with the Steed and Peel era stuff. Besides anything else, the material to which it has to live up to is at our fingertips.

I'm looking forward to hearing the finished plays, even if I have a concern that in adapting children's comic strips the tone will be somewhat more infantile than is appropriate. We'll see.

Certainly, there is a distinct change in Wadham's approach, and his delivery does seem more in tune with the colour Peel era than I perhaps exprected it to be.
_________________
Alan
--
Hidden Tiger Books

Lhbizness · Guest

That's absolutely true - and admittedly my dislike of Wadham here is colored by my dislike of him as Steed in the Lost Episodes (I'm not hearing any difference, though that may change once a full episode is available. He still sounds like he's trying to verbally molest every woman who comes within his radius). Add to that an Emma Peel who sounds like a teenager - seriously, what the hell?! - and this greatly disturbs me.

I do wish that it was possible to actually listen to a full episode rather than having to purchase the entire set, as I don't particularly want to spend $25 on something that I am already very skeptical about.

Alan · Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 11:28 am Post subject:

My recommendation would be to spend that money on something you have more chance of enjoying. Smile

FWIW, I can hear a huge difference in Wadham's approach from the Lost Episodes to this.
_________________
Alan
--
Hidden Tiger Books

Lhbizness · Guest

Well, that's the problem, isn't it? I presume that radio/audio critics get review copies for free - otherwise it's basically loaded dice, as you can't criticize it without monetarily supporting it.

He's gotten creepier? Very Happy

Alan · Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 2:48 pm Post subject:

Lhbizness · Guest

Most professional critics/reviewers get free review copies for precisely this reason: they are being paid by an outlet to give an unbiased review, and are not required to support the product they're reviewing. All the blu-rays I review are provided by the studios; all the press screenings I attend are free. The same is true for professional literary critics, as far as I know. I wouldn't expect Big Finish to issue things to fans, of course.

Anyways, it's just rough that they don't offer single episodes. It's either you buy the full disc, or nothing - or pirating. But it means that in order to offer any kind of criticism or critique, you have to support them.

Lhbizness · Guest

Lol - I just listened to the first episode and it's...so bad. So. Bad. Hilariously bad.

Spaceship Dispatcher · Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2016 12:52 pm Post subject:

Lhbizness · Guest

Don't bother. It's terrible. Actually an embarrassment to The Avengers, to John Steed, Emma Peel, Patrick Macnee, and Diana Rigg. There is no excuse for this.

darren · Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2016 4:19 am Post subject:

I had a listen to the 15 minute preview on their website.

No, I'm not feeling it.

I'm not familiar with the comic strips but The Miser opening feels more like a Department S storyline.

I don't really feel like I'm listening to Emma and Steed - something just feels off. Poulet sounds like she's doing a Thurman. No one sounds like Diana Rigg other than Diana Rigg, so trying to get that Emma Peel non-Chalant-ness (for want of a better term) just comes over as cold. Steed and Emma specifically are a difficult character voice to find as soo much comes from the actors.

I wasn't intending to anyway, but this preview hasn't encouraged me to purchase. I am interested in how Paul Magrs script goes though - though he might just go for full on camp..