Adam Adamant Lives! (partially lost BBC children's TV series; 1966)

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Adam-Adamant-Lives-The-Complete-Collection-Front-Cover-34716.jpg

Cover of the UK DVD, which collates all of the extant episodes.

Status: Partially Lost

Adam Adamant Lives! was a live-action children's television show produced by the BBC, airing from the 3rd of June 1966 to the 25th of March 1967 for 30 episodes (including one unaired pilot) over two seasons.

Premise

The show starred Gerald Harper as the eponymous hero, a swashbuckling Edwardian adventurer who is cryogenically frozen by his nemesis, The Face, and wakes up in 1960s England, where everything has changed for him. He and his companion Georgina Jones (played by Juliet Harmer) go on adventures together, with the series taking a particularly satirical look at the 1960s culture Adam finds himself completely out of his depth in.

Availability and Reception

The series became a cult hit and was massively influential. The show was supposedly an attempt by the BBC to enjoy the same huge success as The Avengers[1] (another British TV show from the 1960s with many missing episodes), and Adam Adamant himself was very much based around the Doctor from another British classic, Doctor Who. (in fact, Adam Adamant's show-runners were Sydney Newman and Verity Lambert, the former having been responsible for getting both Doctor Who and The Avengers off the ground in the first place, and the latter having written for Doctor Who extensively.)

Due to the BBC poorly archiving and cataloging the majority of their television programs from the 1950s and 1960s, thirteen episodes are missing in their entirety. The BBC (through their Archive Treasure Hunt campaign) urges any member of the public to come forward with home video recordings so that the missing episodes can be restored and released to home media.

The 2006 PAL DVD release has all seventeen surviving episodes,[2] spread over five discs. The show is also available ripped on YouTube.[3]

List of Episodes

Season Name Status Original Air Date Comment
None Adam Adamant Lives (Pilot) Lost Unaired 1902 sequence reused in A Vintage Year for Scoundrels
Season 1 A Vintage Year for Scoundrels Found 23 June 1966 On DVD and YouTube
Death Has a Thousand Faces Found 30 June 1966 On DVD and YouTube
More Deadly Than the Sword Found 7 July 1966 On DVD and YouTube
The Sweet Smell of Disaster Found 14 July 1966 On DVD and YouTube
Allah Is Not Always With You Found 21 July 1966 On DVD and YouTube
The Terribly Happy Embalmers Found 4 August 1966 On DVD and YouTube
To Set a Deadly Fashion Found 11 August 1966 On DVD and YouTube
The Last Sacrifice Found 18 August 1966 On DVD and YouTube
Sing a Song of Murder Found 25 August 1966 On DVD and YouTube (though of Lower Quality)
The Doomsday Plan Found 1 September 1966 On DVD and YouTube
Death by Appointment Only Found 8 September 1966 On DVD and YouTube
Beauty Is an Ugly World Found 15 September 1966 On DVD and YouTube
The League of Uncharitable Ladies Found 22 September 1966 On DVD and YouTube
Ticket to Terror Lost 29 September 1966 One photo exists, no surviving footage or audio
The Village of Evil Found 6 October 1966 On DVD and YouTube
D for Destruction Found 13 October 1966 Recovered in 2003, On DVD and YouTube
Season 2 A Slight Case of Reincarnation Partially Found 31 December 1966 4 minute audio extract available on DVD
Black Echo Found 7 January 1967 On DVD and YouTube
Conspiracy of Death Lost 14 January 1967 No surviving footage or audio
The Basardi Affair Partially Found 21 January 1967 Complete audio recording recovered in 2017
The Survivors Lost 28 January 1967 No surviving footage or audio
Face in a Mirror Lost 4 February 1967 No surviving footage or audio
Another Little Drink Lost 11 February 1967 No surviving footage or audio
Death Begins at Seventy Lost 18 February 1967 No surviving footage or audio
Tunnel of Death Lost 25 February 1967 No surviving footage or audio
The Deadly Bullet Lost 4 March 1967 No surviving footage or audio
The Resurrectionists Lost 11 March 1967 No surviving footage or audio
Wish You Were Here Lost 18 March 1967 No surviving footage or audio
A Sinister Sort of Service Found 25 March 1967 On DVD and YouTube

All information correct at time of writing[4]

Legacy

Adam Adamant Lives! has remained a beloved cult classic over the years, and has gone on to inspire many. Two such examples include New Wave band Adam and The Ants (eventually shortened to just Adam Ant) in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the Austin Powers film franchise was said to have been influenced by AAL!'s plot and Gerald Harper's unique look while playing the titular character.[5]

BBC 4 ran a six-part documentary series on the show in 2008,[6] and Diamanda Hagan of Channel Awesome/TGWTG ran a retrospective series covering all of the surviving episodes.[7]

External Links

References