Review: The Adventurer
- Article 3 of 7
- Action TV, April 2006
Where did it all start to go wrong for ITC? The long-standing producer of ITV action series during the 60s, ITC’s honour roll of classic programmes is long and varied, taking in shows such as The Champions, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Saint and Danger Man. But by the early 70s, ITC started to run out of steam and if there’s one show that demonstrates the creative shortfall the company was facing, it is The Adventurer.
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The Adventurer starred Gene Barry, best known as the lead in the 1953 movie The War of the Worlds and as Amos Burke in Burke’s Law, as the similarly-named Gene Bradley. A world-famous movie actor and millionaire industrialist, Bradley is also a spy, working for both US and UK governments, represented by Mr Parminter, a bowler-hatted minion of the “Ministry of External Affairs” played by Barry Morse (Space 1999, The Fugitive). Each half-hour episode would feature Bradley breaking up a criminal or espionage ring, usually with the help of one of Parminter’s other agents, sometimes by himself, all while trying to preserve his secret identity.
ITC shows were mainly the work of one production company, Scoton, formed by Monty Berman and Dennis Spooner. Scoton’s shows, the last of which was The Adventurer, had certain common themes: they were crime or spy shows, usually with some element of the extraordinary in them; they typically had one or two leads, one of whom was American for international sales purposes; and they used many of the same writers, directors, actors and crews, so there was often a certain similarity of styles and scripts between series.
The Adventurer was no different and suffered from certain problems right from the beginning as a result. The concept of a millionaire playboy who fights crime had already been well-covered by Scoton’s previous shows Jason King, The Persuaders!, The Saint and The Baron. Apart from the movie-star angle, there was little to differentiate Bradley from his predecessors other than the fact Gene Barry was playing him.
Then there was the episode length. Lumbered with a half-hour run-time, thanks to a back-to-back slot with The Protectors in the US, there was very little time to fit in the plots of the show, let alone any character exploration that could have fixed this problem. How Bradley earned his money, became a spy and became a movie star are never explained. To fit the needs of the plot, his character alternates between constantly refusing to do anything for Parminter because he’d rather be sunbathing or dining “with the ladies”, and badgering Parminter to take on various cases he’s been investigating in his spare time. The only common thread is that Bradley is adored by millions, including himself – not a particularly good starting point for a hero.
Then there was the star himself. Barry was 52 by the time the show started filming in 1971, and was definitely past his prime. Even with a slightly unconvincing wig, Barry was implausible as an action figure who could knock out dozens of men in a fight; and his constant chasing of women half his age while draped in the latest 70s’ fashions didn’t add to the realism either.
Scoton had originally intended the 34 year-old Stuart Damon, the American lead of The Champions, to fix this problem. Damon was to have looked after most of the action scenes while Barry provided the brains and the expertise. Unfortunately, Damon suffered from a serious disability that resulted in his barely appearing in even the two episodes for which he’s credited, let alone the whole series, despite having a year’s contract with the show.
Damon’s crippling disability was his height. At 6’3“, he dwarfed the significantly sub-6’ Gene Barry. Barry took one look at Damon at their initial meeting and Damon’s chance at UK stardom evaporated in an instant. (A regular pay cheque from the US soap General Hospital for the next 30 or so years has helped ease his pain though.)
In his place came a rotating roster of much shorter assistants for Barry, the most featured of which was Garrick Hagon (Moonbase 3) sporting a not-totally convincing American accent. Catherine Schell (Space:1999), originally intended as a regular female companion for Bradley, proved to be too tall for Barry as well. She ended up sitting down for virtually all of her scenes with Barry until she was summarily expunged from the show. Thanks to some confusion among the writers, she was able to return for a couple of episodes later in the season that didn’t involve any interaction with the star.
With no other characters for the show to focus on, the show very much hinged on Barry. Although Barry managed to develop some repartee with Morse as the series progressed – leading the producers to give Morse directing duties on several episodes – he was never ever able to bring any real depth or charm to his performance, a fatal flaw with so much depending on him.
If the usual Scoton magic had been working, the creative team might have been able to lift the show to a higher level. But like its foundations, the show’s creative trappings were pretty uninspiring. The scripts were at best generic and at worst utterly forgettable. The directing was pedestrian, despite the presence of stalwarts like Val Guest and Cyril Frankel. The titles were little more than a montage of action scenes and of Barry looking important and a little unfit, making them distinctly unmemorable.
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