I finally gave in to temptation and bought the boxed set of The Champions - I only had a few random episodes on video before. This is the 1960s series starring Stuart Damon, Alexandra Bastedo and William Gaunt, secret agents with enhanced physical and mental powers.
I wanted to watch an episode I didn't remember first, just to see if I would really enjoy it, or if my enjoyment was influenced by my happy memories of watching it before.
So I chose the episode The Bodysnatchers. I didn't remember it, and as a bonus it was set in Wales, and written by Terry Nation.
There is only one Welshman in the entire episode - Talfryn Thomas, who plays a garage mechanic. Craig and Sharon needed some excuse to travel on a picturesque Welsh steam train, so their car breaks down. The stock footage is lovely, and I think includes Lake Bala. At one point Sharon wakes up from a doze at a station and asks "Where are we?"
Craig starts to answer, and then just points at the station sign. "There," he says.
Later, Sharon pronounces all the Welsh names perfectly. However, it was a great disappointment to see her standing around in the big fight scene while Craig and Richard were enthusiastically punching everybody in sight. At least she got to beat up one of the guards and take his machine gun from him earlier in the episode.
The villain of the piece was a very menacing Bernard Lee - M from James Bond! There's a journalist snooping around the place, and when Bernard Lee catches him, he takes great pleasure in killing him horribly (and fortunately off screen). He had kidnapped/bodysnatched a US General, hoping to cryogenically freeze him and then revive him to tell his military secrets.
The episode just about passes the Bechdel Test, as Sharon talks to the young Englishwoman who runs the Prince of Wales pub/hotel, where they're staying. The cryogenic scientist is also a young woman, giving Richard someone to charm and be kind to while trying to find out what's going on at the remote clinic.
So I had great fun watching the episode, and I'm looking forward to re-visiting some of my favourites now.
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