ShadeGrenade
As a result of the popularity of 'The Saint' starring Roger Moore, I.T.C. made a number of shows in similar vein. Monty Berman and Dennis Spooner followed up 'The Baron' ( starring Steve Forrest and loosely based on John Creasey's books ) with this - a fondly remembered fantasy series about superhuman spies that preempted by a few years 'The Six Million Dollar Man'. Craig Stirling ( Stuart Damon ), Richard Barrett ( William Gaunt ), and Sharron Macready ( Alexandra Bastedo ) are agents of NEMESIS, an espionage organisation whose headquarters is in Geneva ( the opening titles were played over shots of the Lac Leman fountain ). At the start of 'The Beginning', they break into Red China to steal the latest development in bacteriological warfare. Completing the job, they escape by plane. Red Chinese troops shoot it down. It crashes in the Himalayas. A strange elderly man ( Felix Aylmer ) in robes approaches the wreckage. When the agents awaken, they find that their bodies have been mended and that they now possess superhuman abilities, including lighting-fast reflexes and telepathy. After deciding not to tell Tremayne ( Anthony Nicholls ), their boss, they use their powers for good. Being superhuman certainly helped them survive such ordeals as being thrown out of a plane, tortured in an underground garage, shut in a freezer, and made to fight other agents with identical powers ( 'The Experiment' ). Damon and Gaunt had an unmistakable on-screen chemistry as 'Craig' and 'Richard', while the luscious Bastedo pouted her way through her role as 'Sharron'. Nicholls made a wonderfully gruff Tremayne, and had an office that put Mr.Waverly's ( of 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.' ) to shame. Pressing a button on the desk could cause a wall ( on which a map of the world was prominently featured ) to reverse and display a screen on which films could be projected. Most of the plots adhered to the standard spy/crime format beloved of I.T.C. shows, but a few had a touch of the fantastical to them, such as those written by the late Tony Williamson. 'Project Zero' is my personal favourite, although 'Shadow Of The Panther' gets involved with voodoo and zombies. Terry Nation and Brian Clemens also wrote some corkers, while Spooner's 'The Interrogation' compared favourably with 'The Prisoner'. Craig is imprisoned in a strange room from which there is no escape. He faces relentless questioning from a man played by Colin Blakely. The twist is that Tremayne ordered the interrogation after becoming suspicious of Craig's successful record as a spy. The final episode - 'Autokill' - had a brainwashed Barrett facing off against his friends. The excellent theme tune was by Tony Hatch. Robert Farnon, Albert Elms, and Edwin Astley contributed incidental music. Guest stars included Kate O'Mara, Peter Wyngarde, Rupert Davies, Michael Gough, Paul Eddington, William Franklyn, and Donald Sutherland. John Garforth penned a novelisation entitled 'The Sixth Sense Is Death' for Panther, and the short-lived comic 'Joe 90 - Top Secret' ran a two-page strip ( whose stories were often more ambitious than the show's! ).Though a hit in Britain, any chance it had of success in America was sabotaged by the network screening it - it chose to kick off with 'To Trap A Rat' instead of 'The Beginning'. Viewers watching must have been pretty confused. I regret that there was never a second series; the concept had so much life left in it. Would Craig and Richard have been competitors for Sharron's affections? What if Tremayne had learnt of the Champions' powers? Did the Champions have any other abilities other than those we saw? We never found out, alas. Perhaps the mooted movie version will answer some of these questions.
dreycam
My siblings and I stumbled upon The Champions when our local station aired re-runs of it one summer in the 1970's. We absolutely adored it. There was something so exotic and mysterious about it, especially when compared to the usual American re-runs (Petticoat Junction, Green Acres... you get the idea). It had a similar feel to The Avengers (not too much of a surprise, since it was also British and in the spy/adventure genre).I would love to see it again now -- hopefully it holds up. I've mentioned this show to others and no one has ever heard of it, so I began to wonder if I'd imagined its whole existence. But the wonder that is the web has allowed me track down information about it. Hopefully it will find a new generation of fans.
dubnut
You can tell by the Buddhist overtones in the first 2 episodes that Dennis Spooner was involved here. The Champions, or what I've seen of the series (6 episodes), is yet another in the long line of 60s-70s spy shows from Great Britain. But the marked difference here is the special abilities given to each of the main characters.They all have unusual, superhuman powers which aid them in their crime-busting. It's a bit cheesy at times, but whatever gets the job done...I know that The Champions are virtually unheard of in my native country, but the videos are commercially available in the UK. If you're fond of obscure technicolor british action-adventure, then you can't miss The Champions.
The only problem I have with the series so far: Why do so many British shows have American actors at the helm?
