The comic strip, part 35 - I get so angry when the teardrops start

"Detectives on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" - April 22, 1993

Billions of years ago when I was young I spent half a year saving up for a book called "The ITV Encyclopedia of Adventure" by Dave Rogers. In those days before the internet, it cost $55 to get an import copy of a book that had a list price of £9.95. This book was close to 600 pages of wonders, television programs that I was quite familiar with (The Avengers, The Prisoner) shows that I had heard whispers of, but had no hope of ever seeing in my lifetime (Ace of Wands, Sapphire and Steel) and finally a huge number of programs that I had never heard of. It was like an entire other world was opening up. All of these things had been made and broadcast. Millions of people had watched them. And, of course, many of them had been deleted long ago. Lost forever before I had even a clue that they existed in the first place.

My heavens I poured over that book. I learned all about Man in a Suitcase and Special Branch, and when I, through the magic of videotape trading, was able to get blurry, washed out seventh generation copies of things like Kinvig and The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, I jumped at them.

I say this here because I want to get across just how incredibly strange it is to see this episode. When Jim Broadbent arrives in the role of "Shouting George of The Weeney," I know exactly what he is sending up, even though I've never seen an episode of The Sweeney in my life.

I think that in the course of my life I have seen a grand total of three still photographs of Peter Wynegard. (apart from the episode of Doctor Who where he swishes across Lanzarote in a burkha), and that is the total of my experience with Jason King. But when Peter Richardson swishes in as Jason Bentley, I know precisely what is being referenced.

Bonehead and Foyle - well, we've met them before. They're meant to be The Professionals (as I understand it) and I know about them because Rogers cunningly entered their previous Comic Strip adventure in the book as well. And here they are again. The Professionals used to show up at two in the morning in the summertime now and then. I think I've seen about seven minutes total, and as far as I can recall it all has to do with different images of sportscars pulling up to park in front of pubs.

The odd man out, for me at least, is "Northern Detective" Dave Spanker. I suspect that the show he is supposed to be sending up was broadcast after The ITV Encyclopedia of Adventure was published. Still, I get the drift about what sort of show it was.

The musical numbers could be a reference to Cop Rock, but I would prefer to imagine that it was never shown in the UK and the Comic Strip production team were just having fun.

This is the first episode of the last real season that the Comic Strip has had to date, and it is sort of odd. On the one hand, once again, they go to what seems like a sequel, but really it isn't. The Bonehead and Foyle in this episode are the same as the ones in The Bullshitters, but if they were invented for this episode, it would work just as well. Sort of like if Bad News had wandered in through Private Enterprise, it would be weird but it would make sense.

Finally, I am nerd enough to know that at the time this was being made a group of television fans were searching out and compiling locations from various shows. The manor house, for example, looks like every other manor house that The Avengers or The Persuaders or The Champions or whatever would go pulling up to in the course of their investigations. It all looks familiar like that. So when I saw one shot in this episode:

I had to do a little digging, as it looked sort of like the exterior of Steed's flat from the color seasons of The Avengers. That would be a smart little in-joke. Unfortunately it wasn't to be. The Avengers filming was done in Dutchess Mews and looks more like this:


Close though -- I get points for trying.